Page 5 of Lady Beast's Bridegroom
The companion shook her head. “I have stayed at none of them, Arial. Would you like me to investigate?”
“Visit them, do you mean?” Arial liked the idea. She trusted Clara to understand what she needed.
Two days later, Clara, with a maid and an escort, left to visit all three and make a decision. The party would stay overnight at the inn Clara had favored with their booking and return the next day.
That afternoon, Josiah came.
A footman called the alarm. He had been returning from an errand when he saw the approaching carriage and riders. He arrived flushed and breathless, but managed to pant out, “It’s Lord Stancroft, my lady. Come bringing trouble, I reckon. Got half a dozen men with him, and maybe more in the carriage.”
Arial agreed. Josiah would not be bringing such a force for a social call. “Go for Sir Thomas. No, you are winded. Send someone fresh, at all speed. Make sure he knows how many people Josiah has with him.”
From the window, she could see them coming down the drive. “Tell him to go through the orchard, Fredericks. He’ll be out of sight from the driveway, then.”
How long would she have to stall her cousin? It was ten minutes through the fields at a full run. Then Sir Thomas would have to have his horse saddled and collect his men before coming to the rescue. Twenty-five minutes, at least. She took a deep breath as her father had taught her. In through the nose, hold, and out through the mouth. Her heart kept pounding and her mind skittered from one thought to another.
She must protect the servants. Should she hide? Surely, he would just bluster and shout as he had before? But the carriage and its swirl of horses halted in front of the steps, and Josiah looked up at the house, a fierce grin evidencing no intention to talk. Though Arial was hidden in the shadow of the curtain, she trembled like a mouse before a cat.
He dismounted, as did his attendants. The guns that two of his men slid out of saddle holsters confirmed their evil intentions. One man opened the door of the carriage, and two women descended. Not ladies. They were soberly dressed in functional clothing with plain bonnets.
Josiah spoke to them. They, too, looked up at the house and Arial could see their faces. Women in their middle years, as tall as Josiah and broadly built, with hard stern faces.
Behind them, another person descended from the carriage, and Josiah turned away from the women to hail him and lead him up the steps to the front door.
A sound behind her had her spinning around, afraid the invaders had already found their way inside, but it was one of Sir Thomas’s ex-soldiers with her butler hovering at his elbow. “My lady.”
Arial swallowed and managed a semblance of calm. “Sergeant Miller. Barlowe.”
“My lady, we mean to refuse them the house,” Barlowe said. “Will you go upstairs? Preferably to a room where they will not expect to find you?”
Sergeant Miller assured her, “We’ll try to keep them out. But if we cannot do so without bloodshed… We will protect you to the last man, my lady, but I’d rather just hold them off until Sir Thomas arrives.”
Having something practical to do seemed to unfreeze Arial’s brain. “I will hide in the attics, Sergeant. Feel free to tell them I am not at home.”
Sergeant Miller grinned. “I’ll leave that to Barlowe, my lady.”
“I’ll take my maid with me. If they do search the house, they are more likely to believe I am away from home if they cannot find Clara, me, or our maids. Do not risk yourselves or the servants to keep them out.”
The men nodded as the knocker on the front door sounded a fierce rat-a-tat-tat.
Arial hurried upstairs, collecting Nancy, her maid, as she passed her bedchamber.
In the back corner of the attic, hidden behind trucks and boxes, they heard the invasion as nothing more than distant shouting, with the occasional thumping as door slammed or heavy people hurried up or down the stairs.
It seemed that hours had passed before they heard Sir Thomas’s voice. “Lady Arial? We have sent them packing.”
Downstairs, Arial was relieved to find that none of her servants had been hurt. Sergeant Miller and Barlowe had blocked Josiah until he ordered his men to shoot and had then stepped aside.
“He and his men searched the house, but Lord Stancroft told them not to break anything. Said he might be able to sell it, my lady.”
The earl had only ten minutes before Sir Thomas arrived with half a dozen armed constables. “The earl insisted he was here out of concern for you,” Sir Thomas explained. “I made it clear he acted illegally in invading your home and threateningyour servants, and that his intention to—as he claimed—have a doctor examine you was also illegal, as he has no standing in the matter. I said any further attempts would be prosecuted to the extent of the law. Even if he were prepared to ignore me, the doctor he had in his pocket was more susceptible to reason. Particularly when I explained that you had appointed me and your solicitor as your trustees in the event you were incapacitated in any way, so Lord Stancroft would have no access to ready cash to pay his supporters no matter what happens to you.”
Perhaps, Arial thought, that would discourage the awful man. If it kept him at bay long enough for her to find a husband, she could defeat him entirely.
The incident was not Josiah’s last action against Arial that day, however. Later that afternoon, Clara arrived home, shaken, after being stopped by Josiah, who recognized the carriage. Fortunately, the coachman, guard, and outrider realized they were both outnumbered and outgunned, and did not fight back. Once Josiah found he’d caught the companion and her maid, and not Arial, he sneered a few insults and left. Arial reassured Clara that she was taking a small army of servants and guards when they left for London, but Clara was still nervous several days later when they finally set off.
Sir Thomas, having heard about Clara’s frightening experience, insisted on sending another six men with them, including two armed constables.
In the event, they had no trouble, apart from people staring at a heavily veiled Arial as she walked through the busy courtyard and crowded inn to the sanctuary of the rooms Clara had hired and did the same excruciating trip in reverse the following morning. Pinned in place, the veil could not move, yet some part of Arial ignored all logic, certain that at any momentit would whisk aside, taking the half-mask she wore beneath it to reveal the horror of her face to a jeering world.
