“I have another suggestion.” Eli lifted her hand to his lips. “How well can you ride?”
“Are you going to suggest we leave the carriage behind?” Goodfellow demanded.
Fanny met Eli’s eyes, and he watched her sort it out. “I suspect he means something else entirely. Are you suggesting a decoy, Eli?”
The corporal’s face lit up. “We could divide our party and use the carriage as a decoy. Is that what you mean?”
Eli nodded. “I will take Miss Hancock across country by horseback. You make a great show of staying here. I suggest we leave the carriage in a prominent spot for the world and whoever watches to think we never left.”
“It would be safer if I came with you,” Goodfellow said, rubbing his chin.
“That would put everyone else at risk when they try to get in to get to me. We already said the inn isn’t secure. We need a diversion,” Fanny insisted.
“She’s right. Fanny and I will be safe that way, but the rest of you have to leave here. You could take the carriage on to Ashmead in the morning with Reilly and Williams. Leave Susan and Wil,” Eli said.
Goodfellow sorted it through. “You two would be long gone before that carriage moves in the morning.” Still, he looked unhappy, but he made no alternative suggestion.
“Yes, overland on horseback. Eli and I,” Fanny agreed.
Goodfellow sighed deeply. “It would work but not if they are watching us leave and see the empty carriage. We’ll need a volunteer to dress as you, ma’am. Dare we risk the boy or your maid? One of them could wear the disguise.”
Her stricken expression tore at Eli. “Fanny, these men want you. If they stop the carriage, they’ll leave everyone alone once they figure out you aren’t with them. Susan can dress as you when she boards the carriage and discard the costume on the road.”
“Wil would be better.” Fanny spoke through tight lips. “He looks more like me. But I don’t like it.”
“What alternative do we have?” Eli asked.
“None,” she replied.
Goodfellow nodded. “Can you do it?”
Eli peered at Fanny.
She tightened her grip on his hand, lifted her chin, and met his eyes. “Yes, we can.”
It was decided. There was some squabbling over details, and multiple opinions about how to manage Wil and Susan.
Eli and Fanny crossed the hall to consult the two of them.
So much for keeping them protected, Eli thought ruefully.
The maid proved to be remarkably brave. “I’m sure I don’t want to sit here like a sitting duck. I’ll be safer with Corporal Goodfellow,” she insisted. Wil reacted with characteristic enthusiasm, glad to have a role. An argument broke out between the two of them, both of whom wanted to be the one who dressed as Fanny to board the coach. Wil won.
*
After a hurriedsupper, Fanny made Eli leave her so she could change clothes. She suspected he paced the hallway outside the door. Wil went to sit with Reilly.
Fanny left her discarded clothing, quickly adjusted, in a neat pile for Wil. She planned to borrow Susan’s spare gown, but the maid made a startling suggestion. “You’ll be safer as a boy, ma’am. You ought best to wear Mr. Wil’s spare clothes.”
The idea shocked Fanny, but it made sense. “It will be easier to ride one of those great, hulking beasts if I’m not in skirts,” she murmured.
“You need a dark shirt, though,” Susan said. “So you won’t be seen so easy in the night.”
“Williams always wears black and gray. Go ask him.” Fanny sent the maid across the hall and dug through Wil’s bag. Now that she was alone and faced with the reality of what she’d agreed to do, fear settled in her belly. She’d told the men she could ride. It wasn’t a lie. She had ridden Horace’s mount from the drapery to the port many times. On city streets. Sidesaddle. In the daylight. This would be very different. She shook off her anxiety. Any other choice exposed Wil and the others to even greater danger. She feared for Eli as it was.
Susan returned waving the shirt in triumph. It proved to be much too large, but the two women belted it in.
“I’ll have to wear my own half-boots,” Fanny murmured.
