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‘I am,’ replied Sir Gareth, reflecting that this at least was true, even though he was self-appointed. A sudden and rueful smile flashed in his eyes. ‘For my sins! I will be perfectly frank with you, ma’am, and tell you that Miss Smith is the most wilful little monkey it has ever been my ill-fortune to have to do with. Her latest exploit is to run away from the seminary, where she was a parlour-boarder. I imagine I need not tell you that I am in considerable anxiety about her. If you can assist me to find her, I shall be very much in your debt.’
Mr Sheet, watching his wife with some misgiving, was relieved to see that she had apparently decided in the gentleman’s favour. The belligerent expression had vanished, and it was with cordiality that she replied: ‘’Deed, and I wish I could, sir, for such a sweet, pretty young creature I never did see! But it’s true, what Sheet was saying to you: she never said a word to either of us, but slipped off unbeknownst. Run away from school, had she? But however did she come to take up with that dressed-up old fidget? Sheet got the notion into his head he was her uncle, but that I’ll be bound he’s not!’
‘No – the dancing-master!’ said Sir Gareth, with a certain vicious satisfaction.
Her jaw dropped. ‘What, and run off with one of the young ladies at the school? Well, I never did in all my life!’
‘Miss Smith,’ said Sir Gareth, rivalling Amanda in inventiveness, ‘is a considerable heiress. By what means that fellow inserted himself into her good graces, I know not, but there can be little doubt that his object was to possess himself of her fortune. She is not yet seventeen, but had he succeeded in reaching Gretna Green with her, and making her his wife, what could I have done?’
Her eyes were as round as crown-pieces, but she nodded her head understandingly. ‘Ay, a pretty kettle of fish that would have been, sir! Well, I never liked him, not from the start, and what has me in a puzzle is what made her take a fancy to him! Why, he’s old enough to be her grandpa, and as fat as a flawn besides!’
‘I am very sure she had no fancy for him at all,’ said Sir Gareth. ‘If I know her, she encouraged his pretensions only to win his aid in escaping from the school! Once she believed herself to be beyond the reach of – er – Miss Hitchin, she wouldn’t hesitate to give him the bag. For that at least I may be thankful! But where is she?’
‘Ah, that’s the question!’ said Mr Sheet profoundly.
‘Well, surely to goodness, sir, she wouldn’t run away without she had some place to go!’ exclaimed Mrs Sheet. ‘Hasn’t she got any relations, or maybe some friend that would be glad to have her?’
‘She’s an orphan. She would certainly not seek refuge with any relation, for she knows very well that they would instantly tell me where she was. Nor do I know of any of her acquaintances who would do anything so improper as to conceal her whereabouts from me. What I suspect is that she means to hire herself out as an abigail, or something equally foolish.’
‘Whatever for, sir?’ gasped Mrs Sheet. ‘A young lady like her? Good gracious, she must be fair desperate to think of such a thing! Seems to me, begging your pardon, sir, that this school you’ve sent her to must be a very bad sort of a place!’
‘Oh, no, on the contrary!’ he replied. ‘Pray don’t imagine, ma’am, that Miss Smith has been unkindly treated there, or, in fact, anywhere! The mischief is that she has been far too much indulged. No one but myself has ever thwarted her, and, since she is extremely highspirited, she will go to any lengths to get her own way. This exploit, I have no doubt at all, is an attempt to force me to take her away from school, and to allow her to be brought out into the world before she is seventeen.’
‘Oh, what a naughty girl!’ Mrs Sheet said, shocked. ‘Why, she might run into all sorts of trouble, sir!’
‘Exactly so! You know that, and so do I know it, but she has no more notion of it than a kitten. It’s imperative I should find her before she discovers it.’
She nodded. ‘Yes, indeed! Oh, dear, if I’d had only an inkling how it was – ! The idea of a lovely young thing like she is, wandering about by herself, and nothing but them two bandboxes to call her own! But where she can have got to I know no more than you, sir. She didn’t hide herself in the village, that’s certain, for there’s not a soul has seen her, and I don’t see how she could have walked down the street without someone must have caught sight of her. We did wonder if she got taken up in someone’s carriage, but I disremember that we had so much as a gig pull up here while she was in the house. And as for the stage, Mrs Bude, which keeps the chandler’s shop, put a parcel on to it when it came through Bythorne at noon, and she’s certain sure there was no young lady got into it.’
Sir Gareth spread open his map, and laid it on the table. ‘I doubt very much whether she would have tried to escape by way of the post-road. She must have known she would be pursued, and the first thing she would do would be to get as far away from it as possible. Could she have slipped out of this house by a back way?’
‘She could,’ Mrs Sheet replied doubtfully. ‘There’s a door leading into the yard, but there was the coachman, and a lad, that brought some chickens and potatoes, and I should have thought they’d have been bound to see her.’
‘The coachman come into the tap, soon as he’d stabled the horses,’ interposed Mr Sheet.
‘Yes, but Joe didn’t!’ she objected.
‘Happen Joe did see her. He wouldn’t think anything of it, not Joe! Likely he wouldn’t hardly have noticed her.’
‘I daresay she may have waited until his back was turned,’ said Sir Gareth. ‘Can the lane that crosses the post-road be reached by way of the fields behind this house?’
‘Well, you could get to it that way, sir, but it’s rough walking, and how would the young lady have known there was a lane?’
‘She might not, but if she was on the look-out for a way of escape she would have seen that lane, just before the carriage reached Bythorne. As I remember, there is a signpost, pointing to Catworth and Kimbolton.’ He laid his finger on the map. ‘Catworth, I take it, is no more than a small village. Has it an inn? – No, too near the post-road: she wouldn’t try to establish herself there. Kimbolton, then. Yes, I think that must be my first goal.’ He folded up the map again, and straightened himself. He saw that Mrs Sheet was regarding him wonderingly, and smiled. ‘I can only go by guess, you know, and this seems to me the likeliest chance.’
‘But it’s all of seven miles to Kimbolton, sir!’ expostulated Mrs Sheet. ‘Surely she wouldn’t trudge all that way, carrying them bandboxes?’
He thrust the map into his pocket, and picked up his hat. ‘Very likely not. From my knowledge of her, I should imagine that if she saw any kind of vehicle on the road she coaxed its driver into taking her up. And I hope to God she fell into honest hands!’
He moved towards the door, but before he reached it the aperture was filled by a burly figure, in gaiters and a frieze coat, at sight of whom Mrs Sheet uttered a pleased exclamation. ‘Ned! The very person I was wishful to see! Do you wait a moment, sir, if you please! Com
e you in, Ned, and answer me this! When he got home, did Joe say anything to you, or Jane, about a young lady which we’ve got a notion he maybe saw in our yard when he was unloading the potatoes from the cart?’
The burly individual, rather bashfully pulling his forelock to Sir Gareth, replied, in a deep, slow voice: ‘Ay, he did that. Leastways, in a manner of speaking, he did. Which is what brings me here, because Jane ain’t by no means easy in her mind, and what she says is, if anyone knows the rights of it, it’ll be Mary.’
‘Sir Gareth, sir, this is Ned Ninfield, which is Joe’s father, Joe being the lad I told you about,’ said Mrs Sheet, performing a rapid introduction. ‘And this gentleman, Ned, is the young lady’s guardian, and he’s looking for her all over, she having run away from school.’
Mr Ninfield’s ruminative gaze travelled to Sir Gareth’s face, and became fixed there, while he apparently revolved a thought in his mind.
