Fortune's Folly - The Confessions Of A Duchess Part 22

"I'll wager that Mr. Anstruther is anxious to return as soon as possible," Lady Elizabeth said, smiling. "We all saw the way that he kissed you last night, Laura! A pity that Nat did not go with Lord Vickery instead."

"But then you would have no one to torment, Lizzie," Laura said gently and saw Lady Elizabeth blush before she waved Nat Waterhouse aside with one elegant flick of her hand.

"Oh, Nat and I are old friends," she said airily. "That is why we are forever squabbling with one another. It means no more than that."

Mr. Argyle, the master of ceremonies, bustled past the table. "Sir Montague's latest declaration on the Dames' Tax, ladies," he said importantly. "Each single lady in the village is to pay a window tax of four s.h.i.+llings per window and a dog tax of two s.h.i.+llings per dog."

"But I have half a dozen spaniels," Lady Elizabeth protested, "and Monty knows it. He has already taken all my allowance this quarter, the wretch!"

"And I have at least twenty-four windows!" Alice said, paling at the thought. "This really is too bad!"

As Mr. Argyle made his way around the room a ripple of anger and disquiet followed him as the ladies heard the news. Laura watched his progress thoughtfully.

"I have been thinking," she said to Alice and Elizabeth, "that since my marriage I have neglected to help you in your struggles against the Dames' Tax. It has been very remiss of me. But now I have an idea." She hesitated. "It seems a little unfair to do this to Sir Montague when he has had such a terrible shock with regard to his brother-"

"Oh, do not let that stand in your way," Elizabeth said bitterly. "Think of the window tax-think of my spaniels!"

"Very well, if you are sure," Laura said. "Only this will hurt one of the things Sir Montague cares about the most."

"Are we to sell off his horses?" Alice asked.

"No," Laura said. "It is not as bad as that."

"Then it must be his wine cellar," Elizabeth said. "That is the only thing he seems to care for now."

"Exactly," Laura said. "I have a plan."

"What will Mr. Anstruther think of you helping us?" Alice asked tentatively. "Forgive me, Laura, but he does not seem the most indulgent of gentlemen when it comes to bending the law."

Laura smiled ruefully. "Well, no, he is not. He will probably disapprove heartily. I am afraid that my plans seldom fit Dexter's notions of proper behavior, but since he is absent at the moment he will not know."

She poured more tea and started to explain her strategy, hoping fervently that she was right and that Dexter would not hear about the plan until it was far too late.

DEXTER AND MILES RODE OUT of Newcastle a week later on the road to the south. Tom Fortune had been apprehended trying to take s.h.i.+p for Germany and was in the city jail. A woman who claimed to be betrothed to Tom Fortune had given them plenty of information on his criminal activities once Miles had told her that Tom had apparently affianced himself to another girl in Yorks.h.i.+re.

"Lord Liverpool will be pleased," Miles said as the evening of the second day brought them down the Tune Valley and close to home. "Warren Sampson is dead and his murderer arrested. We have done a good job."

"Yes," Dexter said. "It might make up in some small part for my failure to capture Glory on my last case in these parts."

Miles laughed. "You were never going to catch Glory, old fellow."

"No," Dexter agreed. "In her I really did meet my match."

He felt Miles's gaze on him. Their friends.h.i.+p had been much restored through working together and because in true manly fas.h.i.+on they had not been required to talk about anything difficult and had simply been able to get on with the job. But now there was something Dexter wanted to ask.

"Miles," he said slowly. "When did you first know that Laura was Glory?"

There was a silence so long he thought that Miles was not going to answer. The question had raised a slight constraint between them because they had studiously been avoiding speaking of Laura in the whole time they had spent together.

"I did not know at the time," Miles said at last, "but after a couple of years Nick Falconer came to me and asked me to help organize Laura's pardon from Lord Liverpool. I think he did it for Hattie's sake so that there was no danger to Laura in the future."

"So Nick knew," Dexter said slowly, "and you knew and Lord Liverpool knew, and none of you chose to tell me. Why was that?"

"Probably because we knew you were the one who would cut up rough," Miles said, a little grimly. "You have a very clearly defined sense of what is right and wrong, Dexter. You never bend."

"No," Dexter said. "I suppose I do not." He thought of Laura telling him that they had both been on the same side, fighting for justice, but that he was too uncompromising to acknowledge it. She had been right, he thought. He had been d.a.m.nably stubborn through fear of losing his principles just as his father had done.

The horses splashed through the ford on the road that led to Fortune Hall. Dusk was starting to fall.

"You admired Laura for what she had done, didn't you?" Dexter said. He was thinking back to what Miles had said when they had been talking that day at Fortune Hall about Laura's desire to help those in need.

"I was not the only one," Miles said. "Once he had met her, Lord Liverpool admired her, too." He laughed. "He was always more pragmatic than you, Dexter, more able to bend the rule of the law if it benefited him."

They turned the horses into the long drive that led to Fortune Hall. The deer were grazing beneath the trees, alongside Mrs. Broad's sheep and various other animals belonging to the villagers.

"You were right in what you said to me that day at the inn," Dexter admitted. "Laura does deserve someone who loves and accepts her wholeheartedly for what she is and not someone who wants to change her to fit in with their notions of sense and rationality and proper behavior. I see that now."

"Someone like you, perhaps," Miles said, with a sideways glance at him. "You're a fool, Dexter. It's taken you long enough." He sighed. "At least I don't have to put a bullet through you now. You had better find Laura and tell her. You've wasted enough time."

"I will," Dexter said. "I'll tell her just as soon as we have broken the bad news of his brother's arrest to Sir Montague." He shot Miles a look. "And will you be seeking out Miss Lister, Miles?"

Miles's expression was discouraging. "Not I," he said. "I'm for London. I hear word of a very, very rich nabob's daughter, whose fortune makes Miss Lister's seem almost paltry." He urged his horse a little ahead before Dexter could reply.

They found Fortune Hall shrouded almost entirely in darkness. There were no servants about and they were obliged to leave the horses tied to the mounting post in the stable yard.

"Devil take it," Miles said, as their knocks on the front door went unheeded and they let themselves in, "I thought Monty might take his brother's downfall badly but I had no idea it would be this bad."

The two of them stumbled down the barely lit pa.s.sage and into the hall. Sir Montague's figure was barely discernible, sitting in a large oaken chair before the fire. His head was bowed and when they came in he did not even move.

"Monty!" Dexter said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Monty, old chap!"

Sir Montague looked up, his face tragic in the firelight. "Dexter. Miles. How are you?"

Miles and Dexter exchanged a look. "Bad news, I'm afraid, Monty," Dexter said awkwardly. "We caught up with Tom at Newcastle. He's in the jail there-" He stopped as Sir Monty nodded gently.

"Well, he can expect no help from me," he said. "d.a.m.ned scoundrel." He looked up, his tone morose. "Besides, I have more serious matters than Tom's misdemeanors to attend to. Those wretched women! You cannot conceive what they have done now."

Dexter frowned, wondering if the shock of discovering his brother's criminality had turned Sir Montague's mind. "What women, Monty?"

"My own sister!" Sir Montague mourned. "What did I do to deserve such thankless siblings? And Miss Lister, a viper in women's clothing!" His expression dissolved into malevolence. "And your wife, Dexter! Your cousin, Miles! She escapes the tax through marriage and then she has the downright audacity to lead those women in their worst outrage yet!" He mopped his brow on his sleeve.

Dexter's lips twitched. "Upon my word, you are beset, Monty. What have my wife, Miss Lister and your own sister done now?"

"My wine cellar!" Sir Montague wailed. "They called it vineage and claimed there is an ancient tax that obliges me to share a quarter of my wine with the villagers in honor of Saint Anand, the patron saint of wine merchants. As though those peasants could begin to appreciate my cellar. The waste of it! They took my claret! They took my champagne! Elizabeth showed them where to find it, Miss Lister helped to carry it out to the carriage and Mrs. Anstruther drove off with it not ten minutes back!"

"Good lord," Miles said, aghast. "But your cellar was the only reason I dined here, Monty!"

"I fear the ladies of Fortune's Folly have gone too far this time," Dexter said.

"Quite right, Dexter," Sir Montague said, nodding virtuously. He suddenly seemed a great deal more animated. "If I don't get my wine back I shall call the constable."

"There's nothing for it, then," Dexter said. "I will have to deal with Laura myself. Leave it to me, Monty." He grabbed Miles's arm and hustled him out of the room. "There's only one way to do this," he said, pausing in the doorway to the stables. "May I take your horse, Miles? Mine's tired and not up to the task in hand."

Miles raised his brows. "With pleasure, old chap, but what are you-"

"And your pistol," Dexter said.

"A pistol," Miles repeated. He looked at Dexter, who looked back at him completely blankly. A smile started in Miles's eyes. "Ah...You do know that highway robbery and abduction are capital crimes, Dexter?" he said.

"I do know," Dexter said. He grinned suddenly. "Just give me the d.a.m.ned pistol, Miles, and I will be on my way. And should anyone ask you, you know nothing of any matter of highway robbery."

"My memory becomes ever more faulty by the day," Miles said ruefully. He slapped Dexter on the shoulder. "Good luck, old fellow. I'll go and administer some port to Monty-a.s.suming he has any left!"

THE CARRIAGE THAT Laura had hired from the Morris Clown Inn ground slowly along the twisty Yorks.h.i.+re road and she sat back against the seat to the accompanying c.h.i.n.k of Sir Montague Fortune's wine bottles. The incursion into Sir Monty's wine cellar had gone rather well, she thought, and she had been scrupulous to take only a quarter of his stocks though she rather suspected from his reaction that she had taken the best quarter. Certainly Sir Monty had been beside himself, wailing and wringing his hands and demanding that his servants stop them-at which point Lady Elizabeth had countermanded his orders and the poor servants had not known what to do.

Laura smiled. She rather thought that the villagers of Fortune's Folly would enjoy Sir Montague's fine wines. And they had been within their rights to take it. Well, they had been almost within their rights. Sir Montague was meant to give the wine to the village under the ancient laws, so technically she had robbed him of it since he had not offered it freely.... Laura s.h.i.+fted a little uncomfortably. She had promised Dexter that her days of righting the injustices of the rich against the poor were over but this was straying perilously close to the line. Dexter would hardly approve. Technically she had committed a crime. It was the reason that she had sent Alice and Elizabeth on ahead to tell the villagers the wine was coming. She did not want them to be accused of the robbery itself and suffer any penalties under the law. That would be her responsibility alone.

She sighed. No indeed, Dexter would not approve. Her behavior scarcely fitted his idea of conduct becoming to a sensible wife. It was fortunate he did not know what she had done or their fledgling reconciliation would be in big trouble. If he came back and found that the constable had her under arrest in Skipton Jail for theft he would very likely hang her himself. Laura s.h.i.+vered and looked out the window to distract herself. She might jest about it, in her own mind as much as she had to the other ladies, but she did not think she could bear to lose Dexter again.

The road straightened out and the carriage picked up speed, rattling toward the village. The turnpike road took a much longer route than the path along the river, but it was the only way that Laura had thought she could transport the wine into Fortune's Folly. They were cutting through a narrow gorge where the fells pressed close on either side. The sun had long since dipped behind the hills and the air was cold and a winter blue, full of shadows.

"Stand!"

Laura jumped violently at the shouted command. She could barely believe it. The Dales had been largely free of highway robbery in the last few years and to stage a holdup so close to the village was absolute madness. The hired carriage slewed across the road and the horses plunged in the shafts. The wine bottles clanked together in their crates and for a moment Laura was afraid they would break. She soon realized that the coachman and groom from the Morris Clown Inn were no heroes. They had not been paid well enough even to think of resistance. The coachman slowed the horses to a standstill and the groom kept prudently quiet.

Someone wrenched open the door of the coach. The cold evening air poured in, making Laura s.h.i.+ver. She realized that she had never been held up on the road before. At any other time the thought might have made her laugh to think that she, the infamous Glory, was the victim of highway robbery. Now she shuddered. It was frightening. She fumbled in her reticule for the tiny pearl-handled pistol she always carried.

"I've got a pistol," she began, "and I know how to use it."

There was a man in the doorway, mounted on a black horse, cloaked in black, too, a pistol considerably larger than hers in his hand. His shadow looked huge and threatening against the darkening sky. She looked up at his face and her head spun.

It was Dexter.

Her heart started to beat in long, hard strokes. Her mind refused to accept the evidence of her eyes. Dexter would never, ever hold up a coach. Dexter would not dream of breaking the law. Dexter would not- She saw him smile though his eyes were cold. The gun in his hand moved slightly. "I suggest you put that toy of yours down unless you want it shot from your hand," he said.

Looking into his eyes and seeing the unyielding purpose there, Laura actually started to believe him. She wondered wildly if the discovery of her latest outrage had turned his mind.

"What are you doing-" she started to say, but Dexter grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the carriage without another word. One of his arms was brutally hard about her waist as he lifted her up into the saddle in front of him. He gestured with the pistol toward the coachman.

"Drive on to the village. They will be expecting you." He reached in and grabbed half a dozen bottles of champagne out of the coach, stowing them deftly in the saddlebags. "I'll take these and I'll take the lady, too. Get going."

The coachman met Laura's eyes for a second, his expression furtive and guilty before it slid away. He picked up the reins and the carriage started to move. Dexter dug his heels into the horse's side and they turned away, up a track that led out onto the fells. The sky had clouded over and the first few flakes of snow were starting to drift down. Dexter did not speak. Laura tried to turn around to look up into his face but his arms tightened about her, pulling her back against the hardness of his chest.

"Dexter, what are you doing?" Laura asked breathlessly. "This is abduction and highway robbery. When they get back they will call out the constable."

"Sir Montague will have done that already," Dexter said, his voice hard. "He wants his wine back."

Laura caught her breath. So that was why he was angry. She had been right. He had been to Fortune Hall and he knew the whole story of what she had done. He was appalled that she had gone back to what he saw as her old ways. He would think she had betrayed his trust yet again. With her disregard for convention and her insistence on doing what she thought was right, she was the very opposite of everything he had always wanted in a wife.

Yet that did not quite explain what he was doing abducting her from a carriage and stealing Sir Montague's champagne into the bargain.

"Dexter," she said, thoroughly confused now, "I don't understand. You are too rational to do this. It's madness! And it's dangerous. Even if it is not illegal for a man to abduct his own wife-and if I had my way it would be-you threatened those men at gunpoint. You stole Sir Monty's champagne! You could be arrested and your career will be in shreds. Let us go home and talk about this sensibly."

"Save your breath, Laura," Dexter said. "I have realized at long last that the very last thing I need is to be sensible." He said the word through his teeth. "And if you object to being abducted by your husband then you should have thought of that before you decided to break the law!"

Laura fell quiet. She could not quite believe what was happening, but her spirits had begun to revive despite the extraordinary nature of the situation. Dexter held her tightly and she could sense the tension still in him, but there was something else there, too; something of promise and even love, and at one point he turned his head slightly and his lips brushed her hair in a caress.

Neither of them spoke further as the horse picked its way along the track and began to descend toward the pinp.r.i.c.ks of light in the village below. As they came into the yard of the Half Moon Inn, Dexter dismounted and lifted Laura down from the saddle, swinging her up into his arms rather than setting her on her feet. Laura was taken by surprise and wriggled like mad as he carried her over the threshold into the taproom beyond, which was packed to the rafters. There was absolute silence as they walked in. Laura was mortified.

"Put me down!" she huffed. "Everyone is looking!" She turned her burning face into his shoulder. "Dexter, put me down! You have punished me quite enough. Oh! My cousin Hester used to come here to pick men up. Everyone will think that I am the same!"

"Then they will be accustomed to this sort of thing," Dexter said, holding her all the more tightly, "and since they are well acquainted with your antics as Glory, they will not be shocked, either." He looked across at Josie Simmons, who was standing hands on hips, watching them.

"There's a room free," she said, jerking her head toward the stairs.

"Josie!" Laura almost shrieked. She caught sight of a thin man lurking behind Josie's ma.s.sive bulk. "Lenny! Are neither of you going to help?"

"Reckon he doesn't need any help," Josie said admiringly. "Good for you, Mr. Anstruther. Never thought you had it in you. Thought you were too much of a stuffed s.h.i.+rt for this sort of business. Just goes to show."

Dexter tossed Lenny a bottle of champagne. "Sir Montague's finest," he said. "There's more in the saddlebags." He looked round the crowded taproom. "Enjoy it."

"Dexter!" Laura protested.

Dexter grinned. "We don't need it, sweetheart," he said, heading for the stair. Someone cheered.

Laura was even more infuriated to note that Dexter did not appear remotely out of breath as he carried her into the chamber above stairs, kicked the door shut and tossed her down into the middle of the big bed.

"Now," he said, "at last we talk."

"Are you angry with me?" Laura said. "I understand that you must disapprove about my reallocation of Sir Monty's wine-"

"I don't give a d.a.m.n about Sir Monty's wine," Dexter said, interrupting her brutally, "nor do I care about the Dames' Tax, nor even my imminent arrest for highway robbery. At the moment all I care about is you, Laura." He cast aside the black cloak and sat down beside her on the bed. He took her hands in his. She could feel the tension in him knotted so tight it felt almost unbearable. There was a pulse pounding in his jaw.

"I love you," Dexter said. His expression eased as though he had let go of an intolerable burden. "There. At last I have said it. At last I have had the courage to admit it openly to you. I love you so much, Laura, I find there is not a single rational thought left in my head and for once I do not want there to be."

"Love?" Laura whispered. Her mind was whirling, unable to accept what she was hearing. She tightened her grip on his hands, not quite believing, not wanting ever to let him go.

"It was wrong of me to force you into marriage in the first place," Dexter said roughly. "I am sorry. I was hurt and angry that you had concealed the truth from me, and I wanted you-and Hattie-with me, but I went about it all the wrong way. I wanted to ensure that Hattie never had to endure the slights and the whispers that have haunted my family for years and that she grew up knowing who her father was. I could not bear for her to experience what I had endured, or that I should behave as irresponsibly as my father had behaved."

Laura closed her eyes for a second. "I knew it was dreadfully painful for you," she whispered, "and I would never have denied you the truth if I had not thought I was doing what was right for Hattie. I am so sorry, Dexter."

Dexter s.h.i.+fted, drawing her a little closer. "I was always terrified of making the same mistakes my parents did," he said. "They were forever swearing they were in love and behaving with such profligacy. They would come together and pledge undying devotion to one another and then they would quarrel and run off and find another lover and have a tempestuous affair." He bowed his head. "I clung to order and logic because it was the only thing that seemed safe to me. And the only time I let go of it and indulged in the type of stormy love affair my parents had had, my world ended in chaos."

"The time that I seduced you," Laura said, "and then sent you away. My love, I am so very sorry."

"Hush." Dexter laid a gentle finger against her lips. "You did what you thought was right. You did it because you loved me, not because you did not." He smiled. "When we spoke that time on the hill I said that I did not believe in love any more and you accused me of being afraid," he said. "You were right, Laura. I loved you, but I pretended that what I felt was no more than l.u.s.t because I was afraid of what would happen to me if I let go of all my restraint and allowed myself to love you as I had before. But now I am not afraid any longer." His gaze was brilliant as he lifted his eyes to hers. "You are the breath of life to me, Laura, and I want that life to be full of pa.s.sion and excitement and love. I want our marriage to be joyful, not the hollow sham or the emotionless desert I used to think I wanted."

Laura drew his head down to hers and kissed him.