The cook brought Percival a bowl of hot soup and Sebastian poured him a glass of rum.
“Must I drink it? My cough is much better, Farndon.”
“If you’re coming with us tonight, you’ll need it. I don’t want to explain to your parents how you caught pneumonia after Lady Maud wrote to say you were nearly better.”
The boy forced the strong liquor down and polished off a generous supper. They all ate well knowing the night was cold and it might be many hours before they ate again. The rain had stopped and the clouds were clearing. It would be a cold but clear night and the moon was beginning to rise, as they prepared to set out once more. Percival ran upstairs to fetch his folding pocket knife, before wrapping up once more. One of the ex-soldiers’ horses had developed a limp and Greenways’ horse’s legs were badly bruised and cut about by the rope and his headlong flight. The ex-soldier was mounted upon Randall’s horse and Randall saddled Esmeralda, as they decided not to take Siren as she was grey and would be too visible in the moonlight.
The five set off with Percival leading down the wooded lane. They stopped briefly to examine the dead government man and the rope in the road and they lit a dark lantern briefly to see where the carriage had been parked. They rode on to the crossroads and followed Percival to the twisting path. They rode slowly, not wanting to make too much noise. Percival showed them where he had tied his horse before and they stopped and dismounted then tied their mounts. Sebastian secured the foils at his side and they loaded their pistols by the light of the dark lantern. Sebastian handed Percival a loaded pistol, asking if he knew how to use it. Percival nodded and thrust it into his pocket, first checking the safety catch was on.
They walked together to the farmhouse quietly. A second carriage was in the yard, its horses still harnessed and steaming in the cold air. Mallinder had arrived, Sebastian could feel his presence. There were lights in the house but the curtains were drawn. They had no way of knowing how many men were in the house, but all realised there could be many more than four.
Alicia had rested cuddling up to Lady Maud. Neither lady slept but the room was cold. They listened to the voices of the men moving around in the house. No food was brought to them and no one checked on them. Lady Maud untied Alicia’s hands and she searched the room for something she could use as a weapon. Apart from the bed, the room had no other furnishings aside from a chamber pot. But Alicia noticed the unlit fire had a heavy detachable grate and separated the front piece which she hefted intending to use it as a club. She returned to the bed and concealed the piece of metal under her velvet coat, tucking it in her sash at her waist.
When she heard the voice of Major Mallinder downstairs, she pretended to sleep and Lady Maud continued to feign unconsciousness. She heard heavy footsteps on the stairs and the key in the door was turned. Four men entered the room and stood observing the two women prone upon the bed by the light of a branch of candles. Major Mallinder wore his left arm in a sling, but there was an ugly smile upon his face.
“Bring them downstairs” he ordered.
The two men not holding the candles stepped forward. One shook Alicia awake and dragged her to her feet. The other tried to rouse Lady Maud, but she fell back to the bed still seeming unconscious.
“She’s been like that since we brought them in, Clegg slapped her face, but she just collapsed again. She’s an old woman; her heart may be giving out.”
“Maud Prestyne is as tough as old boots. Slap her again and she’ll soon rouse or I’ll wake her by putting her feet in the fire downstairs.”
The man did as he was bid and her eyes fluttered slightly open, but she collapsed again on the bed and emitted an awful croak, her head falling back at an awkward angle lying once more as in a swoon. Then her body seemed to spasm as if of its own accord and she lay still once more with her eyes still closed. Mallinder was still not convinced.
“Carry the old battle-axe downstairs. I’ll start with Miss Lambert. She’ll be far more cooperative when her niece starts screaming.”
Lady Maud lay as a dead weight and she was not a light woman, as one of the men tried to lift her from the bed. Mallinder took the branch of candles from the other man and ordered him to assist him. Alicia had bound the rope loosely around her wrists behind her and struggled crying out as she was pushed down the stairs, she stumbled deliberately, meaning to hit the man with the piece of metal, but the man forced her to her feet before she could reach for it.
***
There were three doors opening into the house. Sebastian’s men reached the one at the rear of the house in darkness. The door was locked but Sebastian soon clicked the lock open pushing the key through the keyhole where it clattered to the floor. They waited expecting someone to come at the noise of the heavy key dropping, but the men were busy dragging Alicia to a sparsely furnished, dingy sitting-room. She was making a lot of noise screaming and crying out that Lady Maud was unwell and needed a doctor. Sebastian crept in followed by the two ex-soldiers and Randall with Percival bringing up the rear. Alicia’s screaming had meant they did not have to search the house, they knew where she was.
They moved through the corridor, but the door to one room was open. In it was the man wounded by the government man and another who was trying to re-bandage him as his wound had not stopped bleeding, despite the extraction of the pistol ball. Neither seemed aware of the group of men in the corridor. Sebastian directed the two ex-soldiers to silence the men. They skulked in noiselessly. The first former soldier hit the man tending the wounded man over the head, supporting him as he slumped and laying him on the floor. The other put a knife to the wounded man’s throat. He very wisely did not make a sound.
Randall had followed them in and was already binding the unconscious man with some of the ripped strips of linen which he had been using as bandages. He stuffed another piece in the man’s mouth and gagged him tightly. The same was done to the wounded man, but Randall checked his bandage and tightened it, before making a show of a noose with his head leaning at a strange angle. The wounded man realised his own survival would be short. They closed the door on the two men and moved further down the hall past the stairs to the room in which they knew the ladies were being kept. Sebastian made some complicated hand gestures to Randall and he nodded and returned the way they had entered. Percival guessed he would go around outside to the curtained window of the room.
Sebastian moved Percival back along the corridor and got out one of his pistols. He took off the safety catch and cocked it. The two soldiers had done the same and stood either side of the door. They stood and waited. They could hear Mallinder yelling in the room, but could not make out his words. Percival got out his pistol and held it ready. His hand was shaking but he remained alert. There was the sudden sound of smashing glass as Randall threw a large piece of rock through the window. Sebastian flung open the door as two men tried to rush out. Sebastian and the first soldier shot them at close range. Sebastian’s victim fell dead to the ground, a hole in the centre of his forehead splattering him with blood.
The second man kept coming despite a hole in his chest but the other former soldier pulled a large knife and stabbed him in the heart. More shots rang out within the room as Randall fired from the window at two more men. Mallinder had been standing over Alicia with a jagged knife in his hand, but turned at the entry of the Marquis and the two ex-soldiers. Three men remained standing in the room. Mallinder was one of them; the next was a burly individual who had found a pistol poking into his ear, the final man was a spindly individual dressed grubbily in the costume of a clergy-man. On the floor were two other men, one had lost the back of his head and would never move again and the other man was groaning while trying desperately to staunch a hole in the centre of his chest. As the blood was spurting vigorously, he was not being very successful.
Mallinder had picked up a pistol of his own and was pointing it at Sebastian. Alicia stood and hefted the piece of metal grate connecting with the back of Mallinder’s head. He fell
but was starting to rise.
“Tie the rest of them up. Leave Mallinder, I haven’t finished with him.”
Randall had entered through the broken window and was wrapping the living man in the table’s cloth staunching the bleeding, as the ex-soldiers tied the burly man and the priest. Percival was about to move into the room and congratulate the Marquis, but then he heard some stealthy footsteps coming down the stairs. A final man, pistol in hand was descending. He was pointing it at Sebastian’s back and Percival saw he was aiming the pistol. Percival fired first taking the man in the neck. Blood fountained, splattering out in a huge cascade as the man collapsed.
Sebastian turned and looked at Percival standing white-faced over the dead man.
“He was going to shoot you in the back, Farndon.”
“Thank you. Very good shooting, Percival.”
“It wasn’t, I was aiming for his heart.”
Sebastian returned to the room and told his men to take the living felons to the other room and dump the corpses there too. Randall had reloaded his pistols and was now standing over Mallinder with both pointing at him. Sebastian bowed to Lady Maud who seemed miraculously revived and hugged Alicia. The two ex-soldiers returned and began moving the furniture to the sides of the room. They rolled back the filthy carpet creating a fog of dust. Sebastian stripped off his greatcoat and hat and removed his coat. Mallinder had now been moved to sit in a chair.
“Randall would you escort the ladies and Percival to one of the carriages, please. Get everything ready to depart,” Sebastian requested.
“I am staying, my lord,” Alicia said, repeating it for Randall. She took one of Randall’s reloaded pistols from him and released the safety catch as she pointed it at Mallinder. Randall nodded and went out with Lady Maud and Percival. Sebastian smiled grimly at Alicia and moved her to the side of the room before addressing Malinder.
“I should shoot you like the filthy cur you are, but I gather you were once a gentleman, at least in name.”
Sebastian drew both foils and threw one hilt forwards to Mallinder, he caught it in his right hand and stood up. Mallinder backed towards the broken window, taking up a fighting position. He lifted his left hand from the sling and grimaced, but it balanced him. Mallinder swished the foil tentatively and then attacked. He moved forward fast, but Sebastian parried his lunges and avoided his feints. Sebastian waited, wanting to get the measure of Mallinder before he mounted his own attack. Sebastian granted him a small measure of respect for his swordsmanship, but felt the older man was too confident as if he expected to dispatch Sebastian quickly.
Mallinder was quick and he was strong. He was a little shorter than Sebastian and a touch heavier. Sebastian concluded he was both skilled and experienced at fencing. He tried a few speculative passes and found them beaten back with force. Mallinder seemed to be capable of ignoring his injury, but Sebastian thought he was tiring. Then he made a mistake and Sebastian connected with the point of his foil cutting through the cloth of Mallinder’s jacket and shirt and slightly pinking his left shoulder. Sebastian stepped back sharply as his opponent swept his sword in front of his face. Now both of them advanced once more but more warily. They parried every thrust, both seeking for an opening to finish the fight.
Sweat was glistening on Mallinder’s forehead but he fought on, then he saw an opening and lunged. His foil pushed Sebastian’s sword down powering through the upper part of his right arm. Sebastian pulled back staggered, but he remembered Madelaine’s words. He moved his left hand to take the hilt. Then Sebastian drove straight forward. The foil slid into Mallinder’s chest between his ribs and up into his heart as easily as if he had been stabbing a slab of butter. He watched as blood pumped from the wound and poured from Mallinder’s mouth. Time seemed to move slowly. For a second or two it seemed like Mallinder did not know he was dying. His face registered surprise briefly, but then he seemed to fold up on himself crumpling to the floor. Sebastian stood immobile staring at the corpse on the floor with the sword still jutting from his body.
“Is he dead?” Alicia asked from the doorway.
“Yes,” Sebastian said finally moving. He picked up both swords and wiped them on a curtain. He tore his shirt sleeve from his own wound and bound it up with the torn sleeve. Then he redressed in his coat, greatcoat and hat.
“We best get you and Lady Maud home,” he said enfolding her in his arms. He asked the ex-soldiers to stay with the bound men, he would arrange for their transfer once he had taken the ladies home. Then he handed Alicia into the waiting carriage and climbed in himself. Randall’s second victim died before they were taken away and the ex-soldiers returned bringing the horses. Randall was sent in the morning to Grey, to inform him of Mallinder’s death. The surviving men were handed off to the charge of some of his men and questioned. Their answers Grey found very satisfactory and a number of important arrests followed.
Epilogue
The headmaster of Sebastian’s former school was surprised to receive a visit from the Marquis of Farndon. But having heard of the arrival in London of Sebastian’s nephews he moved to reassure him, he would reserve places for the boys despite the irregularity of their birth. Sebastian thanked him, but informed him he had come over another putative pupil. The name of the pupil, he enquired
“Percival Purcell. He’s a fighter, a troublemaker and disinclined to work at his lessons, but I would like you to take him as a special favour to me.”
“We have refused young Purcell. There are many more deserving boys than him who would like a place.”
“I understand Harrow have thrashed us at fencing and boxing for the last three years. Percival has been tutored in fencing by the Comte de Morlaix himself. He was a renowned duellist. Percival is an excellent fencer and a very good pugilist. Harrow expelled him. He would love to punch a few of their pupils. Besides I owe him my life.”
***
Alicia and Sebastian decided they could not wait until the end of January to marry and settled for the fifteenth. Sebastian had a surprise waiting for him as Prescott laid out his clothes on his wedding morning. For that gentleman had set out a white damask coat trimmed with tiny sapphires with a pale blue silk waistcoat and white breeches and the silk shirt he had worn to his bachelor party. The suit was unmistakably Weston’s work, but the Marquis had not ordered it.
“Milady said if you will persist in choosing her dresses, then she would select your clothes in future, my lord.”
“I’m surprised Weston agreed to make it.”
“Apparently Weston said he intended to take the morning off to see you wed in it, my lord. Now we must hurry or you will be late.”
He was not late and St George’s in Hanover Square was full with all their friends and family as he stood waiting at Lord Stephen’s side. His heart missed a beat as Alicia entered in the sapphire trimmed dress on Sir Anthony’s arm. Grace and Phoebe in pale blue were exquisite bridesmaids accompanied by three page boys dressed in blue velvet suits. Juan and Jorge Vernon were on their best behaviour, as was Percival Purcell, who was looking very handsome in blue. Sitting next to Lady Maud Prestyne was an exquisite blonde girl of about eleven years of age. Miss Emily Rathbone was clearly a Vernon, and had been introduced as some sort of cousin among the assembled guests. Emily was old enough to understand that making her a bridesmaid would have only drawn attention to the irregularity of her birth. She was pleased that Sebastian acknowledged her as his niece, at least in private. So all the family were present, but Sir Cecil and Lady Clarissa had not been invited.
Alicia was not surprised to see a number of ladies waiting outside the church as she exited on Sebastian’s arm. She threw her bouquet of white orchids and Estelle caught it. Alicia did not need to wait for her wedding night, she had long been convinced Sebastian was absolutely wonderful.
g books on Archive.
The Marquis' Mistake Page 23