“WELL, DON’T YOU LOOK—different!” Vanessa exclaimed.
Charley had come out to bid them farewell, and Vanessa didn’t recognize him at first without his magnificent mane of golden locks. He’d dyed his hair black! It still cascaded down his shoulders and back but was certainly no longer the beacon it had been. She still couldn’t believe it, considering how vain the boy was, so she tugged on a lock to see if it was a wig. It wasn’t, but the tug made him laugh.
The twins had regaled her yesterday morning before she left for her ride with an account of Charley’s announcement that he was a king, but then in the afternoon they brought her the disappointing news that he’d confessed that he’d been joking about it. Vanessa didn’t mention that fib to him now, or ask which of his statements had actually been a fib, but she did wonder why he hadn’t gone to this extreme to disguise himself before leaving London. “Why now?” she asked.
“Anything to remain near your side, dearest lady,” he said with a wide smile. “Even if I weren’t in love with you, which I most assuredly am, you also have my undying gratitude for your brave assistance yesterday.”
Remain? She hadn’t heard much after that. And then she saw his coach behind her mother’s two coaches, already loaded with his many trunks, and her heart beat a little faster. She gasped, “You’re traveling with us?”
“Did Monty not tell you?”
No, Monty did not. But she hadn’t exactly seen much of him yesterday after he left to deal with the wounded men they’d left behind, only at dinner last night where they weren’t alone. Charley hadn’t attended that dinner, neither had Kathleen, but the twins had been with them and had talked excitedly about departing for London in the morning. Monty hadn’t looked disappointed by that news. She had thought he must have already heard about it with the house bustling most of the day with so many preparations for their impending departure. But now she wondered if he had already decided he and Charley would travel with them. But why? Didn’t that defeat his purpose in coming here? Or did he no longer think the manor was safe after the encounter yesterday?
Confused and yet still incredibly pleased by the unexpected arrangement, she warned Charley, “Dye doesn’t last very long, so I hope you have more.”
“Indeed, Monty brought me an ample supply when he returned from town yesterday. And I shall ride with you ladies to keep you entertained.”
“No, you won’t,” Monty said as he rode forward, leading Snow with him. “A week of listening to your incessant chatter and Lady Kathleen will bar us from her London residence. Seeing the ladies at mealtime will suffice for you, boy.”
Charley huffed and moved to his coach. Monty tossed Vanessa Snow’s reins, saying, “I saw him saddled, so I assumed you are going to ride today.”
“Just part of the way,” she said. “He’s not used to the sidesaddle yet.”
“And neither are you?”
“I learned. My father made sure of it. I just don’t like it any more than Snow does.”
“But ladies must persevere.”
He appeared to be waiting with some curiosity to see if she would jump up to mount as she usually did. Of course she couldn’t do that now when she was wearing a riding habit, and he knew that, was already starting to dismount to help her when a footman ran forward with a stool she could use as a mounting block.
Once she was mounted, he asked, “Has your mother seen that horse?”
“No.”
“You like annoying her, don’t you?”
She grinned. “Is it that obvious?”
He laughed. “A little. Care to mention why?”
She didn’t and said instead, “I’m more curious about why you didn’t say something last night about your decision to return to London.”
“Because it wasn’t yet a foregone conclusion. I was still debating the merits of it.”
“What made you decide to go?”
“I didn’t think Charley would dye his hair.” He gave her a half grin. “I couldn’t tell him no after he made that sacrifice.”
So it was Charley’s idea, not his? Odd that Monty would give in on this when he usually ignored Charley’s preferences. And they’d come to Dawton Manor to hide far away from London.
They moved to the front of the line of coaches to wait until everyone had boarded. Out of the shade of the house, she noticed the slight bruise on his cheek. She hadn’t seen it last night possibly because the candelabras on the dining table had limited her view of him, but it was apparent now in the sunshine.
“Fell out of bed, did you?” she teased, pointing at his cheek.
“No, your Scots guard was annoyed with me.” She gasped and stared beyond him at the MacCabe brothers, both already mounted and waiting for the coaches to depart. “They wouldn’t hit you!”
“No, they probably wouldn’t,” he agreed. “But Donnan was annoyed enough not to help me when I dealt with the three remaining men who escaped the fight yesterday.”
Her eyes widened. “So you confirmed that those men are Charley’s enemies?”
“Yes, I found them in town asking questions about him, well, their interpreter was. They’d hired an Englishman to speak for them. But he didn’t understand their native tongue, either. Your Scot said they used pantomime to communicate to him the questions they wanted him to ask. But he ran off as soon as the scuffle started, yelling, “They didn’t pay me to fight for them!”
“I assume you won against the two and they are now in jail?”
“No, I left them unconscious. I’d rather they waste their time searching all over Cheshire, and if there are more of them in England, these two can get word to them about where Charley has gone into hiding. They and their cohorts will know with certainty that we aren’t in London, so chances of any of them looking there again are next to none.”
Well, she obviously wasn’t going to hear, “And I couldn’t bear to part from you,” so she said no more. And Kathleen finally came out of the house. She did not have to board her coach to find out that Vanessa wasn’t in it with the twins when Snow caught her eye.
With a cringe, Vanessa wondered if her mother was going to walk over to her and insist she travel inside the vehicle as a lady ought to. It would be a long walk for Kathleen to reach her with both Blackburn coaches harnessed with four horses for greater speed. Kathleen did neither, but Vanessa didn’t doubt she’d hear about it later when they stopped for lunch. If they stopped. This was going to be a very hurried trip. After all, they had an important ball to attend in a week’s time.