The Major and the Pickpocket (23 page)

Marcus was already on his way.

Tassie had the letter in one hand; in the other was the little pistol Lemuel had obtained for her, aimed at Sebastian. Sebastian’s face was ashen, his hands raised.

‘You will unlock this door,’ Tassie said steadily, ‘and tell your servants to let me go, or I will shoot. You will say
nothing
about tonight; you will abandon your claim
to Lornings, or I will tell everyone how you threatened me with rape, and worse.’

Sebastian’s lip curled then. ‘My God, you gaming-house slut, who would take your word against mine?’

‘Many people, I think, Lord Corbridge! Because all of town knows you as a liar and a cheat! Open this door, or…’

But then her words died on her lips, because she heard a sound outside, the sound of a horse’s hooves coming rapidly down the street towards Sebastian’s house. And then the sound stopped, only to be replaced by the noise of someone banging at the front door, someone strong and impatient—someone like Marcus…

‘Dear me,’ said Sebastian softly. ‘It seems your hero has arrived. Too late, unfortunately. Give me the letter, my dear, and the gun; neither are any use to you now.’

‘Never!’ She gripped them all the tighter.

‘If you are stupid enough to try to shoot me,’ drawled Sebastian, ‘then Jessop has orders to ensure your hero Marcus is quite unrecognisable by the time my men have finished with him. I have told him to put his eyes out.
Give me the gun and the letter.
‘

Oh, no. Nearly every part of her plan had gone horribly wrong. Slowly she handed them to him. Then, before he could stop her, she flew over to the window and flung it open. ‘Marcus!’ she cried out into the darkness below. ‘There are men waiting for you, to attack you! It’s a trap—please, please get away while you can!’

But she knew it was too late. Her fingers gripping the window ledge, she gazed out into the street below, uncaring of the tears that streamed down her cheeks. Sebastian dragged her away, and she let him push her into a chair while he went to lock the letter in a bureau.

This had been a final, desperate gamble to win back Marcus’s approval, his love. Instead, all she’d done was
draw him into terrible danger. Marcus would hate her now. Would Sebastian’s ruffians harm him badly? Would they beat him to death on the pavement outside, then vanish into the night, leaving him as yet another victim of the faceless criminals who haunted London’s streets? Every sense stretched to breaking point, she heard fresh sounds in the house below, muffled, but terrible to her ears. She could hear the noise of men fighting, interspersed with groans and curses. The sound of several crude villains with cudgels, who would be laying with bloodthirsty ferocity into one brave man, who would fight them for as long as he was conscious. Sebastian’s terrible words hammered in her brain: I
have told him to put his eyes out…

Now that the letter was safely locked away, Sebastian was listening too, and the avid gleam in his eyes as he fingered her pistol quite sickened her. ‘I think my soldier cousin is getting his just reward at last,’ he said softly. ‘Shall we go and see?’

He pulled her up from the chair. Though his touch revolted her, Tassie let him grip her slender arm as he unlocked the door and led her to the top of the darkened stairwell. Sebastian thought she had given up. But even now, there must be
something
she could do, to save the man she loved so much. It was dark in the big hallway below, and there were men moving around there. The big front door was ajar, and someone was lying, moaning softly, against it. Was it—
Marcus?

Sebastian, still gripping her wrist to pull her downstairs, rapped impatiently, ‘Damn it all, Jessop! Light the candles, will you? I cannot see a thing!’

‘Right away, my lord,’ said a man’s voice quickly, almost cheerfully, and Tassie jumped, because that voice wasn’t Jessop’s at all! And then the candle flared,
and she saw that the person with the taper was black-haired Georgie Jay, with a wide grin on his face; and as the sparse light flickered round the big hall, she saw Lemuel, too, and Billy, rubbing his brawny fists together with relish. Lying against the door was the man Jessop, with his eyes closed, and a livid bruise welling up on his forehead; while near his feet lay another oaf, presumably one of Corbridge’s thugs, also unconscious, with a heavy cudgel lying by his limp hand.

And old Matt was there, too, but he had his back to Tassie, and he was crouched over someone who was slumped against the wall, someone painfully familiar, whose long dark hair curtained his face, and whose loose white shirt was splashed with crimson…

Tassie raced towards him, stumbling in her haste, her sobs catching in her throat. ‘Marcus. Don’t die. Oh, please don’t die, when I love you so much. I—I’d almost rather you married Philippa than died…’

And then old Matt was stepping back with a big grin on his face, and Marcus was getting slowly but surely to his feet, resting one hand on the wall for support, and turning to smile at her in a way that made her heart stand still. ‘I’d prefer neither, minx,’ he said in that warm and tender voice that she knew so well. ‘I’m going to live a long, healthy life, and I’m going to marry you, as soon as possible. I keep trying to tell you, but you won’t listen.’

Tassie gazed up at his familiar, wide-shouldered figure and her heart was overfull. ‘But—I thought you were hurt,’ she stammered. ‘You lay so still. And—and the blood…’

He put his strong hands on her shoulders, steadying her, warming her. ‘My leg let me down, that is all,’ he said. ‘One of Corbridge’s villains struck at it with his
cudgel before your friend Billy there felled him with a single blow. There’s no damage done, I’m sure. As for the blood, why, one of Sebastian’s friends had a nasty broken nose, thanks, I think, to Lemuel—the blood got everywhere.’

He turned, then, to Georgie Jay and the others. ‘Our friend Lord Corbridge seems to have slunk off upstairs. Go and find him, will you? And hold him until I have time for him.’

They hurried up the stairway, leaving the two of them alone. Marcus turned back to Tassie, smoothing her tousled curls from her cheek with gentle fingers. She shivered, and touched his hand. ‘Oh, Marcus. I hadn’t guessed he could be so—vile.’

His face was suddenly dark, and he drew her close. ‘I was in time, wasn’t I, Tassie? If that devil has hurt you…’ His eyes roved tensely over her tumbled curls, her torn gown.

‘Hurt me? God’s teeth, no.’ Tassie laughed weakly. ‘I could have held him off for ever, never fear. I had a pistol, you see!’

‘So I heard. I hope you didn’t use it.’

‘No, actually. But oh, Marcus. I’m so glad to see you. How did you guess I was here? How did Georgie Jay know I was here?’

‘He was waiting to hear from me at the Blue Bell,’ he said. ‘As soon as I learned, at Lady Sallis’s, that you had gone off with Sebastian, I knew you would be in trouble, so I summoned your friends. Between us, we gave those ruffians an unpleasant surprise.’

She gazed seriously up at his dear, familiar face. ‘I’ve missed you, Marcus,’ she whispered. ‘Oh, I’ve missed you.’

‘And I you, minx,’ he murmured, drawing her into
his arms and holding her there. And Tassie felt the gladness flooding through her, melting away all the unhappiness, all the fear of these past few weeks, just as surely as the sun had melted the spring snow on the hillside, on the morning after the night when he’d made her his.

Then she saw that Georgie Jay was coming down the stairs again, grinning widely. ‘Begging your pardon, Major, we have his lordship upstairs. Billy’s got him trussed like a porker, but he’s still struggling and cussing fit to bust, and swearing he’ll never let you have some letter or other. Would you come up and speak to him, or should we just knock him cold, which would certainly be easier?’

‘You can leave that pleasure to me, if necessary,’ Marcus replied grimly. ‘But first we have certain matters to discuss, my cousin and I.’

He started to put Tassie gently from him; she hated to be parted from him for even one moment, but knew that he had to see this business through.

‘Marcus,’ she said quickly. ‘The letter that Sir Roderick signed, promising Lornings to Sebastian—I’ve got it safe. Here.’ She pulled it out from the pocket of her skirt. ‘I won it off him fair and square, Marcus, but of course I knew he’d never let me get away with it; so in the midst of the game as he went for more wine I replaced it with a fake I’d had made and pushed the
real
one in my pocket!’

‘You planned all this rather thoroughly, didn’t you?’ said Marcus, his eyes sparkling.

Her face fell slightly. ‘Well, my plan actually went a little wrong, for I could not hold Sebastian off with my pistol once he told me his men were going to beat you to a pulp. But seeing as we have Sir Roderick’s letter, we can really spoil Sebastian’s game now, can’t we?’

He drew her once more into his arms, and gave her a long, lingering kiss that left Tassie quite dazed with happiness. ‘Sebastian didn’t realise what he was taking on when he tangled with you,’ he said. ‘And neither, my darling, did I.’

Then Marcus went upstairs, to deal with Lord Sebastian Corbridge, and Tassie was able to talk to Georgie Jay and her friends; to question them avidly, to exclaim with them over what had happened; to find out from them, in detail, how Marcus had enlisted their aid.

Lemuel had managed, with some effort, to get over the jealousy he’d felt as he witnessed the reunion of Marcus and Tassie. ‘He’s a prime ‘un with his fives, he is, Tass! You should have seen him laying about them when those ruffians set on us!’

Tassie laughed, but she still felt a shiver of fear when she thought of the danger Marcus had put himself in, for her.

‘Georgie,’ she said suddenly, ‘you told me once that if I got myself into trouble, I was on my own.’

Georgie Jay put his arm round her. ‘You didn’t really believe that, lass, did you?’ he said affectionately. ‘We’re on your side, always. But—’ and his dark eyes twinkled ‘—I rather think that a new road is opening out before you now.’

And then, before Tassie could reply, Hal, who was also in on it all, it seemed, turned up outside with a carriage; and Tassie, with fond farewells to her friends and promises to call on them at the Blue Bell very soon, allowed herself to be taken back to Portman Square. She hated leaving Marcus; but Hal told her gently that Marcus had business with Sebastian that would take him some time. With that, she had to be content.

Tassie slept heavily in the big bedchamber where Marcus had first brought her after that night at the Angel. It seemed a lifetime ago now.

When she awoke, the sun was high in the sky, and the birds sang in the new-leafed trees that adorned the square. She put on the gown that Caro must have asked Emilia to leave out for her, and hurried downstairs. Emilia greeted her in a positively warm fashion, and even Sansom was respectful as he set out her breakfast. The only thing that clouded her morning was learning that Marcus, who had apparently returned late last night, had already gone out on business, though she was careful not to let her disappointment show.

Hal was out with him, but Caro kept her company, taking the opportunity to ask kind but discreet questions about Tassie’s stay in the country. Tassie tried to respond politely, but her nerves were stretched taut, her heart was over-full, and every time a horse went by outside, she jumped as if she were on strings. Last night Marcus had said he loved her. Surely, surely he must be repenting of that now. That was why he was keeping out of her way, hoping, perhaps, that she would realise her folly and leave…

She could hardly eat. Caro left her in the sunny first-floor salon with a novel from the circulating library, which she only pretended to read.

It was late in the afternoon when at last she heard Marcus and Hal’s voices in the hall downstairs. She heard them coming swiftly up the stairs, and moments later they had burst into the room; Caro was behind them, a delighted smile on her face. Tassie jumped up, the book falling to the floor, her heart thumping with
tension; and then Marcus was striding towards her, catching her up in his arms, swinging her round and round until she was dizzy.

‘We’ve done it!’ he exulted. ‘Lornings is safe! We’ve done it, Tassie!’

Hal, too, was beaming. Marcus set her down, but he still held her close to him, and his eyes were so full of warmth, of love, that she felt her heart turn over.

‘So Sebastian has abandoned his claim?’ she breathed.

Marcus kissed her tenderly, holding her in his arms. ‘How could he do otherwise,’ he said, ‘when you, my darling, had so effectively beaten him at his own game, and won the letter from him?’

She said, still anxious, ‘It’s true that I won it from him, fair and square! But—he is quite capable of refusing to accept my victory, isn’t he?’

Marcus shook his head quickly. ‘No. I have advised Sebastian that he will be wise to accept your win with good grace, and leave behind this whole sordid business while he may. A witness has been discovered, you see, to swear that the gaming den into which my godfather was led was set up by Sebastian for the whole purpose of stripping Sir Roderick of his wealth.’

Tassie absorbed this silently, concentrating on every word. Hal said, ‘But Sebastian could still dispute the whole business in court if he’d a mind to, surely?’

Caro, too, was listening anxiously. Marcus nodded. ‘He could try. But—’ and he held Tassie closer ‘—Tassie’s valiant gamble last night brought things to a head. I was able to warn Sebastian that I would lay charges of abduction and assault if he continued to press his case. There was also the matter of the thefts from Lornings. He argued a little, but I—persuaded him.’

‘God’s teeth,’ said Tassie, ‘did you hit the blackguard, Marcus? I vow, I would have done.’

‘Bloodthirsty wench.’ Marcus grinned. ‘Only when he was stupid enough to try to draw a sword on me. Then I hit him twice. Once, for my godfather Roderick. And once, my darling, for you.’ He drew her close into his arms, and Hal and Caro together slipped quietly from the room.

Tassie shivered in his arms, still unable to forget her fear last night, for Marcus. ‘Oh, I am so very
glad
that justice has been done! But what will Sebastian do now?’