Читать книгу The Captain's Kidnapped Beauty - Mary Nichols, Mary Nichols - Страница 9

‘Alex! I had not expected you.’ Mrs Carstairs greeted her son with a huge smile of pleasure and rushed across the drawing room to reach up and put her arms about his broad shoulders. ‘I thought you had gone to Norfolk.’

‘I shall go tomorrow, Mama. It is only a few miles out of my way to call here first.’ He bent to kiss her cheek. ‘I wondered if you might like to come with me. I have no notion what to expect when I get to Foxlees, a welcome or otherwise, and should be glad of your advice when it comes to household matters.’ Seeing her hesitate, he paused. ‘Are you engaged for the next week or so? If so, it is of no consequence, I can go alone.’

‘Nothing that cannot be put off. Oh, Alex, I should dearly like to see Foxlees. But how shall we travel? My carriage is not up to so long a journey.’

‘I have bought a chaise and a pair of fine horses to pull it. We shall travel very comfortably.’

‘Oh, I shall like that above everything.’ She clapped her gloved hands in delight. She was a tiny woman, a little plump, made more so by the stuffing she wore on her hips and the flounces on her sleeves. She looked frail, but her looks deceived; she had been used to travelling backwards and forwards to India with her late husband and thought nothing of rough seas and sweltering heat. A carriage ride into Norfolk would certainly not put her in a quake. She hurried away to give instructions for her bags to be packed, Alex’s bed to be made up and supper to be served for two.

Over the meal she demanded to know what he had been up to in town.

‘Nothing of any note, Mama. I finalised my inheritance with my uncle’s lawyer, attended a meeting of the Piccadilly Gentleman’s Club and I went to Gilpin’s to buy a carriage. Do you know the business is half-run by Gilpin’s daughter? I was quite taken aback when she insisted on seeing to my needs herself.’

‘I hope you were not gulled.’

‘Gulled by a slip of a girl, Mama, how can you think it? I inspected the vehicle very carefully before agreeing to buy it. It was dear, but I think worth it. Gilpin’s has an excellent reputation for quality.’

‘Did you not go to any dances or routs where you might meet people of the ton?’

‘I went to a concert with Leinster in aid of the Foundling Hospital.’

‘Pah! You will not find a bride doing that.’

‘Mama, I am not looking for a bride.’

‘How can you say so? Alex, you are a marquis now, not a roving sea captain, and it behoves you to wed and start a family. I should very much like grandchildren.’

‘There is plenty of time for that.’

‘I do believe you are still pining for that minx, Letitia.’

‘No, Mama, I am not.’ It was said firmly and brooked no argument.

‘There is no point in any case,’ she went on, determined to have the last word. ‘I had heard that the Earl of Falsham is now a widower and looking for a second wife.’

This was news to Alex and he spent a silent moment or two contemplating it and wondering why he felt nothing more than sorrow that a young life should have been lost. ‘I am sorry for that,’ he said. ‘Do you know how the Countess died?’

‘Giving birth to a daughter, so I heard. The Earl was said to be very vexed that the child was not a son. I heard he had gone abroad to escape his creditors.’

‘It is my opinion that there is too much importance put on begetting heirs,’ he said, glad that he would not have to encounter the gentleman. ‘I hope I should not be vexed if my wife produced a daughter and not a son. I should be happy if they were both healthy.’

She laughed. ‘Just now you insisted you were not looking for a wife.’

‘Nor am I.’ He paused. ‘How long will it take you to pack?’

She recognised the deliberate changing of the subject and smiled. ‘Now, Alex, how can you ask such a question? How many times have I had to pack to go off to India or the West Indies or the China seas at a moment’s notice? I am an expert and so is Betty, who is even now putting a few things in a trunk. I hope the carriage you bought can accommodate one trunk.’

‘It can, Mama, easily. Shall you come out when we have finished our supper and see for yourself? There is still enough daylight left.’

Briarcroft was a simple country mansion, bought with money his father had made on the first two or three of his cargoes, against the day when he would give up the sea and retire. Since his death, his mother had lived there quietly but happily and Alex often stayed there with her. It had been his bolt hole when he came back to England after that disastrous affair with Letitia and it was still the place he came to when he needed respite. He wondered if Foxlees Manor would ever take its place.

When he saw it two days later, he doubted it. Knowing his uncle and cousin had rarely visited it since his aunt’s death and forewarned by the lawyer, he had expected it to be shabby, but the extent of the dereliction was shocking. It was not a large mansion and did not have a parkland, but extensive gardens which had once been well cared for, but which were now tangled and overgrown. The gravel carriage drive was full of weeds and the house, when they came upon it, had a neglected air. Ivy clung to its walls and had invaded the windows. The paint was scuffed, the door knocker rusty.

‘Alex, this is dreadful,’ his mother said, as he helped her down and she stood in the drive to look up at the façade. ‘You could never bring a bride here. She would die of mortification.’

She was so transparent it made him smile, but he decided not to comment and went up the moss-covered stone steps and unlocked the door with the key he had been given.

‘Are there no servants?’ she asked, preceding him into a dark vestibule that smelled fusty.

‘There is a steward and a housekeeper, both of whom live in the village. The lawyer said they would not live here after my uncle died. The rest of the servants moved on long ago.’

‘And I, for one, do not blame them.’ She was making her way down the hall as she spoke and threw open a door. ‘This must be the drawing room.’ She strode forwards and flung back the heavy brocade curtains. They fell to pieces in her hands and dust flew everywhere. ‘Alex, you surely do not expect me to sleep here tonight?’

‘No, Mama, we will go to the village inn, where I will leave you to have some refreshment and a rest while I go in search of the steward.’ He laughed suddenly. ‘To think my friends in the Piccadilly Gentleman’s Club congratulated me on my inheritance. I fear it is like to be a millstone.’

They inspected the rest of the house. It was no better that the drawing room. They returned downstairs and made their way to be kitchen area, where Davy was endeavouring to light a fire in order to boil a kettle. The room was full of smoke.

‘Leave it, Davy,’ he said. ‘The chimneys will have to be swept and all the doors and windows left open to air the place. I am going to take Mrs Carstairs to the local inn and root out the steward. Have you unharnessed the horses?’

‘No, sir … my lord. There’s no fodder for them, though I’ve given them a drink.’

‘Sir will do very well, Davy, thank you. I will drive my mother to the inn. You stay here and see what needs doing.’

‘Everything, sir,’ was said with a grin.

‘I know. Make a list, most urgent first. I will be back betimes.’

Fortunately the local hostelry was a coaching inn, standing on the cross roads of a substantial village a mile or two inland from Cromer. The coach and horses were led away to be looked after while Alex escorted his mother indoors and requested his best room for her.

‘Certainly sir,’ the innkeeper said, then turned and flung orders to his employees who were standing around gaping with curiosity. ‘I didn’t reckon you’d want to stay up at the Manor.’

‘How did you know I was bound there?’

‘Why, Mr Boniface said the new owner was expected at any time and my son, Arthur, saw the carriage in the village going towards the rise at a spanking pace. We don’t get equipages like that hereabouts very often.’

‘Where can I find Mr Boniface?’

‘He’ll have heard you’ve arrived,’ the man said. ‘And will no doubt be on his way to the Manor as we speak.’

Alex made sure his mother and her maid were comfortable, then left them to hurry back to the house on foot, which had half the population out of their doors to see him pass. He smiled, bowed this way and that and continued on his way.

He found Davy in the yard in deep conversation with a man in a black coat and black small clothes. He wore a black three-cornered hat over a dark tie wig. He introduced himself as William Boniface, apologising profusely for not being there to greet him on his arrival. If he had been notified of the day and time, he certainly would have been.

‘Yes, to be sure,’ Alex said. ‘It is no matter. But tell me all you can about the house and grounds. It is sadly neglected.’

‘It is that, my lord, and sorry I am for it, but the old marquis turned his back on it after his wife died and would not spend a penny to keep it in order. He did not seem to care that it might fall into disrepair, for all he had a son who expected to inherit. The young master seemed of the same mind and now, of course …’ He shrugged. ‘What do you plan to do, my lord?’

‘It can’t be left as it is, that is certain. It is hardly habitable.’

‘Do you wish to live in it, my lord?’

‘I may when I am not in town or I may let it. In either event it will have to be restored. Let us inspect it properly and you may make notes as we go. Davy, you come, too. You may see things I miss.’

All three trooped indoors. Davy had drawn all the blinds back and opened all the windows, which allowed a cool breeze from the German Ocean to blow away some of the stuffiness. They moved from room to room and Mr Boniface covered sheets and sheets of paper with his spidery scrawl. The conclusion they all reached was that it was a solid building and the neglect, though unsightly, was superficial.

‘Draw up a proper list of what needs doing and how much it will cost,’ Alex told the much-relieved steward. ‘I shall stay at the Five Bells for the next few days until it can be made habitable.’

‘Very well, sir. Shall I consult her ladyship over the interior decoration and the furnishings?’

‘Her ladyship?’ Alex queried.

‘The marchioness, my lord. I believe she is at the Five Bells.’

Alex laughed. ‘There, the gossip has failed you, Mr Boniface. The lady at the Five Bells is my mother, not my wife. There is no marchioness at present.’

‘I beg your pardon, my lord,’ he said hastily. ‘I only meant that the house will undoubtedly benefit from the attention of a mistress.’

‘You are forgiven.’ Alex smiled and the embarrassed man relaxed visibly, before taking his leave to set about the task he had been given. Alex went round the house again and found himself imagining what it might be like when it was restored. There would be new carpets and curtains, new furniture and bed hangings, ornaments and pictures. It could become a comfortable family home, a fine place to bring up children. He chuckled to himself, wondering what his mother would say if he shared that thought with her, probably something like ‘Didn’t I tell you so?’ or ‘About time, too!’

He left Davy inspecting the wainscoting in the dining room for woodworm and went out into the garden, if that tangle of weeds and overgrown shrubs could be called a garden. A gardener was another need, probably more than one. He had a feeling that restoring this house was going to eat up nearly all his savings. He wandered down what had once been a terrace and across a stretch of grass, past a shrubbery and a kitchen garden to the far boundary. From here he could hear and smell the sea. He breathed deeply. Yes, it would do, it would do very well. He turned in the direction of the village to rejoin his mother.

Almost two weeks passed before Charlotte watched her father set off for Oxfordshire, the carriage piled so high with his luggage, drawings, models, samples of wood, cloth, leather and braid, there was hardly room for him to squeeze in. Then she turned and went back to the office to work until it was time to go home. When all the men had gone, she would have to check the building to make sure there were no naked flames or glowing embers anywhere to constitute a hazard. Fire insurance companies would not cover the premises on account of all the flammable materials kept there; her father had exhorted her to be extra careful.

He had also told her not to walk home alone, but to ask one of the men to escort her. She did not like to do that; the men had all done a long day’s work and would be anxious to go home to their suppers. Only Martin Grosswaite remained and, for some reason she could not explain, she would not ask him to accompany her. ‘If you will not let me escort you,’ he said, ‘permit me to fetch a chair. At least that way you will be safe from molestation.’ She agreed it was the sensible thing to do and while he was gone, had a last look round before locking up. Everything was as it should be.

The chair arrived very quickly so Martin must have found one close at hand. She climbed in and directed the chairmen to take her to Piccadilly. It had been a busy day and what with her father being intent on his journey, she had been left very much to her own devices and that meant walking round the various workshops making sure the men were working as they should, meeting customers who had come to collect their vehicles and keeping her ledgers up to date. She was very tired, but it was a satisfied kind of tiredness and she was looking forward to having a couple of the maids fill a bath in her room so that she could soak the tiredness from her. That it was considered eccentric to bath so frequently did not deter her. Having no company, she might ask Barbara, her maid, to join her for supper afterwards.

It was several minutes before she realised she was not being taken to Piccadilly. The chairmen had turned down a dark alley and were trotting at a pace that was bone-shaking. She put her head outside and commanded them to stop. They ignored her; if anything, their pace increased. She shouted at them again, but it soon became evident that they had no intention of obeying her. Now she was very frightened indeed. Where were they taking her? And why? Captain Carstairs’s warning came to her mind. She was being kidnapped!

After several more minutes, they stopped outside a dilapidated tenement and let down the chair. She hurried to open the door to escape, but they had anticipated that and grabbed her arms and dragged her, protesting loudly, into the building, along a corridor which was dark as pitch and into a candle-lit room, where a woman rose from a chair to face them. ‘You got her, then?’

‘We did, Molly, we did. ‘Twas as easy as winking, though she made a deal of noise.’ He was a big man with a weatherbeaten face, a moulting bag wig and bad teeth. He was also the man who had grabbed her bridle in Hyde Park. Captain Carstairs had been right in saying they might try again. Oh, how she wished she had listened to him. But he had said nothing about not hiring a chair and how was she to know the kidnappers would use that ruse?

‘And I shall continue to do so until you take me home,’ Charlotte snapped at him.

His answer was to push her into a chair. His companion, smaller but no less unprepossessing, produced a rope and they proceeded to tie her down. She struggled ineffectually, and when his hand strayed too close to her mouth bit it as hard as she could. He snatched it away and swore. ‘And for that, you will pay extra,’ he yelled and stuffed a dirty piece of rag into her mouth.

She almost choked and had to force herself to breathe evenly through her nose, but assumed from his words that she had been kidnapped for a ransom. Though the thought of spending a second longer in the company of these three was anathema, it gave her a little hope. Her father, hearing of their demand, would undoubtedly pay to have her safely restored to him. And then she remembered her father was from home. Would Barbara have the good sense to alert someone that she was missing? Or would she be kept here until her kidnappers were able to contact her father? Would he be able to trace her movements through the chair she had taken? Would he think of that? Oh, if only someone would come to her rescue!

‘Mama, I am summoned back to town,’ Alex said, studying a letter the mail had brought to the Five Bells. It had been marked urgent and the landlord had sent the potboy up to the Manor with it. ‘I am needed to solve another kidnapping. It appears Miss Gilpin has disappeared, most likely abducted.’

‘Oh, how dreadful for her,’ she said. ‘But can no one else be asked to look for her?’

They had left the Five Bells to move into a part of the Manor that had been made habitable and were in the morning room, drinking the tea Davy had made for them. The chimneys had been swept and the house cleaned by an army of women he had hired from the village, supervised by the butler and housekeeper, Mr and Mrs Wharton, who were now back in residence. There was still a great deal to be done. The whole house needed painting, ill-fitting doors needed replacing, rattling windows must be refitted and re-glazed and new carpets, curtains, furniture and kitchen utensils purchased. Apart from one or two good quality items of furniture and some pictures and ornaments, the rest would have to go. When all was done, he must decide how many servants he needed, but that could wait until the work was finished and Mrs Wharton would see to the hiring of them.

‘Lord Leinster has been making preliminary enquiries,’ he answered his mother. ‘but I have done this kind of thing before and James thinks I am the best person to undertake the task’

‘Do they know who has her?’

‘No, that is for me to discover. Mama, do you wish me to leave you here, or shall you go home? I can take you if you do, but you must be ready to leave in an hour.’

‘I shall be ready. I do not want to stay here without you. This is your home, not mine, and I miss my little cat, and the church. But can you leave the refurbishment here unattended?’

‘It is not urgent. Mr Boniface and Mr and Mrs Wharton will carry the work forward in my absence. I will return as soon as I have Miss Gilpin safely back with her father.’

Mrs Carstairs hurried to tell her maid to pack as quickly as possible and stayed to help her, while Alex sent a man ahead on horseback to bespeak post horses. He had come to Foxlees at a leisurely pace, using the same horses throughout, but he was in too much haste to return the same way. The greys would be sent back to the Manor from their first stop and the new groom would look after them until he returned. After that he went round the house with Mr Wharton, pointing out things that needed to be done in his absence. Within the hour they were on their way.

Alex sat back in the coach, glad that he had purchased a well-built vehicle because Davy was driving at a spanking pace and they were being thrown from side to side over the bumpy roads.

‘Mama, is the jolting too much for you?’ he asked. ‘Shall I have Davy slow down?’

‘No, I know you are in a hurry. Do not mind me.’

‘Betty?’ he queried, addressing the maid.

Betty was looking very white, but she managed a wan smile. ‘I wish only for the journey to be over, my lord, so by all means make haste.’

Alex sank back into his seat, contemplating the task ahead of him. The letter had said nothing about how Miss Gilpin had been kidnapped, nor if there had been a ransom letter. It was usually the ransom letter that furnished the first clue about where a kidnapped victim was being held. Without one the case would be doubly difficult.

He found himself wondering how Miss Gilpin had come to be taken. Had she gone out alone after his warning about the dangers? How he wished he had defied her wishes and told Henry Gilpin what had happened in Hyde Park. He felt a surge of guilt that he had not done so, for if he had, her father would have made sure she was always escorted and she might not now be in the hands of abductors.

He found himself imagining all manner of horrors: Miss Gilpin manhandled, struck perhaps, even molested. He shuddered at the thought of that beautiful, proud, self-assured woman being subjected to that. His heart went out to her and he felt the anger bubble inside him, not only anger for her abductors, but anger at Henry Gilpin. The man had more or less abandoned her at Lady Milgrove’s concert, which both he and Jonathan had thought was strange. She would have come to no harm there, but was it an example of the off-hand way he had of dealing with his daughter? Did he think she could be treated like a son? Alex smiled inwardly at that; Miss Gilpin herself would undoubtedly accept that as her due, even been glad of it. He would wager she was not feeling glad now. She would be frightened, unless, of course she had manufactured the abduction herself, perhaps to meet a lover who did not meet her father’s strict provisos.

Could they have taken themselves off to Gretna Green, where the law requiring three weeks’ notice of a marriage at the churches of both bride and groom did not apply? It would not be the first time he had chased after a kidnap victim to discover she had not been kidnapped, but had run away. Somehow he did not think that would apply to Miss Gilpin. He thought she would always face up to her problems. What did apply? His brain went round and round all the possibilities and he wished the coach could take to the air and fly.

‘You are very worried about her, are you not?’ his mother interrupted his thoughts.

‘Yes. I cannot help feeling guilty. I foresaw what might happen and I did nothing to prevent it.’

‘How could you have prevented it? You were not even there.’

Alex explained what had happened in Hyde Park. ‘I felt sure they would try again and I begged Miss Gilpin not to go out alone any more.’

‘If she did not heed your advice, that is surely not your fault. She is a veritable hoyden by the sound of it.’

‘She is opinionated and independent, that is true, but she is still a young woman and deserving of protection.’