The Major and the Pickpocket

by Lucy Ashford

  His cruel eyes glittered. Tassie struggled wildly in the burly manservant’s arms, her heart thumping. Oh, no. This was getting worse and worse…She used her heel to kick back, hard, at the leg of the man who held her captive. He howled with agony, but still hung on to her, and Sebastian slapped her hard across the cheek, once, twice. Tassie felt blackness, then searing pain.

  ‘Damn you,’ she whispered, ‘damn you, let me go. I’ve got friends who’ll be looking for me.’

  ‘You have indeed. Marcus Forrester, no less.’

  Tassie froze. ‘No! Not Marcus!’

  There was a moment’s silence. ‘So it’s true. You and he are in this together. You do care for him. How very interesting this is going to be.’

  ‘No,’ Tassie breathed, ‘you wouldn’t dare—’

  ‘Shut up.’ Suddenly Sebastian gestured to his manservant. ‘Leave us, Jessop. On no account are we to be disturbed.’

  The servant reluctantly let Tassie go and left the room. Lord Sebastian Corbridge locked the door after him, then turned back to Tassie.

  ‘My God, I hate my cousin Marcus, do you know that? In everything I have ever done, he has done his best to shame me, to ridicule me. Depriving him of Lornings is sweet vengeance indeed. And now, it seems, I have yet more revenge in store, for he has sent his enticing little mistress straight into my hands.’ Sebastian smiled, a slow, unpleasant smile, and walked towards Tassie, who was pressing herself, horrified, against the wall, her cheek still throbbing painfully from where he had struck her.

  He put his hands on her shoulders, letting his thumbs circle her bare skin. ‘By the time you see Marcus again,’ he went on in the same languid, repellent voice, ‘what a great deal you will have to tell him. And your reunion should not be far away; because, you see, it’s absolutely true that he is looking for you.’

  Tassie cried out. She could not help herself. ‘No! He does not know where I am. He does not care…’

  ‘But he is hot on your trail, my dear, such is his passion for you. And when we arrived here Jessop gave me some interesting news, news that quite confirms your story that Marcus, surprisingly, knew nothing about your ridiculous plan to win Sir Roderick’s letter. Marcus has, apparently, been making enquiries all over London for you, in quite the wrong places; but he is homing in, at last, on Lady Sallis’s establishment. Once he gets there to find you have gone, and with whom, he will doubtless make his way here, with all speed.’

  The desperate hope flared in Tassie’s eyes, but Sebastian quickly quelled it. ‘Yes,’ he continued, ‘he will arrive here, and to such a welcome! The street outside is unlit, and there is, most conveniently, a narrow alley a few yards from my door—an obvious place for footpads to lurk. Just as my cousin approaches, a band of ruffians, led by my man Jessop, will emerge from that alley with cudgels, and make Major Marcus Forrester sorry that he ever dared to cross my path. It will look like a chance robbery, and no one will ever be able to prove otherwise. I’ve told the fellows, by the way, to pay special attention to his left leg. It was our hero’s left leg, wasn’t it, that was injured in the war?’

  ‘No,’ breathed Tassie, ‘oh, please God, no…’

  ‘And as for you, my dear,’ he went on, his pale eyes devouring her anguished face, ‘I think I can ensure that your handsome Marcus will never even want to look at you again, let alone touch you. Oh, I do hope Marcus doesn’t arrive too early.’ Then he gripped her with a surprising strength and tried to kiss her, forcing his tongue roughly between her lips. For a moment Tassie feigned surrender, then pulled out a small, deadly pistol from her pocket.

  Corbridge gasped in disbelief, and let her go. Tassie, pointing the gun at his heart, backed towards the door. ‘Touch me again if you dare, Lord Corbridge!’ she warned.

  Sebastian was right. It had not taken Marcus long to find out that Tassie had left Lady Sallis’s gaming house at the same time as Corbridge. ‘I warned her, sir,’ Bella cried. ‘I told her he was no good, that Lord Corbridge! But she wouldn’t listen!’

  Marcus was set-faced. ‘Don’t rebuke yourself too much,’ he said. ‘She never listened to me either.’ He turned swiftly towards Lady Sallis, who had heard all this with some unease. ‘Lady Sallis, the girl you know as Sarah should never, ever have been exposed to a man like Corbridge.’

  Lady Sallis, on the defensive, said flatly, ‘She came to me of her own free will, I assure you, Major Forrester!’

  Marcus ran his hand tiredly across his brow. ‘I’m not disputing that. But she has no understanding of what that man will sink to…’ He swung round one last time on Bella. ‘Have you any idea where he’s taken her?’

  ‘To his house, sir,’ Bella faltered. ‘I heard him giving orders to his coachman.’

  Marcus was already on his way.

  Tassie had the letter in one hand; in the other was the little pistol Lemuel had obtained for her, aimed at Sebastian. Sebastian’s face was ashen, his hands raised.

  ‘You will unlock this door,’ Tassie said steadily, ‘and tell your servants to let me go, or I will shoot. You will say nothing about tonight; you will abandon your claim to Lornings, or I will tell everyone how you threatened me with rape, and worse.’

  Sebastian’s lip curled then. ‘My God, you gaming-house slut, who would take your word against mine?’

  ‘Many people, I think, Lord Corbridge! Because all of town knows you as a liar and a cheat! Open this door, or…’

  But then her words died on her lips, because she heard a sound outside, the sound of a horse’s hooves coming rapidly down the street towards Sebastian’s house. And then the sound stopped, only to be replaced by the noise of someone banging at the front door, someone strong and impatient—someone like Marcus…

  ‘Dear me,’ said Sebastian softly. ‘It seems your hero has arrived. Too late, unfortunately. Give me the letter, my dear, and the gun; neither are any use to you now.’

  ‘Never!’ She gripped them all the tighter.

  ‘If you are stupid enough to try to shoot me,’ drawled Sebastian, ‘then Jessop has orders to ensure your hero Marcus is quite unrecognisable by the time my men have finished with him. I have told him to put his eyes out. Give me the gun and the letter.‘

  Oh, no. Nearly every part of her plan had gone horribly wrong. Slowly she handed them to him. Then, before he could stop her, she flew over to the window and flung it open. ‘Marcus!’ she cried out into the darkness below. ‘There are men waiting for you, to attack you! It’s a trap—please, please get away while you can!’

  But she knew it was too late. Her fingers gripping the window ledge, she gazed out into the street below, uncaring of the tears that streamed down her cheeks. Sebastian dragged her away, and she let him push her into a chair while he went to lock the letter in a bureau.

  This had been a final, desperate gamble to win back Marcus’s approval, his love. Instead, all she’d done was draw him into terrible danger. Marcus would hate her now. Would Sebastian’s ruffians harm him badly? Would they beat him to death on the pavement outside, then vanish into the night, leaving him as yet another victim of the faceless criminals who haunted London’s streets? Every sense stretched to breaking point, she heard fresh sounds in the house below, muffled, but terrible to her ears. She could hear the noise of men fighting, interspersed with groans and curses. The sound of several crude villains with cudgels, who would be laying with bloodthirsty ferocity into one brave man, who would fight them for as long as he was conscious. Sebastian’s terrible words hammered in her brain: I have told him to put his eyes out…

  Now that the letter was safely locked away, Sebastian was listening too, and the avid gleam in his eyes as he fingered her pistol quite sickened her. ‘I think my soldier cousin is getting his just reward at last,’ he said softly. ‘Shall we go and see?’

  He pulled her up from the chair. Though his touch revolted her, Tassie let him grip her slender arm as he unlocked the door and led her to the top of the darkened stairwell. Sebastian thought she had given u
p. But even now, there must be something she could do, to save the man she loved so much. It was dark in the big hallway below, and there were men moving around there. The big front door was ajar, and someone was lying, moaning softly, against it. Was it—Marcus?

  Sebastian, still gripping her wrist to pull her downstairs, rapped impatiently, ‘Damn it all, Jessop! Light the candles, will you? I cannot see a thing!’

  ‘Right away, my lord,’ said a man’s voice quickly, almost cheerfully, and Tassie jumped, because that voice wasn’t Jessop’s at all! And then the candle flared, and she saw that the person with the taper was black-haired Georgie Jay, with a wide grin on his face; and as the sparse light flickered round the big hall, she saw Lemuel, too, and Billy, rubbing his brawny fists together with relish. Lying against the door was the man Jessop, with his eyes closed, and a livid bruise welling up on his forehead; while near his feet lay another oaf, presumably one of Corbridge’s thugs, also unconscious, with a heavy cudgel lying by his limp hand.

  And old Matt was there, too, but he had his back to Tassie, and he was crouched over someone who was slumped against the wall, someone painfully familiar, whose long dark hair curtained his face, and whose loose white shirt was splashed with crimson…

  Tassie raced towards him, stumbling in her haste, her sobs catching in her throat. ‘Marcus. Don’t die. Oh, please don’t die, when I love you so much. I—I’d almost rather you married Philippa than died…’

  And then old Matt was stepping back with a big grin on his face, and Marcus was getting slowly but surely to his feet, resting one hand on the wall for support, and turning to smile at her in a way that made her heart stand still. ‘I’d prefer neither, minx,’ he said in that warm and tender voice that she knew so well. ‘I’m going to live a long, healthy life, and I’m going to marry you, as soon as possible. I keep trying to tell you, but you won’t listen.’

  Tassie gazed up at his familiar, wide-shouldered figure and her heart was overfull. ‘But—I thought you were hurt,’ she stammered. ‘You lay so still. And—and the blood…’

  He put his strong hands on her shoulders, steadying her, warming her. ‘My leg let me down, that is all,’ he said. ‘One of Corbridge’s villains struck at it with his cudgel before your friend Billy there felled him with a single blow. There’s no damage done, I’m sure. As for the blood, why, one of Sebastian’s friends had a nasty broken nose, thanks, I think, to Lemuel—the blood got everywhere.’

  He turned, then, to Georgie Jay and the others. ‘Our friend Lord Corbridge seems to have slunk off upstairs. Go and find him, will you? And hold him until I have time for him.’

  They hurried up the stairway, leaving the two of them alone. Marcus turned back to Tassie, smoothing her tousled curls from her cheek with gentle fingers. She shivered, and touched his hand. ‘Oh, Marcus. I hadn’t guessed he could be so—vile.’

  His face was suddenly dark, and he drew her close. ‘I was in time, wasn’t I, Tassie? If that devil has hurt you…’ His eyes roved tensely over her tumbled curls, her torn gown.

  ‘Hurt me? God’s teeth, no.’ Tassie laughed weakly. ‘I could have held him off for ever, never fear. I had a pistol, you see!’

  ‘So I heard. I hope you didn’t use it.’

  ‘No, actually. But oh, Marcus. I’m so glad to see you. How did you guess I was here? How did Georgie Jay know I was here?’

  ‘He was waiting to hear from me at the Blue Bell,’ he said. ‘As soon as I learned, at Lady Sallis’s, that you had gone off with Sebastian, I knew you would be in trouble, so I summoned your friends. Between us, we gave those ruffians an unpleasant surprise.’

  She gazed seriously up at his dear, familiar face. ‘I’ve missed you, Marcus,’ she whispered. ‘Oh, I’ve missed you.’

  ‘And I you, minx,’ he murmured, drawing her into his arms and holding her there. And Tassie felt the gladness flooding through her, melting away all the unhappiness, all the fear of these past few weeks, just as surely as the sun had melted the spring snow on the hillside, on the morning after the night when he’d made her his.

  Then she saw that Georgie Jay was coming down the stairs again, grinning widely. ‘Begging your pardon, Major, we have his lordship upstairs. Billy’s got him trussed like a porker, but he’s still struggling and cussing fit to bust, and swearing he’ll never let you have some letter or other. Would you come up and speak to him, or should we just knock him cold, which would certainly be easier?’

  ‘You can leave that pleasure to me, if necessary,’ Marcus replied grimly. ‘But first we have certain matters to discuss, my cousin and I.’

  He started to put Tassie gently from him; she hated to be parted from him for even one moment, but knew that he had to see this business through.

  ‘Marcus,’ she said quickly. ‘The letter that Sir Roderick signed, promising Lornings to Sebastian—I’ve got it safe. Here.’ She pulled it out from the pocket of her skirt. ‘I won it off him fair and square, Marcus, but of course I knew he’d never let me get away with it; so in the midst of the game as he went for more wine I replaced it with a fake I’d had made and pushed the real one in my pocket!’

  ‘You planned all this rather thoroughly, didn’t you?’ said Marcus, his eyes sparkling.

  Her face fell slightly. ‘Well, my plan actually went a little wrong, for I could not hold Sebastian off with my pistol once he told me his men were going to beat you to a pulp. But seeing as we have Sir Roderick’s letter, we can really spoil Sebastian’s game now, can’t we?’

  He drew her once more into his arms, and gave her a long, lingering kiss that left Tassie quite dazed with happiness. ‘Sebastian didn’t realise what he was taking on when he tangled with you,’ he said. ‘And neither, my darling, did I.’

  Then Marcus went upstairs, to deal with Lord Sebastian Corbridge, and Tassie was able to talk to Georgie Jay and her friends; to question them avidly, to exclaim with them over what had happened; to find out from them, in detail, how Marcus had enlisted their aid.

  Lemuel had managed, with some effort, to get over the jealousy he’d felt as he witnessed the reunion of Marcus and Tassie. ‘He’s a prime ‘un with his fives, he is, Tass! You should have seen him laying about them when those ruffians set on us!’

  Tassie laughed, but she still felt a shiver of fear when she thought of the danger Marcus had put himself in, for her.

  ‘Georgie,’ she said suddenly, ‘you told me once that if I got myself into trouble, I was on my own.’

  Georgie Jay put his arm round her. ‘You didn’t really believe that, lass, did you?’ he said affectionately. ‘We’re on your side, always. But—’ and his dark eyes twinkled ‘—I rather think that a new road is opening out before you now.’

  And then, before Tassie could reply, Hal, who was also in on it all, it seemed, turned up outside with a carriage; and Tassie, with fond farewells to her friends and promises to call on them at the Blue Bell very soon, allowed herself to be taken back to Portman Square. She hated leaving Marcus; but Hal told her gently that Marcus had business with Sebastian that would take him some time. With that, she had to be content.

  Tassie slept heavily in the big bedchamber where Marcus had first brought her after that night at the Angel. It seemed a lifetime ago now.

  When she awoke, the sun was high in the sky, and the birds sang in the new-leafed trees that adorned the square. She put on the gown that Caro must have asked Emilia to leave out for her, and hurried downstairs. Emilia greeted her in a positively warm fashion, and even Sansom was respectful as he set out her breakfast. The only thing that clouded her morning was learning that Marcus, who had apparently returned late last night, had already gone out on business, though she was careful not to let her disappointment show.

  Hal was out with him, but Caro kept her company, taking the opportunity to ask kind but discreet questions about Tassie’s stay in the country. Tassie tried to respond politely, but her nerves were stretched taut, her heart was over-full, and every time a horse went by ou
tside, she jumped as if she were on strings. Last night Marcus had said he loved her. Surely, surely he must be repenting of that now. That was why he was keeping out of her way, hoping, perhaps, that she would realise her folly and leave…

  She could hardly eat. Caro left her in the sunny first-floor salon with a novel from the circulating library, which she only pretended to read.

  It was late in the afternoon when at last she heard Marcus and Hal’s voices in the hall downstairs. She heard them coming swiftly up the stairs, and moments later they had burst into the room; Caro was behind them, a delighted smile on her face. Tassie jumped up, the book falling to the floor, her heart thumping with tension; and then Marcus was striding towards her, catching her up in his arms, swinging her round and round until she was dizzy.

  ‘We’ve done it!’ he exulted. ‘Lornings is safe! We’ve done it, Tassie!’

  Hal, too, was beaming. Marcus set her down, but he still held her close to him, and his eyes were so full of warmth, of love, that she felt her heart turn over.

  ‘So Sebastian has abandoned his claim?’ she breathed.

  Marcus kissed her tenderly, holding her in his arms. ‘How could he do otherwise,’ he said, ‘when you, my darling, had so effectively beaten him at his own game, and won the letter from him?’

  She said, still anxious, ‘It’s true that I won it from him, fair and square! But—he is quite capable of refusing to accept my victory, isn’t he?’

  Marcus shook his head quickly. ‘No. I have advised Sebastian that he will be wise to accept your win with good grace, and leave behind this whole sordid business while he may. A witness has been discovered, you see, to swear that the gaming den into which my godfather was led was set up by Sebastian for the whole purpose of stripping Sir Roderick of his wealth.’

  Tassie absorbed this silently, concentrating on every word. Hal said, ‘But Sebastian could still dispute the whole business in court if he’d a mind to, surely?’

  Caro, too, was listening anxiously. Marcus nodded. ‘He could try. But—’ and he held Tassie closer ‘—Tassie’s valiant gamble last night brought things to a head. I was able to warn Sebastian that I would lay charges of abduction and assault if he continued to press his case. There was also the matter of the thefts from Lornings. He argued a little, but I—persuaded him.’