Page 35 of Fit for a Duke
Clio thanked him, slipped into the saddle the moment Raven was brought out and headed towards the village at a brisk trot. She had no particular plan in mind and could only hope that her disguise would hold up. She hadn’t tested it out in the village before but was fairly sure that no one would take much notice of another lad wandering about the place at the end of his working day. Her only difficulty was Raven. No young lad would be seen riding a horse like him, and she couldn’t risk leaving him at the mews behind the Royal Oak. He was known there and her disguise would be seen through in an instant.
‘You will just have to remain here,’ Clio told him, slipping from the saddle and tying his reins to a branch on the edge of the common land that adjoined the village. ‘Kick anyone who tries to steal you. Hopefully, I shall not be long.’
Raven dropped his head and cropped at the grass, totally unperturbed. Clio, in contrast was suddenly full of nerves and uncertainty, aware that if she was caught then she would have some awkward explaining to do. Her aunt would be disappointed in her, and after everything that lady had done to make her feel welcome in her home, she would much prefer not to repay her by letting her down.
Even so, a pressing desire that she preferred not to examine too closely, an urgent need to protect the duke, made it impossible for her to remain passively at home attending to her embroidery. He was in danger, and he was too negligent of his own safety to realise it. In these modern times it was ridiculous to imagine that a lady was any less capable of providing that protection than a strapping man. In fact sometimes—quite often in fact—being underestimated for reasons of gender worked to her advantage.
‘It requires guile and ingenuity,’ she said under her breath, fingering the paring knife in her pocket that she had borrowed from the fruit bowl in her aunt’s hall.
The tavern, as she neared it, was busier than she had anticipated and she almost lost her nerve. It would be easy for a person to slip a dagger through the duke’s ribs and saunter away undetected, she thought, her heart rate quickening at the prospect. The patrons had spilled out of the taproom into the street in front of it. There was much raucous laughter and bad language that Clio found…interesting.
As she slipped round the side of the building, where she would have a good view of proceedings and be in a position to spring to the duke’s rescue should the need arise, she gave a little squeal. A man and woman appeared to be fighting.
Except they were not, Clio realised, as she stopped in the shadows and observed them with fascination. The man had his breeches down and the woman’s skirts were hitched up around her waist. They were copulating and grunting like pigs. Clio found the sight disappointing. It seemed so clinical, especially when it was over in seconds and coin changed hands. The man fastened his breeches and strolled off, whistling. The girl—and she was little more than a girl, probably younger than her, Clio thought with dismay—adjusted her skirts, slipped the coins she had been given into her bodice and disappeared from view with her hips swaying. Neither of them appeared to notice Clio in her hiding place.
What now? she wondered. If the girl came back to what was obviously a favourite spot with another customer then Clio would likely be seen. She slipped round the back of the tavern, narrowly avoiding the contents of a chamber pot when they were thrown from an upper window, and took up a position on the opposite side of the building. She was slightly more exposed here, but still had an excellent view. She could see the duke in conversation with Lord Fryer. Salford was there too with his arm around the waist of the girl who had just dispensed with her previous customer.
‘Well,’ Clio muttered. ‘If I regret my decision to reject him, which I do not, I am now absolutely sure that I did the right thing. The man is dissolute with obvious plans to rut in the street like a rampant pig.’
She was uncertain how long she remained there, watching the duke and thinking about Salford’s loose morals. Gradually she became aware of the fact that she was drawing the occasional glance from passers-by. It didn’t seem as though anything was going to happen to the duke and Clio couldn’t run the risk of being accosted. The moment she opened her mouth, any doubt about her gender would dissipate. Ezra hadn’t allowed himself to be separated from Lord Fryer and Salford was otherwise occupied, having disappeared around the side of the tavern with the girl. Clio was glad of her decision to remove herself from her original location. She felt hot and cold all over when she considered the ramifications, had she been discovered lurking there—and by Salford of all people.
Deep in thought, Clio didn’t hear the footsteps coming from behind in time to react. A large hand was clamped over her mouth and although she fought like the devil, she couldn’t budge it. She could however reach her paring knife and would find an opportunity to use it before her identity was revealed. Of that she was fiercely determined.
‘Stop fighting, damn it!’
The familiar voice immediately drained the fight out of Clio.
‘You!’ She spun round, knife raised, ready to deposit it in her assailant’s eye. The duke easily removed it from her hand and slipped it into his pocket.
‘Clio? What the devil…’ He grabbed her arm and led her further into the shadows. ‘What on earth are you doing here?’
‘Trying to keep you safe.’ Merlin had materialised and wagged his tail furiously at the sight of Clio. ‘Someone has to look out for you.’
‘Oh my sweet love!’ His ferocious scowl gave way to a reluctant smile as he lowered his head and briefly covered her lips with his. ‘No one has ever done anything half so selfless or foolhardy for my sake before. I am overwhelmed.’
‘You almost lost an eye,’ she replied, bemused by the kiss and…well, everything else she had seen and heard in the last hour. ‘You should not creep up on people like that. How did you know I was here anyway?’
‘You are not easy to overlook.’
‘Nonsense! I blend in perfectly.’
‘Godfrey saw you arrive and skulk about. When you didn’t take yourself off, he thought I should know.’
‘I didn’t see him approach you.’
‘That is supposed to be the point.’
‘I thought he had remained on the estate,’ she reluctantly conceded, aware that she had royally underestimated Ezra’s sense of self-preservation, and his meticulous planning too for that matter. ‘That is why I thought I should come. I didn’t think you had taken me seriously.’
‘Godfrey is across the street. He sent me a signal.’ Clio looked in that direction and noticed Ezra’s man for the first time. He smiled at her but Clio didn’t return the gesture. She felt foolish and unobservant. ‘I took your warning very seriously. If you have been observing me, you will have noticed that I didn’t allow myself to be separated. As for Salford, he’s…’
‘I know exactly what Captain Salford is doing, and with whom.’ Clio shuddered.
‘Well, there you are then. Come on, I’ll escort you back. Where did you leave Raven?’ He motioned to Godfrey, who disappeared and shortly returned with Pharaoh. Ezra led his stallion down the street and Clio walked beside him, not attracting any particular attention. ‘Nice outfit,’ Ezra remarked, treating her body to an exacting scrutiny.
‘It has its uses. Anyone who looked at me simply assumed I was a lad hanging around the tavern in the hope of picking up an errand and earning a few pennies.’
Ezra turned a laugh into a cough and Clio blushed, aware of one way in which a female could earn a few pennies, having just seen more evidence of it with her own eyes than she had ever wanted to.
