Page 4 of The Paid Companion

“Yes. I trust you will convey this downstairs for me?”

“Aye, ma’am.”

Hitchins hoisted the trunk and carried it down to the front hall. Outside, he loaded it into the waiting farmer’s cart.

One of the creditors stepped into Elenora’s path as she made to follow Hitchins.

“That little gold ring on your hand, if you please, Miss Lodge,” he said sharply.

“Indeed.”

With a bit of precise timing, she managed to remove the ring and drop it just as the creditor reached out to take it from her. The circlet of gold bounced on the floor.

“Damnation.” The annoying little man leaned down to retrieve the ring.

While he was bent over in a parody of an awkward bow, Elenora swept past him and went down the steps. Agatha Knight had always emphasized the importance of a well-staged exit.

Hitchins, showing an unexpected turn of manners, handed her up onto the hard, wooden bench of the farm cart.

“Thank you, sir,” she murmured. She settled herself on the seat with all of the grace and aplomb she would have employed getting into a fine carriage.

A gleam of admiration appeared in the Runner’s eyes.

“Good luck to ye, Miss Lodge.” He glanced into the rear of the cart where the trunk loomed large. “Did I mention that my uncle traveled with a company of actors in his younger days?”

She froze. “No, you did not.”

“Had a trunk very similar to yours. He said it was quite useful. He told me that he always made certain he had a few essentials packed inside in the event that he was obliged to leave town in a hurry.”

She swallowed. “My grandmother gave me the same bit of advice.”

“I trust ye heeded it, Miss Lodge?”

“Yes, Mr. Hitchins, I did.”

“Ye’ll do all right, Miss Lodge. Ye’ve got spirit.” He winked, tipped his hat and walked back toward his employers.

Elenora took a deep breath. Then, with a snap, she unfurled her parasol and held it aloft as though it were a bright battle banner. The cart lumbered into motion.

She did not look back at the house where she had been born and had lived all of her life.

Her stepfather’s death had not come as a great surprise, and she felt no grief. She had been sixteen years old when Samuel Jones had married her mother. He had spent very little time here in the country, preferring London and his never-ending investment schemes. After her mother had died three years before, he had rarely showed up at all.

That state of affairs had suited Elenora quite well. She did not care for Jones and was quite content not to have him underfoot. But of course that was before she had discovered that his lawyer had managed to shift her inheritance from her grandmother, which had included the house and surrounding property, into Jones’s control.

And now it was all gone.

Well, not quite all, she thought with grim satisfaction. Samuel Jones’s creditors had not known about her grandmother’s pearl and gold brooch and the matching earrings hidden in the false bottom of the old costume trunk.

Agatha Knight had given her the jewelry right after her mother had married Samuel Jones. Agatha had kept the gift a secret and had instructed Elenora to hide the brooch and the earrings in the trunk and not tell anyone about them, not even her mother.

It was obvious that Agatha’s intuition about Jones had been quite sound.

Neither were the two creditors aware of the twenty pounds in bank notes that were also inside the trunk. She had kept the money aside after the sale of the crops, and had tucked the notes in with the jewelry when she had realized that Jones was going to take every penny from the harvest to invest in his mining scheme.

What was done was done, she thought. She must turn her attention to the future. Her fortunes had definitely taken a downward turn, but at least she was not entirely alone in the world. She was engaged to be married to a fine gentleman. When Jeremy Clyde received word of her dire predicament, she knew that he would race to her side. He would no doubt insist that they move the date of the wedding forward.

Yes indeed, she thought, in a month or so this terrible incident would be behind her. She would be a married woman with a new household to organize and manage. The prospect cheered her greatly.

---