He turned a corner, and slowed his horse, seeing a dark shape ahead of him. Radcliffe squinted into the black night, barely able to see more than a few feet ahead, but as he rode closer, he was able to make out what looked like a carriage.
‘Anyone there?’ he called into the darkness, but his shout was carried off by the wind as easily as if it had been a whisper.
He trotted up to it, and as he approached, saw that the vehicle was damaged, one wheel lying several feet away from its body, another still attached but quite askew – its spikes crushed. And worse – much worse – as Radcliffe got close enough to see the whole vehicle properly beneath the pitch-black sky, he could see the trunk of a tree splitting the carriage clean in half. It was crushed beneath the weight. Upon the carriage door, the Montagu crest glinted.
Radcliffe cursed. They can’t be far now, he told himself. Someone must have taken the horses from the spokes – they would be at the next inn, he was sure of it. He spared a moment to hope Lawrence would have sense enough not to let Sally see what remained of the carriage when they caught up, and moved his horse on. He did not allow himself to wonder what state Miss Cecily Talbot might be in when he found her.
Kitty waited the full fifteen minutes before following Hinsley up the drive. Well, surely ten minutes had passed, which amounted to the same thing. Hinsley would not thank her for interfering, she knew … But what if he really did need her help? She would not hear a shout over the wind – she might not even hear a shot, if it came to that. She stared through the gate into the dark, torn. Kitty knew she could not wait upon the sidelines any longer. She left the safety of the carriage and dashed after him.
The drive was shorter than she would have expected, and Kitty navigated it as best she could in the darkness, soon coming upon the house, a once grand manor that was now slightly faded. The door was standing ajar, with a sliver of light spilling out onto the darkness. She took a deep breath and slipped inside.
She saw Hinsley first. He was in the hallway, standing chest to chest with Selbourne, a snarl upon his face.
‘This is all very well, Hinsley,’ Selbourne was saying in an infuriating drawl, ‘but I am afraid Archie is … ah, indisposed and does not want to see you.’
‘Let me pass,’ Hinsley said with dark emphasis. ‘Or I shall make you.’
In Kitty’s view, this was just the sort of nonsense men started issuing whenever they were left alone too long. No subtlety whatsoever – and no efficiency, either. Why, if Hinsley could not go up to Archie, Archie could just as well come down to them.
Kitty let out a high-pitched wail of despair. Both men jumped, twisting around to stare at her in shock.
‘What the devil!’ Selbourne expostulated.
‘Miss Talbot!’ Hinsley did not look pleased at all.
‘Oh, I am quite beside myself!’ Kitty cried, producing enough noise to wake the dead – or at least, the dead drunk. ‘Help! Help! I must have help!’
She stomped clumsily into the room, crashing into a suit of armour standing guard in the doorway, which let out a great clang of displeasure in response and fell heavily to the ground with an almighty racket. She heard footsteps above her, and a door crashed open at the top of the stairs, plumes of smoke escaping ahead of a group of very dishevelled men, who hurried down to the source of the noise. Their waistcoats were unbuttoned, their cravats were untied, and one of them had an unmistakable smudge of rouge on his cheek. Amongst them, like a cherub that had wandered into a devil’s tea party, was Archie, blinking into the gloom.
‘Miss Talbot?’ Archie said disbelievingly, looking utterly floored. ‘Hinsley? What on earth are you doing here?’
‘It appears,’ Selbourne was looking a little harried, ‘that both Captain Hinsley and Miss Talbot have seen fit to trespass upon my property and our evening both. They seem to deem you in need of rescuing, my boy.’
‘Rescuing?’ Archie looked from Kitty to Hinsley. ‘Is that true? Do you really think me s-so pathetic as needing to be rescued from a party?’
‘Not pathetic,’ Hinsley said calmly. ‘Just misled. Let us go now, Archie.’
‘No, I shan’t,’ Archie insisted. ‘I’m having a nice time, and I’m not some sort of – some sort of child that needs bringing home. I’m not going anywhere.’
‘Just so,’ Selbourne said, recollecting his usual smug demeanour. ‘Let us go back upstairs. Hinsley – Miss Talbot – leave my property before I have you thrown out.’