Wyn reached for both of Galahad’s muzzles, each satin black marked with a blaze. He grasped either side of the animal’s face and the two heads became one. A quiet-natured fellow, Galahad did not protest.
“Can you bear her company, my friend?” Against the horse’s coat, his breath was heavy with brandy. “She is very pretty, after all.”
Galahad stared at him with eyes the color of earth and bumped his nose into his chest.
“You will do whatever is asked of you. We are a fine pair.” He closed his eyes. “But I will soon do what I have not been asked to do. Then they will take you from me. They will take everything, but”—he dipped his voice to a whisper—“you will be all I regret losing.” For a moment he stood still, the straw-littered floor bobbing beneath him. Then he set to saddling and bridling his horse.
Traveling bag slung across his haunches, Galahad followed him through the stable at his heels like a spaniel. They halted before another stall. The animal within shone like a jewel, from her tapered nose and intelligent eyes to powerful withers and silken brown coat.
Wyn bowed. “My lady, your escort has arrived.” He opened the stall door.
Lady Priscilla, as prime a piece of horseflesh as could be bred, came without protest, young and light of hoof but biddable. Thus, no doubt, she had gone with Wyn’s host after he won her at cards from Marquess McFee—unjustly, for she belonged to McFee’s uncle, the Duke of Yarmouth.
Now the duke wanted his prized young hunter back. Who better for the job than Wyn? The crown knew that when it lifted its little finger to demand a service of Mr. Wyn Yale, penniless third son of a Welsh squire of little land and less wit, he would leap to it. And, of course, he did it because he enjoyed it. Rather, had enjoyed it. More lately he did it to keep himself in waistcoats and brandy.
But this job was different. He had not agreed to this humiliating task to please the anonymous director of the Falcon Club or the king. Not even for the sack of gold coins they would pay him. This assignment he had accepted to avenge a death.
A death for a death. One sin to cancel out another.
This time, however, he could not hide the truth of his deed from his friends—Leam Blackwood, Jin Seton, Constance Read, Colin Gray—all once fellow agents in the Falcon Club, the greatest friends a man could have. This time they would all know. This time the world would know.
The rain fell mizzling, sending mist up from the warm earth. But the sky was heavy and it would soon pour down. The filly’s blanket would keep her dry. He took another blanket from the tack room and affixed it over Galahad’s back.
“Now we are off to the races. As it were.”
He set off along the foggy drive on foot, a lead line in either hand and hundreds of guineas worth of horseflesh following docilely behind. The gray day was still young, the walk to the village where a bottle and the Mail Coach could be found only a few miles distant. By the time he reached Yarmouth’s castle two days hence, he would again be dry and suitably clad. In the meantime, to be sodden both without as well as within seemed suitable enough. Here in the middle of nowhere, in the company of none but beasts, for once he needn’t even mimic perfection. And, after all, a man on his way to murder a duke ought to be allowed to enjoy the journey in whatever manner he liked.
In theory, her plan worked splendidly well.
In theory.
Diantha had not, of course, counted on the handsome farm boy. Thus she had not foreseen Annie’s desertion. Neither had she anticipated the rain that soaked the hem of her traveling dress, or the man with the sausagelike fingers sitting in the opposite corner seat of the Mail Coach. The squalling infant in its mother’s spindly arms was not an especial boon either. But at least the little bundle hadn’t caused Diantha any real trouble, only a megrim the size of Devonshire, which actually had its start at the posting house when Annie gave abrupt notice with a “Best of luck to you, Miss Lucas!” thrown over her shoulder. So in truth the babe could not be blamed.
Naturally, from the comfort of Brennon Manor, Diantha could not have anticipated any of this, especially Annie’s defection. Her best friend, Teresa Finch-Freeworth, adored her maid, and quite frankly Diantha had liked her too. Annie had seemed the ideal companion with whom to make her premature departure from Teresa’s home under cover of propriety. Until Annie abandoned her.
Diantha pressed fingertips to temples. The megrim was worsening, but babies would cry, and she liked them quite a lot under normal circumstances. She had always dreamed of having children of her own, and Mr. H liked them. But she didn’t have time to ponder that. Now she must find her mother and wrest her from the den of iniquity in which she was living.
Around the edge of her bonnet she darted a glance at Mr. Sausage Fingers. He scowled at the babe, jowls wiggling with the rough sway of the carriage.
“She is cutting her teeth, isn’t she?” Diantha whispered to the mother. “My sister, Faith, cried buckets when her teeth were coming through.”
“She won’t stop, miss.” The woman groaned softly, rocking the babe against a breast far too narrow to serve as a pillow.
“Poor dear. My mother used to rub our gums with brandy. Sometimes whiskey if Papa had already drunk up all the brandy. It is very soothing.”
The woman looked skeptical and perhaps a bit scandalized. “Is it?”
“Oh, yes. Smugglers were so common on the coast, we’d no trouble finding brandy during the war.” She tucked a gloved finger into the baby’s hand. It latched on and the cries hiccupped. “At the next posting house, dip your finger into a cup of spirits and rub away. She will be asleep in no time.” The infant’s mouth opened again and out of it flew a banshee’s howl. “Then drink the remainder of the cup yourself,” Diantha said louder, to be heard over the din. She smiled and patted the woman’s arm.
The mother’s eyes softened. The babe wailed. Beneath the brim of his cap, Mr. Sausage Fingers was leering again. He had the look of a highwayman about him, if highwaymen had dirty fingernails and shifty eyes.
It was clear to Diantha now that Annie’s elopement was incidental to her troubles. Men like this would populate the road all the way to Bristol and then probably the boat to Calais. The world was made of men, and some were villainous.
She knew this only vaguely, having been introduced at a young age to a nasty man named Mr. Baker to whom her mother had intended to wed her beautiful sister, Charity. Or some such thing. No one had ever told her anything in those days because she was too young and susceptible, they said, which meant that she was likely to get into scrapes if given rein. Now everybody was gone, so there was no one to tell her anything even though she had turned nineteen, with one exception: Teresa, whose stories were scandalously titillating and who had devised the plan for her current mission, which mustn’t be thwarted even by a minor mishap like losing her traveling companion to a farm lad with large muscles in his arms. Annie had especially liked those muscles. She’d mentioned them before abandoning her, by way of justification it seemed.
Diantha hadn’t any opinion of men’s arms or muscles, but now she saw her plan’s fatal flaw. She required a man. But not just any man. She needed a man of courage and honor who would assist her without question.
She needed a hero.
Diantha’s stepsister, Serena, had often read to her stories of knights saving damsels in distress, and the Baron of Carlyle, her stepfather and a scholar, had assured her that these stories were not entirely fictional, rather based in historical fact. Heroes did exist. Now her mission was simply too perilous to undertake with only female assistance. A hero must be found.