The captain swung down from the carriage even as Jake was begging Mrs. Harraway and Kat to stay in the carriage.
“But I must see if Phil is unhurt,” Miss Ellen was protesting, when the captain looked over Jake’s shoulder to say, “Perfectly well, my love. Not a scratch. But I cannot say the same for our highwayman, so please stay there, dear heart. You do not need to see the body.”
Miss Ellen subsided. The captain bent over Waterford’s body, felt for a pulse and for breath and glanced at Jake while shaking his head.
“If this was Spain,” said Jake, somewhat wistfully, because it was not Spain, and the solution would not work, “we could sling him into the bushes and be on our way.”
“Instead of which, we’ll need to send a postillion back to the nearest magistrate.” The captain sighed, as if he regretted civilization at thismoment as much as Jake did. “What a pest the man is. Orwas, I suppose I should say.”
It was nearly an hour before the magistrate arrived. Jake had spread a carriage rug under the trees to give Mrs. Harraway and Kat a cool place to sit and had placed another rug over Waterford’s remains so they didn’t have to store a memory of the unpleasantness.
They refused the picnic hamper, but Mrs. Harraway accepted a sip from the captain’s brandy flask, and when Kat declared that one of the bottles of ale included in the hamper would be just the thing, Mrs. Harraway agreed to try one, too.
“Not the wedding day I had in mind for you, my dearest,” the captain told his wife. “I am sorry you had to be present for that.”
Kat had told Jake that Miss Ellen—now Mrs. Harraway—was tougher than she appeared, and she proved it when she said, “I would not have wished the man dead, my love. But he tried to kill you, and I suppose would have kept trying, for he seemed determined. Given a choice between him and you, I must believe that you and Jake made the right choice.”
“Exactly,” said Kat. “The captain shall see him returned to his family, or buried if he doesn’t have one, and we shall never think of him again.”
The magistrate arrived at last, and after he and his constables had questioned everyone, he took Mrs. Harraway’s view of the death. Indeed, he went further. “He brought it on himself, and you and your servant saved the King the expense of a trial and a hanging,” he said. “Now you and the lady should be on your way, Captain Harraway. It was a terrible thing to happen on your wedding day, and your lady is bearing up very well, but you should take her home to rest.”
He took what information the captain could give him about Waterford’s connections and promised to contact the man’s regiment to see if they wanted to take charge of the remains, or failing that, organize an interment and send the bill to Captain Harraway.
And so, at last, the wedding journey got underway again, and this time, they made it home toCarr Abbas, where no doubt the captain would find a way to soothe and comfort his bride.
As for Jake, he had been given the evening off, as had Kat. Jake intended to take full advantage of the license offered to engaged couples, and to that end, he had already invited Kat to join him for a walk. If she didn’t know how much he loved her by now, he was certain she’d have a better idea of it before the night was over.
Carr Abbas, Ealing, two weeks later
Since the Harraways’wedding a fortnight ago, Miss Ellen and the captain had dismissed her maid and his valet early in every evening, preferring to assist one another.
And so, every evening, Kat’s male disguise had come in useful, since breeches are much better for climbing than skirts, and leaving the house through her window was better than the risk of having to explain herself to Mrs. Kirby.
Jake, who did not have to stop to change out of a gown, was always waiting at the foot of the creeper that provided her path to the ground.
For a fortnight, Kat had been courted with flowers, compliments, kisses, and caresses. Little presents, too. Tokens, really. A pretty vase for her room. A scented soap. Some buttons that had taken her fancy in the village store.
And conversation. Sharing her thoughts, her opinions, and her dreams with Jake was the most seductive activity of all. For the first time in eight years, she could say anything she thought, knowing that her listener would listen respectfully and with attention.
Often, he shared her view. Frequently, he would have comments of his own that made her think more deeply or that gave her a different perspective. Sometimes—and perhaps these were the best discussions of all—he disagreed, and would tell her why, and they would debate until they either came to a joint conclusion or agreed to honor one another’s opinion.
In a secluded part of the garden, they learned to know one another again, and not just mentally and emotionally. Physically, they traced the path they had once followed together in their youth, once again discovering one another’s bodies and marveling at the differences that did not confront, but instead, complemented.
Jake insisted on stopping short of full consummation. “Once we are safely wed,” he said. “Life is uncertain, and I shall not leave the woman I love and the child I might conceive to be scorned and abused.” On this, he would not budge, but Kat had been enthralled to discover how much could be done without that final satisfaction.
Even so, she was keen for the fortnight to be over, and for their coupling to be sanctified in the eyes of church and society.
And now it was.
Today, she would meet Jake not in breeches and boots, but in the gown the Harraways had given her for her wedding. It hung in Mrs. Harraway’s dressing room, covered by a sheet. Kat was due in the dressing room soon, for Mrs. Harraway insisted that today, mistress would be maid, helping Kat to prepare for the service.
Captain and Mrs. Harraway were also putting on a wedding breakfast after the ceremony, and had provided a cottage for them, in which they would spend the first two days—and nights—of their married life.
Jake had asked her to bring her boots. She couldn’t imagine why, but she had put them into the bag with her clothes, hairbrush, and other essentials.
One of the younger maids knocked on the door. “Miss Fivepenny? Mrs. Harraway wishes to know when you are coming. The bath isready for you.”
A bath! It was a rare luxury, and this once, for the first time in her life, Kat was to be first in the water. “I shall just finish buckling my bag,” she told the maid. That job done, she left the bag outside her door.
