Was Meecham working alone, or would he have his groom waiting as well? Her heart hammered in her throat, nearly deafening her. The night breeze felt cold against her fevered cheek. When an owl hooted, she jumped a foot into the air. But before long a different sound invaded her ears. It was the soft, satisfied snorting of a horse champing the grass. She darted behind a tree and peered out from behind it. The horse was there, apparently alone. She edged closer, slipping from tree to tree. From a few yards away, she recognized Meecham’s mount with the white blaze on its forehead. Captain Johnnie’s mount last night had had such a blaze.
Esther lifted her skirts and tore back to the Hall, uncertain whom she should tell. When she reached the ballroom, she saw Joshua dancing with Lady Margaret. Officer Clifford lounged toward her. “All’s quiet so far,”
he said, from behind his mask.
She drew him aside and told him about Meecham’s mount. “Don’t worry your head, Miss Lowden. I’ll take care of it.”
“But if you leave, there will be no one here to watch him.”
“Nay, I’m not alone, miss. I have two of my lads rigged out as footmen, and two in dominoes. You just enjoy your ball and leave the dirty work to us. It’s what we’re paid for.”
Esther found the ball about as enjoyable as having a tooth drawn. She felt every moment that something dreadful was going to happen, and to make it worse, she didn’t have one perfectly reliable ally. Her eyes roamed from Admiral Nelson to F.H.C. member, from monk to black domino, while the excitement churned. She danced, too, conversing erratically with her partners. Eventually it was time for the midnight supper, and nothing unusual had occurred.
She decided she had destroyed a perfectly good ball for no reason and determined to enjoy the remainder of it. She took what enjoyment she could from sitting at Joshua’s table, along with Lady Margaret, Meecham, Lady Brown, and a few of the more exalted guests. Lady Altrane in her emeralds and Lady Sumner in her diamonds were part of the table, along with Lady Gloria in her pearls. With the single exception of the strawberry ices, which Lady Gloria found just a teensy bit liquid, the dinner was excellent. Lobster and champagne added a festive note to the viands.
Yet, Esther felt an undercurrent of something more exciting than just a ball. It was like a magnetic force, and it emanated from Joshua and Meecham. More than once she noticed them exchanging mute but meaningful looks. Their eyes scanned the other tables. Esther tried to follow their line of sight. Was it Buck they were looking at? He sat with his parents, in apparent amity. Officer Clifford? The Fletchers? Some of Clifford’s minions? Impossible to say, but they were wary, like jungle cats watching their prey.
Dinner was a prolonged affair, with many courses and several toasts afterward, but finally it was over. The guests complimented Joshua profusely on a perfect ball. Some of the older ones decided they were for bed. “Not so young as I used to be”
was heard, along with “I must be up early in the morning. Paper work to look after for parliament.”
The diamonds and emeralds left the table with the older crowd.
It was effectively over then, Esther assumed, and breathed a sigh of relief. All her anxieties had been for nothing. She had stupidly let her imagination ruin her evening thus far, but she would enjoy the last two hours of dancing. As the musicians tuned their instruments for a country dance, Esther scanned the floor for a partner. She had only had one dance with Joshua. Another one would not be out of place. There were literally dozens of black dominoes, but as her eyes darted from one to the other, she could not find Joshua. He should be easy to spot, as he was taller than most and his hair was so dark.
Perhaps he was speaking to the housekeeper about the retiring guests. She hadn’t danced with Meecham. She had noticed he was a good dancer. After a quick run around the room, she realized Meecham was missing as well, and a tingle of apprehension disturbed her newfound peace. Soon she discerned there was no Admiral Nelson, either. This was too many missing bodies for mere coincidence. Perhaps Buck knew what was going on. She discovered his round monk’s hat and made her way toward him.
“Where is everyone?”
she demanded.
“Eh?”
He looked around the crowded room. “The old folks have hit the tick. Papa has gone home. He invited me to call next week. He ain’t happy with me, but at least he’s speaking.”
“But where are the others?”
“Looks like the rest of ‘em are here, waiting for the music to begin. I meant to stand up with Miss Fletcher again. Have you seen her?”
“Not since dinner.”
“Do you know, Esther, I still don’t know what she looks like? I’d like to get her to take off her mask. She’s a light stepper. Dashed pretty curls she has.”
Esther looked all around for the shepherdess and soon knew she wasn’t in the room.
“Went upstairs to tidy her toilette, I daresay,”
Buck decided. “I’ll keep an eye peeled on the staircase, or Meecham will beat me to her. I notice he watches her like a hawk.”
“Oh, no, I’m sure he has Lady Margaret in his eye.”
“Rubbish. Miss Fletcher don’t take a step that he ain’t after her like a fox after a chicken. I even saw him follow her out for a breath of air before dinner. If her brother hadn’t been with her, he would have tried to steal a kiss. A bit of a commoner, that lad. His room at the inn is like a pigsty. The servants tell me he’s broken the door frame, to say nothing of that grease on the carpet.”
Esther had very little interest in Miss Fletcher. She withdrew to a quiet corner to watch and think. Clifford knew Meecham’s horse was tethered outside. Perhaps checking up on it accounted for the Bow Street officer’s absence. Her nervousness mounted. There was something wrong, but try as she might, she couldn’t put a finger on it. Lady Altrane and Lady Sumner had retired, so their jewels were safe. Or were they? Was the robbery going to occur in their chambers, after they were asleep?
Esther rose and headed for the great staircase. The doors at the end of the hallway that Joshua had pointed out as theirs were closed, silent. Lamps along the corridor gave a dim light, enough to show her no one was there. Yet a tingling along her scalp spelled danger. She couldn’t be imagining it.
A breeze stirred at the window at the end of the hall, lifting the hair on her arms. Curtains billowed over the heavy chest below the window. The very silence was unnerving. Wouldn’t people preparing for bed make some small sound at least? She felt as if the very shadows were watching her.
She would just run down the hall and put her ear to their doors. She’d look a fool if she were caught, but a sixth sense told her things were not what they appeared. From behind Lady Altrane’s door she heard a low, spiteful laugh. “And the bracelet, milady. Alms for Allah.”
Captain Johnnie! Esther froze to the spot, momentarily unable to move. He was there, robbing Lady Altrane, and there wasn’t a soul around to help her.
While she stood, summoning courage and trying to think what to do, the door opened and a masked man in a black cape and broad-brimmed hat came out, stuffing a string of emeralds into his inner pocket. He stopped a moment when he saw her. His pistol rose, and she found herself staring into eternity at the round, black hole of the muzzle.
“One word, and it will be your last,”
the Scamp cautioned. The deadly menace of his voice held her silent.
What was he waiting for? He glanced over his shoulder. Behind him, a smaller masked man appeared, also in a black hat and cape, and with a strand of diamonds hanging from one gloved hand, a pistol in the other.
Esther stood, terrified into immobility. A strange ringing in her ears nearly deafened her, as she studied the two masked men, one noticeably smaller than the other. This was the pair who had robbed the gold wagon and killed two men in the doing of it. They would kill her without a second thought if she tried to stop them. The men didn’t say a word. They looked at each other uncertainly, as though silently deciding what to do with her. Their silence was more terrifying than threats.
The taller one looked at the window, then at the smaller man. He tossed his head toward the window, indicating their means of escape. Was it Meecham? He had worn a domino. The size was right, and the firm jaw. Yet not so firm as the jaw of the man who had kissed her on the heath. If she could hear him speak at close range ...
He stared at her, his eyes two glittering slits behind the mask. “You first,”
he growled to his helper, but in an unrecognizable voice. “You, right behind,”
he ordered Esther.
She stared. The smaller man put the diamonds in a pocket and shoved her toward the window. “I can’t jump! I’ll break my legs!”
Esther objected, but in a quaking voice.
“With luck, it’ll be your neck.”
The tall one laughed.
The other drew aside the velvet curtains and she saw a stout rope tethered to the legs of the heavy chest. He drew out a drawer of the chest, clambered nimbly up on top and let himself out, while the other kept his pistol trained on Esther. Awkwardly she climbed onto the chest, out the window, and let herself down the knotted rope. Her fingers burned, and the rough hemp caught at her gown, but Esther didn’t notice. What are they going to do when they get me outside, away from the safety of the house? she wondered.
The smaller man was waiting, silently pointing his pistol at her, when her feet hit the ground. Within seconds the taller one joined them. Esther looked around for a weapon or the best means of escape. While her eyes scanned the Abbey for a doorway and she gauged her chances of reaching it without being shot, another masked, caped man shot from the shadows, and another. The roadway was suddenly littered with replicas of Captain Johnnie, lending a nightmare quality to the affair.
“Grab him, lads!”
Officer Clifford’s voice called out.
In the same instant the real Captain Johnnie pulled Esther in front of him for protection.
“Hiding behind a lady’s skirts,”
Clifford scoffed. “Now is that any way for a Royal Scamp to behave?”
The tallest of the masked men lunged forward, a string of oaths spluttering from his lips. Through a miasma of terror Esther recognized Joshua. “You touch her and I’ll hound you to hell and back. You won’t get away this time!”
Captain Johnnie uttered a menacing laugh and cocked the pistol. “One move, and I plug her,”
he warned. Joshua came to a halt, as if frozen. Esther heard his heavy breaths and saw the clenching of his jaw. “Throw your pistols at her feet—nice and easy.”
Esther felt the sharp pressure of the gun’s muzzle against her spine. Clifford and the other men kept their pistols. “Now!”
Johnnie barked.
“For God’s sake, do it!”
she implored, and four guns fell with a thud at her feet.
“The other one’s sneaking away!”
someone called. It sounded like Meecham.
Esther turned and blinked as she noticed a pair of blue patent slippers flashing beneath the black cape as the smaller man moved rapidly over the ground. Meecham disappeared into the shadows of the park, hounding after the Scamp’s assistant.
“Your mount won’t be coming to you as you planned,”
Clifford crowed.
“Then you’ll be bringing me one from the stable. Now!”
His voice boomed out, full of authority. To reinforce the command, he jabbed the pistol into Esther’s back, causing her to jerk forward.
“Do as he says,”
Joshua Ramsay ordered. He surveyed the scene. Johnnie had Esther, but even without Clifford and Meecham, there were the footman-runner and himself against Johnnie. What they required was a distraction. He surveyed his options; all of them put Esther in too much jeopardy. One nervous spasm of the Scamp’s finger, and she was dead.
Esther studied the men in front of her, counting up characters. Meecham chasing through the park, Joshua here, Buck innocently waiting in the ballroom for Cathy. The masked man was Fletcher, then, and the small assistant his sister, in her blue patent slippers. She had let that simpleton of a Cathy hold her at gunpoint, when she should have scratched her eyes out. If she had known, she would have leapt on her before Fletcher got down the rope. But who had attacked her and the Fletchers that night on the heath? Some friend of Beau’s, put up to it to fool her?
Captain Johnnie’s glamour and mystique fell from him. He was just Beau Fletcher dressed up in costume. She’d be damned if she’d be afraid of him. Yet the pistol snuggled, against her spine held her quiet. The edgy silence stretched. Fletcher saw Joshua eying the pistols.
“Pick up the pistols, one by one, and throw them into the park,”
he said to Esther.
He leaned forward, holding his pistol against her while she lifted one pistol and threw it, but not very far. She reached for another. Did she dare risk turning it against Johnnie? Perhaps if she threw herself to the ground ... But Johnnie didn’t usually kill his victims if they did as he said. Her life was worth more than Lady Sumner’s diamond necklace. She threw the second pistol beside the first.
Joshua watched, silently willing Esther not to do anything foolishly reckless. Meecham would have the sister in custody. That was a trump for them. And he had removed their waiting boat from the dock. That would hold up their escape. There was time to catch them yet. If only Esther didn’t do something foolish. Perspiration beaded his brow, and he pulled off his mask.
“Now, another pistol,”
Beau ordered. “I’ll take it. Hand it to me. Don’t turn around. Just put it behind your back.”
This was her chance. Esther carefully took hold of the pistol handle, put it behind her back, aimed the muzzle at Fletcher, released the safety catch, and pulled the trigger. A deafening shot rang out.
Beau gave a leap and a howl of pain, followed by a string of obscenities. He dropped his pistol and clutched at his wounded hand. When she turned, Esther saw blood dripping from his fingers. In the same instant Joshua threw himself on the howling Scamp, adding his own profanities to the scene.
Officer Clifford arrived with a mount and grinned at the brouhaha. He dismounted and began gathering up pistols. “Well done, lads!”
he congratulated.