72. The Impetuous Duchess Read online

  ‘I am nothing to him! Nothing!’ Jabina told herself despairingly.

  She looked up at him again, her eyes searching through the mist to see him clearly and she thought in fact it was now easier to see him than it had been a moment ago.

  In that very second there was the sound of a boat approaching them and a voice called out,

  “Heave to – in the name of His Majesty King George III and identify yourselves.”

  The words came sharply through the mist and, even as they died away, from the other side of their boat there was a splash of oars and a second voice shouted hoarsely,

  “Identify yourselves in the name of His Majesty. This is a Revenue Cutter and if we don’t receive an answer from you we will open fire.”

  “Oh, me God!” one of the oarsmen gasped. “We be trapped! ’Tis the gallows for us!”

  “Aye, we be trapped!” another man groaned.

  Then to Jabina’s complete surprise, the Duke struggled to his feet and, holding onto the barrels in front of him in order to keep his balance, he said,

  “Leave this to me,” and shouting into the mist called out, “I am the Duke of Warminster escaping from France. We need your assistance in finding a place to land.”

  There was silence before an audible gasp that Jabina knew was one of astonishment.

  Then she heard the Duke say in a low voice to the men in front of him,

  “Drop the cargo overboard – and quickly!”

  She was sure that they must have been as amazed by the Duke’s announcement as the Revenue Cutter was.

  Then through the mist a voice called out,

  “Give your name again! Did you say you had escaped from France?”

  “Yes! I enlisted the help of these men to bring me to England,” the Duke replied. “As I said before, I am the Duke of Warminster and need your protection. Kindly show us where to land.”

  The smugglers were busy throwing the bales of tobacco and the barrels of brandy into the sea.

  Each one went in with a splash. Then, as several men cleared the stern while others started on what was in the bow, they saw Jabina and stared at her with their mouths open.

  “Hurry!” the Duke said in an urgent voice. “The mist is clearing. They will be able to see us shortly.”

  The men redoubled their efforts, the boat rocking precariously as they jettisoned the barrels one after the other.

  “You will find Seaford Creek to your North-West,” a voice boomed from the Revenue Cutter. “Don’t go further North or you will be on the cliffs! We are close beside you so do not try to evade us.”

  They were not certain, Jabina thought, that the Duke’s reply had not been a trick of the smugglers to evade capture.

  At the same time she felt that those in charge of the Revenue Cutter must have been impressed by the cultured tones of his voice and the authority with which he spoke.

  “We are obeying your instructions,” the Duke answered.

  He seated himself in the bow as, with the boat now empty of its cargo, the men picked up their oars.

  The barrels of brandy had sunk easily, but the bales of tobacco had not yet disappeared.

  Jabina could see the smugglers looking at them anxiously.

  The fat bales were floating on the tide and some of them were drifting in towards the shore.

  “Let’s get away from here as quickly as possible,” the Duke said in a low voice.

  The men started to pull at the oars turning as they had been directed towards the North-West.

  Now it was light enough to see their faces and Jabina, pulling her cloak closely round her, realised that they looked a coarse and indeed villainous crew.

  She was quite convinced that had she and the Duke been discovered before the arrival of the Revenue Cutter, they would have been dealt with roughly if not violently and might in fact have lost their lives.

  “’Ow did you get in the boat without us a-noticin’ you?” a man asked the Duke.

  “The less we say the better!” the Duke replied. “Voices carry on the water. Leave the talking to me and you shall not go unrewarded in effecting my rescue and that of the lady with me.”

  “If you give us away,” one of the men said, “they’ll hang us or it’ll be transportation!”

  “Just leave it to me,” the Duke answered.

  When the man would have spoken again, the head man hushed him into silence.

  The mist cleared suddenly and Jabina saw ahead of them a wide creek with marshland beyond the cliffs sloping down to it on either side.

  The smugglers turned into the still water and hardly were they away from the sea when not one but two Revenue Cutters appeared behind them.

  They ran a little way up the creek and the front oarsmen jumped ashore to steady the boat while the others, having shipped their oars, straightened their backs and stepped out onto the muddy bank.

  The Duke followed suit and, lifting Jabina in his arms, carried her clear of the mud and onto some grass.

  Having set her down, he walked along the creek to where the Commander of the first Revenue Cutter had come ashore.

  “I am exceedingly grateful for your assistance, Officer,” he said, “and still more grateful to have escaped from France.”

  “You are indeed the Duke of Warminster?” the Officer enquired.

  “I am!” the Duke said with a smile. “As I expect you know Bonaparte has ordered the arrest and imprisonment of every tourist who was in France on the 18th of May.”

  “We heard that was what he had done,” the Officer replied. “We could hardly believe it!”

  “I can assure you that it is true,” the Duke answered. “This lady and I managed to escape from Paris in disguise. When we reached the coast, these men were kind enough to convey us home.”

  There was a faint smile on the Revenue Officer’s lips as he looked at the smugglers standing awkwardly by their boat.

  There would be no mistaking, Jabina thought, their motive for having crossed the Channel and they certainly looked the kind of desperate gang who would take any risk to bring back the contraband they could make so much profit from.

  The Officer looked them over and then turned to the Duke.

  “As their boat is empty, Your Grace,” he said, “I have no evidence, of course, that they were moving along the coast of France except on an errand of mercy.”

  The Duke smiled in return.

  “I am extremely obliged to them.”

  “I am sure of that, Your Grace,” the Officer replied. “I cannot believe that the French prisons are particularly comfortable!”

  The Duke put out his hand.

  “Thank you,” he said, “and perhaps you would be gracious enough to thank on my behalf whoever is in charge of your other Cutter. I assure you both that I shall notify the Lords of the Admiralty of the service you have done me.”

  “I thank Your Grace,” the Officer smiled.

  The Duke walked a few paces to the leader of the smuggler’s crew.

  “I can show you my gratitude in a more practical form,” he said. “I have with me enough money to reward each of your men with five pounds for the part they played in my rescue. I will also give you a ‘note of hand’ for a further hundred pounds which can be collected from any Bank in the vicinity.”

  The expressions on the men’s faces were almost ludicrous.

  “That’s real sportin’ of Your Grace,” the head man said. “We won’t pretend that the dumpin’ of the cargo be not a real grievous loss.”

  “Another time you might be caught red-handed,” the Duke warned. “Surely the penalties are too high for it to be worth your while.”

  “There’s always a good chance, Your Grace, and the rewards when we keeps away from them Revenue Cutters be ’igh too.”

  The Duke did not continue to argue. Instead he drew the money from his inside pocket and wrote out a “note of hand”, putting his signature to it.

  “Should you have any difficulty in cashing this,” he said,
“please let me know. Tonight at any rate I shall be staying at Seaford Park. Do you know it?”

  “Aye, Your Grace. ’Tis but three mile from ’ere.”

  “I thought that was about the distance,” the Duke said. “What I don’t know is how I can convey the lady there and indeed myself. The amount of leg room we had in your boat last night has left us both somewhat cramped!”

  “I can fetch two of ponies for Your Grace,” the head man suggested. “They’ll not be far away. This be where we were to land.”

  “Two ponies would suit us admirably!” the Duke replied.

  The head man turned away to give instructions to the oarsmen.

  By now the Revenue Cutters had moved out of the creek back to the sea and it was obvious that in a few seconds they would be out of sight.

  The head man set off across the marshland.

  The oarsmen lifted the boat out of the water and carried it up the creek for a short distance.

  Then to Jabina’s surprise they disappeared!

  She realised that in the shrubs and rough land leading down to the creek there was a hiding place that was doubtless one they used habitually.

  They were out of view for a short time and then they reappeared one by one, but not to return to where she was waiting. Instead they walked away quickly and because it was still not completely daylight they were soon out of sight.

  The Duke turned towards Jabina.

  “We are home!” he said softly.

  “I was so afraid – we would be discovered,” she answered.

  “Fortune was on our side,” he replied, “and now we have only a short way to go to return to the comforts of civilisation!”

  Jabina could not answer, feeling a sudden pang of unhappiness because he seemed so pleased at returning to the world he knew.

  “If you are wondering,” the Duke went on as she did not speak, “who lives at Seaford Park, there again luck is with us, for it belongs to my cousin, Sir Geoffrey Minster. He is the Member of Parliament for this part of the world.”

  “That will be nice for you,” Jabina said in a low voice.

  “I very much doubt if Sir Geoffrey is here at the moment,” the Duke said. “With the Declaration of War, Parliament will be sitting and he will be in London and I expect his wife will be with him. But they would, I know, be only too glad for us to avail ourselves of their hospitality in their absence.”

  As the Duke spoke, there appeared through the mist with almost startling suddenness two ponies led by a boy and with the head man walking beside them.

  “Here they be, Your Grace,” he said to the Duke. “The boy’ll show you the way.”

  “I am most grateful to you,” the Duke answered.

  He pressed some gold coins into the man’s hand and then he lifted Jabina onto the first pony and mounted the other himself.

  They were small but sure-footed, the kind of sturdy animal most useful in carrying heavy loads of contraband to some secret place of hiding from which it could be conveyed to London.

  The boy made no attempt to lead them, but they followed him and he walked with confidence across the marshy land until they reached the firm grassy turf of the downs.

  The mist was patchy, one moment they could see glimpses of landscape, the next it was soft and wet against their cheeks.

  Then, as they appeared to be rising to higher ground, there was sunshine and the whole beauty of the Sussex landscape lay in front of them.

  Jabina let her hood fall back from her head because the fur around her face made her feel hot.

  She had the feeling that Madame Delmas would be exceedingly annoyed at losing her expensive and valuable cloak, but perhaps it would pale into insignificance beside the fact that she had also lost her husband.

  Jabina tried to feel sorry for her, but the memory of the General made her shudder at the way he had treated her.

  ‘He deserved to die!’ she told herself.

  It was impossible to talk intimately to the Duke with the boy in charge of the ponies within earshot and they rode in silence.

  Travelling first over the downs and then along twisting narrow roads with cultivated fields on either side, they came in sight of the roofs of houses and the high steeple of a Church.

  But, before they reached the village, they came to an imposing wrought-iron gateway with a lodge on either side.

  The boy led the way through the gates and they found themselves riding up a long drive of ancient oak trees.

  This brought them in sight of Seaford Park, a beautiful Elizabethan building with gabled roofs and small diamond-paned windows glinting in the sunshine.

  “How pretty!” Jabina exclaimed.

  “And it is as comfortable as it looks!” the Duke promised her. “I know that what you want more than anything else at thid moment is a chance to sleep.”

  “It’s still very early in the morning,” Jabina said. “I wonder if anyone will be awake?”

  She need not have worried.

  There was a mob-capped maid scrubbing the stone steps who stared at them in surprise as they drew up outside the front door.

  She fetched a footman in his shirtsleeves who hurried away to return with an elderly man correctly attired, who the Duke addressed,

  “Good morning, Bateman! I dare say you are surprised to see me, but I have in fact just arrived from France, this lady and I having escaped imprisonment by the French.”

  “Your Grace is very welcome,” Bateman said respectfully. “I regret that Sir Geoffrey and her Ladyship departed for London four days ago.”

  “I thought that would be the case,” the Duke answered, “but I am sure in their absence thatyou will look after us, Bateman?”

  “I will indeed, Your Grace.”

  “What we require at the moment is sleep,” the Duke said. “A smuggler’s boat is not particularly comfortable.”

  “A smuggler’s boat, Your Grace?”

  “It was the only transport we could find, Bateman,” the Duke said with a smile, “and indeed we were very glad to find it.”

  “I can well imagine that, Your Grace!”

  Bateman bowed to Jabina.

  “If you could come this way, ma’am, the housekeeper, Mrs. Dangerfield will attend to you.”

  Jabina felt a sudden reluctance to leave the Duke, but there was nothing she could do but follow the butler upstairs.

  There he handed her over to a rather awe-inspiring housekeeper, who came bursting down the corridor still fastening her gown and obviously agitated at being fetched from her bedroom so early in the morning.

  She ushered Jabina into a large bedroom with a huge four-poster bed in keeping with the period of the house, trimmed with flounced muslin, which was echoed by a dressing table similarly adorned.

  “How attractive this is!” Jabina exclaimed.

  Then, because she suddenly felt completely exhausted, she allowed the housekeeper to help her undress.

  She slipped into a borrowed nightgown that was far prettier than anything she had ever owned herself and climbed into the comfortable bed and closed her eyes.

  She heard the housekeeper moving around the room drawing the curtains and tut-tutting disapprovingly over the torn condition of her gown. But she was too tired to think up a plausible explanation or even worry what the woman thought.

  Almost before the door closed and she was alone, she fell asleep.

  *

  Jabina awoke because people were moving about the room.

  For a moment she thought that it was inconsiderate of them to disturb her.

  But, opening her eyes, she saw two housemaids carrying in pans of water for a bath that had been arranged on the hearthrug in front of a small fire.

  She lay looking at them and then the housekeeper came to the side of the bed.

  “His Grace has suggested, ma’am, that you might wish to dine with him.”

  “Dine?” Jabina exclaimed. “Is it as late as that?”

  The housekeeper smiled.

  �
��You’ve slept for nearly nine hours, ma’am!”

  “I was so tired,” Jabina said. “But I would like to dine with His Grace.”

  “Feeling that was what you’d wish, ma’am,” the housekeeper replied, “there’s a bath prepared for you and we can then choose a gown from her Ladyship’s wardrobe for you to go downstairs in.”

  “I certainly cannot wear the clothes I crossed the Channel in,” Jabina said with a smile. “His Grace and I had to escape in disguise, as I expect you have gathered. I was a femme de chambre – a lady’s maid!”

  “I can’t believe it!” Mrs. Dangerfield said holding up her hands in horror. “And His Grace?”

  “A valet. And very proficient he was!”

  “I can’t imagine how you endured such hardships, ma’am,” Mrs. Dangerfield said, “but then one can expect anything of them foreigners.”

  She spoke with such disgust in her voice that Jabina could not help laughing.

  She made no other explanations of their plight, but stepped into the warm bath scented with rose water and felt that she washed away not only the dirt and discomfort of the journey, but also her fear.

  It was only now that she realised how frightened she had been, not only at the thought of being captured and put in prison but also directly by the people she had encountered on their journey.

  There had been the drunken soldiers, the General and the smugglers with their desperate villainous faces all to make her tremble.

  Yet Jabina knew that, although now she was safely back in England, one fear remained.

  The fear for her future and what lay ahead of her once she must leave the Duke.

  ‘Perhaps England,’ Jabina thought despairingly, ‘will prove as terrifying as France.’

  She remembered what had happened when she ran away from the Duke at the Scottish inn and the drunken man in the kilt had stolen her money.

  She still had her mother’s jewellery to prevent her from setting off penniless on her own.

  And yet if there were thieves and robbers waiting to snatch it from her, how long would that last?

  She felt as she bathed and dressed as if a thousand questions pressed themselves on her mind and she could find no answer to any of them.

  She only knew that she was afraid and that the future seemed very dark and ominous.