The Disgraceful Mr. Ravenhurst Read online

  ‘Hold on.’ Then he was beginning to stand, lifting her weight from a kneeling position with only the wall to lean on for balance. Elinor could see the veins standing out on his temples, hear the breath hiss from his teeth. But he was rising and she was higher, higher, until he was standing upright and she was swaying on her perch, her arms outstretched. ‘Now, try and throw the chain over the hook.’

  She tried, and failed, three times, constantly aware of the strain on his arms, of what would happen if she failed. The cell was cold, yet perspiration was trickling down her forehead and into her eyes. Once more, she told herself. I’ll do it this time.

  The chain snaked up, caught, hung poised for a moment, then fell, its weight pulling her with it to land sprawled on the stone floor. ‘Nell. Nell, for heaven’s sake, say something!’

  ‘Ouch,’ she ventured, sitting up and rubbing her knees. ‘That hurt. Nothing is broken though.’

  Theo wondered if he was going to faint. He never had before, but he supposed, leaning back against the wall, the periphery of his vision closing in and his ears full of buzzing, there must be a first time for everything.

  He wasn’t sure whether it was the pain—his arms felt as though he’d been racked—or the relief. Probably both.

  ‘Theo? This is not the time to go to sleep,’ Elinor said severely. He opened his eyes and found her standing right in front of him, her face white. ‘Are you all right?’ she managed when she saw his eyes focus.

  ‘Yes. Get the picklocks.’

  It took half an hour to fumble her shackles open and then, with her holding his in the best position, to free himself. At last the chains swung back against the wall and he was able to flex his arms. ‘Are you still apprehensive?’ he asked as she fell against his chest, wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face into his shoulder.

  ‘No.’ She looked up, her smile valiant, if a little tremulous. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I thought it the bravest thing I ever heard,’ he confessed, unsurprised to find his voice husky. ‘To be chained in a cellar with a pot of poison to drink and to own yourself merely a little apprehensive.’

  ‘I was lying,’ she confessed, tipping back her head to look up at him. ‘I was terrified. But I knew you’d get us out.’

  ‘Let’s get this door open first before we congratulate ourselves.’ The old lock was so large and crude he needed two picks to work it, but they were out into the passage in minutes. ‘I’ll lock it again.’ He had to keep going, to think ahead and not back to what might have been. If Hythe and Lady James had been attacked, if they had not found the cell in time. If…Somehow he had to starve his imagination until they were safe away. ‘We’ll take the candles. I wonder if she would ever have opened the door again.’

  Beside him Elinor shuddered. ‘She must be mad. They both must be. You know, I’ve had a horrible thought. What if Leon marries Julie and they have a son—and then Leon does something to upset them? What do you think his life is worth once there’s an heir those two can fully control?’

  ‘Not much. I’ll write to him once we get clear. He may need some convincing, though. Would you believe such a thing of your mother?’

  He did not wait for her answer, striding to open the secret panel and take out the Chalice. This time he did not wrap it when the hiding place was secure again, merely grabbed it by the stem and put his other hand under Elinor’s arm. ‘Come on.’

  ‘Where to?’ she asked as they slipped out into the silence of the great hall.

  ‘To the bedchambers.’

  ‘But we can’t take anything or they’ll realise we are free.’

  ‘We need to speak to your mother, let her know what is going on.’

  Aunt Louisa was, all things considered, extremely calm about finding her daughter and her nephew in her bedchamber at four in the morning, both of them filthy, battered and clutching an artefact of such indecency she had to examine it twice with her quizzing glass before she was prepared to believe the evidence of her own eyes.

  Alarming in nightcap and flannel robe, she listened to their story in silence. There was, Theo admitted, something to be said for the scholarly turn of mind.

  ‘The woman is insane,’ she pronounced when they had finished. ‘So, what do you propose we do now? Call in the authorities?’

  Theo had been thinking about that. A descent on the mairie with a demand to see the mayor and order the arrest of the most powerful woman for miles around seemed doomed to failure. It would take some time to convince Leon of his mother’s appalling crimes and, even if convinced, he might act to cover them up, rather than to restrain her.

  ‘There is no one we can trust,’ he concluded and saw from her nod of approval that she fully agreed. ‘I will take the Chalice and get it back to England.’

  ‘And what about me?’ Elinor demanded.

  ‘I can drop you off with Madame Dubois; you can hide in my old room. Aunt Louisa will pretend to believe we have eloped and will set off in pursuit, collecting you from St Père on the way.’

  Both women regarded him in silence. Finally Elinor said flatly, ‘Very well. I do not like it, but I would be a burden to you on the way, I can see that.’

  He expected his aunt to agree, but she looked at her daughter incredulously. ‘I never thought to hear you so feeble, Elinor! I am not happy with you hiding with some woman I do not know, and I am not convinced of our safety if they should find us together. You will go with Theo.’

  It was like someone handing him an unexpected gift. Days with Nell, just the two of them, the gypsy existence on the road they had joked about. The life those sketches had pictured so vividly. He looked at his aunt, the incredible suspicion forming that she was quite deliberately throwing them together. Surely she did not really want him to marry Elinor? Did she?

  Elinor looked at him and, just for a second, he thought he saw his own desires mirrored there. Then she said, with no colour in her voice, ‘If you feel it better, Mama.’

  ‘We will go to Maubourg,’ he said, the idea coming to him from nowhere. ‘It is closer than Paris and the coast and you said Sebastian and Eva have gone back there for the baby to be born.’

  ‘Very sensible,’ Lady James approved. ‘You can send that hell-begotten object to your patron in the diplomatic bag.’

  ‘I think not,’ Theo said, imagining some clerk in the Foreign Office unwrapping it and requiring medical attention. ‘I will write to Lord X from there, though.’

  ‘Maubourg?’ Nell was frowning at him.

  ‘Where better to be safe than a castle surrounded by guards? We will get down to the stables and wake Hythe. He must take the carriage and drive to Avallon to have Lord X’s men set free. He will also provide a false trail, setting out to Paris. Goodness knows if those two will ever check on us, or move the stone panel again and find the Chalice gone, but if they do then my carriage is distinctive enough to give them something to chase. We can drop off on the road to Avallon and hire a chaise.’

  He felt invigorated now, despite the lack of sleep, the blow to the head, the horror of believing he had brought Nell to her death. They were alive, relatively unscathed and he had days in her company ahead. Not that she seemed very happy about the prospect. My poor love. She must be exhausted, he thought, wishing he had the right to take her in his arms and carry her off to his bed. To sleep. Just to watch her sleep.

  ‘Right. I imagine we must get a move on,’ Lady James was saying briskly. ‘I will find a spare toothbrush and soap and under-things from my wardrobe so it will appear nothing of Elinor’s is missing. That is a weakness in their little plot, is it not? If I were eloping, I would certainly pack a bag!’

  The thought of her mother doing such a thing at least produced a faint smile on Elinor’s lips. Theo watched her with concern. Had he finally found the limit of her courage and endurance? Or was she appalled at the thought of spending days alone with him after his insane proposal up on the hill?

  ‘No, they had thought of that, apparentl
y. I’ll see what I can find of mine that won’t be noticeable,’ he said, thankful for an excuse to leave Elinor alone with her mother for a few moments. She was probably desperate to cry on her shoulder.

  He was back in the room only minutes later to find that, far from weeping in a maternal embrace, Elinor was briskly packing a small valise. ‘They’ve been in my room, as they said they would,’ he announced tersely. ‘There’s a valise gone, drawers pulled out—it looks as though I packed in a hurry. Yours—unless Jeanie left it in a mess—is in the same state.’

  ‘They may be wicked,’ Elinor remarked, ‘but they are not stupid. Have you found anything you can bring?’

  ‘Here.’ He handed her a rolled shirt with his spare razor inside. ‘If I take a valise now, they may spot it. I’ll buy more as we go. By some miracle they didn’t find my money.’ She took the things, pushed them into her bag and snapped it shut.

  ‘Mama?’

  ‘I find myself more diverted than I have in many a year,’ Lady James remarked. ‘Now, look after Theo—he appears to be managing very well, but one can never tell with men—and do not worry about my researches. I will pretend to set out for Paris, then double back once I am sure I am not being followed. I shall go down to Avignon—you may meet me there.’

  ‘Of course, Mama. We can always complete the Burgundian work later,’ Elinor agreed colourlessly.

  ‘Come on, Nell.’ He picked up the valise. ‘We haven’t much time before the servants will be up.’

  ‘Yes, of course. Goodbye, Mama.’ She kissed her mother and followed him out, into the unknown. No, he thought, sending a penetrating glance sideways at her face as they slipped through the trees down to the stables, she hadn’t reached the limits of her courage and endurance. She will keep going as long as I ask it of her. The realisation left him strangely shaken—what would it be like to be loved by this woman?

  Chapter Sixteen

  Elinor sat in the jolting coach while Theo washed and dressed her raw wrists. He had dismissed her protests that his were worse and should take priority with a curt, ‘Do as you are told’, and for once she found she had no will to argue back. It was taking all her strength to stay awake and upright and she had to manage that, at least to tend to his wounds in her turn.

  She should be feeling relieved that they were alive, that they had a plan and were heading for safety, but all she could feel was wave after wave of paralysing horror at what they had escaped. If Theo had been less resourceful, less strong, less…Theo, they would be in the dark by now, the candles gone, facing the prospect of dying together. Theo had sounded full of confidence, but they had both known what would have happened if Hythe and Mama had not found them in time.

  Would she have told him then that she loved him? Probably not—it would only have added another burden to his shoulders for the sake of indulging herself.

  She would have died never knowing what it was like to lie with a man, to show him with her body how much she loved him, to learn passion and tenderness from him. She would have died a virgin and Theo would have been lost to her for ever. Hazily she wondered if she had been given a second chance.

  ‘Nell,’ he said gently. ‘You can lie down now.’

  ‘No, I will bandage your wrists.’ She forced her eyes open and reached for the basin with the stained water that was slopping around on the carriage seat.

  ‘Nell—’

  ‘No! Stop fussing. Just let me…’ She dragged down a steadying breath and controlled the urge to babble of her terror. ‘Just let me do this.’ In the face of her outburst he was silent, holding out his hands for her to clean the dirty, raw scrapes and wrap the bandage around each wrist. ‘There,’ she said, tying the last knot. ‘That’s done.’

  The carriage seemed to be swaying wildly, the lamps on their gimbals were fading, surely? And she was falling. ‘Nell, my love,’ said a voice gently and then everything faded and was gone.

  Elinor woke to broad daylight, to even wilder swaying. ‘Theo?’ She was alone in a small carriage, wrapped up in a rug on the upholstered seat. Sitting up was an agony of bruises, stiff joints and, when she knocked her wrist, sharp pain. Doggedly she unwrapped herself from the rug, pushed her hair back from her face and made herself remember. It had not been a nightmare, then. But where was Theo?

  The window let down on a strap. Elinor leaned out precariously and caught a glimpse of him up on the box, the reins of a pair in his hand. He looked relaxed, happy almost. ‘Theo!’

  He reined in and jumped down. ‘You’re awake—about time, Miss Ravenhurst, I thought you were going to sleep the clock round.’

  ‘You said were going to hire a chaise—I thought you meant one with postillions. And where did you get those clothes?’ He was dressed in a drab frieze coat and a rather battered hat.

  ‘They’re Hythe’s. I thought it would attract less attention hiring just a chaise with no men. We couldn’t wake you up—are you all right?’

  ‘I’m fine. I think,’ she added, trying a few experimental stretches. ‘Are you?’

  ‘Sore,’ he admitted with a wry grimace. ‘And I’ll be glad to sleep tonight. But I’ll live.’

  ‘What time is it?’ Elinor took the opportunity to study Theo as he dug his pocket watch out and checked it. He had said something as she had slipped into sleep, something that touched the edge of her consciousness, but which now she couldn’t quite reach out and grasp. She wanted to hold him, hold on to him, needing comfort and wondering if he, too, felt the same hideous twist of fear when he remembered what might have happened. But you could not ask a man if he felt fear, and he would never admit it if he did.

  When he looked up she saw there were dark smudges under the clear green eyes and the lines either side of his mouth were deeper. He looked older, harder and somehow different.

  ‘It is half past two,’ he said, pushing the watch back into the fob pocket. ‘We’ll stop at the next reasonable inn and get something to eat.’

  ‘Where are we heading for?’ Elinor asked.

  ‘Arnay le Duc, but we may not make it tonight. I’m trying to take a direct route for Maubourg without using the most obvious main road.’ He opened the carriage door, but Elinor shook her head. ‘You want to come up on the box? I won’t let you drive, you know.’ The smile creased the corners of his eyes and she made herself smile back as he gave her his hand to help her climb up.

  ‘Will they follow us?’

  ‘The countess and Julie?’ Theo untied the reins and gave the pair the office to move. ‘Difficult. I doubt very much if they’ll check on the cell—much too squeamish. What if they found us still alive? But they might check on the Chalice, worrying about whether it was safe to leave it there. Foolish to keep revisiting it, but people aren’t always rational when they’ve something on their conscience. I prefer to be cautious for a day or two. I’ve given Hythe a letter for the count, and I have to hope he acts upon it, but one can never be certain.’

  ‘What about Lord X’s men? They’ll be furious at being locked up.’

  ‘Hythe is going to tell them to go back and tell his lordship we have the Chalice and will be getting it back to England. If they decide they don’t trust me and come looking, it’ll take a while to cast around before they pick up our trail.’ He looked at her. ‘Don’t worry, Nell.’

  ‘I’m not. I’m just making sure I understand where everything, and everybody, is,’ she said, trying to focus on the practicalities and not on the fact that she was alone with Theo, not just for an hour or two, but for several days.

  ‘Well, the Chalice is under the seat wrapped up in a horse blanket and without a scratch on it, which is more than can be said for us.’ There was an edge to his voice, which made her want to take his face between her palms and not let him go until he told her what was wrong. That was not possible as they drove, but she could try just asking.

  ‘Theo, what is wrong?’ He shot her an incredulous look, one eyebrow arching up. ‘No, I don’t mean the fact that we are careering abo
ut the countryside with a valuable erotic art work hidden in the carriage and have left Mama with two murderesses. There’s something else.’

  He had his eyes back on the road, his gaze focused on the road ahead and for a moment or two she thought he would not answer her. Elinor slipped one arm through his. ‘Theo?’

  She did not receive a very warm response. He neither pulled away, nor, as she hoped, squeezed her arm against his side. ‘It occurs to me that I have not been taking very good care of you, Nell.’

  ‘You saved my life,’ she protested, incredulous.

  ‘I put it at risk in the first place. And besides, if you weren’t so determined and brave we would never have got out of there. I have dragged you into this mess, I made love to you and now, as you say, we are careering about the countryside in a thoroughly improper manner.’

  Something hot, confused and miserable turned over in Elinor’s chest. ‘I have free will and a brain! You did not drag me anywhere, I went where I wanted. After that first kiss—if you can call it that—I wanted what we did at least as much as you did, and if I hadn’t, I’d have told you so. I thought we were friends, Theo. I thought we were in this together. But, no, I am just a woman who was apparently dragged along at your coat tails, who was waiting passively to be kissed, or not, who—’

  ‘Stop! Nell, I can’t argue with you while I’m driving. You’ll have to wait until we get to an inn if you want to scold me.’

  ‘Scold you?’ She dragged her arm free and clenched her fists in her lap. ‘I don’t want to scold you, you idiot man. I want you to treat me like an equal.’ And that was the heart of it, she realised. She loved him, admired him, wanted him. But she did not want to be treated like someone he had to cosset and protect. She wanted to be with him, not safe in England. She wanted to share the dangers and the adventures. She wanted, she realised with the clarity born of hunger and exhaustion and desperation, to live his life with him.