Reckless Angel

by Jane Feather

  She turned aside, busying herself with the girdle of her nightgown. “Not…not exactly.” She bent to pick up the discarded towel, shaking it out, hanging it over the firescreen to dry.

  “Harry?” He spoke softly and she turned to face him.

  “’Twas not so very far, Daniel, but a quarter of a mile along Cheapside. I told Dorcas I was going and she made no objection; she did not even tell me to have a care, so she must have thought ’twas quite safe.”

  Daniel stroked his chin pensively. Then he crooked a finger at her. “You face me with a dilemma, Henrietta.” He pinched her nose as she came up to him. “I must excuse you on this occasion, because to do otherwise would be the act of an ingrate and I’ll not bear such a charge. But you must understand that I forbade you to go out alone purely in the interests of your safety and my peace of mind. Y’are not city bred, elf, and the temper of the city at present is ugly and uncertain.”

  She thought of what she had seen that afternoon and kept silent. Daniel pursed his lips, his eyes grave. “Obedience is a quality much prized in a wife,” he observed solemnly.

  She looked up and thought she could detect just the flicker of a smile behind the gravity. She murmured a demure assent and waited for the smile to blossom as she somehow knew it was going to.

  Daniel shook his head in mock exasperation. “I suppose, if we are to live in peace, I must learn to command only where you can easily comply. Only in this instance, I will insist. You will not again leave the house without escort. Is it understood?”

  She put her arms around his neck, standing on tiptoe to nuzzle his throat where it rose strong and clean from the open neck of his shirt. “I do not think I shall wish to again. But ’twas to be a surprise, and I could not surprise you if I had to have your company.”

  Daniel groaned in defeat, catching her wet hair and pulling her head back. “Will I ever make a proper wife of you?”

  Her eyes sparked mischief. “But I thought you had, sir…a most proper wife. Must I demonstrate your achievements again?”

  He laughed, even as his loins stirred anew and the fresh blood of eager youth seemed to course in his veins. “Later you shall do so, but for now I have need of my supper and ’twould be as well to tidy up the chamber. I would have you demonstrate the more pedestrian talents of domesticity.”

  “I should have a care, sir, before you reject my offers in such cavalier fashion.” She danced away from his swinging hand, put her tongue out at him over her shoulder, and left the chamber with a light step and a singing heart.

  Daniel made to follow her, his step no heavier and his heart no less musical than hers.

  Chapter 10

  It was a week later when Daniel, shaking snow off his cloak, entered the house to be met by sounds of a violent altercation coming from the parlor. His wife’s voice, shrill with fury, was ringing to the rafters yet was almost drowned out by a raucous bellowing that he immediately recognized.

  “Oh, my heavens, Sir Daniel!” Dorcas, her habitual calm destroyed, scurried from the kitchen. “Thank goodness y’are back. There’ll be murder done in a minute.”

  “Not if I have anything to do with it,” he said grimly, placing the shapeless parcel he was carrying carefully against the wall before flinging open the parlor door. The small room seemed full of people, but for the moment the only thing that interested him was the sight of his wife standing upon the oak table in the middle of the chamber, stamping her feet and yelling her head off.

  “What the devil do you think you’re doing?” Two long paces brought him to the table. “Get off there this instant!” Seizing her by the waist, he swung her down. “Just what were you doing?” he repeated, still holding her.

  “I was trying to make myself heard,” Henrietta said somewhat breathlessly into the sudden silence. The hands at her waist were warm and steadying, imparting reassurance.

  “Well, stamping your feet on the table is a novel, not to say thoroughly indecorous, way of achieving such an object,” Daniel declared without heat, critically examining her flushed face and damp forehead. “Y’are thoroughly hot and bothered.” He glanced quickly around the room. “You also seem to have forgotten your duties as hostess, Henrietta. You do not appear to have offered your guests any refreshment.”

  Under the circumstances, the reproving reminder, one suited to ordinary social congress, struck Henrietta as quite extraordinary and her jaw dropped. But some of the tension slipped from her body.

  “Bravo, Sir Daniel. Will said you were a sensible man, and I can see he was quite right,” a voice said approvingly. The owner of the voice stepped away from the fire and Daniel turned to face a tall lady of ample girth and commanding stature. Green eyes twinkled in a worn countenance that nevertheless carried the marks of its previous beauty.

  Daniel smiled, glancing at Will, standing beside his mother. “The resemblance is unmistakable, madam.” He bowed, raising her hand to his lips. “I am delighted to make the acquaintance of Will’s mother.”

  “When we heard from Master Filbert that you were in London,” Mistress Osbert said, gesturing toward the lawyer, who looked as if he wished he were anywhere but there, “we determined to pay you both a wedding visit. And I know that my husband wishes to settle certain affairs with you. We cannot thank you enough for your kindness and your care of Will.”

  Daniel shook his head, laying an arm across the young man’s shoulders in careless affection. “Will proved an invaluable companion and I can assure you there is nothing to settle.”

  “Ah, I beg to differ, sir.” Esquire Osbert hurried forward. “I have heard the whole from Will and—”

  “Oh, this is not the point!” Henrietta exclaimed in an agony of frustration. “They came with my father, Daniel, and he—”

  “Where are your manners?” Daniel broke in as her voice began to rise alarmingly again. “What can you be thinking of to interrupt in that discourteous fashion?”

  The hectic flush died on her cheeks and she took a deep breath, turning toward Will’s father. “I beg your pardon, sir. It was most ill-mannerly. I forgot myself for the moment.”

  “That’s better,” Daniel said gently, caressing her cheek with a fingertip. “There is no need to be so agitated. I am here now. Why do you not go abovestairs and tidy yourself while I find some refreshment for our guests?”

  Henrietta shook her head. “Nay, I wish to stay. If you had not sent me away the last time you had dealings with my father, we would not be in this tangle now.”

  “Why, you…” Sir Gerald sprang forward, and Daniel swiftly interposed himself between the man and his daughter.

  “How delightful to see you again, Sir Gerald,” he said with a bland smile.

  Sir Gerald came to an abrupt stop, head lowered rather in the manner of a charging bull meeting an immovable object. “’Tis no damn pleasure for me,” he blustered. “This damned lawyer comes to me with some insolent demand—”

  “Insolent!” exclaimed Harry. “How can you possibly stand there and—”

  “That will do!” Daniel swung around on her, real annoyance now in his face and voice. “If you wish to remain in the room, then be silent. I can make sense of nothing when you constantly interrupt in this intemperate fashion.”

  “A very sensible man,” Mistress Osbert reaffirmed with a nod. “Ye need have no fear, Henrietta. We are here to see fair play, and I can assure you it will be done.”

  Sir Gerald turned an alarming shade of puce and began struggling for words. Master Filbert coughed. “That’s right, Lady Drummond,” he said. “There’s nothing for you to worry about. This misunderstanding is in a fair way to being settled.”

  “Misunderstanding!”

  “Henrietta, I said that will do!” thundered Daniel.

  “I don’t know what damned business this is of yours, Osbert,” Sir Gerald exploded into the moment of quiet. “Or of some damned whey-faced lawyer.” He glared at Master Filbert. “There’s no documents to be found and I’ll not stand here li
stening to you tell me otherwise, just because some damned jackanapes has greased your palm!”

  Daniel rightly assumed he was the “damned jackanapes” in question but decided to ignore the insult. His father-in-law seemed to suffer from a paucity of adjectives, he reflected. “May I offer you wine, gentlemen? Since Henrietta has omitted to do so.”

  “Thank’ee,” Esquire Osbert said with heartfelt relief. “But ye shouldn’t blame Henrietta. ’Twas a shock for her when we all turned up. But as Amelia says, we’ll not stand by and see her done out of her due. As soon as we heard what was in the wind, Amelia said we must do our bit this time; we’ve turned a blind eye too often in the past.” He scratched his nose, as freckled as Will’s. “It’s hard to know what to do, though, Sir Daniel. Can’t interfere between a man and his child even if you don’t hold with what’s going on, and I don’t say Henrietta was an easy child…never biddable. But this is different, as Amelia says…a matter of right and wrong and what I know. I saw those papers myself when there was talk of a match between Henrietta and Will, and I’ll stand up in a court of law and say so. As will Master Filbert.” He drank deeply of the goblet handed him and sat down at the table with the air of a man who has said his say, shooting a glance of ineffable distaste at Sir Gerald, who was becoming more apoplectic by the minute.

  “I cannot believe that will be necessary,” Daniel said, thanking his stars for Amelia Osbert, who clearly saw where her duty lay and had no hesitation in taking the path and marching others along with her. He raised an eyebrow at the fulminating Ashby. “Come, Sir Gerald, let us discuss this in a reasonable fashion.”

  “Reasonable?” A sly look appeared in Ashby’s bloodshot eyes. “Reasonable, ye say? Where are these documents, then? The ones everyone says they’ve seen? You show ’em to me, then mayhap we’ll have a ‘reasonable’ discussion.” He drained his goblet and slammed it down on the table with unsuppressed violence.

  “Oh, I’ll show them to you.” Henrietta spoke quietly. She was very pale but seemed perfectly in control of herself as she stepped forward. “I know exactly where they are.” She offered her father a glinting, mocking smile. “Shall I tell you? Or should we all journey into Oxfordshire and I will lay hands upon them myself? Which would you prefer…Father?”

  The last word was invested with a wealth of bitter irony that chilled Daniel to the marrow. He stared at her in the stunned silence that wrapped them all. She was holding herself rigidly straight and still, and seemed to be concentrating every ounce of energy, every fiber of strength, every strand of willpower, upon the volcanic bulk of the man she called Father. It was as if she would defeat him with the power of herself, as if she believed he would crumble into inoffensive, harmless dust before the force of her will.

  What Daniel did not know, what no one in that room except Henrietta herself knew, was that she was playing a hunch. Her father was an obsessive magpie. He kept everything, whether it had any apparent use or not, on the grounds that one never knew what the future would hold. If he had not destroyed the documents, she knew where they were. And as she impaled her father with the probe of the knowledge she thought she had, she saw that she had been right. The lines of his face seemed to blur, uncertainty to swim in his eyes.

  “They are to be found beneath the false bottom of Lady Mary’s jewel casket behind the panel beside the fireplace in your bedchamber,” she pronounced with a thrill of triumph that she could not disguise. It was a triumph that led her to recklessness and her voice took on a taunting ring. “And with them will be found the deed of covenant for the tenants in the Longshire cottages. The deed giving to the families the cottages in perpetuity for a peppercorn rent in recognition of their services to your grandfather. The deed you denied ever existed when you evicted those families and sold the cottages to pay your gambling debt to Charles Parker.”

  So heady was the sensation of victory as she read the truth and incredulity in Sir Gerald’s face that her habitual instincts of caution went by the board. She had come very close to him as she made her statements, and when his hand flashed, powered by the full force of his arm, she ducked an instant too late. The next second a chair crashed to the floor under the dead weight of Ashby’s bulk staggering beneath the impact of Daniel’s fist.

  “Oh dear, oh dear,” Master Filbert whimpered, wringing his hands as he looked at the devastation around him. “This is most unseemly.”

  Daniel ignored him. He bent to scoop up Henrietta, who was on her knees against the wall. “That was foolish,” he said almost roughly. “You had already made your point without talking of cottages.”

  “Maybe so, but it served to prove the point,” she managed to retort, triumph still in her voice.

  Catching her chin, he turned her face sideways. “Y’are going to have a very black eye.”

  “Not for the first time. Anyway, it was worth it.” She glanced at her father, who was struggling to his feet, shaking his head like a bewildered bull, and said rather wistfully, “I wish you’d knock him down again.”

  “Bloodthirsty little wretch!” Daniel exclaimed. Will snorted with laughter, then coughed, reddening under a hard glare from his mother, who marched across the room to Henrietta.

  “This has become disgracefully out of hand. Come with me, Henrietta. We will see if the goodwife has some red meat to put upon your eye. It will draw out the swelling.”

  “Oh, please, no.” Harry made a face. “I do hate it, all bloody and wet and cold. ’Twill be all right if we leave it be.” She shot a pleading glance at Daniel with the eye that was open. “Will it not, Daniel?”

  “Go with Mistress Osbert,” he said, impervious to the plea. “Your part is well played and I would play mine now without hindrance.”

  “I would not hinder you,” she said softly. “I wish to hear what is decided. Am I not entitled?”

  “I can see that marriage has not made you any the more biddable, Henrietta,” declared Mistress Osbert. “’Tis not a woman’s place to take part in these discussions.”

  Henrietta squinted fiercely. “I do not think you believe that, madam. And if ’tis not true where you are concerned, why should it hold for me?”

  Will gave vent to another ill-concealed chortle and Esquire Osbert regarded his wife with some interest, waiting for her response. “Y’are impertinent, Henrietta,” she said at last, but there was a twinkle in the green eyes.

  “I know, madam,” Harry agreed cheerfully.

  “Well, I cannot help but feel compassion for your husband.” Mistress Osbert glided to the door. “You had best sit quietly and I will fetch something for that eye.”

  Victory achieved, Harry sat on the settle beside the fire without demur. Although she would cut her tongue out rather than admit it, she was feeling distinctly quivery all of a sudden and her eye was beginning to throb painfully. She rested her head against the tall wooden back of the settle, content to let the voices swell around her, knowing she had nothing further to contribute but still fiercely clinging to her right to be there.

  Daniel looked at her for a minute, a deep frown in his eyes as he wrestled with the urge to carry her off to bed willy-nilly. She looked so fragile with that great purple swelling marring the small, heart-shaped face. But she was entitled to remain if she wished, old enough to make her own choices and decide for herself if she felt well enough to implement those choices. He turned to his father-in-law, who had managed to drag himself into a chair, where he sat in the stunned and sullen silence of a bully who has met his match.

  “Now perhaps we may have that reasonable discussion, Sir Gerald,” Daniel said pleasantly. “Pray take a seat, Master Filbert. There will be some papers to draw up and we might as well waste no further time. I am sure Esquire Osbert will lend his services as witness.”

  Sir Gerald put up no further resistance and Harry offered only token protest to the large slab of raw flesh firmly placed on her eye by a resolute Mistress Osbert, who then sat down at the table with the air of an adjudicator.

&
nbsp; “How did you know, Harry?” Will whispered, sitting beside her on the settle. “Not that anything you could do would ever surprise me anymore, but how could you be so sure where the papers were?”

  “I wasn’t,” she confided with an attempted smile. “But it seemed worth trying. I know that’s where he hides precious things because I found the hiding place one day when I was poking around their bedchamber. No one knew I had discovered it.”

  Will looked a mixture of shock and admiration. “What were ye doing poking around your parents’ bedchamber?”

  She shrugged. “Just looking for things. I often used to do it. That and listen at doors and windows. That’s how I heard about my mother’s jointure in the first place.”

  “’Tis dreadful behavior, Harry,” Will said.

  “I am aware,” she replied, quite unrepentant, “but think how useful it has turned out to be. Besides, I had to look out for myself. There was no one else to do it.”

  Will nodded, silenced by the truth of this. “You do look sick, you know,” he said after a minute. “D’ye not think you should lie down?”

  “Aye, perhaps I will.” She took the slab of meat off her eye and put it on the platter with a grimace of distaste. Then, despite the weakness still affecting her knees, chuckled wickedly. “D’ye think I should offer it to my father, Will? ’Tis a powerful bruise he has on his chin.”

  Will choked with laughter as he helped her to her feet, maintaining his hold on her elbow as she swayed slightly. “I’m going to help Harry to her chamber,” he said to the room at large.

  “Aye, I think I’ll rest for a little while,” Henrietta said with careful dignity.

  Daniel glanced quickly in their direction, then nodded calmly. “’Tis wise of you, I think. You’ll feel more like your dinner after a rest.”

  “A most sensible man,” murmured Mistress Osbert, fully appreciating the effort it was costing him to keep his seat and leave his wife with the conviction that she was making her own decisions. A spark of humor glowed responsively in the black eyes as he met her smiling gaze.