Page 20 of The Marriage Debt
‘There’s just a few bruises. I landed on Mr Highson.’
He looked at her steadily in silence. For some reason Katherine was feeling quite flustered. ‘Anyway, that was why we were so late. Mr Highson’s carriage was badly damaged and poor Jenny was at her wits’ end with the pair of us unconscious– ’Botheration.She had not meant to let him realise she too had been knocked out.
‘Whole story. Now.’ The rasp in his voice was even more pronounced.
‘John caught up with us but Mr Highson’s carriage was too badly damaged to repair quickly. We set out at five this morning in my carriage which is slower of course, but the crowds were terrible and we could not get through with the carriage so in the end John set us down and we had to run.’ She broke off for a moment and swallowed hard.
‘We could hear the crowd and every so often the noise would reach a crescendo and we realised another poor soul had been executed. We had no way of knowing whether we were already too late.’ Her voice faltered and she bit her lip before continuing. ‘It seemed to take an age to get to the Governor and for him to hear what Mr Highson had to say and then when we got to the scaffold…to see you there, to see the trap open.’
Theo reached out a hand and took one of hers in his gently. She felt his thumb caressing lightly over her palm. ‘Should… not asked. Stop now.’
‘No, I am all right. I screamed and John ran forward and jumped down through the trap to hold you up. He found Arthur was already there and between them they managed to support you while they cut the rope above. The rest you know.’
They sat in silence for a while, Katherine content to let her hand rest in Theo’s. Then he said, almost too low for her to hear, ‘Young woman. Just a girl. Behind me pushed to the front. So afraid…could not bear to wait. Wanted it over.’
‘Poor soul,’ Katherine murmured, then the realisation of what he had just said struck her. ‘You mean, if it were not for her, we would have been too late?’
He nodded. ‘Lives hang on chances.’ He fell silent.
Katherine raised her eyes to Theo’s and found that he had not begun to doze off as she thought, but that he was watching her, his dark, bloodshot eyes intelligent.
‘Not telling me everything, Kat. Are you?’
Chapter Eight
Theo reached for the water and she gave him the glass. A drink seemed to help his voice. ‘How did you convince magistrate I was innocent? He wouldn’t take… word for it.’
He would be furious if he knew what she had done, she knew him well enough already to guess that. On the other hand he was not going to give up. If she did not tell him, John or Jenny would.
‘I went to the Lamb and Flag and talked to the barmaid about Black Jack, and he was there.’ Theo’s eyebrows snapped together in an intimidating frown and she hurried on. ‘I put it to him that to temporarily confuse the authorities was one thing, but to leave an innocent man to hang in his stead was not the action of a famous highwayman such as himself. I thought an appeal to his pride would work and it did.’
‘Dear God.’ Theo let his head fall back on the pillow. ‘He might…slit your throat.’
‘Well he didn’t. I rather liked him,’ Katherine said.
‘Did you, indeed?’
‘Yes, I did. He looked a lot less frightening than you did the first time I saw you.’
Theo merely rolled his eyes. ‘Suppose… gave you note for magistrate? Or… turn himself in?’
‘Neither. We went to Mr Highson’s house. I pretended to faint and asked to have the window opened and Black Jack got in. Then we explained.’
‘He listened?’ Theo sounded incredulous. Katherine found she was becoming indignant. The more she thought about it, the more proud she was of her audacious plan.
‘I was clinging to the magistrate, so he had to listen, and John was guarding the door to stop the servants getting in. Mr Highson recognised Black Jack who gave him his watch backand repeated something he had said when he stole it. So Mr Highson was convinced and was naturally anxious to have you pardoned as quickly as possible.’
‘Let me be sure I have this right.’ Theo rasped, forcing a whole sentence out. He sounded absolutely furious. ‘You travel to Hertfordshire, you beard a notorious highwayman in his lair, you assist him breaking and entering a magistrate’s house, you assault the magistrate and you help the highwayman escape again. Correct?’
‘Yes,’ Katherine said mutinously.
‘And how did you pay for all this?’
‘I sold a hideous diamond necklace I had been hiding away for a rainy day, if you must know.’
She waited, a hot knot of misery inside her. She had not wanted Theo to be grateful, but she had expected him to be pleased, perhaps a little admiring of her enterprise and resolution. Now he seemed to be angry with her.
‘You spent your last resources…put life and reputation… danger… the word of a complete stranger?’ He was looking at her now, his eyes blazing, his broken voice no longer angry but full of admiration. Katherine felt the tight knot of misery melt.
