Page 60 of A Kiss to Stop a Wedding
Matt’s laugh ended in a grunt of agony and Flora said, quickly, ‘Hush now, we need to move you.’
Between the four of them they carried Matt to the coach without mishap, but lifting him inside required some manoeuvring. At last he was lying on the bench seat and Flora gently placed his injured arm across his chest. She thought he had lost consciousness again, but just as she was spreading his evening coat over him, he spoke.
‘Where’s Jepps?’
‘Here, sir,’ said a voice from the dusk.
‘Step closer, man.’
Flora sat down opposite Matt in the carriage as Jepps appeared in the doorway.
‘I am that sorry, Mr Talacre, sir,’ he said, white-faced and almost shaking with terror. ‘His Lordship brought the rifle this morning and told me I was to waylay you in the woods. But it’s been almost ten years since I fired at anything but a gamebird! As soon asI put my eye to the sights I knew I couldn’t do it. ’Tis a very different thing to shoot one of your own rather than a Frenchie in battle. And in cold blood, too! But I was shaking so much and my finger caught the trigger—’
‘Aye, well, I suppose I should be thankful you weren’t actually aiming for me! Don’t worry, I am not going to press charges.’
‘You—you ain’t going to have me arrested?’
‘No. But I don’t think you should go back to Whilton Hall.’
‘No, sir, I was thinking that myself.’ Jepps swallowed. ‘Once His Lordship knows I failed he’ll be mad as fire.’
‘Aye, he will. I think it would be best for you to disappear.’
‘Run away, you mean?’ The man looked even more frightened.
‘No, I don’t, but I want Whilton to think that’s what you have done. You will come with me tonight and in the morning I will send you off to Bellemonte with a note for Cripps, my manager. He will set you on in the gardens.’
Flora had been listening silently from the shadows, but now she gasped. ‘Is that wise?’
‘Whilton is unlikely to think I have employed the man who shot me.’
‘No, but how are you going to explain his presence at the Red Lion?’
‘I’m not going back to the Red Lion.’
She was just about to demand what he meant when Amos appeared behind Jepps.
‘I’ve fetched the mare and secured her to the carriage, Miss Warenne. We’re ready to set off now.’
‘Tell me,’ Matt asked the footman, before she could answer, ‘is there somewhere on the Banbury Road I can put up for the night? Somewhere you and your master are not known?’
Amos scratched his head and declared that was a question for John Coachman.
‘Then ask him, if you please,’ said Matt. ‘Take Jepps with you and find him a seat on the box. He is coming with me.’
‘What is your plan?’ said Flora, when the others had gone. ‘Do you think the Viscount might come looking for you?’
‘It’s possible, if he thinks his plan has failed. More to the point I don’t want you mixed up in this. If your carriage is seen in Whilton town at this time of night, there will be the devil to pay.’
Flora was about to say she did not care a jot, but at that moment Amos returned.
‘There’s a posting inn not too far from here, sir. The King’s Head. John knows of it, but he’s never had occasion to stop there. Jepps says he ain’t known thereeither. He hasn’t been further than Whilton since he arrived in Warwickshire.’
‘Excellent,’ said Matt. ‘Tell John to drive there now, if you will.’
‘But as steadily as he can!’ added Flora.
‘Don’t fuss, woman,’ Matt muttered as the carriage pulled away. ‘I have had much worse than this.’
