At that moment, the trip to Derbyshire evaporated.
While the driver headed inside, James and the driver’s mate pulled his travel trunk down from the roof of the Radley family coach. They set it down on the other side of the coach out of sight. If Leah did happen to come back outside, James did not want her to spot his trunk also with its Strathmore coat of arms emblazoned on the side.
With the collar of his coat turned up to hide his face, James stood in front of the door of the coach and covered the Strathmore crest from view.
The driver returned within a few minutes. “She is booked on the Salisbury mail coach, which is the one over there,” he said, nodding in the direction of the partially laden coach. He handed James a ticket and his coin purse. “That was the last ticket. The coach leaves at the quarter of the hour, so we had better hurry if we are to get your things onboard without the young lady seeing you.”
James grabbed his travel bag, while the driver and his mate hauled his travel trunk across to the Salisbury mail coach. Once his luggage was lifted onto the roof, the next problem presented itself. How to get onboard the coach and keep his identity secret from Leah for as long as possible. She had to think she had made clean her escape. Only then could he confront her and get to the bottom of what was going on. To help her with her plans.
“Could you please take the coach back to Fulham Palace and when my father returns home, let him know that I have had a change of plans. I must find out what is happening with regard to Miss Shepherd. I fear she is in grave danger.”
He quietly slipped both men a handful of coins. They were well enough paid by his father, but he wanted to thank them personally for helping him. No one made mention that he was also buying their silence.
With the Radley family coach now gone, James climbed aboard the Salisbury mail coach. There was little to reveal his identity with the collar of his coat turned up, a scarf wrapped around his head, topped off with his hat, and finally a book strategically placed in front of his face. He would just have to pray that Leah was too busy with her own concerns to be bothered attempting to make small talk with the other passengers. If she was half as clever as he hoped she was, she would be endeavoring to keep a very low profile.
In the meantime, he would wait. Keeping her safe from a distance. Then once they were far enough away from London, he would remove his disguise.
James continually checked his pocket watch as he waited for Leah to arrive with the rest of the passengers and board the mail coach. His hand nervously tapped out a fierce beat on his knee. Time seemed to pass at an endless, slow pace. Every second that ticked by, he kept a watchful eye on the entrance to the yard. If Tobias Shepherd or Guy Dannon suddenly appeared, James was ready to leap out of the coach and race to Leah’s side.
His friendship with Guy had once been important to him, but now, protecting Leah was his everything.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Leah sat quietly in the passenger waiting room of the Gloucester Coffee House, her head lowered but her gaze fixed firmly on the door. Mary Radley’s cloak covered her fair hair and wedding gown.
Every time the little bell above the door tinkled as it opened, she gave a start. Until she was safely on board the mail coach and bound for Salisbury, there was the real chance that someone from her family would come looking for her.
Knowing Guy and his truculent pride, she doubted he would lower himself to the grubby task of hunting down his wayward fiancée and trying to convince her to marry him. He would leave that up to her father. And if Tobias Shepherd did indeed march through the door, it would be with the sole intent of finding his daughter, dragging her out of the coffee house, and hauling her back to St George’s church, where he would then stand over her and make certain she signed the wedding register.
Her hopes now lay in the false clues she had left behind at the family home. She prayed that they would be enough to throw her father off the scent and have him looking elsewhere while she made her initial escape. Her luck just had to hold; she remained hidden from view in an out-of-the-way corner of the room just in case it didn’t.
When the driver for the mail coach came inside the waiting room and rang his hand bell, crying, “All aboard for the Salisbury coach!” Leah could have wept. She slowly rose from the long wooden waiting room bench, careful not to make any sudden movements lest she attract unwanted attention.
With the cloak still covering much of her head, she followed the three other Salisbury-bound passengers outside into the yard. Her steps were measured and unhurried. Her group of fellow passengers consisted of an elderly couple who seemed more concerned about the box of cakes they were carrying than actually speaking to anyone else, and a young naval officer who had been busy studying a book of naval flag signals while he sat inside the coffee house. Leah was pleased; they seemed the perfect passengers to her mind. All three were busy with their own concerns and therefore unlikely to remember a young woman in a black cloak who kept to herself.
When she caught sight of the mail coach standing in the yard, her heart sank. It was a very small coach. Boxes and trunks were piled high on its roof. She had travelled some distance from London in her life, but usually it was in a private travel coach with room to spare. With four passengers onboard, it was going to be a very cramped journey to the west country. She quietly consoled herself. If she could make it all the way to her grandfather’s estate, the discomfort would be well worth it.
Climbing aboard, she noted a fifth passenger was already seated. The unexpected presence of another body in the small space had her flinching as she stepped inside. Her nerves were still very much on edge.
This new passenger had claimed the nearest corner on the left-hand side of the coach and had his nose already firmly in a book. He made no sign of acknowledging the other passengers as they took up their respective seats. Instinctively, Leah headed for the corner diagonally opposite to him and took her own seat. Drawing the hood of her cloak fully down over her face, she made it look as if she was intending to go to sleep.
While the mail coach driver and his mate busied themselves with tying down the last of the load, Leah sat quietly, taking in long, slow breaths. When the coach finally pulled out of the yard and turned onto Piccadilly, she put a hand to her face and wiped away a tear. The constant fear and self-doubt she had endured over the past weeks now fell away. In their place now sat quiet determination.
She had done it.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Trying to remain incognito and spy on Leah at the same time was proving more difficult than James had first imagined. The cramped conditions in the mail coach didn’t help matters. They were seated a matter of feet away from one another—too close for a casual study of her.
The young naval officer who sat shoulder to shoulder with James looked up and around the carriage every so often before going back to his study of naval signals. James was grateful that he did not attempt to engage him in conversation.
When his arm eventually tired from holding the book up in front of his face, James pulled his hat down as far as he could in order to maintain his disguise. He ventured a sneak peek at Leah at one point, but she still had the hood of her cloak drawn over her face. It was like they were both playing a game of hide and seek.
His nerves remained on edge. His brain constantly churned with the question of not why she had fled the wedding—he could easily answer that one—but where she was headed. From the moment he had seen her flee the church and leap into the waiting carriage, it was clear to him that Leah had a plan in place.
He wanted to help her with that plan. But in order to do so, he had to find a way to gain her trust and get her to bring him into her confidence. That was easier said than done. He had already failed her once before.
The Salisbury-bound coach stopped briefly several times on the way out of greater London, picking up and offloading parcels and letters. Each time, the passengers remained onboard. At the call of each stop, James made a mental note of how far they were from London.
