Wrede, Patricia C - Mairelon 01

by Mairelon the Magician (v5. 0)

  "Henry!" the elegant woman said in a peremptory voice as Freddy was performing this maneuver. "If you must stop to speak with your friend, at least send someone in to inquire about Jasper. At this rate, we shall never get to Swafflton."

  "Yes, of course, Lady Granleigh." Henry nodded to the footman, who jumped from his perch at the rear of the landau and came over. "See if Mr. Marston is in, and have a note sent up to tell him we are here."

  "Be better to go inside," Freddy advised from his perch on the horse. "Private parlor for the ladies. Much nicer than sitting out in the weather."

  Kim missed Henry's reply, for she had to nip sideways and flatten herself against the wall to avoid the footman's entrance. He clumped past her without noticing, glanced around, then rang loudly for the innkeeper. Kim slipped back to the door and saw that Jack Stower had vanished. She heard the innkeeper's footsteps at the rear of the hall and made a quick decision. Better to have room to move than to be nabbed by Stower or the footman in the hallway. She slid out the door like a greased eel.

  "Very well," the elegant woman was saying in a disapproving tone. "But I will have the proprieties observed. Present your friend to us, Henry."

  "My pleasure, Lady Granleigh," Henry said in a harassed tone. "Lady Granleigh, Miss Thornley, this is Mr. Frederick Meredith. Freddy, Lady Granleigh, and her ward, Miss Marianne Thornley. They're down for one of Mother's house parties."

  "A pleasure," Freddy said, bowing.

  "Meredith," Lady Granleigh said pensively. "Are you by chance related to Lord Cecil Meredith?"

  "M'uncle," Freddy answered. "Stood godfather to me, or so they tell me. I don't remember it, myself."

  "Indeed." Lady Granleigh's manner thawed noticeably. "Lord Cecil is a dear friend of my husband's."

  "What brings you ladies out in all this muck?" Freddy asked offhandedly, though his eyes had returned to the lovely blonde girl.

  "Since it is not raining, Lady Granleigh and I thought we would drive to Swafflton to look at ribbons," the blonde girl replied in a low, musical voice. "Mr. Bramingham was kind enough to accompany us."

  "This ain't one of the stops on the road to Swafflton," Freddy said in a knowledgeable tone. "Sure Bramingham gave the coachman the right direction?"

  "Freddy!" Henry said. "Don't be ridiculous."

  "We are here to meet my brother," Lady Granleigh said in an icy voice.

  "Oh, that's all right, then," Freddy said. "Didn't know you had one."

  Miss Thornley giggled. Her guardian gave her a quelling look. "Really, Mr. Meredith--"

  The door of the inn flew open. "Meredith! I knew it was you," Jon Aberford said in threatening tones.

  "Hullo, Jon," Freddy said mildly. "Bit of a surprise, meeting you here. I must say, I didn't expect it."

  "I should think not! How do you dare show your face in public?"

  "Because I ain't a Turk," Freddy replied in reasonable tones. "Why should I care who sees it? Perfectly good face, besides, it's the only one I've got."

  "Don't play the fool!" Jon said. "Henry, do you know what this . . . this blithering idiot has done?"

  "No, and I don't much care to," Henry answered frankly. "It's nothing to do with me."

  "Henry, you will do me the favor of not presenting me to your unpleasant and most unmannerly acquaintance," Lady Granleigh put in. "I must have the lowest opinion of anyone who would enact a scene in so public an arena."

  "Ah, but it does!" Jon said, ignoring Lady Granleigh's interjection. He gestured at Freddy. "This traitor lost the Sacred Dish to you at play. Will you return it?"

  "Here, now!" Freddy said. "Got no reason to go calling names! Everything was quite in order; told you so last night."

  "Sacred dish?" Henry said, bewildered. "What are you on about now, Jonathan? You don't mean that big silver platter, do you?"

  "Platter?" Lady Granleigh said with unexpected interest.

  "What have you done with it?" Jonathan demanded.

  "If you are talking about the platter, I haven't done anything with it yet," Henry snapped in evident exasperation. "It's sitting in a display case in the library, and it will stay in the display case until Lord St. Clair arrives tomorrow. At which point I am going to present it to him for his collection."

  "What, your uncle's coming?" Freddy said to Henry. "You didn't tell me."

  "Why should I?" Henry retorted. "It's nothing to you."

  "No reason to keep it a secret, is there?" Freddy answered. "And it's bound to be of interest. Why, m'mother will want to call if Lord St. Clair is staying with you."

  "Be quiet, Freddy!" Jonathan said. "Henry, be reasonable. You can't just give away the Sacred Dish!"

  "Don't see why not," Freddy said, giving the matter due consideration. "He isn't one of the Sons; the thing don't mean anything to him. Unless St. Clair don't arrive. Hard to give something to someone who ain't there."

  "Come by Bramingham Place tomorrow at three and watch me," Henry invited Jonathan cordially.

  "You don't know what you are doing," Jon said, suddenly calm.

  "I know enough."

  "Quite," said Freddy. He had one eye fixed on Miss Thornley, who was beginning to look distressed. "Here, Jon, be a good fellow and come away; you're upsetting the ladies."

  "You haven't heard the last of this," Jon said. With a parting glower he turned and reentered the inn.

  "If that isn't just like Jon!" Freddy said.

  "I trust we have seen the last of him," Lady Granleigh said. "Henry, are you quite certain that man of yours isn't carousing inside instead of delivering your message? Jasper ought to have come out by now."

  Henry pressed his lips together. "I'll go and see, if you like, Lady Granleigh."

  "If you do that, we'll lose you, too," Lady Granleigh said. "Send that boy over there; he may as well be useful."

  "Hi! You there!" Henry beckoned to Kim. "Pop inside and see what's holding up Mr. Marston, there's half a guinea in it for you."

  "A shilling," Lady Granleigh said sharply. "No more than a shilling, and not until you come back. Really, Henry, you ought to know better."

  Kim muttered something that would pass for "Yes, mum," and touched her hand to her cap. The respectful gesture might please the bracket-faced old cat, and it would screen Kim's face from unwanted notice. Reluctantly she turned and started for the inn.

  Before she reached it, the door swung open and the footman emerged, followed by a tall man in a driving cape. Kim stepped aside without thinking, and froze as she got a good look at his face. It was the skinny toff from the Dog and Bull who had hired her to crack Mairelon's crib. Had all of London followed her to Ranton Hill?

  "Amelia!" the toff said. "What d'you mean by arriving at dawn like this? I'd barely got my breakfast finished!"

  "When we are in the country, we keep country hours, Jasper," Lady Granleigh replied. "I explained that to you yesterday; had I known you were going to be obstinate, I would have postponed our expedition until tomorrow. I am sure that Lord St. Clair would have been delighted to accompany us."

  "Of course he would," Freddy said gallantly. "I mean to say, lovely ladies, pleasant company--anyone would be delighted."

  Jasper Marston had by this time taken his place in the coach, and Lady Granleigh had had more than enough of Freddy, nephew of Lord Cecil Meredith or not. "It is high time we were going," she announced. "Good day, Mr. Meredith. Driver!"

  The coachman nodded and slapped the reins lightly against the horses' backs. The team snorted and began to move; in another moment, the landau had pulled out of the inn's yard and was on its way east to Swafflton.

  11

  Kim drew a shaky breath as she watched the coach pull away, all too conscious that only good luck had kept Jasper Marston from noticing her. She wanted to run away, to hide, and she wished suddenly and passionately that she were back in London, where she might have had some chance of doing so. With both Jack Stower and the skinny toff in Ranton Hill, it was beginning to look very much as if staying i
n London would have been safer than leaving.

  Freddy Meredith, who had also been watching the coach, chose this moment to turn and see Kim. "Hi, boy! Get someone out here to take this horse, will you?"

  Glad of the excuse, Kim nodded and went inside. The innkeeper was coming out of the kitchen into the hallway, carrying a tray. "And where the devil have you been, boy?" he asked when he saw Kim.

  "Man outside wants someone to take his horse," Kim informed him, ignoring his question.

  The innkeeper rolled his eyes. "Quality! Well, I'll see to it. Your master wants you, third door on the right at the top of the stairs. Take this along with you."

  The stairs were narrow and steep, and Kim had some difficulty in climbing them without dumping everything off the tray the innkeeper had handed her. She made it to the top at last, and stood balancing the tray against the railing while she caught her breath. Then she counted doors and kicked at the third one.

  "Enter," Mairelon's voice called from inside the room.

  "I can't," Kim called back crossly. "You'll have to open the door yourself."

  She heard a scraping sound on the other side of the door, and then Mairelon opened it. "Kim! What are you doing with that?"

  "The buffer downstairs said you ordered it," Kim replied.

  "And was too lazy to bring it up himself, hmm? Good Lord, you're white as a winding-sheet! Sit down, sit down, before you fall over." Mairelon took the tray from Kim's suddenly shaking hands and set it on the small table beside the window. Kim sank into the nearest chair. She was cold and her legs felt like jelly; she was too stunned even to think, though a corner of her mind marveled distantly at the strength of her reaction.

  "Here," Mairelon said, pressing a glass into her hand. "Drink this. Will you be all right alone for a moment? I'm going to get Hunch."

  Kim nodded, and Mairelon left. She took a deep breath, and the feeling of being far away from everything began to lessen. She sipped at the glass Mairelon had handed her, and coughed as a fiery liquid ran unexpectedly down her throat.

  The door opened and Mairelon reentered the room. "Now, what's given you the wind up? Did your friend from the Dog and Bull see you?"

  "I don't think so," Kim said. "But how did you know--"

  "He's staying in the next room," Mairelon said. "I could hardly help noticing his presence, and I thought there was something familiar about his voice. So I contrived to get a look at him as he left. If it wasn't our skinny friend, what's upset you?"

  "I ain't sure," Kim said. She was feeling more like herself, and her momentary weakness bothered her. "I ain't never done nothin' like that before, not even on my first crack lay."

  "Really. And how long has it been since you did any housebreaking?" Mairelon asked.

  "Couple years. Since old Mother Tibb died, anyways. After what happened to her, I lost the taste for it, sort of."

  "What happened to her?" Mairelon said very softly.

  "The nabbing culls got her. Most of the others, too. I was lucky I got away." She took a tiny sip from the glass and closed her eyes. "They got transported, mostly, but Mother Tibb swung because she ran things for the lot of us."

  "I see."

  "I shouldn't of gone to watch. It was stupid. And after that . . ."

  "After that, you didn't feel as if you could go back to housebreaking."

  Kim shrugged. "I never took to it much, not like some of the rest. Besides, it ain't a good lay for a loner, and I couldn't join up with one of the other gangs because--" She stopped short and shook her head. Why was she telling Mairelon all this?

  "Because they'd have discovered that you were a girl," Mairelon finished quietly. He was looking at her with an odd expression that she didn't have the energy to figure out. "Was it so important to you, staying a boy?"

  Kim nodded wearily. "You ain't never seen the stews in St. Giles, or you wouldn't need to ask. Mother Tibb kept me on a good three years longer than most, because I had a knack for locks, but that wouldn't of lasted much longer. Anybody else would of packed me off as soon as they found out I wasn't a boy."

  Mairelon went still. "Drink your brandy," he said, and his voice was harsh.

  The brandy wasn't so bad, now that Kim knew what to expect. It was a great deal better than the cheap gin she had sometimes bought in London. She sipped it slowly, and in a few minutes more her grim mood began to lift.

  "I found out some things you ought to know," Kim said to end the long silence.

  "Wait until Hunch gets here," Mairelon said. "No sense in going over everything twice."

  Fortunately, Hunch was not long in appearing. He snorted through his mustache when he saw Kim, which did more to make her feel herself again than even the brandy.

  "Sit down and stop grumphing, Hunch," Mairelon said. "I've taken separate rooms for tonight, but we can hardly talk through the wall, and Kim says she's found out something of interest."

  "That's as may be," Hunch said darkly. "But she 'adn't ought to be 'ere, and neither should you. Someone's been asking questions down at the stable."

  "But it's such an interesting place," Mairelon said, waving in a general way at the walls of the inn. "Really, Hunch, you have no idea how fascinating this inn is."

  "Maybe not," Hunch said, "but I know when you're at one o' your queer starts, Master Richard. And you 'adn't ought to, not this time. Someone's looking for us."

  "Oh, really, Hunch, how can you be sure of that?"

  " 'Ow many people 'ave a yellow wagon with red wheels and a painting of a man in a top 'at on the back?" Hunch countered.

  Mairelon frowned. "Someone's asking questions about the wagon?"

  Hunch nodded. "It's us she's looking for, right enough."

  "She?"

  Kim though that Hunch was enjoying the effect his news was having, though his expression remained dour. "Aye. One of them grand ladies, they said. Offered a meg to anyone as 'ad news of it, and a shilling extra if she could be sure no one else 'ad the news afore 'er."

  "What a good thing we left the wagon in the woods," Mairelon commented. He moved to the window and stared down at the stable.

  "That ain't all, neither," Hunch said. "There was a cove nosing around, too, 'anging about in back of the inn and be'aving oddly. The 'ostler said 'is name was James Fenton."

  "Fenton?" Kim said. "There was a Mr. Fenton in the taproom for a while; he looked like a footman or somethin'. I think he works for that Meredith cove, the one who had that platter and lost it playin' cards."

  "Does he," Mairelon said thoughtfully. "I wonder. What was he doing here, do you know?"

  "He came to meet a Mr. Aberford," Kim said. "He wanted to sell him the news about Meredith's losing the platter, only Aberford knew already." Quickly she recounted the scene in the taproom. "When he took off, I followed him, and then--" She hesitated.

  "And then?" Mairelon prompted.

  "I think maybe I ought to go back to London," Kim blurted, staring down at her hands to avoid seeing Mairelon's or Hunch's expressions. "I'm goin' to be trouble for you if I stay."

  "I see," Mairelon said after a moment of silence that to Kim seemed to go on forever. "Or rather, I don't see. Why don't you begin by telling us exactly what happened, and then perhaps I will."

  "It was Jack Stower," Kim said. "He's one of Laverham's boys. I told you about Laverham."

  "I remember."

  "I swear I don't know how he followed me from London, I swear I don't. He didn't see me, but if he's pokin' about, he'll find out I'm here for sure, and--"

  "Slow down and back up," Mairelon said. "Where and when did you see Stower? In the hall? On the stairs?"

  "Outside, talkin' to that Meredith cove," Kim answered. Reminded of the task she had originally been set, she outlined the scene she had witnessed in the innyard. "Bramingham said his uncle was comin' down tomorrow, and he was goin' to give the platter to him as soon as he got there," she finished. "The Meredith cull got Aberford inside, and then the toff from the Dog and Bull turned up. He's the
Friday-faced mort's brother, name of Jasper Marston. They all drove off, and I came in."

  Mairelon was staring into space with a heavy frown, looking as though he had not heard a word Kim had said for several minutes at least. "Stower, Laverham, Fenton," he murmured. "And a lady asking questions. A grand lady--Lady Granleigh, perhaps?"

  "She acted grand enough," Kim said doubtfully.

  "And her brother is the unpleasant but not altogether bright gentleman who arranged for my wagon to be broken into, thus beginning our acquaintance. And he obviously knows considerably more than he has any right to. Someone is playing a very deep game. I wonder whether it's him or her?"

  "I don't see as it matters," Hunch said. "'Ooever it is, we 'adn't ought to stay 'ere tonight."

  "For once, Hunch, I believe you are right," Mairelon said. Hunch's jaw dropped. Mairelon did not notice; he was digging through the drawers in search of something. Not finding it, he went to the door of the room and opened it. "None of us will stay the night at the inn. Hi, landlord! Bring me up a pen and some paper."

  "I thought you said we weren't stayin'," Kim said, bewildered.

  "We are not staying the night. There is no reason not to stay the afternoon; it's a long drive to Swafflton, and the ladies will more than likely be shopping for hours. Besides--ah, thank you, landlord."

  The innkeeper had arrived, carrying a scruffy-looking quill, an inkpot, and a sheet of paper. Mairelon took them with a charming smile and shut the door in his face. "Besides, I don't expect this to take long," he finished, setting the implements on the table.

  "What are you goin' to do about Stower?" Kim asked as Mairelon made a face at the quill, dipped it in the inkpot, and began covering the paper with flowing, spidery letters.

  "I am going to do nothing whatever, for the time being at least," Mairelon answered. He wrote another three lines and set the quill aside. "No sand? Our landlord seems singularly unprepared for Quality clientele; can it be that he seldom has any?" He picked the page up by one corner and waved it through the air to dry the ink.