Samantha
Chapter 23
That next week, once the crowds
of well-wishing callers had dropped off, plans were made for outings with the
two engaged couples and their friends. Lady Valerie wished to visit the British
Museum, while Samantha's choice was to view the paintings at Somerset House.
Arabella suggested a ride to Richmond for a picnic. As that was better than her
first two suggestions -- a prizefight and Tattersall's -- everyone thought the
picnic idea had merit.
The party to the British Museum
consisted of Lord Ryder and Samantha, Lord Seawright and Lady Valerie, Arabella
and Lord Cosmo, his sister, Lady Henrietta Villiers, and Miss Winterbottom. Her
first name, she informed the ladies, was Rachel.
Lady Henrietta was a
plain-featured, petite brunette whom Arabella fell instantly in love with,
taking the shy girl under her wing. She showed so much marked attention to her,
Lord Cosmo was heard telling Miss Winterbottom that the two ladies were calling
the banns on Sunday.
Arabella merely stuck out her
tongue and declared Cosmo jealous of attention not directed at him. Henrietta
laughed quietly as they went up the steps to the museum, but she paused when
she saw a slant-eyed lady staring intently at them from one side of the front
doors.
"Do you know that lady?" she
asked Arabella, discreetly indicating the beautiful voyeur.
"No," her new friend said and
Lady Henrietta held her tongue. She was not comfortable enough with the rest of
the company to point her out again, except for Cosmo, but he had a tendency to
ignore her and today would in all probability be no exception.
The Rosetta Stone, on display,
was marveled at by all, except for Lord Seawright and Lady Valerie. They
thought being able to interpret hieroglyphics could only lead to the further
desecration of Egyptian monuments.
"And don't get me started on the
Elgin Marbles," Lady Valerie announced.
"Then why did you wish to come?"
Arabella asked.
"I just adore the Bronze Age
pieces," was the reply.
Arabella sighed and trudged on.
"Truly, I would be happier at a boxing mill," she confessed to Henrietta, who
giggled, drawing Cosmo's attention.
"A mill? Next thing I know, you
will be asking to shoot wafers at Manton's!"
"And fence at Angelo's, too!"
Arabella brightly added. "I don't know how to fence, but I am a deuced fine
shot."
"The devil you say!"
"It's true," Ryder said. "She is
an excellent marksman. I take her hunting with me so that we can stock the
larder. Otherwise I have a tendency to bring home only what my dogs have
found."
Arabella beamed at her brother's
praise. To her relief, none of the other ladies decried shooting as being
unladylike.
"Do you carry a gun on your
person, Lady Arabella?" Miss Winterbottom wondered.
"Of course." She pulled a little
pearl-handled pistol from her reticule and showed it to her friends. "Jack gave
this to me a couple of years ago. I carry it with me everywhere. Except maybe
the ballroom. Ladies tend to get rather wiggly about such things."
"I should like to learn,"
Samantha said to Ryder. She knew he would protect her, despite his lack of a
good aim, but London was a dangerous place and she could not quite shake the
feeling that Lord Hambly was not satisfied with the way things were left the
other night at Almack's.
"Then you shall." He was at that
stage, she knew, where he was still indulgent to her wishes, no matter how
unorthodox. That was sure to change once they were married.
"We could set up a range in the
back of Halbourne House," Arabella suggested, warming to the idea immediately.
"Rachel and Henrietta should join us."
"Mama would have an apoplexy
should she find out," Henrietta demurred.
"If she finds out," Cosmo said
to his sister. Arabella gave his arm a squeeze. He could be so nice when he
tried.
"And you, Valerie?" her intended
asked. "Do you wish to learn, as well?"
"I already know how," she said,
surprising them all. "There is not much else to do in Devonshire when your
family has gone to London for the season. I shall be happy to help teach the
young ladies, though."
That settled it and plans were
made to include shooting lessons in their schedule.
In the meantime, the picnic at
Richmond was set for the next Tuesday. They would all ride, and this time the
party had expanded to include Sir Robert and one of his friends, a Mr. Stewart.
Mr. Stewart was an introverted young man that Arabella took pains to match with
a blushing Henrietta.
It was a good pairing, as
neither of them sat a horse very well, leaving Arabella and Cosmo to provide
not only supervision of their persons, but supervision of their mounts.
"As a friend of Lord Cosmo's, I
am surprised his mother did not try to match you up with Lady Henrietta,"
Samantha commented as they all rode out of London. She had finally met the
marchioness and she could see that lady prized titles above all else. That had
been evident when she had made a comment about Arabella only being the daughter
of an earl.
"Not enough money to suit her, I
suppose," Ryder replied with a shrug. If he had been at all attracted to Lady
Henrietta, he might have pushed the issue, he told her. "After all, I am heir
to a dukedom, which is an excellent prospect. And she is the daughter of a
marquess." Evidently Arabella had told him of the situation. "But Lady
Corbridge never liked me. She doesn't particularly like Cosmo and Henrietta,
for that matter. Or Cosmo's younger brother. All her attention is focused on
finding a bride for her eldest before he sticks his spoon in the wall. The
gentleman is very sickly, but she doesn't want Cosmo or Reggie to inherit. An
heir of Arthur's would take care of that nicely."
"What about Lady Henrietta?"
"The marchioness is often quoted
as saying her daughter is too plain, but if she had been more beautiful, she
would expend more energy making a brilliant match."
Samantha was appalled and looked
back at the young lady in question. She would have to make certain the girl was
always included in their activities, as she seemed so starved for company.
Under Arabella's tutelage, and Mr. Stewart's attentions, she had already
started to blossom. "Mr. Stewart is considerate of her feelings," she remarked.
"He will do wonders for her
confidence, if nothing else. And his father is a baronet which, should this
come to something, would be more comfortable for her than being a duchess. You,
on the other hand, are now trapped," he teased.
"Trapped?"
"You will eventually have to
take your grandmother's place, you know. Hopefully, it will be many years from
now."
"Duchess?" she asked, panic
written across her face. "But..."
"Don't worry, darling. You will
do fine. I believe her grace already has plans on how to groom you for the
position. Consider yourself warned."
"All right," she croaked.
Duchess! Samantha was terrified. She had known all along that Jack was her
grandfather's heir, but it finally hit home that when he became the Duke of
Halbourne, she would be his duchess.
As if he could read her mind, he
reached over and took one of her gloved hands. After he pried it off the reins.
"Anyone who could toss me out of
a church service and tell me to repent on my own time deserves such an exalted
position. Think about it. You can tell the vicar when his theology is
incorrect, and cite your own father," he teased, trying to lighten her mood.
She laughed nervously and
nodded. "And preside over the opening of fairs and organize all sorts of fetes
and celebrations."
"Exactly. And you will also be
in the position to fund schools and orphanages, sit on the board of other
institutions and spread your own money out where you wish."
"My own money? But I thought my
dowry..."
"Your dowry shall be completely
separate from your allowance. Don't spend it all just yet, however. The
countess' funds are much less than you will eventually gain. You don't mind, do
you?"
"A lack of funds?" She was
almost in tears. "Do you recall our first meeting, when you rescued my basket?
That was two meals for my father and I. I could have twice as much and consider
myself wealthy! I promise you I shall never complain about using a clothing
allowance to put a roof over someone else's head -- or my own for that matter --
as long as there is food on the table."
"You poor darling! I vow there
will always be enough to eat."
They rode in reflective silence
until they reached the ruins of the palace at Richmond. It had been completed in
1501 by Henry VII at the site of an earlier palace, and was also the residence
of Henry VIII until Cardinal Wolsey gave him Hampton Court Palace. It had been
the home of Anne of Cleves after her divorce from Henry, and his daughter,
Elizabeth, had died there. It had since burned, but it still had a sweeping
view of the Thames and plenty of places for picnics.
They found a convenient spot for
their repast and unloaded the fare from saddlebags on their horses. Cosmo
grinned when he opened his bags to discover several bottles of wine wrapped in
green baize for protection.
"If I had known, I should have
already broken one out for us to pass around!"
"The exact reason I did not tell
you," Ryder remarked. Everyone laughed and worked quickly to set out their luncheon.
After the wine had been
consumed, along with meat pies, fruit, cheese and spicy little cakes, they
decided to stroll the grounds. No one remarked much at all when Ryder and Lord
Seawright took their ladies off for private walks. After all, Arabella said,
there was not much mischief they could get into here, unless Lord Seawright and
Lady Valerie found more Roman ruins and started their dig early. She linked
arms with both Rachel and Henrietta, and they headed for the river.
At one point, Henrietta came to
a halt, thinking she had seen the slant-eyed lady from the museum steps, but
when she looked again, the woman was gone. She must have been imagining things.
After all, the woman was wearing the same yellow gown as had been seen at the
museum. Not saying a word, she allowed Arabella to drag her along to the
Thames.
The picnic was declared a
success and as they were riding back toward the city, Arabella, who was in the
lead, seemed to have lost her way.
"How can someone with such
supposed good aim get us lost?" Cosmo wondered.
"I didn't see you up here
helping out!" she crossly replied.
"Fortunately for you, I know a
side lane back to the main road," he said condescendingly.
"Cosmo," Ryder warned. "This is
my sister you are speaking to, and a lady. Why don't you ride up with her so
she knows the way next time?"
Arabella, who had flushed red
and dropped back, shot her brother a grateful smile and spurred her horse up to
the front of the group.
Samantha reached over and patted
Ryder's sleeve. He was a very good brother. She also kept her own eyes open as
they traveled down the road. It was getting dark and the only house around was
an abandoned-looking one that she easily thought could be haunted, if its
dilapidated appearance was anything to go by.
She was relieved when they finally came to the main road once more. There was an inn, and they stopped for tea and mulled wine and sent a lad into London with a note for the duchess. They did not wish her to worry.
Ryder wasn't sure how it
happened, but the day a representative from Manton's met the young ladies at
Halbourne House so they could select their own small pistols, they managed to
turn it into a shopping party.
Samantha arranged for tables so
the gentleman from the gunmaker's shop could display his wares. Arabella, not
to be outdone, ordered cakes, tea and rack punch. She then earned Cosmo's
admiration when she stood there and mixed the punch ingredients as well as any
gentleman of his acquaintance. She only shrugged.
"I am full of
surprises," she said with an enigmatic smile.
When Lady Henrietta and Miss
Winterbottom arrived, it was time to peruse the dainty little pistols Ryder had
thought appropriate for the ladies, and they, with Lady Valerie's help, chose
their weapons.
Arabella favored one of highly
polished wood with metal trim, resembling a dueling pistol in miniature. Miss
Winterbottom chose a similar one with an engraved handle, and Lady Henrietta
and Samantha selected pearl-handled ones. All were small enough to be carried
in reticules.
The gentleman from Manton's
handled the sales and then showed the young ladies how to load the pistols.
Samantha thought it complicated at first, but once she got the idea of it, they
all moved out to where Ryder and Lord Seawright had erected a range. Targets
were placed at the far end of the small garden and Lady Valerie showed the
girls how to line up their shots.
Not surprisingly, Arabella, who
had received the most practice in her life, was the best, but Lady Henrietta
was not too far behind. Rachel Winterbottom and Samantha amused themselves by
commiserating with each other over their lack of aim, but they were having so
much fun being shown personally by Ryder and Sir Robert how to hit the target,
they could not complain much.
Once the ladies had received
some practice, and the gentleman from Manton's went back to the shop, the men
began to discuss who amongst them could hit the target the most out of ten
shots. Ryder excused himself and offered Arabella in his place, saying she
could compete as long as she did not wager too much pin money.
"But I shall place enough
down to make it interesting," he told her. "I have the utmost faith
in your abilities." He received hugs for his compliment, a public one from
his sister, a private one later from Samantha.
Lord Seawright also deferred his
spot -- to Lady Valerie. "I have a feeling she is the better shot."
The contestants lined up, with
the ladies to perform first. Wafers had been erected for the sharpshooters and
footmen stood by to help change targets and reload pistols.
Arabella and Lady Valerie had
flipped a coin to see which of them was to go first, with Arabella taking the
honors. She put shots through the wafer seven out of ten times and everyone
applauded wildly. Bowing to her audience, she smirked at Lady Valerie.
Her smirk was wiped off moments
later as Lady Valerie went Arabella one better and hit the target eight times.
The gentlemen exchanged further bets and then it was Cosmo's turn. He did as
well as Arabella, but not any better. Sir Robert got six out of ten and then
Mr. Stewart took a turn, tying for first place with Lady Valerie.
"Well done, everyone!"
the duke called from his study window, where he had been watching the
proceedings. "Come inside now and get warm," he urged. They did not
need a second invitation.
Inclement weather kept the
target practice to a minimum, and plans were made to tour the Royal Academy.
Samantha and Arabella had already invited Lady Henrietta to visit several
times, and once they went shopping with Lady Ryder. The young ladies, having
learned Henrietta had her own clothing allowance, were bent on helping her make
attractive wardrobe purchases. Some of her former gowns had not flattered her
in the slightest.
Now that she was more presentable,
as Arabella declared her, Lady Henrietta seemed to have gained some of that
confidence Ryder had predicted she would.
She arrived at Somerset House
with her brother, dressed in pale pink muslin with a darker rose bonnet and
spencer. The Halbourne House ladies had all become quite fond if her, as she
hid a dry wit under her shyness, and her needle skills put both Arabella and
Samantha to shame.
The fact that she took such
delight in doing something well was not lost on her friends. In their circle, she
began to blossom, and gentlemen had begun to take notice. Even her mother had
noted an increase in young men during her at-homes, even if she was not quite
ready to give up the timid spinster daughter who catered to her demanding self.
One gentleman, in particular,
was Lord Hambly. She did not care for him much, but he paid such careful
attention to her when he called on the marchioness, she hugged the information
to herself and did not tell any of her new friends about him. Even Cosmo did
not realize Hambly had been dangling after his sister, because he avoided his
mother's gatherings like the plague.
In fact, he had said he would
meet her that day at the Royal Academy, wanting to be introduced to her
friends. She had readily agreed, but she had her doubts that he would show.
After all, he had expressed interest in her other activities, such as the
museum trip and the ride to Richmond, but in the end, after being pressed to
come, he had failed to appear. This outing, no doubt, would be like the previous
ones and she kept mum, just in case. She did not wish to look foolish in front
of her new friends.
Nor had she wished to mar Lord
Hambly's opinion of herself, so while she entertained him with stories of her
more mundane entertainments, she had not mentioned target practice, or the fact
that she now carried her little gun with her wherever she went.
Even as she greeted her friends,
however, she still looked about for his lordship.
A lady in yellow, the perfect
foil for her dark hair and slanted blue eyes, entered Somerset House not too
long after the larger party. Once inside, she checked her appearance in a
mirror on the wall and declared herself perfect. As well she should be -- she
had spent enough of Hambly's money to pamper herself back into the state of
perfection she had maintained before her husband's death. It was a luxury she
could only afford when a generous protector footed the bill. She was pleased
enough with Hambly for the moment, but she would much rather be a duchess. That
was going to take Ryder to accomplish.
She thought she had him snared
the year before, at her cousin's house party in Wales, but he had gotten word
somehow (no doubt through Lord Cosmo) that she was on the prowl, and he had
avoided her the rest of that week.
That had caused her no end of
trouble, especially with the cousin, who had gone to the expense of having
unwanted houseguests after being assured by the widow that Ryder was a sure
bet. Now he was betrothed to someone else and her cousin, who read all the
London papers, was demanding remuneration. She was going to have to get Hambly
to pay for that, as well.
She watched as Ryder's party
went into a room to look at portraits and then signaled to Hambly, who was
waiting down at the other end of the gallery. This plan was all his idea, so if
it went wrong, she refused to take the blame. She did, however, want to be
there when Ryder had to pick up the pieces of his life and move on.
"Good afternoon,
everyone!" Lord Hambly approached the group as it emerged from the portrait
gallery. He bowed to them all and then attached himself to Samantha without a
glance at Henrietta.
Henrietta felt rather let down,
even though she did not truly care for the man, but then the lady in yellow
appeared again and she was diverted to watching her peruse pictures. She said
nothing, however, because the lady was not observing their crowd this time, but
seemingly minding her own business.
"What a coincidence being
here on such a dreary day," Lord Hambly remarked. Samantha murmured a
reply, but when she looked for Ryder for support, she realized they had been
cut off from everyone else and a large body of people separated her from her
friends.
"I think, my lord, that
we..." she began in a faint voice.
"Are you feeling quite the
thing, Miss Howard? How dreadful. Here is a friend of mine, Mrs. Dale, who
would be more than glad to take you outside for a breath of fresh air." He
handed her over to Meredith, who had slipped behind a pillar to await her next
cue.
"I don't think..."
"It's no trouble at
all," Meredith assured her, linking arms and walking her swiftly out of
the gallery. "You are looking dreadfully pale. How did you become
acquainted with Lord Hambly? Have you known him long?" She rapidly fired
questions at Samantha, leaving the girl confused, but distracted, as they
stepped outside Somerset House.
"I ... We met..." Where
had they met? Her mind was in a whirl from the rain and the crowds and the lady
dragging her about, and being separated from her friends. "Not long..."
"Here. Sit in my carriage
until your party emerges. I am sure they will not be long, and Lord Hambly will
find them and make your excuses until then."
Samantha could only nod and
climb into the woman's coach.
"Where is Samantha?"
Ryder growled in Hambly's ear when the crowd finally parted and he realized the
other man was alone.
"She was feeling faint and
a lady friend took her outside for some air," Lord Hambly said innocently
enough, and Ryder did not even feel a twinge of alarm.
"All right. We shall catch
up with her outside then, or back in here later if she is feeling better,"
he conceded.
"An excellent idea. Lady
Henrietta!" he said, sidling over to her. "A pleasure to see you
again. I had not noticed earlier, in this mob, that you were one of this
party."
She nodded, but slipped her arm
in Arabella's. She did not wish to disappear like Samantha had, and she did not
trust his lordship. In fact, she wondered if she and Arabella should not go out
and check on Samantha. She did not like her being gone. Murmuring their excuses,
she and Arabella went outside, where Samantha was nowhere to be found.
"I was so sure he would try
to stop us," she said.
"Who?"
"Lord Hambly. He was the
last person except for his mystery woman to see Samantha. I don't trust
him," Henrietta admitted.
"Perhaps she is feeling
better and has gone back indoors?" Arabella suggested.
Henrietta was about to agree
when she saw the lady in yellow once more. She was climbing out of a carriage,
which was strange, when she had been in the gallery only a short while before,
and now the coach was driving off, leaving her alone. Henrietta had no choice
but to agree with Arabella and they returned to their party.
"We cannot find her,"
they said upon their return.
"I don't like this,
Jack," Arabella said softly to her brother. "But Lord Hambly could
have nothing to do with it, could he? He has been here the entire time."
They alerted the guards in
charge of the establishment, and a search was made for Samantha, but everyone
came up empty-handed.
"Perhaps she has already
gone home," one of the guards said. "Why don't you try there, my
lord?"
Ryder could only concede and he rounded up his friends. He was going to have to give Samantha a talking to when he found her -- even if she was feeling poorly, she should have sent word to them that she was leaving.
Samantha had entered the lady's
carriage, hoping to rest a moment before joining her friends, when her face was
covered with a sickly-sweet smelling cloth and she drifted into
unconsciousness. She never heard the lady leave or give orders for the driver
to move out. When she awoke, she was in a dark, damp room in a crumbling old
house, laid out on a mattress on the floor, her hands tied together in front
her.
"Welcome back to the land of the
living," Lord Hambly drawled from a chair by her side.
"Wha?" She was still befuddled,
and she could use a drink of water and she wanted Jack. How did she get here
and what was going to happen to her? "Where am I?"
"In an old house in the middle
of nowhere. The perfect place to hold you until tomorrow, when we shall be
married. I only play to win, Miss Samantha Howard, and when you chose Ryder, I
could not take that lying down." She started to protest and he smacked her
across the mouth. "No talking back, my little bride." The sudden squeaking of a
mouse brought a look of alarm to her face and a smile to his lips. "I don't
think I need to have you guarded. You won't be going anywhere, will you?"
"No one will marry us unless we
both consent, and I refuse to consent," she said, her mind becoming clearer by
the moment.
"Too late. I have already found
a gentleman who likes money more than God or the law. He has already been paid
to turn a deaf ear to your protests, my sweet. And now, I have an appointment
in town. With a pretty little widow who not only allows me to enjoy her favors,
but plans on continuing our liaison once she is Lady Ryder. How convenient..."
He left the room, locking the
door behind him, seemingly confident that she could not escape. She didn't like
the sound of the mice scurrying about, but she waited until she heard Hambly's
carriage leave before she pulled herself up off the floor. An investigation
revealed an unlocked door leading to a dressing room and another bedchamber,
although she was still locked into the suite itself. First things first, she
thought, casting about for something sharp.
Ryder was beside himself with
worry. Samantha had never returned to Halbourne House, as expected, and he
feared the worst. Everyone had stayed to help as needed, except for Mr.
Stewart, who had offered a ride to Miss Winterbottom when she said she must
return home. The rest of them sat about in the drawing room.
Ryder was wracked with guilt
over not protecting Samantha, as promised, and he had no idea where to begin.
He wanted to suspect Hambly -- that appearance at Somerset House had been a
little too pat for his liking -- but the man had been with them all along.
Except...
"I'm going out," he said
abruptly. "I think I know where to get more information."
"Lord Hambly?" Lady Henrietta
asked. Up until this point she had been quiet, but now she felt she needed to
speak. "I have been seeing quite a lot of him lately, at mother's at-homes. He
has..." She blushed. "He has been interested in my social activities and I fear I
have been feeding him information without even knowing it. And then there is
the slant-eyed lady..."
"Slant-eyed?" Ryder exchanged
glances with Cosmo and Ainsworth. "Blue eyes? Dark hair? Did she ever wear
yellow?"
"I never saw her in any other color,"
Henrietta admitted.
"When did you see her?" Ryder
asked gently, although his heart was racing.
"She was at the British Museum,
Richmond and today at the Royal Academy. At the museum and Richmond she just
seemed to be watching, but today I saw her all over the place, including
getting out of a carriage after I had seen her inside."
"I think we need to pay a call
on Mrs. Dale," he said to the gentlemen.
"I'm going, too!" Arabella
insisted.
"And I!" Henrietta added. "If
she can lead us to Lord Hambly, I have a score to settle for being used."
"I think we should all go," Lady
Valerie said, the first she had spoken through all this. "For one thing, no one
would suspect three ladies of having pistols in their reticules. We are all
good shots and we might be needed to provide an element of surprise. Oh, we
shall let you all attempt to protect us, at first, but we will be there if
needed."
Lord Seawright only nodded and
held out his hand to help her to her feet.
Mrs. Dale was not at home, they
were told, when they paid a call on the widow. She was visiting Lord Hambly,
the butler told them, recognizing Lord Ryder as someone who might be interested
in such things. He did not particularly like the designs his employer had on
the gentleman, and was determined to throw a spoke in her wheels. She also owed
him three months' wages.
Ryder thanked the man with a
handful of guineas and they were off to Hambly's establishment. His major domo
insisted he was not home, but Lady Valerie pulled out her gun and told the man
they were going inside regardless. He hastily admitted them.
"Very nice," Arabella said with
admiration as they walked down the hall behind the gentlemen.
"Thank you."
Fortunately, when they all filed
into Lord Hambly's drawing room, he was sitting there with Mrs. Dale, the two
of them toasting something. Ryder had an idea what it might be.
"Where is she?" he demanded.
"Where is who?" Hambly calmly
replied. "Mrs. Dale? She is right here and she is all yours, my lord."
"I don't want her -- I want
Samantha!"
"Samantha is gone," the widow
said smoothly. "Just like her mother, she ran off with another man."
"Why would she do that?" Lady
Valerie wondered, coming to the forefront of the group. "When she had
everything she wanted. Everything you wanted, most likely." She stepped
forward, ready to wring the information out of Mrs. Dale, when the click of a
pistol was heard.
"I don't believe you will do
that, Lady Valerie," Hambly replied, pointing his gun in her direction. "I
wouldn't want anything to hurt your matrimonial chances this time. It was bad
enough that your sister ruined your life twenty years ago. This will be your
own fault, won't it?"
"You snake!" Valerie cried, but
she backed off. Mrs. Dale took that moment to run from the room, leaving
everyone a bit startled, including Lord Hambly, judging by his surprised
expression.
"Want me to go after her?" Cosmo
asked Ryder.
"No, I'm sure she was just an
accomplice. We still have Hambly..."
"Are you so sure?" Lord Hambly
asked.
"Fairly sure," Arabella said
sweetly right before she shot the pistol out of his hand, causing him to cry
out. Ryder and Ainsworth jumped him together, knocking the man out cold.
It took a long while for
Samantha to cut her rope on a sharp-edged fender in the other bedroom, cutting
the side of one wrist in the process, but when she found an old sheet, and
began to rip part of it into strips for a bandage, she got an idea.
Rummaging about, she found
another sheet, moldy and threadbare. It would have to do. Binding her wrist,
she pulled the rest of the fabric into wide strips and began knotting them
together. It seemed like something out of a gothic novel, to be making a rope
to climb out the upper-story window with, but when one was locked in, mice were
abroad and there was a wedding planned on the morrow, it was time for
desperate, clichéd measures.
There were only two problems
with such measures she thought a while later when it was time to climb out the
window. One, she was afraid of heights, and two, the sheets were not long
enough once she tied one end to the bedpost. The bed was too heavy to move and
she did not have time to unknot the sheets and retie them into longer,
less-stable strips.
Holding her breath and grabbing
her reticule, which no one had thought to remove from her arm, she let herself
fall as far as the sheets allowed. It wasn't enough, but the old linens had
other ideas, at any rate, and ripped, dropping her into an old bed of roses,
complete with thorns.
Samantha's words were heated at
that point, but, thankfully, not of the caliber of Arabella, or Ryder.
Ryder! He would never find her.
She didn't even know where she was. Pulling thorns and old rose canes out of
her backside, she ducked back down in the bushes when she heard a carriage
approach. She didn't know who it was -- possibly Lord Hambly -- but she was not
going to wait to find out.
Oddly enough, it was a hackney,
only there to drop someone off, she saw as she peeked around a corner of the
house. The woman who alighted from the cab and went into the house was someone
she recognized from the day before and someone who had come specifically for
Samantha, if the screech that echoed from the upstairs windows was any
indication. And the language she was using would put a Billingsgate fishwife to
the blush.
Samantha realized she was going
to have to cross the front of the house to reach the road and ran, but she was
not quick enough to escape the other woman.
"Not so fast, Miss Howard," the
woman called. Samantha kept running. "I have a gun." Samantha was brought up
short by that news, but she did not turn around.
"That's right, Miss Howard. If
you run, I shall only hunt you down like a rabbit."
"What do you want with me?"
Samantha called.
"I don't want anything to do
with you. I only want Ryder. That is why you are going to turn around and come
back into the house with me. I cannot dispose of you as easily out here."
"Lord Hambly will be here any
moment," Samantha threatened, realizing this was the widow he had made mention
of. The female only laughed.
"Hambly, unfortunately, met up
with the wrong group of people. There will be no one to save you now. If you
can call what Hambly had planned for you a rescue."
"Then Ryder shall save me,"
Samantha bluffed, careful to remove her gun with as little movement as
possible.
"I doubt it. Even now he has
already gone home, resigning you to your mother's fate. Too bad you won't live
long enough to imitate her. Now turn around and come inside!" she commanded.
"No!" Samantha shouted. She spun
about and fired, her bullet burying itself in the other woman's leg.
"You witch!" her assailant
screamed. She dropped her own gun to clutch at her limb and Samantha dove for
the other firearm.
Straightening up, she got her
first real look at the house, and she smiled. She was in Richmond and she knew
the way to the inn, where she could send word to her family.
She motioned to the other female
to follow her, injured leg or not, as a carriage pulled up and her friends and
relatives spilled out. Arabella reached her first and she handed over the guns
without a word. She was too busy looking for Ryder when suddenly he was
standing in front of her with tears in his eyes.
"I'm so sorry," he said. "I
didn't protect you when you needed it most and now you have rescued yourself. I
am not worthy of you."
"You're here now," Samantha
said, crying as she threw herself into his arms. "And I still need you," she
whispered. "I'll always need you, Jack."
He nodded and kissed her
fiercely. They stood there in each other's arms as everyone filed back into the
coach and the widow had been secured on the carriage box. She was screaming at
Cosmo to let a dying woman loose.
"Meet you at the inn," he called
as he whipped up the horses, leaving Samantha and Ryder to walk.
"How did you find me?" she asked
as they headed slowly, arms about each other, away from the house.
"Lady Henrietta was a font of
information," he admitted, "and Hambly has confessed all. It was either that or
Valerie and Arabella were going to make a target out of him."
She giggled. "You did rescue me,
you know. From that woman's mouth. She would have put you to shame."
"She would? What made you think
to aim for her leg?"
"Who said I was aiming for her
leg?"
"I'd suggest more practice for
you, young lady, but you are going to be too busy."
"Oh?" And what shall I be
doing?"
"Becoming my countess." It took quite a while longer for them to continue their walk, because that comment deserved at least a dozen kisses.
It was summer, and a large party
of family and friends had gathered at Seacrest for the beginning of Lord and
Lady Seawright's Roman dig.
Lady Seawright, having finally
called a truce with her mother-in-law on the announcement that she was
increasing, sat under a tent over the grassy area to be excavated, surveying
the expanse like a queen. At her side was a young woman also expecting a child,
Lady Ryder. The two had been coddled to the point that they had feigned
exhaustion from the heat and had settled in the shade just to escape the
attention.
Arabella was in alt over the
thought of becoming an aunt, although, as she had bemoaned to her brother, it
was a tragedy that she and her mother now lived at Vinelands just as Ryder was
becoming interesting. She was also looking forward to the Little Season in
town. Marked attention from Lord Cosmo had brought her to the notice of some
other eligible bachelors and she was eager to resume her court of admirers in
the autumn.
"What do you think is in there?"
Ryder asked Seawright as they walked the perimeter with the duke, the three of
them keeping one eye out for movement from the tent.
Lord Seawright shrugged. "Could
be anything. Mosaics from a former villa... jewelry and coins... Or nothing at all.
But the boss says to dig, so I dig."
The boss, of course, was Lady
Valerie, who had become Lady Seawright in April in a double ceremony with Ryder
and her niece, just two weeks after the abduction of Samantha. Lady Halbourne
had insisted on a large wedding, but Ryder had said it would be as large as
possible in the two weeks he was willing to wait to be wed, but anything after
that would just have to be a celebration ball.
Once Hambly and Mrs. Dale had
been deported, the couples were married with as much pomp as the duchess and
the now-dowager Lady Seawright could muster on such short notice, in St.
George's, Hanover Square, the church Samantha had once suggested Ryder attend
rather than her father's small parish church.
Ryder and Samantha spent two
weeks in Brighton after that, but Lord and Lady Seawright had come here, to
their estate, to immediately map out where their dig was to take place. Once
the season had concluded, everyone else had been invited to join them as they
officially opened the section to a few selected archaeologists. Lady Seawright
had been about to join them when she discovered a woman not quite forty truly
could provide her husband with children, and she had not been allowed to help
dig.
"Do you mind not being able to
assist?" Samantha asked as they watched their spouses walk about together.
Valerie stretched and propped
her feet up on a stool. "I am still the site supervisor. It will be enough. And
it is always good to be in charge." They looked at each other and grinned,
considering themselves the most fortunate of women.
The end
© 2005 Copyright held by the
author.