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Holding himself motionless with an effort, Tony thanked heaven that his cook and a still-glaring Sancha were present to chaperone. In his euphoria and gratitude at that renewed sense of potency, he might not otherwise have been able to resist dragging her into his arms.
Betsy dropped a curtsy. "Tis right happy I am to meet your ladyship and help out the soldiers what fought with our Master Tony."
"Lord Nelthorpe boasted of your skill, and looking at the bounty spread here, I see he did not exaggerate."
"Thank 'ee, ma'am. We're glad our master were spared to come back and help put things right-and don't you be frowning at me, Master Tony! He tries to let on like he's a great care-for-nobody," Betsy told Jenna, "but there's a good heart there, if ye but look fer it."
"So I'm beginning to believe," Jenna said.
Embarrassed, Tony said, "We should load up and be on our way. We've few enough hours of daylight left."
"Polly 'n me will pack the provisions, if you will see 'em stowed in the cart, Master," Betsy said.
"Sancha, assist Lord Nelthorpe, please, while I help in here," Jenna instructed.
Hoping the cook wouldn't feel moved to share any further details about his life and character, Tony limped out, Sancha trailing in his wake. Neither the well-worn cart that waited outside nor the unprepossessing drab pulling it, both rented from a local livery, were likely to arouse much attention, either here or at their destination.
Once they reached the rig, Sancha held out a hand for the bread baskets. "You tend to the horse, my lord. Sancha will pack the cart." To his surprise, she gave him a glimmer of a smile. "I have much experience."
Tony handed them over. "I did try to talk Lady Fairchild out of accompanying me."
"There are soldiers hungry? Wives and babes also?" Sancha asked. When he nodded, she continued,
"Then I do not blame you. My mistress has tended soldiers since she was a child. If there is need, no one keeps her away."
For several minutes, the two of them worked in surprising harmony, readying the cart. When Tony turned to walk back in and tell Jenna all was ready, though, Sancha blocked his path.
"I hated what you tried to do in Spain, and still, I do not trust you. When my lady's esposo and then her babe were taken, she wanted only to sit alone in her room. But today, she hurries, she tells me there is important work. She is not healed-but she lives again. Thank you."
Touched and humbled, Tony said, "I, too, am glad."
"And if ever again you try to hurt her, I, Sancha, will cut out your black heart." With that, Sancha preceded him into the kitchen.
So much for their detente cordiale, Tony thought with a grin, limping after her.
All their preparations complete, they had only to wait for Sergeant Anston to arrive and provide them an armed escort to their destination. Jenna and Tony settled at the kitchen table with some fresh bread while Betsy and Sancha took theirs to stools by the hearth.
"I'm hoping Evers-Papa's batman-will arrive within the week," Jenna said. "If there are so many displaced soldiers gathered in just two blocks, doubtless there are countless about the city. Evers can search them out. You are certain there's no hope of redress by Parliament?"
Tony shook his head. "I doubt it. The Tories are too busy seeing anarchists behind every loom and hayrick to concern themselves with justice for former soldiers."
"I wonder if that widow who accosted me at Garrett's reception is in need. I never learned her name."
A faraway look on her face, she said, "Given what has transpired, she should be content now."
Out of memory, Tony saw the woman's venomous face. I won't be happy until you too lose all you hold dear.
The vague sense of something not quite right that had been troubling him since Jenna's accident suddenly sharpened. Now you have even less of him than I do, Jenna said the countess had told her.
A prickle of apprehension made him shudder.
Jenna was a superb rider who, under most circumstances, would be very difficult to unseat. No head groom worth the title should ever have neglected to emphasize the peculiarities of a mount he was about to release to someone who'd not previously ridden that horse, even if he thought someone else might have already mentioned them.
Had someone intended to make her fall?
"Jenna," he said abruptly, "about your accident...you said your cousin had discharged the groom responsible?"
"Yes, I pleaded with him to reconsider. 'Twas as much my fault as the groom's. If I'd been more alert, caught the mare's hesitancy instantly, I might have avoided being thrown-and my child might be alive now."
He'd meant to question her further, but one glance at the anguish in her eyes and he abandoned the attempt.
"Nonsense, Jenna!" he hastened to assure her. "No rider, however experienced, could maintain his seat when a horse reacts unexpectedly like that."
A knock on the door signaling Sergeant Anston's arrival put an end to the discussion. Tony marshaled the group and moved them out.
As they rode toward the City, his thoughts cycled back to the puzzle of Jenna's accident. He resolved to find out more about it, and in case someone had meant to harm her, he'd ask for details first from one wholly devoted to her. Tomorrow he would call at Fairchild House and question Sancha.
He'd also need to consider tracking down the groom Lane Fairchild had discharged. For if someone harbored enough malice toward Jenna to set up a potentially fatal accident, she might still be in danger.
*CHAPTER TWELVE*
While Sancha dozed beneath a blanket in the wagon bed, Jenna sat on the box of the pony trap in the gathering darkness as Nelthorpe guided it out of the city, buoyed by a sense of accomplishment.
Seeming to sense her thoughts, Nelthorpe interrupted the congenial silence to ask, "You enjoyed our mission?"
"Oh, yes-how good it was to be back among army folk again! Though they were all absurdly grateful for the food and garments we brought, so much more remains to be done. I shall set Evers to work with Sergeant Anston to locate as many former soldiers and their families as they can, that they may be offered immediate assistance while we devise a more permanent solution-since you believe Parliament will not act on this matter."
Nelthorpe shook his head. "Unless it's to clap them all in Newgate for vagrancy."
"They need more than assistance-they need occupation. Idle, feeling abandoned and threatened with destitution, even the best-intentioned of men might be tempted to misdeeds." She frowned, her mind examining various possibilities. "Many of them come from the countryside. Though I know nothing of farming, if I were to purchase a property and put Anston in charge, he could hire experienced lads to work the land."
"Purchase a property?" Nelthorpe exclaimed. "Would your trustees allow such a thing?"
"There are no trustees. Papa left his fortune for me to manage as I see fit, with the advice-but not under the control-of our solicitor." She raised an eyebrow at him. "He believed I could handle it as well or better than any would-be husband."
"So should you marry, your spouse would have no access to your funds?"
"Nothing that is not specified in the marriage contract-which, in the unlikely event that I should marry again, I would help draft."
Nelthorpe laughed. "My dear, publish that fact abroad and your worries about fortune hunters will cease!"
"Ah, does that mean you will desert me, too?"
He paused, creasing his brow as if considering the prospect. To her surprise, she found herself a bit offended that he hadn't immediately denied it. But then, what had she expected? He'd freely admitted himself from the first to be little more than a fortune hunter.
"As devastating a blow as that news is, I suppose I cannot," he said at last. "After all, we made a bargain. I must allow you an opportunity to redeem me while I-" he let his gaze roam from her face to her throat to her chest "-attempt to tempt you."
At the gleam in his eyes, her pulse leapt and the breasts he was eyeing tingled. Appalled to realize she was tempted, she said repressively, "That is not, my lord, a suitable comment to voice to a lady. You will direct your thoughts to the matter at hand, if you please."
He grinned and flicked a glance at his hands grasping the reins-at almost the same level as her breasts.
"Ah, that I could lavish my attention on the matter at hand."
Her cheeks heated and that unwelcome but insistent tingling intensified, spreading from her chest down her torso. Ah, to feel his hands cupping her breasts, skimming down her belly, delving into the curls beneath-Shocked at her wanton thoughts, she jerked her gaze from him to stare over the horse's head.
Awakening from the torpor of grief to find herself lusting was normal enough, she supposed-but over Nelthorpe?
Having not immediately protested it, she should probably ignore his improper remark. And repress her lamentable reaction, before her body turned the siren's song bis body was crooning into a duet.
Scooting as far away from Nelthorpe as the narrow bench allowed, she brought her thoughts back to the plight of the army families. "There should be a school for the children. A little boy with a cherub's smile tried to filch one of my earrings right off my ear while his mama and I talked this afternoon.
Fortunately he wasn't skilled enough to manage it without my noticing, but it indicates how imperative it is that we get the young ones off the street before they become totally steeped in vice."
