Amanda Scott - [Dangerous 02] (11 page)

“What the devil have you got to cry about?”

“Please, Cousin Charlotte, you must not carry on so. Surely you know you have no choice but to submit to Alfred’s authority. We females are not at all suited to making important decisions, and dearest Alfred has only your best interests at heart.”

“Dearest Alfred is a fool,” Charley said scathingly. “So are you if you are stupid enough to think he knows more than I do about running the Tuscombe Park stables just because he chanced to have been born a male. Men, my dear Elizabeth, are not the superior sex they would have us believe them. On the contrary, were it not for women like you, kowtowing to their idiotic notions of supremacy, they would long since have learned how inept they are. They cannot survive without us, but the Amazon tribes proved long ago that women can easily survive with only men enough to make procreation possible. They keep them as pets, like Jeremiah. That is all most men
are
suited for if the truth were told.”

“I don’t know about Amazons, but—”

“You don’t know anything ! You’re a fool! Women like you make me want to commit murder, because that is what you are doing,
killing
other women’s chances of improving their lots in life!”

Flushing deeply, Elizabeth burst into tears and fled.

“Very pretty behavior,” Rockland said grimly. “She did not deserve that.”

Recovering with difficulty from the emotional fit that had overcome her, Charley blinked at him, trying to collect her wits. She soon rallied enough to say, “She should not have reproved me. She had no right to do so.”

“Still, you said far too much, and if you do not intend to go after her and apologize for that tantrum, I shall do so on your behalf.”

“Will you, by God? Good. Then I need not apologize at all.” She glared at him, feeling betrayed by his instant siding with Elizabeth against her, and humiliated to think he would dare apologize for her actions. Although she knew she had overstepped the line, Rockland had pretended to care for her, and she believed she had some right to expect his loyalty. When he turned away to follow Elizabeth, she said impulsively, “If you thought I was being so horrid, damn you, why didn’t you stop me?”

He looked back in surprise. “How the devil could I stop you? No one can stop you when you take the bit between your teeth.”

Frustrated and more furious than ever, she turned on her heel and ran down the remaining steps. Leaving the house, angrily brushing tears from her cheeks, she headed automatically for the stables despite the fact that she wore only her afternoon frock beneath her cloak, and not a proper riding habit.

No one questioned her order to saddle her favorite horse, Shadow Dancer, at once. The stableboys had long since developed a healthy respect for her temper, and needed only a glimpse of her to know they had better obey. Even Teddy, who, having served her most of her life, was accustomed to take a few liberties, made only a token objection when she said curtly that she did not want him to go with her.

“I’ll take a pistol, as usual,” she told him. “I lost mine in the accident, so I’ll have to use one of Grandpapa’s now. I don’t need you as well.”

Once she had left the stable yard and spurred the black roan to a gallop she felt a sense of freedom, but not until she slowed again to let the horse choose its own pace, did she begin to relax. Her sense of ill usage remained strong. However, before long, guilt stirred when she thought about the scene with Elizabeth. Having managed to stay relatively calm with Alfred, she could not imagine why she had lost her temper with the least obnoxious of the Norfolk Tarrants. That she had done so seemed strange, but the slight remorse she felt did nothing to ease her irritation with Rockland.

“Cousin Charley!”

She had been aware of sounds behind her for several moments but had dismissed them as the cries of shore birds. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Letty galloping after her, alone.

Reining in, she waited until the child had drawn up beside her before she said, “You are supposed to ride with a groom, young lady. Where is Jeb?”

“I sent him to find Teddy,” Letty said, twinkling. She had come out without a hat, and her curls were windblown, her freckled cheeks the color of pink roses. “I saw you ride off alone,” she said, “so I thought you would not welcome Jeb’s company. Fortunately, Teddy had gone to his cottage, so I sent Jeb to ask him where you were going. I had seen from my window that you were headed toward the cliff path, so I just rode off when Jeb left the yard. Are you vexed with me? Must I go back?”

Just then Jeremiah’s small head popped out from beneath Letty’s cloak. The quizzical look on his face was so much a reflection of his mistress’s expression that Charley smiled. “I guess we all need to escape for a while,” she said. “We’ll deal with the consequences later.”

“Good,” Letty said. “Where are we going?”

“Just along the cliffs,” Charley said; “I did think I might just …” She hesitated, thinking now that her notion had probably not been such a good one, after all.

“Did you want to see where the accident occurred?” Letty asked. “I thought about that when we were looking down at St. Merryn’s beach this morning.”

Charley glanced at her ruefully. “Would you mind?”

“No, for this morning was not the first time I’ve wondered about it. Can we get down to the Devil’s Sand on horseback?”

“There is a trail of sorts. Melissa and I rode down sometimes when we were children. It is not as good as either of the two paths leading down to St. Merryn’s Bay, but we can manage. We’ll have to hurry though, or we’ll be awfully late getting back.”

“Perhaps they won’t even know we’ve gone,” Letty said. “I was helping Grandmama and Cousin Ethelinda settle into their new rooms when Cousin Edythe came in and looked down her nose at me as if I had been a toad. She said little girls ought to be in the schoolroom at such an hour. When I asked, very politely, what I ought to do there, since my governess did not accompany me from Paris, she said she wondered that you had not seen what an imposition it is to have a little girl foisted onto the household at such an inauspicious time. I loathe being called a little girl.”

“So did I. When I was your age, nothing could more quickly put up my back.”

“I do not think that Cousin Edythe remembered that Grandpapa Jervaulx is a marquess, either, until Medrose called me ‘your ladyship,’ which he practically never does. He said it as if he were addressing a royal duchess, too. Even then, Cousin Edythe just said she hoped I could amuse myself because she wasn’t accustomed to entertaining little girls.”

“Utterly loathsome,” Charley said sympathetically.

“Yes. That’s when I made my curtsy and fled to my room, for although Mr. Gabriel had gone and Cousin Alfred had retired to the library after lunch, Rockland and Cousin Elizabeth were talking in the morning room. He was commiserating with her. I don’t know why, but he did say, as if he were joking with her, you know, that Mr. Gabriel had been making dreadful sheep’s eyes at her all through luncheon. So, even though I couldn’t imagine Mr. Gabriel doing such a thing, I did not think they would welcome me, exactly. Besides, I knew Jeremiah would be missing me,” she added, reaching inside her cloak to stroke the monkey.

“You were probably wise to leave them alone,” Charley said, glad Letty had not overheard enough to understand why Rockland was comforting Elizabeth. They cantered after that, alternating their paces so as not to tire the horses. When they reached the cliffs above St. Merryn’s Bay, she saw with astonishment that no sign of the wrecked ship remained. The beach was empty, and the tide was in.

Not long after that they reached the headland, but when Letty would have turned toward Seacourt House, Charley stopped her. “The trail to the beach is farther along the cliff road, darling. I don’t think there is a safe way down the east side of the headland, and with the tide in, we cannot ride around the point. You’ll see more clearly how it is when we ride on.”

Ten minutes later, Letty gave a shudder and said, “This side of the headland is just steep black cliffs and scree. I’m ever so glad I didn’t see it in full daylight before. If I’d known what it was like when I was trying to move about in the dark, I think perhaps even my sensibilities might have been stirred to quaking.”

“Here’s the trail now,” Charley said. “Let your horse pick its own way.”

“I know.”

They remained silent as they cautiously followed the zigzag trail down to the central portion of the beach. Then they turned their mounts back toward Seacourt Head. The shingle was bare, without a sign of the wrecked carriage or the dead horses.

“I know men brought the … that is, that they brought back Uncle Charles and Aunt Davina, and the coachman,” Letty said in a puzzled tone, “but surely—”

“I, too, thought there would be signs of the wreckage,” Charley said. “Maybe scavengers came here, as well, and bore off what was left.”

“
Mowysy tek,”
said a rough voice behind them. “
Hag mergh da kekefrys.”

Turning, they saw four men, ruffians with unshaven faces, standing on the shingle behind them. The noise of the waves and cries of gulls had covered the sound of their approach. That Charley had not seen them before did not surprise her, however. She knew from experience that the cliff face was riddled with caves, many large enough for a number of men to lie hidden.

Though she did not recognize any of them, she said calmly, “I understand quite enough Cornish to know that you are being impertinent. Do you know who I am?”

“Can’t say we do, lass,” the one who had spoken said. “Makes no never mind, though. All I said was you be pretty girls wi’ pretty horses, which we could see at once. We’ll be knowing you both much better before we tire of ye, I’m thinking.”

“I am Charlotte Tarrant, granddaughter of the Earl of St. Merryn, and this is my cousin, Lady Letitia Deverill. You interfere with us at your peril.”

“Seems to me we heard the old earl had a palsy stroke, and his son died afore him,” the ruffian said. He exchanged a look of amusement with the others that made Charley wonder if they could be the highwaymen responsible for the carriage accident.

She could not think of that now. Quietly, she said, “It is true that both my father and grandfather are dead, but their heir has arrived at Tuscombe Park, and you would be foolish to anger him. Moreover, my cousin is also granddaughter to the Marquess of Jervaulx.” Seeing at once from their expressions that she had made a mistake, she carefully slipped a hand under her cloak, which concealed the saddle holster from view. At the same time, to divert the leader’s attention, she said evenly, “If you know of me, you must know that my horses have been particularly well trained. You will not be able to ride them unless I command it.”

The leader was licking his lips, however. He said thoughtfully, “The marquess, eh? I remember him. Gone to Gloucestershire, howsomever, so he don’t trouble me none. Expect he’d pay a tidy sum to get his little lass back though, wouldn’t he, lads?”

“Aye,” they said in chorus, beginning to move closer to Charley and Letty.

The pistol now firmly in hand, Charley withdrew it and aimed it directly at the leader. “I can shoot the pips out of a playing card at a greater distance than this,” she said grimly. “Stand back now, and tell your friends to let us pass.”

“You’ll only get one of us, lass,” the man said, putting his hands on his hips.

“Will you care how many I shoot if you are the first to fall dead?”

He hesitated. The others, clearly doubting that she would shoot, began to sidle away from him, edging around behind her. She held the pistol steady, hoping to convince them she would shoot him, and wishing she had brought more than one pistol.

Chattering excitedly, Jeremiah poked his head out from Letty’s cloak.

All four men gaped at him. Letty steadied her nervous horse.

The leader said, “What in the name of the Virgin be that?”

“A monkey,” Letty said. “He is very tame. Would you like to shake his hand?”

Fascinated, the four seemed too frightened to approach nearer, especially when Jeremiah climbed to her shoulder. One said, “Think I seen one of them at a fair once.”

Hearing barking from farther up the beach, Charley glanced briefly away from the men to see a rider approaching at a canter on a buttermilk-colored horse, preceded by a shaggy black and white dog.

T
HE DOG RACED EXCITEDLY
around the horse, then dashed toward them, only to stop in its tracks when Matois whistled. Apparently recognizing him, the four ruffians stepped back a pace or two and waited until he drew near.

One of the men said with scorn, “Can tell the Frenchman ain’t no fisherman, a-whistling like that this close to the sea. Thanks be to God, it ain’t nightfall!”

“Clear out, you lot,” Jean Matois said evenly as he drew rein. “You’ve more important business at hand than to be annoying
les demoiselles.”

“Listen to him,” another of the men sneered, pushing his own nose in the air with one finger. “Don’t he sound a proper gent?”

Matois looked at him, and the man fell silent, finding sudden interest in his feet.

The leader said, “Don’t take no pet now, Frenchman. The lad meant no harm. We was just admiring the ladies’ horses, and they was a-showing us that strange beast what the little ’un’s wearing on her shoulder. Never seen the like afore.”

“Well, now you have,
mon ami,
so be on your way. I will see
les jeunes filles
safely back to the road.” His accent had thickened noticeably.

“You do that, Frenchman,” the chief ruffian said. He stepped back, gesturing for the others to do likewise.

“After you,
mesdemoiselles.”

Silently Charley returned her pistol to its holster and urged her horse toward the path to the road. The dog, she noted, trotted gaily at Annabelle’s heels.

Letty tucked Jeremiah back under her cloak. Charley had seen her smile at Jean Matois in welcome, but the smile soon faded in the face of his heavy frown. Since Charley likewise felt disinclined to enter into conversation with him, they rode back to the cliff top in near silence. It lasted only until they reached the road, however.