Page 49 of The Secret Castle in the Highlands

He raised a brow. ‘Okay. Well, just stop me if you find your brain starting to dribble out of your ear.’ He put his coffee mug back on the table. ‘History has it that on one occasion, he held up a coach occupied by a nobleman and his lady, and he invited the woman passenger to dance with him – which she did.’

I giggled. ‘Bloody hell! He must have had some guts.’

‘I’ll say. Duval became rather the stuff of legend.’

‘What happened to him?’

Mason sighed. ‘He was captured by the authorities when he got drunk one evening in a tavern. There were frantic efforts by ladies of the court and even Charles II himself to save Duval, but they all failed.’

‘And he was executed?’

He nodded. ‘He was hanged aged just twenty-seven.’

‘Good grief! He was only two years younger than I am now.’ I pushed my hair back over my shoulder. ‘Duval must have really made an impression in his short life.’

‘Very much so. At his execution, there was a large outpouring of grief and several prominent ladies who attended allegedly wore highwayman masks as a sign of their support and affection for him.’

I laid my head against the back of my sofa for a moment, digesting the images Mason had conjured up for me: a handsome highwayman twirling around a young woman as they danced on some windswept heath; thundering horses’ hooves as he pursued coaches to rob; sobbing, heartbroken women begging for mercy on his behalf, and ladies adorned in sumptuous gowns and highwayman masks dashing away their tears and showing their unity.

‘What are you thinking, Poppy?’ queried Mason.

I let out a long breath of air as my thoughts drifted back to my disastrous, short-lived marriage to Nick. I allowed my fingers to trail across the brittle paper, tracing the outline of Georgina’s loops and swirls. ‘I want to read more of the diary, but…’

‘But what?’ Mason asked quietly beside me.

‘Part of me thinks I shouldn’t.’

His shoulders shifted under his dark T-shirt. ‘And why might that be?’

My stomach lurched and I cursed myself. Mason’s profile was all hard, chiselled angles.

‘Why, Poppy?’ he repeated.

‘Because…’ I faltered. ‘Because it seems she had an affair with this man and risked everything.’

Mason’s intense stare made my stomach twist. ‘We don’t know for sure yet that they did have an affair,’ he replied. ‘But there was certainly a very strong attraction between them.’

‘And if she did have an affair with him?’

Mason’s light eyes twinkled. ‘Perhaps she thought it was a risk worth taking.’

‘It sounds like it was,’ I croaked through a papery laugh. I could feel my eyes misting over at the romantic thought of some handsome, roguish highwayman charming the ladies and making other men feel inferior.

I was aware of Mason watching me before suddenly jumping up from the sofa. Disappointment pooled inside me. Had I said something wrong? Had I offended him? ‘Thanks for your input.’ His tone was cool.

Puzzled, I handed him back Georgina’s diary. ‘What is it?’

He proceeded to fasten his zip case, after thrusting the diary back inside. Even Darwin appeared perplexed as he jumped to his feet and eyed his owner through a clump of ragged fringe. Mason’s voice was curt. ‘Perhaps you should listen to the advice about not putting your heroes on a pedestal.’

I rose to my feet. ‘What’s the matter? Mason?’ Then his words struck a chord. ‘Oh, hang on a minute. Is this your way of suggesting that I idolise the Scarlet Highwayman?’

His silence answered my question – and inflated my annoyance. Pictures of Mason flirting with other women on beach strolls or gazing into their eyes over dinner filed through my head. Nick appeared too. I’d ignored the rumours circulating about him and other women. I’d made excuses to myself that he’d been seen with just a friend or a student and that it was all innocent.

‘Well, perhaps admiring a man who died almost three hundred years ago is preferable to the vacuous modern-day alternative.’

Mason marched towards the front door, his brows stormy. ‘You might be in for a shock. Maybe your Scarlet Superhero wasn’t the man you think he is.’

I folded my arms. ‘Well, forgive me if I’m wrong, but I thought this was one of the main reasons why we were researching him. To find out the truth?’