Page 78 of Holding Onto Love

“Yes. Sorry.” He rubbed his injured finger against his coat. “Would money lure him? Or a girl?”

“He has money enough. I don’t know about girls. Surely he’s too young.” Freddy’s motivation? “He wants to please my father.”

Crispin gave her a pitying look. “I suspect that’s why he is where he is now.”

“You need only to make him leave a place?” How curious. And that shouldn’t be so hard. “Nothing more?”

“He needs to leave quietly and stay away for a few hours.”

A few hours. “Maybe…” Oh, it was unlikely, but Crispin was looking at her expectantly, so she continued. “Maybe if I were to send him a note. Asking him to meet me somewhere.”

Crispin shook his head. “You can’t meet him.”

“All right.” She wasn’t sure that she actually wanted to see Freddy. “But I could ask him to meet me all the same.” She considered the possibilities. “If I were to tell him I was in trouble and needed to flee…I could tell him I’m afraid Hilyer will claim me after all and make me suffer for insulting him by running away.”

“Go on.”

“I could tell him to please bring me ten pounds, enough to flee to the countryside. To a friend’s house.”

“Would he go, do you think, to Trafalgar Square? To the bronze Charles? That is a good distance and should keep him busy for a while. If you were to ask him to meet you after midnight, perhaps one o’clock, would he go? And wander and wait, looking for you?”

“I think he would.” She shrugged, saddened to think of it. He hadn’t tried to help her when she needed help, but what could he have done? Perhaps he regretted his inaction. Or perhaps he resented her for the trouble she’d caused. “Either he will bring me the ten pounds, or he will come with one of my father’s bully boys to see me delivered to Hilyer himself.”

“Christ.” Disgust contorted Crispin’s face. “If that’s even a possibility, I should leave him where he is.”

“I don’t want him harmed.”

“No, of course you don’t.” Crispin shifted his weight and the trellis creaked beneath him. The wind blew hard, and Vanessa wrapped her arms across her chest, but Crispin didn’t seem to notice the cold. “There is paper in the top right desk drawer. Foolscap. And there should be pens and ink too. Will Freddy recognize your handwriting? He will believe it’s from you?”

“Yes. How will you deliver it?”

He flashed a grin at her. “I ask the questions, Vanessa.” The smile fell away. “Don’t say too much. Just what you said. You need help. Ten pounds. Trafalgar Square. Close to one o’clock.”

She moved to the dresser and found the writing materials. She scribbled out the words and signed it: Devotedly, Nessa. Then she folded it and took it back to the window to put it into Crispin’s hands. He glanced at it and nodded.

“Vanessa, I make no promises. But you should know I tried, and you did your best. And Jasper knows nothing about any of this.”

Jasper’s ignorance relieved her more than she could say.

“All right.”

“And, Vanessa, if your brother should come to you in the next few days, or write to you, you have to deny any knowledge of this. Deny all of it. You did not write this. You have no idea who forged your signature or why.”

“But I signed it Nessa.”

“Is that a secret between you two?”

“No. Not a secret. Just not well known outside of the family.”

“That’s all right. He is your father’s heir. It should make sense to him that your father arranged his rescue. Vanessa, if my name is mentioned at all, Jasper will be dragged into something he should not be dragged into.”

That sounded like a warning.

“Frankly, Crispin, I am frightened enough of you without explicit threats. If you tell me to lie to my brother, I will.”

He smiled delightedly. “Smart girl.” He tucked the letter into his shirt. “I have to go.” He lowered himself a foot, then looked up. “Oh. Lie to Jasper, too, if you can.”

“I’m not sure I can.”