She waited. After a prolonged silence, pregnant with suspense, Mr. Ross said suddenly: “Are you willing to place your honour in my hands?”
“Yes, yes, of course I am!” responded Amanda, agog with exasperation.
“And do you think,” he asked anxiously, descending with disconcerting rapidity from these heights, “that, if I were mounted on my horse, Prince, you could contrive to leap up before me?”
“I could, if you reached down your hand to me,” replied Amanda optimistically.
He considered this for a daunted moment. “Well, I shall be holding a pistol in my right hand, and I shouldn’t think I could contrive to hold the bridle in it as well,” he said dubiously. “I could try, of course, but—No, I think it would be best if I tucked the reins under my knee. And even if Prince does become restive it won’t signify, once I have you firmly gripped. All you will have to do is to set your foot on mine in the stirrup, and spring the moment I tell you to. Do you think you can do that?”
“Are you going to ride off with me across your saddlebow?” demanded Amanda eagerly.
“Yes—well, no, not precisely! I mean, I thought, if you put your arms round me, you could sit before me—just until we were beyond the reach of pursuit!” he added quickly
“Yes, that would be much more comfortable,” she agreed. “Of course I could do it!”
“Well, when the notion first came to me, I thought you could, too, but now I come to think of it more particularly, I can see that it is a thing we ought to practise.”
“No, no, I am persuaded there can be not the least difficulty!” she urged. “Only think how knights in olden times were for ever riding off with distressed ladies!”
“Yes, and in armour, too!” he said forcibly struck. “Still, we don’t know but what they may have bungled it before they acquired the habit, and it won’t do for us to bungle it. I think I had better dismount, and hold Prince while you get upon his back. Are you able to mount without assistance?”
“Certainly I am! But what are you going to do?”
“Hold you up on the road to Bedford!” disclosed Hildebrand.
Amanda uttered a squeak, which he correctly interpreted as an expression of admiration and approval and save a little jump of excitement. “Like a highwayman? Oh, what a splendid scheme! Pray forgive me for not having thought yon had any courage!”
“It’s a pretty desperate thing to do, of course,” said Hildebrand, “but I can see that only desperate measures will answer in this case and I would do anything to save you from your guardian! I cannot conceive why your father left you in the care of such an infamous person! It seems the oddest thing!”
“He was deceived in him, but never mind that!” said Amanda hastily. “How do you know he means to go to Bedford?”
“I discovered it when I was waiting for an opportunity to seize this ladder! Only to think that I was wishing that groom at Jericho, when all the time I had been guided to the stables by Providence! Because the groom was arranging for the hire of a chaise for his master, and enquiring about the state of the road that runs to Bedford. It’s not a pike-road you know, but Sir Gareth means to goby it, just to Bedford, which is only one stage. And there you are to change from this chaise, which is a shabby, oldfashioned one, and go on to London in a better one, which, of course, may readily be hired in a place like Bedford. Four horses, too! By Jove, it is another instance of Providence! For, you know, if this weren’t such a quiet place, with precious little custom, I daresay they would keep any number of fast vehicles for hire, and bang-up cattle as well, and I might have been at a stand. For I daresay I should have found it pretty hard to cover two postilions, as well as Sir Gareth. But only a pair of horses are hired for the first stage, which makes my task much easier. And I will own myself astonished if we do not find the road deserted, so early in the day! I mean, it can’t be like the pike-roads, with mails and stages going up and down at all hours.”
Amanda agreed to this, but was shaken by doubt. “Yes, but how will you procure a pistol?” she objected.
“Procure one! I have a pair of my own, in my saddle holsters,” said Hildebrand, unable to keep a note of pride out of his voice. “Loaded, too.”
“Oh!” said Amanda, rather thoughtfully.
“You need not be afraid that I don’t know how to handle them. My father holds that one should be accustomed to guns as soon as possible. I don’t wish to boast, but I am accounted a tolerably good shot.”
“Yes, but I don’t wish you to shoot Sir Gareth, or even the post-boy,” said Amanda uneasily.
“Good God, no! Of course I shall do nothing of the sort! Lord, a pretty kick-up that would mean! I might be obliged to fire one of the pistols over the post-boy’s head, to frighten him, you know, but I promise you I shan’t do more. There won’t be the least need. I shall hold Sir Gareth covered, and you may depend upon it he won’t dare to move, with my pistol pointing at his head. He is bound to be taken quite by surprise, but you will not be, and you must lose not an instant in jumping down from the chaise, and mounting Prince. Then I shall get up behind you, and we shall be off in a trice.” He paused, but Amanda said nothing. After a moment, he said, rather hurt: “You don’t care for the scheme?”
“Yes, I do!” she replied warmly. “I like it excessively, for I have have always wished to have adventures, and I can see that this would be a truly splendid adventure. Except for the pistols.”
“Oh, if that is all—! I promise you, you need not be afraid: I won’t even fire in the air!”
“Oh, well, then—No, it won’t do. Nothing is of any use, because I have nowhere to go to,” said Amanda, plunging back into dejection.
But Hildebrand was not daunted. “Don’t be unhappy!” he begged. “I had been thinking of where I should take you, and, if you should not dislike it, I fancy I have hit upon the very thing. Of course, if this had not chanced to fall at an awkward time, I should have taken you home, so that Mama could have looked after you, which, I assure you, she would have been delighted to do. But it so happens that my eldest sister is about to be confined, and Mama has gone away to be with her, while Father is at this very moment taking Blanche and Amabel to Scarborough, for a month. It is very vexatious, but never mind! I will take you to Hannah instead. She is the dearest creature, and I know you would be happy with her, for she used to be our nurse, and she will do anything in the world for me. And her husband is a very good sort of a man. He is a farmer, and they have the jolliest farm, not far from Newmarket. What I thought was that I should ride with you ‘cross country, to St. Neots, and there hire a chaise. I suppose I shall be obliged to stable Prince there, or perhaps I could ride him as far as to Cambridge. Yes, that would be best, for I am accustomed to keep a horse when I am up, and I shall know he will be well cared-for at the livery-stables there.”
“A farm?” said Amanda, reviving as though by magic. “With cows, and hens, and pigs? Oh, I should like that of all things I Yes, yes, do hold us up tomorrow!”
“Well, I will,” he said, gratified. “Then, when I have escorted you to Nurse, I think I should post off to Scarborough, to ask Father just what ought to be done in such a case. Depend upon it, he will know exactly.”
This part of the scheme held out no appeal to Amanda, but she did not say so. There would be time enough at her disposal to dissuade Hildebrand; the immediate need was to escape from Sir Gareth. It seemed to her very unlikely that he would run her to earth at Newmarket; while a farm, as she had already decided, would be an ideal refuge in which to await the capitulation of her grandfather. Her weariness forgotten with the revival of her hopes, she discussed with Hildebrand the various ramifications of his plot; and parted from him finally with only one flaw spoiling her satisfaction. Hildebrand, although willing to engage in any dangerous enterprise for her sake, drew the line at Joseph. A kitten, he said, would place the whole enterprise in jeopardy. Moreover, he doubted very much whether Joseph would enjoy riding on a horse. He rather though he would not. Amanda was obliged to give way on this point, and could only hope that Sir Gareth would be kind to Joseph when he found himself his sole support.