Several chickens clucked and scattered as she walked by, and a fat white goat eyed her with suspicion as she spoke sweetly to it. “Nice goat …” she said as she led her horse towards the groom coming out of the barn.
“Sorry, mum, didn’t hear ye … was out back oi was.”
“No bother, just walk him for a bit before you water and stall him … and do give him a flake of hay as well.” She dove into her pocket and paid the boy, adding a generous gratuity for himself as well.
“Oi’ll do ’im up proper, oi will,” the lad said, grinning as he pocketed his share and put the rest in a can at the side of the barn.
This left Miss Bretton facing the main entrance of the inn. She took a long breath of air and marched towards the front door. She saw no sign of Babs and no sign of her Freddy, and she was beginning to tremble with trepidation.
“Well, now,” she mumbled to herself. “You should have known better …”
***
Freddy saw the inn as they passed the driveway to it and called to his driver to circle back to it.
Something nagged at him.
The inn was perfectly respectable in appearance, and so he told himself he was just being fanciful and all would be explained as soon as he found his dear Corry.
A moment later he managed the business of climbing out of the carriage with only a slight wince of pain as he jostled his set arm still hanging in a sling.
It was just inside the front door that he found Miss Bretton questioning the innkeeper. She heard Freddy’s approach and turned to say, “Thank goodness, Freddy … you are here.” And so saying she flung herself into his arm, realized she was pressed up against his sling, and then stood back to say, “Oh … did I hurt you? I am so very—”
“Nonsense. Hurt me indeed. It would have hurt me if you hadn’t thrown yourself into m’arms. Its where you belong.” He grinned at her, but then he got right to the point. “Corry, why did you want to meet here?”
She looked at him with dawning horror. “I did not … but I received this from you …” She fished into her deep pocket, produced the note, and handed it to him.
He surveyed it quickly and shook his head. “What devilry is this? I did not pen this …” He looked at her. “And you did not send me a note requesting me to meet you and Babs here?”
“No … I did not, and Freddy … I fear the worst. I think Babs may have received some sort of note as well … and may now be … in danger …” This last she said with a fist to her mouth and a sob caught in her throat.
“Well then, come on … where is your carriage? You come along with me, and—”
“I came by horse. Quicker …”
“Egad, woman, you are everything a man could hope for!” He beamed proudly. “Right, then, we’ll tether it at the back of my coach … and you come along with me. Looks like it will rain any moment …” With that he led her unceremoniously out of the inn beneath the innkeeper’s astounded gaze.
Freddy grimaced to hear the innkeeper at his back remark to his wife, “Flash gentry, never know what faradiddle they will be up to.”
***
The duke, with Sir Charles beside him, rode hard towards Brighton. He had a nagging gut feeling that things were in a turmoil.
After some time his horse tired; Nick pulled him to a trot, relieved to see the outskirts of Brighton ahead.
They took a shortcut through the back of the village and parted at the duke’s lodgings, where Charles left to attend to his own affairs.
Nick was poised to take the steps at a run when he heard his name called and turned to see the count running down the avenue and waving at him like a lunatic.
“Ho there … Nick … Nick, I say … Nick …” cried the Count, in a state of hysteria.
“What is it Otto? I am a bit rushed …”
“Babs … he took Babs … I’ve been making tracks to get my horse …” Otto was out of breath and obviously beside himself.
“Took Babs … who took Babs?” Fear gripped the duke’s heart and wrung it unmercifully.
“That devil friend of yours, Sir Edward—”