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‘Ha! So there was someone with you!’
The Earl raised his brows.
‘Certainly,’ he replied. ‘What of it?’
‘When did he leave?’ demanded Lord Charlton.
‘Some time ago,’ answered the Earl. ‘Er – I feel sure that you will forgive my curiosity, but may I know in what way my guests have become your concern?’
Lord Charlton’s colour rose angrily, but he said:
‘Seems odd to you, I dare say, but if your guest was a – a youth in a blue coat, with light hair and blue eyes, he is more my concern than yours. I’m in pursuit of him – don’t know what cock-and-bull story he may have told you – but I came upon his coach in the middle of Hounslow Heath, and was told he was gone on in some gentleman’s chaise. I arrived here to learn that you were dining with a youth exactly fitting my description.’
‘And what,’ enquired the Earl, ‘is the name of the youth you are pursuing?’
Lord Charlton opened his mouth, and shut it again.
‘Damme Reveley, what’s that to do with it? He’s an – an imposter! I don’t know what name he is using. If you are concealing him –’
‘My dear Charlton,’ interrupted the Earl wearily, ‘what possible object could I have in concealing a strange youth? I fear you are not entirely yourself. Let me offer you a glass of wine!’
‘Thank you, no! All I require, my lord, is to know where your companion has gone to!’
‘I am not quite sure,’ said the Earl with perfect truth. ‘He left me in haste.’
Lord Charlton gave vent to a short bark of laughter. ‘He did, did he? Did he say where he was going?’
‘No,’ said the Earl, ‘but I believe him to be bound ultimately for Bath.’
‘Bath!’ ejaculated Lord Charlton. ‘Just as I thought! I am obliged to you, sir.’
With which he jerked a bow and hurried out again, noisily pulling the door to behind him.
The Earl strolled over to the window, and watched Lord Charlton emerge from the inn, cast an order to his postilions, and leap up into his chaise. As it drove off the door at the end of the room opened cautiously, and Mr Brown, still with a very pale face, slipped into the room.
‘Has he gone, sir?’ asked Mr Brown nervously.
The Earl turned his head.
‘Yes, he has gone,’ he answered in his quiet way. Mr Brown advanced further into the room.
‘You don’t suppose he will return, do you?’ he said.
‘I think it improbable,’ said the Earl.
‘Oh!’ Mr Brown gave a sigh of relief, but almost immediately his face fell, and he said despairingly:
‘But I don’t know what to do. I never dreamed he would come after me so soon. It is useless for me to go to Bath now, for he will get there first. I am quite undone! Not but what I am very grateful to you for fobbing him off,’ he added politely. ‘Indeed, I do not know how to thank you.’
‘Pray do not give it a thought,’ said the Earl. ‘No doubt the gentleman is a relative of Miss X?’
‘Yes – no! I mean –’ Mr Brown hung down his head, and began with a slim finger to trace a pattern on one of the chair-backs. ‘I am afraid I did not tell you quite the true story,’ he confessed.
‘I am aware,’ said the Earl dryly.
Mr Brown cast him an unhappy glance, and said:
‘The fact is I am – I am running away from Charlton.’ He waited for the Earl to make some comment, and when none came, said defensively:
