Page 14 of To Heal a Broken Earl
“Oh, it’s just the damp air. Traveling always does this to me,” Doris said, taking out a handkerchief and blowing her nose.
“We have arrived at the Red Rooster Inn,” Lord Wilton said. “Here’s the plan, Doris. We will check into the inn and then leave silently through the rear exit after Lady Emma and Katie don disguises as boys.”
“Do you think we’ve been followed?” the maid asked. “Lady Beadle said I needed to watch for anything unusual and let you know if I saw someone.”
Emma’s lips twitched as she recalled Lord Wilton’s name for Doris…the sleepy chaperone. “Did you see anyone?” she asked.
Doris shook her head. “Er, not that I recall. However, I shall be more diligent from now on.”
Emma squeezed her shoulder. “It’s all right, dear Doris. Lord Armstrong and Lord Wilton have thought of everything. Hopefully, we will be safely at Lord Wilton’s estate before anyone notices we are no longer there.”
“Do you think we are being followed?” Doris asked, her breath hitching.
“We won’t know for a little while yet,” Lord Wilton said.
“We’re going to play dress-up!” Katie announced proudly.
“Oh! Do I have a part?” Doris asked.
“Yes. You will be as you are, the maid, but there will be no lines to say,” Lord Wilton said. The carriage stopped under the awning near the entrance. “Everyone ready?” he asked.
“Ready!” Katie said with a little hop.
“Very good. Remember the plan. Follow me and remember not to speak. I must talk to the innkeeper first. Then you’ll be donning your disguise, and then we’ll be going down the back stairs and leaving through a door in the back of the inn,” he said, picking up a valise by his feet.
As they entered the inn, a short, pudgy, bespectacled man, who identified himself as Mr. Kirk, the innkeeper, met them. He looked around and then lowered his voice to a whisper. “This is m’wife, m’lord,” he said, indicating a woman next to him, who seemed to appear out of the air. “We have a room upstairs ready for your party. Your room is the first door to the right. And when you are ready, we stand ready to assist.”
“Thank you, Mr. Kirk,” Lord Wilton said, gripping the valise and checking the inside, before placing a gold sovereign in the innkeeper’s hand. “I take it Lord Armstrong has already arrived?”
“Yes, he is in the tavern. You will be leaving through the back door. He will see you there.”
Lord Wilton turned to Emma. “Ladies, and Katie, here is your key. First door to the right. Doris, here’s a brown valise to pack Emma and Katie’s clothing in. You will need to carry it down. Leave nothing behind. I’ll be here waiting. Be as quick as you can.”
“Yes, my lord,” Doris said, taking the key.
The three of them went upstairs—Emma holding Katie’s hand—leaving Lord Wilton with the innkeeper. As she reachedthe top of the stairs, Emma glanced over her shoulder, and her eyes met Lord Wilton’s as he gave her an encouraging nod.
~*~
Lord William Armstrong nodded at Wilton as they passed each other in the small hallway at the bottom of the back stairs. Wilton gave him a nod and touched his left brow, a signal they had agreed on to mean all was going to plan. Mr. Kirk had become an experienced and trusted resource, someone they had depended on for this type of escape on several occasions. Pleased, Armstrong took a sip of his drink. Keeping his black hat pulled low over his face, he stepped outside and watched Wilton’s group leave in the black post-chaise waiting for them with two of his outriders. They would arrive at the Thames in two hours and board the boat that was waiting for them.
Dressed as a disheveled, unshaven older man, Armstrong took his seat near the back of the tavern, a place that gave him an excellent view of his surroundings.
The innkeeper’s wife checked to make sure Lady Grantham, Doris, and Katie had left behind nothing that could betray their identities. “Here’s your mug of ale, m’lord,” she said, setting down the beverage. “Now drink up and begone with you. You’re stinking up the place.” That was code foreverything went like clockwork.
As he took a new seat in a corner closer to the door, he watched and waited for his quarry. He wasn’t disappointed.
“May I speak with the innkeeper?” a tall man demanded of the innkeeper’s wife. His brimmed hat was low over his face as he stepped up to the bar.
Armstrong studied the man, feeling there was something familiar about him, but unable to pinpoint what it was. The man’s head was partially hidden beneath the brim. It irritatedhim that he couldn’t see the man’s face. The only thing he could make out was a long, thin, aristocratic nose.
“Yes, m’lord?” Mr. Kirk said, emerging from a back room and hanging his apron on a hook behind the bar. “I understand you wish to see me.”
“I’m looking for a woman and child—a girl. My wife and child.” The man cleared his throat. “They were just ahead of me, and I lost them. I was to have met them here before they departed. Unfortunately, I was delayed. Have you seen them?”
Mr. Kirk’s expression was one of pure puzzlement. “No, m’lord. Ye know we don’t typically have children in an establishment such as this. Not good for business, you know.”
Armstrong lifted the brim of his hat slightly to better see the man’s face, but his effort was met by disappointment. Even so, the man’s voice and stature seemed familiar.
