Page 4 of Much Ado about a Widow

Wide-eyed, the maid paused as if trying to sense an approaching darkness. “N-no, my lady. I don’t think so.”

“Good.” Georgie tossed her reticule aside. The time for hysterics was not yet. “My father’s outriders have been replaced, and the coachman will not answer me. You know Folger would have responded immediately.” She stood and pushed against the trap door. It refused to budge. “See? It’s locked.” Her strength waning, Georgie sat down abruptly. “But why would anyone want to kidnap me?”

“I’m sure I don’t know.” Wringing her hands, Clara peered out the window. “Are you certain that’s what’s happening? The new outriders could be more of your father’s men, couldn’t they?”

“No, I don’t think so.” Georgie bit her lip, trying to make sense of this extraordinary turn of events. “If Father had sent additional outriders, they or Folger would have informed us when we stopped at The Running Horse. They are very well-trained servants. I only pray they were unharmed when these ruffians accosted them.” Unfortunately there seemed to be only one logical conclusion. “I believe the culprit must be Lord Travers.”

“Lord Travers?” The confusion on Clara’s face was almost comical. “You think Lord Travers is kidnapping you?”

“Nothing else makes sense.” Georgie could scarcely contain the disgust in her voice. The man had not one ounce of intelligence that she could determine. “Because I have refused to discuss or agree to anything regarding our marriage, he has most likely taken matters into his own hands. By kidnapping me he thinks he can force me to speak to him.” A wave of outrage poured through her. “I will very much like to see him try. I dare to tell you, he will not like what he hears.”

“That seems an awfully drastic thing for a gentleman to do.” Clara looked askance at her.

Georgie sighed and tried to relax her shoulders. They ached abominably. “The man hasn’t got a bit of sense, Clara. I doubt he’s managed to think the scheme through completely. He doesn’t realize that if he inconveniences my father, or disturbs his plans he’s likely to find himself unbetrothed. Father insists that things go his way exactly on schedule. If he has to discommode himself by having to fetch me from Lord Travers, it will go very ill for the man.” For the first time since entering the carriage, Georgie grinned. Serve Lord Travers right.

“I take your point, my lady, however—” Clara’s alarm didn’t seem to have abated. Her ashen face drooped, and her bottom lip almost bled where she’d worried it with her teeth. “What if it’s not Lord Travers? What if some stranger’s making off with us?”

“Pfft.” Georgie dismissed that worry out of hand. “Why would anyone do that?”

“For ransom, my lady.” Clara nodded so vehemently the bows on her cap waggled. “Highwaymen used to do that all the time.”

“Highwaymen used to stop carriages and steal the passengers’ money and jewelry. They didn’t kidnap anyone.” At least Georgie didn’t think they did that. Not these days anyway. “Besides, who would pay to ransom me?” Glancing out the window, Georgie gasped, her heart racing anew. Riding close enough to the carriage to leer at her was the odd man from the inn yard.

“Your father, of course, my lady. A marquess with all his wealth could pay a pretty sum to get his daughter back.”

Georgie laughed, a sharp, bitter sound. “If they are counting on that, I fear they have seriously mistaken their game. My father wouldn’t pay a farthing to get me back.” Absently, she pulled Lulu into her lap, stroking the silky fur. Holding her pet gave her a modicum of courage.

“But the kidnappers won’t know that, will they?”

That brought Georgie up short. Clara had a point. “Perhaps not. They may just assume that since he is my father he will pay. Or if he doesn’t, then Jemmy will pay.”

“Or that Lord Travers will pay, because you are betrothed to him.” Clara looked at her expectantly.

It was not a bad plan. Three chances to make money on her. “That does seem possible, but if someone were doing something like this, why wouldn’t he have found out the facts first?” Georgie shook her head, both in denial and to dispel the panic that was again rising. Better the devil you knew. “No, I still believe it is Lord Travers, and, I promise you, he will hear quite enough from me on this horrible behavior. I will give him a curtain lecture even before the first banns are read.”

“Well, I hope it’s nothing more than his lordship wishing to speak with you, then.” Drawing her cloak more snugly around her shoulders, Clara settled back, a glum look on her face, and deliberately shut her eyes.

Upsetting her maid was another topic about which Georgie would ring a peal over Lord Travers’s head.

The lengthening shadows out the window gave Georgie heart. They must stop at an inn yard soon to change the horses. When they did, she and Clara and Lulu would bolt from the carriage, run to the innkeeper, and inform him of what was happening. Even if they pulled into a smallish coaching inn, there surely would be someone—a groom or ostler at least—who would help her. Thank goodness horses had to be changed at regular intervals.

After what seemed an eternity, the carriage began to slow. Georgie tightened her grip on Lulu’s collar and nudged Clara. “When they let us out in the yard, I’ll make a run for the inn. You stay close by me. We’ll find the innkeeper and tell him the whole story. If I mention my father’s name in this part of the world, people will be more willing to help us. He’s got a reputation.”

“God be praised for that, my lady.” Clara sat up, suddenly more alert as she glanced out the window of the slowing carriage. “Do you see an inn?”

Peering out the other window, Georgie frowned, a new foreboding creeping into her mind. They were slowing, but there was no inn in sight. A forest of evergreens lined the road on both sides. No houses, no hedges, no fences even. Nothing to indicate a coaching inn at all. That was very peculiar. She shook her head.

“If there’s no inn, why are we stopping?” Twitching her cloak even closer, Clara sank back on the seat, mouth stretched into a tight line.

“Perhaps a wheel has broken, although I didn’t feel anything amiss.” Georgie sat up straighter, hope beginning to glimmer. “Maybe there is another carriage stopped in the road and we can call for help.”

“Oh, no, my lady.” Clara grasped her hand. “That sounds too dangerous. Those men won’t like if we try to escape.”

“I for one do not care what they like or do not like.” Didn’t Clara understand that they were in desperate straits? They must escape, no matter what. “They cannot kidnap someone and then expect her not to try to get away.”

Sinking back even further into the leather seat, Clara seemed ready to give up, which made Georgie’s decision even harder. If faced with the choice of escape without Clara or remaining with her, she would have to attempt escape by herself. Once she reached help she could come back for Clara and Lulu. It would be agonizing to leave them, but there was no other way.

The carriage ground to a halt. Georgie gripped Lulu with a frantic hand. “Be ready to run on my signal, Clara. Toward the other carriage as fast as you can go.”