Kitabı oku: «The Captain's Kidnapped Beauty», sayfa 2

Henry began explaining some of the processes to him, but Alex was hardly listening. He was thinking about Miss Gilpin. She was certainly very touchy about her gender. Perhaps she wished she had been born a boy. She was undoubtedly handsome with fine eyebrows, a straight nose and a well-defined, determined chin, but he would not describe her as feminine, not in the way he would have used the word. Her gown was decidedly practical, in a heavy grey taffeta, having only the slightest of false hips, and her quilted stomacher was made to match the gown and had no decoration beyond a satin bow on the square neckline. There wasn’t an ounce of lace on it anywhere. It was certainly not the height of fashion. She wore her own rich brown hair pulled back into a thick roll on top of her head and fastened with combs. She wore no gloves and her fingers were ink-stained.

And yet … and yet, she had the most expressive grey eyes. There was intelligence behind them, and humour, too, something he could admire. Was she really as competent as she appeared or was there, underneath that façade, a woman as weak and fickle as all her gender? Would she collapse in a flood of tears as soon as her self-sufficiency was put to the test? Did she really know the ins and outs of a coach-building business or was her father simply humouring a spoiled daughter? He found himself wanting to know the answers, to engage her in conversation, to find out what she was really like under that severe exterior. He felt sure such discourse would not be shallow and meaningless. It was a pity he was leaving town so soon, but then, on reflection, perhaps it was not. She was clearly not the sort for mere dalliance and he certainly did not wish for anything deeper, not after what had happened with Letitia. She had soured him for all women.

Why on earth had he suddenly thought of Letitia? He had buried that experience deep inside him where it could not surface, or so he had thought, but standing looking at half-a-dozen workmen manhandling the body of a coach with the aid of pulleys, he was suddenly back in his salad days.

He had met Letitia Cornish on a voyage out to India. Her father was a wealthy nabob and he the mere second lieutenant of an East Indiaman, plying back and forth between England and Calcutta, carrying European wines, furniture, glassware and even carriages on the outward journey, returning with spices, precious stones, ornaments, carpets and tigerskin rugs. She had been patrolling the deck and had stopped to gaze out over the stern at the wake, as if wishing she were back where she had come from. Hearing his footstep behind her, she had turned to speak to him. ‘Lieutenant, I am not in your way, am I?’

‘Not at all, Miss Cornish, but there is blow coming up and I advise you to go below. The sea is like to become very rough. Allow me to escort you.’ It was couched as a request, but she was expected to obey, which she did reluctantly. ‘It is so stuffy in the cabin,’ she said. ‘I prefer the fresh air.’

‘I fear it will become a little more than fresh,’ he had said, smiling as he accompanied her to the companionway. ‘When the storm is over, I will come and fetch you and you may take the air again.’

He had kept his word and escorted her back on deck as soon as the havoc caused by the storm had been cleared away and they were once more sailing on an even keel. She was looking white-faced, but assured him she had not been sick and would be right as rain as soon as she was up in the fresh air again. Her father had not emerged from his cabin. In spite of being a frequent traveller between England and India, he was not a good sailor and neither was Letitia’s maid and she was often left to her own devices. Thus they often met when he was on watch and she was patrolling the deck and they would stop and talk. In his eyes she was perfection with her shining golden hair and clear blue eyes.

He learned she was eighteen, a year younger than he was. Her mother had died years before; she could hardly remember her and Letitia had been brought up by her father with the help of an elderly aunt. Now she was grown up, her father was taking her to India where they expected to stay for several months while Mr Cornish assembled a new cargo to take back to England and after that she was to be brought out in London society. He told her about his life at sea, how he hoped to follow in his father’s and uncle’s footsteps and become a master mariner for the East India Company. By the time they reached Calcutta they were in love.

Her father would have none of it when Alex had approached him for permission to propose. ‘A penniless lieutenant—I should think not!’ he had said. ‘Whatever gave you the notion I would entertain a scapegrace like you for a son-in-law? After her money, are you? Think to make yourself wealthy at my expense?’

‘No, sir, certainly not, sir. I love your daughter and she loves me.’

‘Love, bah! What is that but a weak indulgence? Letitia will marry one of the young gentlemen I pick out for her when we return to London. And every one of them will have a title and some standing in society. She is wealthy enough and comely enough to take her pick. You, sir, are beneath her notice.’

Alex had been furious and had to use all his self-control not to lash out at the man, but young though he was, he knew alienating her father would not endear him to Letitia. Instead he turned on his heel and left with the man’s derisive laughter echoing in his ears. But he was not yet ready to give up. He knew Letitia liked to ride out very early in the morning before the heat became too intense and so he contrived to be out on horseback at the same time and prevailed upon her to dismount and talk to him. He had been hoping to persuade her to defy her father and run away with him. How foolish that notion was he had not realised at the time. She had tearfully refused to do any such thing. Her dear papa was always right and she would obey him as she always had.

He had not been able to understand her unquestioning acceptance of the fate laid down for her and continued to protest until the time came to part. ‘Goodbye, Alex,’ she had said and reached up to kiss his cheek and then remounted with the help of her syce and was gone, cantering away, raising the yellow dust.

She had not truly loved him or she would have defied her father, he told himself, she had been having a game with him. It was easier to be angry than admit he had a broken heart and, as his ship was loaded and made ready for the return journey, he left her behind, vowing that no woman, no matter how beautiful or how wealthy, would ever humiliate him like that again. Two years later he heard she had returned to England and married the Earl of Falsham, so her father had had his wish.

He had left the merchant service and had a spell in the cavalry in the hope that such a radical change to his way of life would cure him, but the lure of the sea was still in his blood and he had sold up and joined the navy. In due course he had become captain of a frigate, but with the end of the seven-year-long war with France two years before he had found himself with no ship and on half-pay. It was then he became involved with the Society for the Discovery and Apprehending of Criminals. And now his life was about to change again and he was not at all sure he welcomed it.

Miss Gilpin came out from the office, carrying a sheaf of papers. ‘Have you learned anything of coachmaking, Captain?’ she asked.

‘I have concluded it is a very complicated business,’ he answered. ‘I have been watching the men put the coach on its cradle. They make it look easy.’

‘They are all experienced men, Captain, though we shall miss Joe Smithson until he is well again. I collect I did not thank you properly for your help in getting him up. He is a big strong man, but you lifted him with ease.’

He bowed towards her. ‘My pleasure, Miss Gilpin.’

‘Your carriage will be ready tomorrow. My father will personally inspect it for defects before he allows it to be delivered, and of course the horses and licence have to be obtained so we cannot do it any sooner. I hope that is convenient for you.’

‘Entirely,’ he said, bowing. If he had hired a chaise instead of buying one, he might have been on his way before that, but Miss Gilpin had been right; he would need to travel back and forth frequently on society business, so it made sense to buy. ‘But I will fetch it from here. I mean to begin my journey immediately. Shall we say noon?’

She looked at her father. ‘Will you have the horses and harness by then, Papa?’

Mr Gilpin was only half-listening to their exchange, being more concerned with inspecting the half-finished coach and giving instruction to the carpenters who were to fix the moulding along the edge of its roof. ‘Yes, yes, I shall go to Tattersalls this afternoon.’

‘How will you pay?’ Charlotte turned back to Alex. ‘Credit terms can be arranged, if you wish.’

Alex resented the inference that he could not pay for anything he ordered. Just because he elected to dress simply, did not mean he was without funds. Even before inheriting his uncle’s estate he had been a wealthy man. He had earned good prize money as a sea captain and his father had left a fortune as a result of his captaincy of an East India merchantman. Each captain was allowed to carry a certain tonnage on their own account, for which privilege they paid five hundred pounds. It was money well spent; both Alex’s father and his uncle, the Marquis of Foxlees, had become exceedingly wealthy with this trade. ‘There is no need for that,’ he said, his tone conveying his annoyance. ‘It may be considered eccentric, but it is my strict rule to pay my dues on demand. I shall bring a money order on my bank when I come tomorrow.’

‘Thank you, Captain. Then the price is as we agreed.’

He took his leave and went on his way, first to his bank to arrange the draft then to his club where he intended to dine. He had barely sat down and ordered a capon and a couple of pork chops, when he was joined by Jonathan Leinster. ‘What, not gone home to the delectable Louise?’ he asked him.

‘No she has taken the baby and gone to visit her parents. I decided an evening in town would be more congenial than going back to an empty house. I am promised to Lady Milgrove’s soirée, later. What about you? I had thought you on your way to Norfolk.’

‘I needed a coach to convey me there and decided to buy one, so I have been at Gilpin’s.’

‘You can’t go wrong there. They have a reputation for the best, but not cheap, by no means cheap.’

‘That I discovered.’

Jonathan turned to give his order to the waiter before continuing the conversation. ‘Did you meet Miss Gilpin?’

‘Indeed I did. She seems to think she runs the business.’

Jonathan laughed. ‘Not quite, but her father does not disabuse her of the idea. No doubt she will learn the difference when she comes to wed.’

‘Is she engaged, then?’

‘No, but her papa has been putting it around that he is looking for a title for her.’

‘And no doubt she will marry whoever Papa picks out for her.’

Jonathan shrugged. ‘Who’s to say? I am glad I am married and not in the running. I think she will be a veritable harridan and hard to handle.’

‘Do you say so?’

‘Yes. You saw her. Do you not agree she is something of an antidote?’

‘No, I can’t say that I do,’ Alex said slowly. ‘She could hardly work in the business dressed in the height of fashion with hips a mile wide and coiffeur a foot tall.’

‘I don’t see why she has to work in the business at all. Gilpin is prodigiously wealthy and can indulge her in whatever she wants.’

‘So he intends to buy her a title, does he?’

‘So it seems.’

‘Then I hope she has the good sense to resist.’

Jonathan looked sharply at his friend, a look that was not lost on Alex, who quickly changed the subject. ‘I did not fancy riding to Norfolk by stage and was going to hire a conveyance, but decided to buy one, after all. I shall need it if I am to come up to town for our regular meetings at Trentham House.’

‘That’s true, and neither can you shut yourself away in the country away from society. You will have to start looking for a wife now you are a marquis.’

‘Oh, I shall, shall I?’

‘Of course. You will need an heir.’

‘There is plenty of time for that.’

‘How old are you, Alex?’

‘I am thirty-four.’

‘Good heavens, there is not a moment to lose! You will be an old man before you know it.’ It was said with mock dismay which made Alex laugh. And then, after a pause, ‘Come with me to Lady Milgrove’s.’

‘I will hardly find a wife there,’ Alex said, still laughing.

‘Perhaps not, but more to the point the evening is in aid of the Foundling Hospital, a charity close to Louise’s heart and I promised her I would go. You do not leave town tonight, do you?’

‘No, I am to take delivery of the chaise tomorrow at noon, but I shall be on my way directly after that.’

‘So, you’ll come? I will enjoy it the more if I have company.’

‘Very well, I will come.’

Their food arrived and they set to tackling it with hearty appetites.

‘No sign of those two escapees, then?’ Alex asked.

‘No. I am persuaded someone is sheltering them. I sent Sam Roker into the rookeries where they might seek refuge, to see if he could discover any news of them, but so far nothing.’

Sam was the only one of the society who could not be called a gentleman. Officially James’s servant, he came and went according to the needs of its members, being a great one for disguise and able to speak the cant of the ruffians who inhabited the seedier parts of the city.

‘No doubt they will turn up when you least expect it,’ Alex said. ‘If you need any help, call on me.’

‘I will, if you are not too busy courting.’

‘If you do not desist from your nonsense, I shall leave you to go to Lady Milgrove’s on your own, my friend.’

Jonathan held up his hands in surrender. ‘Not another word. Shall we have a hand of faro to while away the rest of the afternoon?’

Chapter Two

‘I’ve taken on some help for the men,’ Henry told his daughter as they rode home in the Gilpins’ town coach that evening. ‘He arrived in the works this afternoon and said he had heard we were without our overseer and he was looking for employment.’

‘How did he know about Joe?’

‘I’ve no idea. I expect one of the other men said something to him. I told him Joe would only be absent a few days and would then be back, but he said he understood that, but he had a wife and little ones and any work of however short duration would be a help. He had good references, so I told him he could start tomorrow, but not as an overseer. He accepted that. His name is Martin Grosswaite.’

‘We could have managed.’

‘We could, but it would be easier to have another man to help with the bodywork. We are to start a new landaulet tomorrow and we are already short-handed with Colin away sick.’ Colin was one of their carpenters and he had gone down with an infection on his lungs, brought about by the wood dust that flew everywhere on the upper floor, which was another good reason for keeping that side of the manufacture away from the painting, varnishing and upholstery.

‘Is he a wood worker?’

‘He said he could turn his hand to most things.’

‘Then I hope you do not come to regret it, Papa.’

He turned to her in surprise. ‘Now why should I do that, child?’

‘Papa, I am not a child.’

‘You are to me. You will be my child however old you grow. Still, I will try to remember not to address you thus. Now why do you think I might regret it?’

‘A strange man walked in off the street and you took him on without checking him out. That is unlike you.’

‘He had references from Sir Elliott Foster.’

‘Did you have them confirmed? They could easily be forgeries.’

‘Do you take me for a gull? I have written to Sir Elliott asking him to confirm what he has said about the man. In the meantime, I shall put him to work. I only tell you that you may not be startled when he arrives for work tomorrow. He said he would have to arrange lodgings first so he will not arrive until after noon, but he knows our normal hours of work.’

‘You know best, Papa,’ she said meekly. She knew her father was letting her know who was in charge, which was undoubtedly because she had taken over the selling of the coach to Captain Carstairs. He prided himself on his own salesmanship and besides, he was not altogether reconciled to her working in the business. She knew better than to continue arguing with him. Instead she said, ‘Are you going out this evening, Papa?’

‘I had a mind to attend the musical recital at Lady Milgrove’s. There is a young violinist who is making a name for himself and I believe he is going to play some of Handel’s music. At any rate, as one of the Foundling Hospital’s trustees, it behoves me to go. Shall you come with me?’

‘Yes, Papa, I should like that.’ She smiled and added, ‘So long as you do not call me child and so long as you do not attempt any matchmaking.’

‘Oh, I doubt there will be any eligibles at an occasion like that, fusty old men like me, I shouldn’t wonder, and aged dowagers.’

For the most part he was right; the audience seem to have arrived in pairs, married or engaged or widows with companions—all except Viscount Leinster and Captain Alexander Carstairs. The viscount was happily married and the captain ineligible in Mr Gilpin’s eyes, so Charlotte felt able to relax and enjoy the music which was very fine.

During the interval when everyone was invited to partake of refreshments, Charlotte found herself standing next to the captain in the line waiting to go to the long table in the dining room, which had been set out for guests to help themselves to a plate of the plentiful food on offer. Her father had disappeared into the library with another of the trustees and had left her to fend for herself, which was typical of him. She smiled up at Alex. ‘Good evening, Captain. I had not expected to see you again so soon.’

‘Nor I you.’ He sketched her a bow. ‘Have you enjoyed the concert so far?’

‘Indeed, yes. Of course it is not the same without Mr Handel. His loss will be keenly felt by everyone, but especially the poor orphans. He was a great benefactor.’

‘So I have heard from my friend, Viscount Leinster. You are acquainted with his lordship, I believe?’ He indicated Jonathan with a movement of his hand, which made the lace fall back over the sleeve of his dark-blue evening coat. She wondered if he always wore dark blue when everyone else seemed to favour peacock colours. Viscount Leinster, for instance, was in apricot.

She bent her knee to him. ‘Yes, we have met at Long Acre. Good evening, my lord.’

Jonathan acknowledged her with an elegant leg. ‘Your servant, Miss Gilpin. I have been telling my friend the M—’ He stopped when he saw Alex shaking his head and hastily corrected himself. ‘Captain Carstairs, that Mr Handel was a great influence in making the work of the hospital known.’

‘Yes, indeed he was. Have you ever visited the hospital, Captain?’ she asked.

‘I am afraid not. It is a pleasure still to come.’

‘You will not have time before you go to Norfolk,’ she said. ‘But perhaps when you return you will find time for a visit. Mr Hogarth’s paintings are particularly fine.’ Hogarth was another well-known benefactor of the charity and many of his paintings were on display at the hospital.

‘I shall make every effort to do so.’

‘I feel so sorry for the motherless children,’ she went on. ‘They are well looked after and given some training in an occupation when they are old enough and they seem happy, but life in an orphanage must be hard.’

‘Do you visit often?’

‘When I can. It is the babies I feel most for. Poor little things, being without a mother is so sad. I like to go and help feed them and bathe them and nurse them. I lost my mother when I was a little girl and I know what it’s like, even though I have a papa who has tried to be both mother and father to me.’

‘You have a soft heart, Miss Gilpin. I am persuaded you will make a splendid mama.’ He dug his elbow into Jonathan’s ribs when that worthy seemed unable to stifle his laughter and added, as they shuffled forwards, ‘Are you here alone?’

‘No, my father is here. I believe he has gone into the library with Lord Milgrove and another of the Coram trustees and will join me directly.’

‘In the meantime you have no one to serve you. Please allow me to help you. Would you like the chicken, or would you prefer the ham? Some green salad, perhaps? And there are love-apples, too. I wonder how they acquired that name?’

She looked hard at him, wondering whether he was teasing her, but his expression was inscrutable. ‘I have no idea.’

‘I believe they are supposed to have aphrodisiacal qualities,’ Jonathan put in. ‘But I have never put them to the test.’

They were bamming her. Charlotte felt the colour rising in her cheeks. ‘I should like the ham and the green salad,’ she said. ‘And one of those little tartlets, but I think I will give the tomatoes a miss.’

Alex noted the colour rise in her cheeks and realised suddenly that she was beautiful and for a single heartbeat he was tongue-tied, but gathered himself to put some of the food on a plate for her and helped himself to another plateful, which he carried to one of the little tables arranged about the room. Jonathan, plate piled high, joined them.

While they ate they engaged in a lively conversation about the music they had been hearing, the weather, the terrible state of the roads and the dreadful crime which was becoming more and more prevalent, especially in the capital. Pickpockets abounded, some as young as five or six who had been taught to creep under the skirts of a man’s coat and cut away his purse. They were so deft and so slippery, the victim did not know he had been robbed until he went to fetch out his purse to pay for something and by then the culprit was long gone.

‘We have to find the gang leaders,’ Jonathan said. ‘You may depend upon it they are being trained by unscrupulous men. It is not the children’s fault. If they are hungry and ragged, who can blame them when someone offers them a way out of their difficulties?’

‘Oh, I agree wholeheartedly,’ she said. ‘Something ought to be done, not to put the children in prison, but to help them keep out of it. That is why the Coram Foundling Hospital is so important— besides taking in unwanted babies, they house some of these urchins, but unfortunately there are more such children than they have room for.’

‘Arresting the men who train them in their pocket picking is equally important,’ Jonathan said.

‘Lord Leinster is one of the Piccadilly Gentlemen, as am I,’ Alex told her by way of explanation.

‘I have heard of them,’ she said, looking from one to the other. ‘I believe they investigate crimes and bring the criminals to justice. I remember reading about some coiners being apprehended through the offices of the Piccadilly Gentlemen. And wasn’t there a murderous gang of smugglers rounded up by them recently?’

‘We do what we can,’ Alex said. ‘Unfortunately we are only a small force and cannot be everywhere.’

‘Do the Bow Street Runners not work to the same end?’

‘They can arrest wrongdoers when they are brought to their notice, but they do not go out investigating crime,’ he explained. ‘Besides, they do not operate outside London unless they are sent for.’

‘There should be runners in every town and on the roads,’ Jonathan put in. ‘A national force. It is hardly possible to travel abroad in one’s own coach without being held up by highwaymen.’

‘I have heard my father say it is the common practice to have two purses,’ she said. ‘One with little in it to hand over when stopped and the other containing one’s real valuables to be well hid.’

‘I have heard that, too,’ Alex said. ‘But so, I think, have the robbers and if they suspect anything has been withheld they rip everything out of the coach to find it and often manhandle the poor travellers when they try to resist. It is sometimes more expedient to hand over one’s belongings and hope the criminals will be caught with the booty still on them.’

‘Which is a rare event,’ Jonathan put in morosely. ‘And when they are apprehended and put into prison, they somehow manage to escape.’

‘You will surmise from that,’ Alex told her, smiling, ‘that my friend is even now engaged on tracking down two escaped prisoners. They held up a coach and fatally wounded the coachman who dared to try to defend his passengers.’

‘They are dangerous men, then?’

‘Very dangerous.’

‘Then I hope you will take great care on your journey into Norfolk, Captain.’

He looked hard at her, but there was no irony in her tone and nothing in her expression to suggest she was roasting him and he accepted the advice on face value. ‘I shall do that, never fear.’

‘My father has devised a secret compartment in some of his coaches,’ she said. ‘It can only be found and opened if you know the way of it.’

‘Is there such a place in the carriage I have bought?’ Alex asked.

‘Yes, did I not show it to you? How remiss of me. Remind me to do so when you come to take delivery.’

Her father arrived at this point and seated himself at the table to join in the conversation which ranged from ideas for reducing crime to the latest news of John Wilkes’s controversial arrest on a charge of seditious libel and his subsequent release on the grounds that the arrest contravened his rights as a Member of Parliament.

‘Just because he is a Member of Parliament is not fit reason for him to escape punishment for wrongdoing,’ Charlotte said. ‘No one, high or low, should be above the law.’

‘Oh, I agree,’ Alex said, smiling at her vehemence. ‘But it is a free country and if a Member of Parliament cannot express an opinion without being arrested, then who can?’

‘There is a difference between opinion and sedition,’ Henry said.

‘Certainly there is.’

‘Papa, Lord Leinster and Captain Carstairs are members of the Piccadilly Gentleman’s Club,’ Charlotte told her father, changing the subject before the discussion could become heated. ‘Did you know that?’

‘I have heard the name somewhere, but there are so many clubs nowadays, it is difficult to remember them all. Remind me, my lord.’

He was jovial and wary at the same time and Alex was reminded of Jonathan’s assertion he was looking for a titled husband for his daughter. Jonathan was married already and he, as a mere sea captain, would never do. It was strange how that old rejection was still able to hurt, even when the last thing he had on his mind was courtship and marriage.

They were strolling homewards, he and Jonathan, picking their way along the muddy street when his friend mentioned Miss Gilpin again. ‘I was wrong and you were right, Alex. Miss Gilpin is not an antidote at all. On closer inspection, her skin has the bloom of good health and her eyes are particularly fine. She looks you straight in the eye when she speaks, almost as if daring you to contradict her. No doubt that is because of the hoydenish way she has been brought up without feminine influence.’

‘Is that so? No lady to advise her at all?’

‘I believe there was an elderly aunt, but she died some time ago and since then Miss Gilpin has had only her father for company, which is why she goes to the coachworks every day and he treats her like a son. No self-respecting mother or governess would have left her to fetch her own supper.’

‘Then it was as well we were on hand,’ Alex said laconically.

Jonathan was not yet ready to give up being a matchmaker and went on, ‘But with a little guidance, I am persuaded she would be perfectly acceptable in society.’

‘And what, pray, is your interest in the lady, Jon, and you a happily married man?’

‘I am thinking of you, my friend. You have all the attributes her father desires and she would make a fine marchioness, not to mention bringing a prodigious fortune with her.’

‘Then I wish you would not think of me. I am not looking for a wife. And please note, I do not intend to use my title, certainly not to capture a bride. I am plain Captain Alexander Carstairs and I’ll thank you not to forget it.’

Jonathan held up his hand in mock supplication. ‘Pax, my friend! I was roasting you. It is not like you to take offence so quickly.’

‘I have not taken offence. I simply wanted to make sure you understood.’

‘I am not at all sure I do, but never mind, I will say no more on the subject.’ He laughed suddenly. ‘I think I prefer the captain to the marquis in any event; the marquis is not so much fun. Do you go home or will you come to White’s for a hand or two?’

‘I mean to go home. I must be up betimes in the morning if I am to be at Long Acre at noon. I intend to be on my way half an hour later. I think I will take a short detour and call on my mother on the way. She may like to come with me to Norfolk. If the Piccadilly Gentlemen need me, James knows where to find me.’

‘Then I will bid you adieu.’ Jonathan hailed a chair, which was passing empty, and climbed inside. ‘Come back soon. London will be monstrous dull without you.’

And with that the chairmen picked up the handles and trotted off with him. Alex continued on his way, smiling a little, thinking of Jonathan’s teasing. He might have the attributes Henry Gilpin insisted upon, but one thing was certain: one spoilt daughter of a widowed father was more than enough. He would never fall into the same humiliating situation again. Neither would he use his title, which in no way altered the man he was.