Buch lesen: «The Major and the Pickpocket»

Chapter One

London—February 1780

Heavy rain that night meant the streets were almost deserted, and so it was even more startling for the few pedestrians in the vicinity of Pall Mall to see a big chestnut mare being pulled up in a frenzy of sparking hooves outside the porticoed entrance of one of London’s most discerning clubs. The mare had been ridden hard. Its glossy flanks were heaving, and its eyes rolled whitely in the gleam of the yellow lamplight. Swiftly the horse’s rider dismounted, thrusting the reins and a few coins towards a hovering groom before swinging round to face a footman who watched him uncertainly from the shelter of the imposing doorway. At this time of night, and in this sort of foul February weather, club members usually arrived by carriage or sedan, not like some whirlwind from hell on horseback.

But before the footman could issue a challenge, the dark-haired rider, his mouth set in a grim line, was already striding up the wide steps. It was noticeable now that he had a slight limp, but it didn’t seem to slow him in the least. His long riding coat, glistening with rain, whirled out behind him as he crashed open the door, and his whip was still clutched in his hand. As the gust of cold air he’d let in billowed through the lofty reception hall, all the candles were set a-flicker, and a number of disdainful faces turned to stare. A plump butler started busily towards the intruder, but found himself brushed aside, like a moth.

‘I’m looking for Sebastian Corbridge,’ announced the man. ‘Lord Sebastian Corbridge.’ His voice was calm, but the menacing gleam in his eyes was like sparks struck from flint.

He looked as if he had been riding hard all day, to judge by the mud on his boots, and the way his dark, unpowdered hair fell in disordered waves to his collar. He was not old, perhaps no more than twenty-five or twenty-six, but the taut lines of fatigue that ran from his nose to his strong jaw made him look older. The butler backed away warily, because he could see that this tall stranger with the limp wore a sword beneath his loose riding coat. And unlike most of the primped, scented men of leisure who frequented this club, he looked as if he would know how to use it.

By now the man’s abrupt intrusion had registered even in the furthest recesses of the reception hall. Murmured conversations died away; startled faces, adorned in many cases with powder and patches, turned one after the other towards the doorway. Even the sombre portraits hanging from the oak-panelled walls seemed to gaze disapprovingly at the abrasive stranger whose clothing continued to drip water on the fine parquet floor, creating little puddles around his leather riding boots.

‘Lord Sebastian Corbridge. I want him,’ the intruder repeated softly, his hand flicking his whip against his booted leg in unspoken warning.

Someone rose languidly from a deep leather chair in a shadowed alcove. He was about the same age as the intruder, but his appearance could not have been more different, for his elegantly curled cadogan wig was immaculately powdered; his blue satin frock coat, with its discreet ruffles of lace at cuff and throat, was quite exquisitely fitted to his slender body. And his haughty, finely bred face expressed utter scorn as he gazed at the man who spoke his name.

‘So, Marcus,’ he drawled, taking a lazy pinch of snuff from a filigree box. ‘You’re back. As usual, dear fellow, you seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The army hasn’t done much for your manners, has it? Members only allowed in here, I’m afraid—’

Sebastian Corbridge broke off, as the dark-haired man threw his whip aside, then covered the ground between them to grasp his blue satin lapels with both hands. ‘My God, Corbridge,’ the man grated out, ‘but you’ve got some explaining to do. Let me tell you that I’ve just returned from Lornings, and I didn’t like what I found there. You’d better start talking. You’d better think up some excuses, and quickly.’

Corbridge looked down with pointed disdain at the hands that gripped his exquisite lapels. ‘So you’ve ridden all the way from Gloucestershire,’ he sneered, the slight tremor of fear disguised by heavy scorn. ‘Dear me. And there was I thinking you might have come straight from some modish salon—after all, I suppose it’s just about possible that clothing such as yours is permitted at fashionable gatherings now that there are so many unemployed ex-army officers around town…’

The taller man’s powerful shoulder muscles bunched dangerously beneath his greatcoat, and Corbridge was lifted from the ground.

‘Do put me down, Marcus!’ breathed Lord Sebastian Corbridge. ‘You smell of horse, man. Wet horses. All in all, you’re rather overdoing it—betraying your origins, you know?’

All around the room their audience watched the scene in breath-holding fascination. A young footman, who’d just come through from the inner salon bearing a brandy decanter on a silver tray, froze into immobility at the sight, his mouth agape, and the candlelight danced on the golden-amber liquid as it shivered behind the cut glass. Slowly, the dark-haired man called Marcus let go of his victim. His steel-grey eyes were still burning with intensity, and the skin around his grim mouth was white. He drew a ragged breath. ‘At least, cousin Sebastian, I don’t stink of trickery and theft.’

Nearby an older man whose face was red with indignation jumped to his feet. ‘Enough, man,’ he rasped at the intruder. ‘Guard your tongue, or we’ll have you thrown out bodily!’

Corbridge shook his head quickly, smoothing down his satin lapels. ‘No need for that, eh, Marcus? Firstly, I’d like to hear you explain yourself. And, secondly, I’d much, much rather you didn’t address me as cousin.’

‘I’d rather not have to address you as anything,’ said Marcus. He was more in control of himself now. ‘But the fact remains that we are, unfortunately, related. And you ask me to explain myself; but first I’ll ask you this. How do you justify the fact that you’ve managed to rob my elderly godfather of everything: every acre of land, every penny of savings, and above all the home he loves so dearly?’

Lord Corbridge arched his pale eyebrows, just a little. ‘Facts, dear Marcus, let us look at the facts! Though facts, I remember, were never your strong point. Always emotional, weren’t you? Must be your unstable heritage showing through…’.

Marcus’s face darkened and his fists clenched dangerously at his sides. Corbridge, after taking a hasty step back from him, went on hurriedly, ‘I’ve robbed Sir Roderick Delancey of absolutely nothing, I assure you! In fact, I tried to help him, tried to dissuade him from plunging into yet greater debts…Gambling is such a sad sickness, especially at his age.’ He shrugged, an expression of concern creasing his smooth features. ‘But in spite of my every endeavour, Marcus, the foolish Sir Roderick continued to plunge yet deeper into the mire. I extricated him from the likelihood of a debtors’ prison at vast personal expense. In return, he agreed to offer me as security the great hall at Lornings and the land that goes with it.’

‘If he loses Lornings, he’ll be a penniless bankrupt!’

‘Wrong again, Marcus.’ Corbridge gave a thin-lipped smile, drawing confidence from those who’d gathered around him. ‘Your godfather will always have a roof over his head—the Dower House, to be precise—and some income from the home farm. Though it’s more than the pitiful old fool deserves. Gambling is a quite fatal disease, I fear.’

‘And one that he was never infected with, until you decided to poison him!’

Corbridge shook his head. ‘You’ve been away for two years, Marcus. What’s the matter? Didn’t find fame and fortune soldiering in the Americas? Managed to get yourself a lame leg instead? Hoped to come back and live off weak-witted old Sir Roderick’s fat purse—only to find the purse no longer so fat? What a shame.’ He turned with mock concern to his rapt audience. ‘Something should be done about our returned war heroes. They should be awarded a better pension, perhaps. We heard about your promotion, Marcus—pity it wasn’t with a decent regiment, though. Perhaps the beautiful Miss Philippa Fawcett would have revived her interest in you if you’d had a little more to offer her on your return.’

The other man’s eyes blazed. ‘You know damn well why I didn’t get in with a fancier regiment, Corbridge. It was because I didn’t care to go around oiling palms with false compliments and fistfuls of money that would have kept some of our badly paid foot soldiers in luxury for the rest of their lives.’

‘How noble,’ breathed Lord Sebastian Corbridge. ‘How infinitely noble of you, Marcus. Of course, your particular family circumstances don’t exactly endear you to your superiors, do they?’

Someone in the audience laughed jeeringly. ‘Have the man thrown out, Corbridge. Unstable streak in the whole family, if you ask me. Isn’t he the fellow whose mother went mad? Mad as a hatter, they say. She actually ran off with one of his father’s grooms…’

Marcus turned. In the blinking of an eye, so fast that no one there had time to register it, he had whipped out his sword and held it so that its point just nicked the lace ruffles at the throat of the man who had spoken. The man’s eyes were suddenly round with fear; his plump face had gone as white as a sheet. After a second’s paralysing silence, Marcus let his sword fall. He turned back to Sebastian, slamming the long blade back into its sheath.

‘This quarrel is becoming too public for my liking,’ he said flatly. ‘I don’t care to discuss my private affairs, or my family, in front of specimens like these. Let us arrange a duel.’

The flash of fear that crossed Lord Sebastian’s face was quickly concealed. ‘A duel? With an injured man?’ he queried, looking pointedly at Marcus’s leg. ‘My dear cousin, what must you think of me?’

Marcus lifted his dark, expressive eyebrows. ‘Do you really want me to explain exactly what I think of you? In words of one syllable, so everyone here understands?’

But Lord Sebastian Corbridge did not reply. Instead he was looking furtively over Marcus’s shoulder; and Marcus, seeing that look, swung round, his sword once more at the ready, to face several burly-looking footmen who were advancing rapidly towards him with their fists clenched.

Then, suddenly, another figure moved swiftly out from the shadows, knocking Marcus’s weapon aside with a deft blow of his arm. A voice—cheerful, almost laughing—called out, ‘Now, Marcus! Time for the disengage, dear boy! Live to fight another day, eh?’

And Marcus found himself being hustled, almost pushed, towards the big outer doors, which were kicked open with a crash by his companion as he hurried Marcus down the wide steps into the chilly street.

Once on the pavement Major Marcus Forrester shook himself free and reluctantly sheathed his sword. ‘Hal,’ he said with a sigh. ‘You’re a good friend, but you should have let me hit him, at least.’

Hal Beauchamp, whose compact, expensively dressed frame nevertheless hid considerable physical expertise, relaxed into a smile and handed Marcus the riding whip he’d tossed aside earlier. ‘What, and give those beefy minions who were creeping up behind you the chance to beat you black and blue?’ he objected. ‘Not the best of ideas, Marcus! A strategic retreat is definitely in order, I think, before those painted fops in there combine their scanty brain power and come after us!’

Marcus grinned back at his friend. ‘A pursuit? And you reputedly the best swordsman in the regiment? Hardly likely, I think, Hal.’

‘No. Hardly likely.’ Hal held out his hand warmly for the other to shake. ‘Good to see you back in London, Marcus. Really good. Now, I assume from your attire that you arrived here on horseback?’

‘A hired horse, yes—I paid a groom to see to it.’

‘Very well, then, dear fellow; so now I insist you come and share a bottle of claret with me, somewhere more congenial than that hole, and tell me—’ Hal’s brown eyes gleamed ‘—absolutely everything.’

Inside the hallowed portals of the club, Lord Sebastian Corbridge, smoothing down his satin frock-coat like a bird preening its badly ruffled feathers, returned to his table and affected nonchalant disdain. But his hands were still trembling, and he was aware that his acquaintances had rather enjoyed the spectacle they had just witnessed. Corbridge was not a popular man in London.

‘Is he really your cousin, Corbridge?’ grinned the portly Viscount Lindsay, generally known as Piggy. ‘You kept quiet about that side of the family, dear boy.’

Lord Corbridge paled slightly beneath his fashionably applied powder and patches. ‘I have numerous distant cousins,’ he replied disdainfully. ‘My great-grandfather, you will recall, was the Earl of Stansfield—’

‘Oh, we remember all right,’ replied Viscount Lindsay, sharing a covert sneer with the others seated at their table. ‘You remind us of it nightly, dear fellow.’

‘The Earl,’ continued Corbridge stiffly, ‘had a variety of offspring. Major Marcus Forrester, whose mother was the only child of the Earl’s disreputable youngest son, is one of the least significant of them all.’

‘Fellow didn’t look insignificant to me,’ drawled Viscount Lindsay, raising his eyebrows. ‘Fellow looked damned frightening to me, Corbridge, when he had you dangling there like a gasping fish.’

The others joined in the laughter, and Corbridge paled again. ‘The army’s all he’s fit for,’ he muttered in a low, angry voice. ‘There’s bad blood on that side of the family. He was scarcely out of infancy when his mother fled to Europe with her lover, some lowly serving man. Since then, Marcus Forrester has shown a dangerous instability. I never thought to see him return alive from the war in America.’

‘No,’ put in Viscount Lindsay rather maliciously. ‘I bet you didn’t, Corbridge. Seems as if young Marcus has found out, too, exactly what you’ve been up to while he’s been away with his precious old godfather and that rather splendid estate at Lornings. All in all, it’s rather damned bad luck for you that he’s returned at all, isn’t it? Alive and well and primed for action, it seems.’

Lord Sebastian Corbridge was silent. But his slender white hand, which glittered with jewelled rings, twisted in some agitation around the stem of his glass.

Outside the sepia clouds still surged menacingly overhead, and the pavements glinted with puddles in the yellow light of the street lamps as Hal and Marcus proceeded on foot towards the Strand. But at least the rain had ceased; and the citizens of London were heading out again for the gaming clubs of St James’s, or the colourful taverns and theatres beyond Leicester Fields. Hal Beauchamp—as fair as Marcus was dark, with a slighter build, and an open, sunny countenance—was cheerfully extolling the merits of the dining parlour at the Bull’s Head. They’ll set us up with some excellent victuals, Marcus!’ he promised. The claret’s first rate as well, I assure you. And then we could go on somewhere for a decent game of hazard—’

‘No! No gaming.’ Marcus’s vivid, handsome face, which had relaxed in the company of his friend, was suddenly serious once more. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever cast the dice again, Hal.’

Hal Beauchamp pulled a droll expression. He was dressed as usual in the most expensive, if discreet of styles; his long greatcoat that swept almost to the ground was exquisitely tailored, and his beaver hat and shining top-boots bore evidence of the tender care of a skilful valet. ‘Oh dear, oh dear me,’ he sighed. ‘It’s the end of the world indeed if Major Marcus Forrester renounces the fine art. What would your devoted soldiers say? Remember the game of hazard we had in camp, just before the raid on Wilmington last year? The enemy were all around, and you were saying, “One more throw, gentlemen. Just one more throw. I feel that my luck is in…”’

Marcus laughed, but his eyes were bleak. ‘It hasn’t been in lately, Hal.’

‘No.’ His friend’s expression softened. ‘I heard about your injury, at the siege of Savannah. Do you have somewhere to stay in London?’

Marcus shook his head. ‘Not yet. The army pensions office offered me some tedious post in recruitment with lodgings all in, but I refused. And I haven’t started looking for anywhere else yet. I just wanted to find Corbridge.’

‘And kill him? So I must assume you were planning on sleeping in Newgate gaol tonight,’ said Hal lightly as they jostled their way through the crowds that thronged Haymarket. ‘I have a better suggestion. Come and stay with Caroline and me, in Portman Square. Far more comfortable than Newgate, I assure you.’

Marcus struggled, then smiled. It was very difficult not to smile when Hal was around. They’d been at Oxford together, then the army; they’d shared good times and bad. But now they were both out of the war; Hal because his only sister, who had been recently widowed, needed him at home; and Marcus because of a rebel’s musketball through his thigh.

‘ You are more than kind,’ said Marcus, turning to face his friend. ‘But your sister—I would be imposing, surely?’

‘Not at all, dear fellow. She always had a soft spot for you. And your injured leg will give her something to fuss over.’ Hal hesitated. ‘I heard, you know, about your godfather Sir Roderick and the business with Corbridge. It must have come as a blow to you. The loss of your inheritance, the decline in your prospects…’

Marcus said quietly, The worst of it, Hal, was seeing what it has done to my godfather. This business has all but finished him off.’

Hal nodded, frowning in sympathy. Then stay with us, while you see what can be done.’

‘I have no wish whatsoever to be in anyone’s debt.’

‘My dear fellow,’ responded Hal swiftly, ‘let’s have no talk of debt. Consider our house your home for as long as you wish.’

And to ensure there could be no further argument, Hal resumed his steady pace along the Strand, where the candlelit shop windows with their displays of millinery and trinkets glittered enticingly. Carriages clattered by, and sedan-bearers pushed through the crowds, their polite calls of ‘By your leave, sir!’ swiftly changing to their usual ripe curses if people failed to move out of their way. Marcus hurried to keep up with his friend’s loping, athletic stride, knowing he shouldn’t have ridden so damned hard for the best part of two days—but what else could he have done other than resolve to take action, any kind of action, once he’d seen the state his gentle, kindly godfather was in?

Sir Roderick Delancey had been a friend and neighbour for as long as Marcus could remember to the Forrester family on their rather ramshackle Gloucestershire estate, and when Marcus’s mother had run off, amidst such disgrace that her husband, a broken and impoverished man, died soon after, Roderick took responsibility for his godson Marcus without hesitation. Not possessing any children himself, Sir Roderick had paid for Marcus’s schooling; and in the vacations Marcus spent long weeks at his godfather’s beautiful country mansion, which he came to regard as his home, his own home having to be sold to cover his father’s debts.

After Oxford, when Marcus set his heart on joining the army, Sir Roderick had offered to buy him a commission in one of the top cavalry units; but Marcus, who had his own kind of pride, refused, and became a captain in a line regiment. He was swiftly promoted, and when his regiment was sent to America to fight under Cornwallis, Sir Roderick continued to write regularly to his godson—but last autumn the letters had stopped.

And now Marcus knew why.

Some day, Marcus had resolved, he would return to active service. But not yet. He had another battle to fight first, on Sir Roderick Delancey’s behalf.

At the corner of Half Moon Alley, a crowd had gathered around a couple of street entertainers who, using a stretch of low wall as their table, were tempting passers-by to bet on which of three upturned cups covered a coin. The first of the pair, a ragged-looking man with a wooden leg, was dextrously switching the cups to allow onlookers tantalising glimpses of the bright coin, while his accomplice, a slim youth wearing a long coat and a cap rather too big for him, was strolling around and drumming up trade in a light, cheerful voice. ‘Roll up, roll up, ladies and gennelmen! Put your penny down, guess which cup hides the sixpence—it’s easy, see?—and win it for yourself! Yes, win a whole, shiny sixpence! Roll up, roll up—’

Then the lively youth broke off, because his sharp eyes had observed what Marcus now saw—a fat member of the Watch huffing and panting towards the pair with his stick raised, and two of his companions coming up behind. ‘Haul them two coves in!’ the watchman roared. ‘They’re thieves and scoundrels, the pair of ‘em!’ The man with the peg-leg had his coin and his little cups thrust deep in his pockets in no time; tucking his wooden limb under his arm, he raced away on two exceedingly sound legs, while, doubtless by prior arrangement, his young companion took off in the opposite direction towards Hal and Marcus, twisting and turning nimbly through the crowds that thronged the pavement. Marcus watched, interested and impressed, as the lad, though caught briefly by the wrist by one of the Charleys, kicked his way free and ran on boldly, his ragged coat flying and his cap crammed low over his head. As he drew nearer, Marcus glimpsed emerald green eyes glinting above an uptilted nose, and a merry mouth curled in scorn—until the lad realised some more watchmen were hurrying up from the other end of the street, thus cutting off his escape.

Now, Marcus Forrester could never understand why a pair like this—up to no real harm, as far as he could see—should arouse the full ire of the law, when murder and mayhem went on without interruption in some of the hellish back streets where the Watch were afraid to even set foot. ‘Let’s even the odds,’ he murmured to Hal. And just as the lad was hesitating, no escape in sight, Marcus reached out, grabbed him by the arm—‘Let go of me, you dratted coneyjack!’ was his only thanks—and thrust the slim fugitive, whose head barely came up to his shoulder, behind his back into a dark doorway. More colourful protests came flowing in abundance from that clear, expressive voice; but Marcus ordered through gritted teeth, ‘I’m trying to help, you young fool. Stay there. And shut up.’ Hal, brown eyes a-twinkling, completed their bodily barricade of the lad’s hiding place; then the pair of them, arms folded, pretended to look on as if faintly bored, while the breathless old watchmen—the Charleys—elbowed their way through the swirling London crowd, up and down the street, looking in vain for their quarry. ‘Where’s that there lad?’ one of them bellowed. ‘Old Peg-leg’s helper? Up to no good, ‘im and all his kind, should be ‘anged the lot of them—which way did ‘e go?’

Marcus cast a swift glance back into the doorway, where the youth, having decided rather sensibly to cooperate, was now crouching silently behind him and Hal. Marcus saw again, with a kind of startlement, that pair of wide, incredibly green eyes taking everything in; and just at that moment the young fugitive, sensing his gaze, looked up at him and—grinned.

No fear. No fear at all, in that smooth young face…Marcus frowned, then quickly switched his attention back to the watchmen, who were shaking their heads, swearing volubly and stamping off down the Strand. Marcus looked back into the doorway and nodded. ‘All clear now. Off you go.’ The lad, emerging blithely from behind the long folds of Marcus’s riding coat, whispered, ‘My thanks’, and quickly vanished into the crowds.

Hal lifted one querying, humorous eyebrow at his friend. ‘Still on the side of the underdog, I see?’

‘Most definitely,’ declared Marcus. ‘Why the hue and cry? They were only a couple of street entertainers.’ But even as he dismissed them both, he was aware that the younger one had puzzled him considerably. ‘My thanks… ‘That voice, if you ignored the insults, had been expressive and clear. No hint of low-life in those parting words. He shook his head, swiftly banishing that bright, green-eyed gaze from his mind. ‘On to business, Hal. Where are we heading after we’ve eaten?’

‘I thought we’d go to a new place in Suffolk Street, called the Angel,’ explained Hal. ‘It’s discreet, private, and has some of the best gaming in town. Oh, yes. I know—’ he raised a finger to silence Marcus’s protests ‘—you’re never going to gamble again. But let me just say this. You want to get your revenge on the loathsome Corbridge, for ruining your godfather. Am I right?’