Ambersley (Lords of London) (49 page)

A burst of birdsong caught Johanna’s attention and warned her of the coming dawn. She didn’t bother to point out that Derek wasn’t likely to allow the man who had disappeared with his wife to marry his sister
and
live at Ambersley.

Her experience during the night had taught her reasoning with Reed was useless. He listened to her arguments, nodded politely and then launched another flight of fancy. In self-defense, Johanna resorted to addressing him by his first name, as if speaking to a not very bright child. Eventually, she did her best to ignore him.

They arrived in Dover after sunup. The bumpy road and damp chill had left her stiff and irritable from lack of sleep when Reed nudged her awake. She’d quickly abandoned the notion of jumping from the moving carriage in the middle of a foggy night, but as they drew to a stop at an inn yard, Johanna planned to demand assistance from the innkeeper.

Her plan was thwarted when Reed pulled a small pistol from his cloak. Upon descending from the coach, he announced he was a Bow Street Runner. He proclaimed her his prisoner and demanded a private dining room. The innkeeper, a surly man with hair grizzled around his ears and an overbearing wife, apologized that his inn didn’t boast private dining rooms, but he could close up the coffee room and tell everyone to go elsewhere. After much cogitation, Reed agreed this would do.

Though Johanna appreciated his talent for playacting—indeed, he was fit to rival Edmund Kean on the Drury Lane stage—she knew Reed could never have hatched this ploy on his own. Unable to judge his familiarity with firearms, she dared not cross him. The last thing she needed was to get someone killed. Instead, while the coffee room was being prepared for them, she bent her thinking toward who would convince Reed to abduct her. Who would be able to promise him a chance to win Olivia if this went well? Who would stand to gain from her own disappearance? The answer burst upon her with rays of enlightenment—Curtis. He was Reed’s friend, he was Derek’s heir, and he had always wanted to cause trouble for her.

His interference couldn’t have come at a worse time. If Derek returned and found her missing, he would assume the worst. She should have left him a note before leaving the house. Gnawing the tip of her fingernail, Johanna tried to uncover some way out of this stupid mess.

The innkeeper returned to the coach to tell Reed the coffee room was prepared. “We shuttered the windows, and there’s only the one door. She won’t be able to give you the slip. But I’ll need the coffee room to use when the Mail Coach arrives at two this afternoon. The customers are always mighty thirsty when they get down from the Mail.”

“
Where does the Mail go from here?” Johanna asked.

The innkeeper looked at her as if she’d bitten him, but he wasn’t impervious to a pretty girl in a bright blue-green dress. “It goes back to London.”

Johanna didn’t dare speak another word until the innkeeper had shown them into the darkened coffee room. He called to his wife to bring their guests breakfast, and bowed himself out to Reed.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Johanna faced her abductor. “Reed, you must get me a ticket on the Mail. I haven’t money enough with me, but I’ll repay you when we return home.”

Reed smiled with the success of his playacting. “Be patient, Lady Ambersley. Someone
is
bringing you a ticket.”

“
For the Mail?” Johanna asked suspiciously.

In answer, he smiled and pretended to lock his lips closed and throw away the key.

Johanna gave an exasperated groan. “I’ve had enough of this nonsense. I shall find some way back to London. Oh, shoot me if you must!” She saw him raise the pistol, and did her best to bluff him.

Reed didn’t give ground as she thought he would, but leveled the pistol at her with what looked like remarkably accurate aim. “I cannot allow you to ruin this for me now, Lady Ambersley. You must wait with me here. Otherwise, I might never win Olivia.”

The innkeeper chose that moment to enter with their breakfast, his eyes widening at the sight of the pistol. She crossed her arms and pursed her lips as he laid two steaming plates of eggs and sausages on the table. She watched him wipe his hands on his dirty apron and then lean toward Reed.

In an exaggerated whisper, he said, “I’ve some rope if you’d like to tie her up.” He winked at Reed.

Johanna reminded herself that throwing something at them wouldn’t improve her situation in the least.

After the innkeeper left, with the clink of Reed’s coins in his pocket, Reed motioned her to sit. She watched him set his pistol beside his plate, and finally she sat across from him and played with her food.

She contemplated the gun, but quickly discarded the option. She never knew if a gun’s aim would be true, and they seemed far more difficult to control. Reed appeared more confident than she about the pistol, therefore, she wouldn’t chance wrestling it from him.

She picked at her plate. The sausage grease was coagulating, and the sight of ale on the table at this hour turned her stomach. Reed attacked his meal with gusto, and Johanna tried to imagine Olivia’s reaction to her love’s eating habits. With a tiny sigh, she pushed her plate away and sipped her acrid coffee instead. She glanced around the public room with its trestle tables, pewter plates and tankards, and dingy whitewashed walls. Her eyes drifted past the fireplace surrounded in rustic local stone. No fire was lit—it might have helped dispel the gloominess of the shuttered room. The brightest thing in the room was her dress, and she felt hopelessly out of place. The innkeeper probably thought she was a strumpet.

Then her eyes lighted on a cutlass and four rapiers hanging upon the wall. She studied them intently as she sipped her coffee. With a sword, she would have the advantage over Reed. She darted a glance his way to see him dabbing a spot of grease from his shirt. She felt sure she could best him in a fencing match.

“
Reed, if my husband were here, you know he would call you out.”

Reed drained the ale from his tankard then dabbed at his mouth with his fingertips. “But your husband isn’t here, Lady Ambersley.”

“
Indeed he’s not,” she replied, pleased he was able to deduce this simple fact. “Therefore, I have no one to defend this insult to my honor.”

He gave this some thought. “I haven’t insulted you.”

“
You kidnapped me, Reed. Most people would consider that an insult to my honor.”

He smiled and wagged a finger at her. “That’s your story, Lady Ambersley. If anyone discovers this escapade, I will say you ran away with me willingly.”

Johanna quelled the urge to box his ears.
Do you think after announcing you and I ran off together, that Olivia will marry you?
But she held her tongue, for no good could come of giving him that hare to chase. She held true to her course. “I didn’t run away with you, Reed. That’s a lie, and I demand satisfaction.”

She stripped off one then the other of her evening gloves. She, too, could play a part, and playing the helpless lady might give her the element of surprise. “I believe I should cast one of these down before you, but I hate to since the floor looks filthy.”

He stared at her for a full second before he burst out laughing. “That’s rich, Lady Ambersley. How can you demand satisfaction? Am I to believe you’re challenging me?”

“
And why not? My challenge is no worse than any man’s. We’ll use these.” She tossed her gloves on a chair and turned to grasp two of the rapiers from the wall. They came out of their holders easily, light and balanced. She felt more secure as soon as her fingers curled around their hilts. She turned back to see him rise from his chair. The pistol on the table lay forgotten as he came toward her with a smile of condescension on his face.

“
I couldn’t accept a challenge from you. What would I do if you were hurt? Please, Lady Ambersley, put the notion out of your head. Give me the swords.”

“
I’ll not be patronized, Reed. Derek taught me the basics of fencing. I think I can hold my own. As for being hurt, I’m not afraid. Are you?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

Reed flushed to his roots. “Of course not. But these are not foils with safety tips. No doubt Lord Ambersley has convinced you of your own prowess, but I’m an accomplished swordsman and more than your equal.”

“
If that be the case, than you’ve nothing to fear. You need only defend yourself to prevent hurting me and to prevent me hurting you. If indeed you are a master, I shall be unable to touch you.” She tried a disarming smile. “Come, let us attempt two or three passes. If I’m not your match, I’ll openly admit it, surrender my sword and be a good girl. However, if I best you, then you must purchase me that ticket and send me home.”

With a huff, Reed ran his hand through his blonde curls, then he accepted one of the swords from her. Johanna gathered her skirt behind her as he pushed the chairs and a table out of their way and doffed his coat. He lectured her throughout. “Very well, Lady Ambersley, I shall allow you three passes to gauge your abilities.
If
you prove you know what you’re about, then I shall consider whether to accept your wager.”

They took positions in the center of the room a few feet apart. Johanna saluted him neatly with her rapier.

Reed shook his head. “I feel so silly. Fencing at this hour, and you in a dress. You’re a very headstrong female, my lady, and I must say it’s not very becoming. I’m so glad Olivia doesn’t share these obstinate tendencies. Now, I’ll do my best not to harm you. Please take care.”

Johanna closed her eyes for a brief moment to fully experience the perspective of his devotion to Olivia. Only a blind man could be ignorant of her willful ways, and then he’d have to be deaf as well. She opened her eyes to see him saluting her, and she looked forward to wiping the condescending smile from his face.

Her first pass, she concentrated on the feel of the rapier in her hand—its weight, its balance, its resiliency. Confident of her weapon, she noted the feel of the floor, the play of the muscles in her arm and thighs, and the rate of her own heart and breathing. The dress was awkward with its rustling silk skirt and the tight sleeves that didn’t allow free movement for her shoulders. She longed for her boots, for the thin-shod slippers she wore offered no protection from the uneven floorboards, and she’d stubbed her toe on her first lunge.

Reed met her parries competently but without ingenuity or flair. Johanna suspected his lessons followed the same routine day in and out, and he was most effective if attacked in the precise order of moves he always practiced. He made no aggressive advances, but defended his position with dogged determination. With so little force behind either of their swords, only a soft clink and slide sounded each time the blades touched. In one deft motion, Johanna pierced through his guard, and tapped him on the upper arm with the side of the rapier blade.

“
Touché
,” Reed acknowledged. He grinned at her as if she’d done a parlor trick.

They both stepped back to begin anew. Johanna’s pulse quickened, and her muscles felt warm and loose. If not for the frustrating fact she was stuck in Dover, she might have enjoyed this—the throbbing toe notwithstanding. “You’re being too generous with me, Reed. If you’re not careful, I’ll tear your shirt.”

He scoffed at the implausibility of such a statement.

Johanna couldn’t resist baiting him. “You think it impossible? Perhaps you’d care to place a wager upon it—say twenty pounds?”

Reed considered this. “Twenty pounds it is. I can buy Olivia a new outfit once we’re wed.”

Johanna thought it unlikely twenty pounds would purchase more than a hat for Olivia with her expensive tastes, but it would secure her a way home.

She saluted her captor again, and immediately started her advance. He parried right, and she feinted left. She tried to get past his guard, but he was quicker than she’d credited. Perspiration trickled between her breasts by the time she saw the opening she needed. She swirled the tip of her blade right before his face, stepped forward with her right foot, and as Reed leaned to his left to stop her advance, she flicked her wrist and went directly for his sword arm. The sound of rending fabric was music to her ears as she pierced his sleeve but never scratched his skin.

She stepped back and lowered her blade while hiding her satisfaction. “Do you acknowledge the hit?” Reed was getting just what his foolishness deserved. She felt she’d earned this privilege to teach him a lesson.

“
Aye, you tore it neatly, and my best damn shirt—oh, excuse me, my lady. I didn’t mean to curse before you.”