Annabel's Christmas Surprise/Regency Romp 2 (Regency Romps)

by Linda Sole

  ‘She is the daughter of a weak fool and an insipid watering pot. Take her and be done with it – and I’ll be on my way.’

  The highwayman’s eyes glinted through the slits in his mask. For a moment his finger tightened on the trigger and he was tempted to make an end of the fellow, but then he released it.

  ‘Be on your way, rogue,’ he commanded. ‘You may thank this lady for your life for I would not distress her by shooting you like the rat you are – but this affair is not over. You will pay for your crimes, Savage – and this is but one of them.’

  ‘Who are you?’ Charles Savage’s top lip curled back in a sneer. ‘You have interfered in my affairs but you will regret it.’

  ‘Be on your way or you may not live to see the day out.’

  Savage stood snarling like the beast he was, but with two pistols trained on him he dared not disobey. He threw himself back into the coach, gave the order to drive off and then, as it drew away poked his head out of the open window and fired a shot in the direction of the highwayman. His shot went wide, perhaps because his coachman had whipped up the horses and threw him off balance.

  The girl stood absolutely still in the road as the highwayman got down. She was pale and trembling but made no move as he approached her.

  ‘You are in no danger, Miss Makepeace. I mean you no harm. Mr Savage is a wicked man and I have had him constantly watched. My agent told me what was afoot and I decided to spoil his game. You are not the first young woman that rogue has shamed and ruined. He would not have married you.’

  ‘I know…’ Suzy replied in a small shamed voice. ‘I came of my own volition, because he told me he would ruin my father if I did not.’

  ‘Charles Savage is a rogue and a cheat at the tables,’ Robert said and removed his mask. ‘It is my intention to have him drummed out of society at the very least – and at best he will hang for murder.’

  Suzy’s cheeks were wet with tears. He offered her a kerchief and she accepted it, dabbing at her eyes.

  ‘What am I to do? My father will be ruined even if I am not…but who would care for someone like me? I was not abducted, I went with him if not willingly without a fight for I knew what he could do to Papa.’

  ‘He forced you by blackmail,’ Robert said. ‘But I hope we may have you home again before anyone is the wiser. Pray allow me to put you up on my horse, Miss Makepeace. I shall convey you to my home and then my groom will take you home in a chaise. With luck no one but your parents will know anything of what happened this morning.’

  ‘I thank you, sir – but I fear for my father…’

  ‘I shall speak to your father. He is to refuse payment on the grounds that he was cheated at the table, which may well be the case.’

  ‘But how can he prove it?’

  ‘I shall explain all to Mr Makepeace myself,’ Robert said and extended his hand to her. ‘Will you give me your trust?’

  ‘Oh yes,’ she said and her eyes filled with tears once more. ‘I realised as soon as I entered the carriage that the price was too high. I think I should rather have died and had considered throwing myself from the coach.’

  Robert smiled. ‘We must be thankful you did not. Give me you hand and we shall soon have you home with your mama…’

  A groom came running as Lord Savage’s chaise drew up outside Goss Hall. It was an old house but rather lovely with a low sweeping thatched roof, red bricks and small leaded panes in the windows. There was a slight air of neglect, but Annabel could see that some efforts had recently been made to sweep the courtyard and to deal with the moss that had grown between paving stones.

  ‘Where is Major Goss?’ she asked of the groom who had come to hold their horse. ‘We must speak with him at once.’

  ‘The major went out with Jim,’ the groom said and frowned. ‘They was in a hurry, miss, and have been gone some…’ He broke off for even as he spoke two horses came cantering into the yard.’

  All eyes turned in their direction, and then Mary and Mr Makepeace cried out at the same time.

  ‘Suzy…’

  Major Goss had his horse under control. He dismounted swiftly and then lifted his passenger down, smiling at her kindly. She gave him a watery smile and then ran towards her father.

  ‘Forgive me, Papa,’ she wept. ‘I hoped to save you from ruin, but he would not have kept his word – and then Major Goss came and saved me.’

  ‘My poor child,’ the agitated father said and embraced her. ‘It is I who must beg pardon for I should never have gambled so deep…can you forgive me?’

  ‘Papa, I am so sorry. Mr Savage swears he will ruin you – but Major Goss says you must do as he tells you and then perhaps you will not be ruined after all…’

  ‘I do not see…’ the wretched man turned to thank his benefactor. ‘I thank you for my daughter’s escape and safe return,’ he said. ‘But there is nothing I can do – he has my notes.’

  ‘Perhaps I can induce him to return them to me without payment,’ Robert said and smiled grimly. ‘Nay do not talk of a debt of honour, sir – the knave is a cheat and worse besides. If can bring it about, it is Mr Charles Savage who will be ruined. Until today I was not certain that he was the villain I believed him. I had to give him enough rope and now he has hanged himself. I shall lay my evidence before a magistrate and then we’ll see.’

  ‘My daughter’s good name?’

  ‘She will not be named unless there is no other way, but I hope she will not even have to testify in private.’

  ‘Suzy? The father sought his daughter’s eyes.

  ‘I shall testify if need be,’ she said, ‘though he did not abduct me, he merely threatened…’

  ‘I do not intend that you shall be involved at all,’ Robert said. He turned to look at Annabel and Mary. ‘Miss Savage and Miss Annabel – what may I do for you?’

  ‘We came to beg your help,’ Annabel said, eyes glowing as she looked at him. ‘But you have done all we could ask of you.’

  ‘Then perhaps you will take Miss Makepeace up with you and convey her home?’ Robert said. His eyes sought Annabel’s. ‘I know I do not have to ask that you will keep this to yourselves.’

  ‘Of course. We are very grateful, sir.’

  ‘I had hoped to call on you soon, but I have something to finish. You will hear from me as soon as I am at leisure to open my house to you.’

  ‘I think it lovely from the outside, though a little neglected,’ Annabel told him. She held out her hand and he took it, kissing the palm. She closed her hand over the kiss, as though she would take it and hold it forever. ‘You will take care, sir?’

  ‘I know my enemy,’ Robert said. ‘Charles Savage can only guess for the moment – but he will know me very soon. A man such as he cannot be allowed to remain free to destroy other lives.’

  Annabel nodded and swallowed hard. The look in his eyes told her that he was set on confronting Charles Savage. Nothing she could say or do would swerve his purpose. He had been unsure that his information was correct, but by threatening an innocent young woman with the intention of ruining her, Savage had swept the doubts from Robert’s mind.

  She wondered what he meant to do, but dare not ask. If she did he would not tell her and yet the pictures that went through her mind were terrifying.

  ‘Please excuse me to your father, Miss Annabel. I shall return as soon as I am able.’

  He handed her into the chaise, then her sister and watched as Mr Makepeace kissed his daughter and told her he would follow her home.’

  ‘Do not worry, sir,’ he said as the chaise moved off. ‘I have a score to settle with Mr Savage. When I have finished with him he will not trouble your daughter again.’

  ‘May God guide and keep you,’ Mr Makepeace said, mounted his horse and rode out after the chaise.

  Robert watched them go, then strode into the house, issuing his orders.

  ‘Where are we off to now, major?’ Jim asked following him in. ‘Do you think the rascal knows it was you held up his coach?
’

  ‘If he does not he soon will,’ Robert said. ‘My agents discovered that he meant to take the girl to an inn in London, where he has seduced young girls before. We shall go to London and we shall set it about that he is a scoundrel and a cheat. I shall frequent the lesser clubs, the ones more likely to admit him – and sooner or later he will come looking for me. He must call me a liar and challenge me to a duel or he is ruined.’

  ‘What if he just tries to murder you?’

  ‘He has already tried that,’ Robert said. ‘Besides, if I were killed in mysterious circumstances the fingers would point at him. No, he has but one chance left to him – he must call me out. He is a fine shot I believe for all that he missed this morning. He will believe himself a match for me.’

  ‘And if he is?’ Jim looked at him hard. ‘What of the young lady?’

  ‘She will be sorry for it I make no doubt, but do you doubt me, Jim? I do not fear to take my chances. I promised Freddie revenge – and revenge he shall have or I shall have failed and you will see me buried.’

  Jim shook his head, but he knew his friend and master of old. When he got the bit between his teeth, there was no stopping him…

  Annabel stood at the landing window looking down into the formal gardens. It had snowed a few days back and though most of it had now melted in the thaw, the bushes were bare of leaves and the last, lingering flowers were black on their stems. The scene was a little depressing or perhaps it felt that way because she had not seen or heard from Major Goss in more than two weeks. Mary had related the tale of Suzy’s abduction to her father, for they had decided between them that it was nothing short, and he had praised Robert, damning his second cousin as a foul rogue.

  ‘To think that I told him he might call on us,’ Lord Savage said. ‘It might have one of you…but I thank God it was not…and Major Goss must also be thanked.’

  ‘I am not sure he is at home. I think he meant to pursue Mr Savage and bring him to justice.’

  ‘The devil should be shot like a dog,’ Lord Savage. ‘If I had him before me in my position as a magistrate, I would see him hang. I thought him pleasant enough, but he is just as his father was before him – a wicked evil man.’

  ‘I do not know when Major Goss will return,’ Annabel said. ‘He had the intention of doing so when this horrid business is finished.’

  ‘I shall ride over and see if he is at home,’ her father told her, but returned two hours later to say that Major Goss was still away but his servants expected him any day. However, another week had passed since then and still they had heard nothing from him.

  ‘Annabel,’ Mary’s voice came to her from the top of the stairs. ‘Two letters have come – one for you and one for me, also one for Papa, which I have left downstairs. I believe that is from Aunt Miriam. Ours are from Lydia and Jane.’

  ‘Do you suppose they are coming home soon?’

  ‘I haven’t opened mine yet,’ Jane said. ‘I thought you would wish to read yours too so that we could exchange news.’

  ‘Yes. Come into my bedchamber. We can sit and have a lovely gossip in private.’

  Most of their company had come and gone, but their Great Aunt Felecia and her husband Gerald were sitting in the parlour downstairs, entertaining one of the neighbours. Annabel had escaped to fetch her shawl but knew that her absence would not please her elderly aunt.

  ‘The letters gave me an excuse to escape, but Papa told me not to be long,’ Mary said. She sat in an elbow chair by the window while Annabel perched on the bed. They both tore open their letters, eager to hear what their cousins had to say.

  ‘Jane says she has very much enjoyed herself and has more clothes than she knows what to do with, because Aunt Harriet has spoiled them both…and she is longing to be home again, which she hopes to be on Friday…that is two days away.’

  ‘Yes, Lydia’s letter is much the same,’ Annabel said, then, ‘Oh…she says Papa will be shocked when he hears about the terrible scandal. It seems that rumours concerning Mr Savage have been circulating; he is named a cheat, a liar and a murderer…and Lydia thinks it was Major Goss who set the tales in motion, for…Oh, no! He called Robert a liar at a gaming club and struck him. Robert challenged him to a duel and...no, no, no...'’ She jumped up, screwing her letter into a ball. ‘Mr Savage was winged but Major Goss was more severely wounded and Lydia says he is very ill.’

  Mary stared at her in horror, then picked up the letter and smoothed it out. She read the part that Annabel had not. ‘She says that Mr Savage fired before the count ended, therefore he breached the law and is being searched for. He tried to murder Robert and there is a warrant for his arrest. If he should die, Mr Savage would hang.’

  ‘I hope they hang him, but Robert must not die,’ Annabel said, tears starting to her eyes. ‘Does she say anything more of Robert?’

  ‘No, nothing more,’ Mary said and looked at her anxiously. ‘You care for him, dearest – do you not?’

  ‘Yes, I do,’ Annabel said and a little sob escaped her. ‘If he dies…I do not think I can bear it.’

  Mary got up and came to her, putting an arm about her shoulders. ‘Do not despair just yet. Jane says nothing of the affair. I dare say she did not wish to upset us. They will be home in two days and then…they may know more.’

  ‘How can I wait so long?’ Annabel asked and began to pace about the room. ‘Oh, I wish it had not happened. I have loved him so long…’

  ‘Dry your eyes, my love. You must not let our aunt or Papa see you like this.’

  ‘I cannot bear it. I shall not come down tonight. Pray tell Papa that I have a headache.’

  Mary looked at her sadly, then nodded. ‘Very well. Get into bed and I shall bring you a tisane that will help you sleep…’

  Annabel thanked her and her sister went away. She lay on the bed, but her terrible thoughts would not let her sleep and by the tisane was brought her head truly ached. She drank it and gradually its soothing effect relaxed her and she drifted into sleep.

  * * *

  ‘You have seen him?’ Robert looked up from the letter he had been writing as his agent gave him the news he had been waiting for. ‘Is he making for the coast?’

  ‘I am not sure, my lord. I have three men following him and one of them will report back to me, but they thought he was intending to go South for he bought a ticket for the stage coach and boarded it.’

  ‘Where does the coach go?’

  ‘Its journey’s end is Exeter, sir, but he may get off long before then. My man inquired and was told that the ticket was only for the first three stops and another would be needed when they reached Reading.’

  Robert nodded, looking thoughtful. ‘He may well suspect that he is being followed. The fellow knows that he will be arrested on sight, and for all he knows I might be at death’s door, and he would then hang for he shot too soon and it would be considered murder.’

  ‘I dare say the news of your being very ill threw him into a panic,’ the agent said. ‘It was a clever ruse, major, for he dare not stay in town – but if he is deep in debt, as you think him, where will he go – to France or Italy perhaps?’

  ‘I think he needs money before he will leave these shores. He lives by what he earns at the card tables, and since I put the story about that he is a cheat none will play with him. Had he worsted me in fair fight some might have considered he’d exonerated himself, but he cheated and so my tale is proven. I heard he’d had a streak of ill luck just prior to Christmas and was desperate to recover. He must need money badly.’

  ‘What can he do if no one will play with him – perhaps in the country if they have not heard the tale…’

  ‘News travels fast…’ Robert was thoughtful, then his gaze narrowed. ‘The country…of course! He failed to abduct Miss Makepeace, because we were alerted to his plans but if he took another girl by chance…a girl of good family whose father would pay for her return…’

  ‘Do you have someone in mind?’

  ‘Yes, th
e devil is I have two young ladies in mind, who would each be as useful to him as the other.’ Robert stood up quickly, cursing as the pain in his arm caught him off guard. He might not be at death’s door but his shoulder was damnably painful. ‘I must go down to the country at once, for I think Savage may know the way to strike at me at the same time as he feathers his own nest…’

  Annabel looked out of the window and saw that the sun was shining. Her heart was heavy for she’d heard nothing of Robert beyond what Lydia’s letter had told her. Her cousins had returned to them at the Manor, full of all their exciting news, their trunks stuffed with pretty clothes and trinkets, but neither of them could say more than that they believed Major Goss to be laid on his bed and dangerously ill.

  She could not bear to be in the house another moment! She had waited in for days, hoping that Robert might write to her – if not himself, then some news written by another, but nothing of the kind had come for her and she was beside herself with grief. It was all she could do not to weep, and worse because her father knew nothing of her feelings. She could tell him nothing for Robert had not yet spoken to her of his intentions, and she could not be sure that he meant to…and if her father thought he’d trifled with her feelings he would be angry.

  Putting on a warm pelisse, a warm scarf and a fur-lined bonnet of heavy silk, she thrust her hands into her muff and left the house by the French doors in the parlour. She walked through the formal gardens and from there into a large orchard, which in spring would be a veritable blaze of pink and white blossom. She could already see buds forming and the sound of a Robin piping its sharp song made her feel that the warm weather could not be too far away. In another six weeks or so they would make plans to visit London, for she and Jane were to have their Season, but instead of feeling a surging excitement at the idea, Annabel was weighed down by her anxiety for Robert. If he should die…it seemed to her that she would never know happiness again. She had fallen deep in love with him and could not imagine a life that did not contain him.