Miss Ellen inclined her head in acknowledgement and spoke to Kat. “Fivepenny, ask Charles to see the lieutenant out.” She stood to signal that the meeting was over.
Since Kat had left the parlor door open and Charles was standingjust outside in the hall, he entered the room almost before Miss Ellen had finished speaking. “This way, sir,” he said.
The household wasn’t big enough for a butler, but Charles was an excellent first footman. He was tall and broad shouldered, and ruthlessly polite. If Waterford had any thoughts of overstaying his dubious welcome, he forgot about them, made his farewells and left.
“We shall have to tell Captain Harraway about that man,” said Miss Ellen, scowling after their visitor. “And don’t tell me that Captain Harraway might be as much of a liar as I am, Kat, and Mrs. Dove-Lyon too, for I shall not believe you.”
“I shan’t. Jacob vouches for your captain, Miss Ellen. And I would stake my life—I have staked your future—on my sense that Mrs. Dove-Lyon is honest, according to her lights. Furthermore, that man was a villain if ever I met one.”
“I wonder what he really wanted,” said Miss Ellen.
To Kat it was clear. He wanted to sow discord. What Kat wondered was what he would do when he found out that he’d failed.
Chapter Eleven
When Captain Harrawayheard about Waterford’s visit, he was torn between racing off to find the villain, and sticking close to Miss Ellen’s side for every minute until the scoundrel was found and dealt with.
He compromised by sending Jake back to the village to find the man and report. Jake spent two hours talking to everyone he could find, but wherever Waterford had gone, it wasn’t Ealing.
At least the captain accepted that answer and sent Jake off to have his dinner with Kat, which was both delightful and frustrating, for they ate in the servants’ hall, and how is a man to do his courting under the eyes of an entire household when most of the people present thought his woman was a man?
He didn’t see much of Kat that next day, for the captain had decided he didn’t want to be separated from Miss Ellen, except—for propriety’s sake—at night, and even then, he would only go as far as the village.
So Jake was given the commission of hiring a vehicle and team, and driving the seamstress into Town. He dropped her off at Peckwith’s Bazaar, where she said she could do most of her shopping. Thenhe posted several of the captain’s letters, took the captain’s notice to quit to the landlord, and packed up all his and the captain’s belongings.
It didn’t take long. All the furnishings came with the room. As to personal possessions, he and the captain were used to traveling, and hadn’t acquired much along the way.
“We are paid up to the end of the quarter, and shall be back to stay on Tuesday night,” Jake told the landlord. “After that, you are welcome to rent the rooms to someone else.”
He had one more errand for the captain, which gave him the opportunity to carry out an errand of his own, and then it was back to Peckwith’s Bazaar.
The seamstress had finished most of her shopping when he got there. “I need to go to this address,” she said. “I have a look in mind for my lady’s wedding dress, and no-one has the particular type of lace I want, but they have given me a note for the man who owns this warehouse. They think he might have it.”
Jake had hoped to be back by early afternoon, but he kept his sigh to himself and sought out the address. The man there sent them to another, and the afternoon was already half gone before they left London, but at least the seamstress was satisfied.
She slept most of the way home, so Jake had only his own thoughts for company, and lovely thoughts they were, too. Today, he and Kat had been promised time off to visit the vicar, but they had agreed that, if he was not back by half past two, Kat would go without him.
Given it was now Saturday, their banns could be read three times, once at each Sunday service, and in just a little over two weeks, they could be married. There was always the risk Kat would change her mind. She had demanded a courting, and he hadn’t so far been able to do much. But he had plans for the next two weeks. Plans that involved compliments, courtesy, declarations of his feelings, flowers, and presents—little tokens like the ones inhis pockets.
He turned the buggy into the tree-lined driveway of Carr Abbas with a sigh of pleasure. Soon, he would see Kat again. And with Kat on his mind, he almost reacted too late to the horseman who burst out of cover, already firing at them.
His body must have reacted before his mind, for one hand pushed the seamstress flat on the seat while the other held firm on the reins to turn the horses’ panicked start into a controlled gallop.
He burst out of the trees and into the courtyard before the house, slowing the team to coax them through the arch into the stable yard. The hoofbeats of their attacker had faded away as they approached the house.
“Was that a gunshot?” quavered the seamstress. “Did someone shoot at us? Was it a poacher?”
“You are safe now,” Jake answered. “Let’s hope that man’s bullets didn’t harm your fabrics.”
As he intended, the possibility of damage to her purchases diverted the seamstress’s mind, but he answered her question silently in his mind. “No, ma’am. That was not a poacher.” He might not have been able to see details in the short time the man had been in view, but he knew the bulky shape. The terrible aim was another indicator. Lieutenant Lackwit Waterford had just tried to murder him.
As soon asJacob had reported the ambush, he and Captain Harraway rode off to see if they could find any trace of the attacker, and to report it to the magistrate. Kat was disappointed that she couldn’t immediately tell Jacob about her visit to the vicar, but, of course, dealing with people who shot at him took priority.
Captain Harraway and Miss Ellen had both accompanied her tothe vicarage, and just as well. The vicar had been inclined to take umbrage at a woman in man’s dress. Kat was certain the word “abomination” had been on his tongue when Captain Harraway had explained—straight-faced—that it was his strategy, and Miss Ellen had wept a judicious tear as she confided how comforting it had been to have Kat dressed as a man.
“My own dear handmaiden, instead of a stranger, however well recommended by others.” A delicate shudder. “Vicar, I do not know how I would have managed without Kat Fivepence.”
After that, the vicar had announced that Kat would be delighted to be back in skirts, and Kat had agreed. The vicar had commanded that the transformation be completed before the banns were read for the first time tomorrow, and Kat had agreed. Hopefully, her meek compliance would soothe his hackles. After all, they were all going to London on Monday, and after that, she would have to be a maid again, anyway.
