He would disappear from London for a while in case Jud decided to pursue him, but he was fairly certain the ex-sergeant would quickly turn his attention to other pigeons worth plucking. And if Jud decided to go to Horseguards and tell his version of events at Vimiera, it would be considered no more than the ramblings of a disaffected old soldier with a grudge against his commander… so long as Gilbraith wasn't able to confirm the story with his own recollection of the truth.
He wiped blood from his split lip with the back of his gloved hand as he encouraged his horses to a smart trot. His panic was over. The cultivation and manipulation of an attractive but naive and clearly reckless young woman was a much pleasanter prospect than arranging accidents at the hands of hired dockside killers. And blackmail was a much cleaner tool than murder.
Theo, happily unaware of the witness of her arrival at the Fisherman's Rest, pushed open the door and stepped into the dim, reeking taproom. It was almost deserted at this time of day, although an old man sat nodding by the fire, puffing a clay pipe. A slatternly young woman, a baby at her breast, leaned against the counter.
"Twopence of gin, Long Meg."
"I'll see the color of yer money first," Long Meg rasped from somewhere in the darkness behind the counter.
" 'Ow about a bit o' credit?" the young woman whined. "Gin puts the babby to sleep."
Long Meg reared up out of the darkness, as big and crimson-faced as Theo remembered her, when she'd come after Tom Brig with a rolling pin.
"I told yer last time, no more -" She stopped, staring at Theo. "Well, well," she said slowly. "What 'ave we got 'ere, then? You want somethin', young miss?"
"I'd like to ask you some questions," Theo said, smiling in a friendly fashion as she picked her way through the sodden sawdust.
"An jest who would be askin' 'em?" the woman demanded, her eyes narrowed, mighty arms akimbo.
"My name's Pamela," Theo said, having prepared for this.
"You was in 'ere t'other night," Long Meg said suspiciously. "Wi' that gentleman cove. Jest what's the likes o' you got to do wi' the likes o' me?"
"I wanted to ask you about one of your customers."
Long Meg threw back her head and laughed, but it was not a pleasant sound. "We don't answer no questions around 'ere, missie. Me customers mind their own business an' I mind mine. We don't want no snoops around 'ere." She lifted the flap of the counter and came into the room. She seemed even larger in this small dim space than she had the other night, and Theo felt the first stirrings of alarm.
"I'm not snooping," she said, although it seemed as accurate a term as any for what she was doing. "I'll pay for any information -"
"Oh, will you, now?" The woman stepped closer until she was towering over Theo. "An' jest what've you got in that dainty little reticule, then?" She made a grab for Theo's reticule. Theo danced backward, snatching her arm away. Long Meg lunged forward, and Theo swung her reticule at her head as she brought one leg up and aimed a kick at the mountainous belly.
Long Meg roared, and two men suddenly appeared from the back regions. The slatternly young woman with the baby still leaned against the counter; her eyes, dulled with gin, followed the scene, and she moved aside in desultory fashion as the two men barged through the opening in the counter.
Theo knew she didn't stand a chance against three of them. Why hadn't she thought to bring a pistol? Why hadn't the possibility of robbery occurred to her? She jumped backward, hurling a bench between herself and the purposeful advance of her assailants. If she could get out into the street, she could make a dash for the hackney.
But the men were flanking her now, their eyes fixed on her as they moved sideways, and Long Meg kept on coming, a vicious expression on her face. Theo's kick had hurt her, but not enough to slow her down, only enough to enrage her.
Desperately, Theo grabbed up an ale pot on the table and threw it into the face of the man approaching on her left. The other one lunged at her, catching her arm. She jerked her arm upward, twisting her body and catching him on her hip, breaking his hold. But she knew she couldn't keep this up.
Then suddenly a shot exploded through the dark room.
"Get away from her."
"Edward." Theo turned in dazed relief. He stood in the doorway, a flintlock pistol in his one hand.
"Hurry," he said, and she realized that he couldn't reload and that it wouldn't take more than a second for her attackers to recover from their surprise and understand both that and the fact that her rescuer had only one arm.
She took the three paces to the door at a run as Edward stepped backward into the street. Long Meg and her two assistants rushed after them, and Theo spun and kicked the door closed in their faces.
"Run!" She grabbed Edward's arm and then stared wildly down the empty street. The hackney carriage had disappeared.
Edward swore as he struggled one-handed to reload his pistol. His own hackney had disappeared as completely as Theo's, and he guessed that the sound of the pistol shot had driven both jarveys away to a less volatile neighborhood.
The door of the Fisherman's Rest crashed open, and the two men leaped into the street, Long Meg on their heels.
Edward abandoned his attempts to reload and turned to run with Theo. Their pursuers bellowed as they came after them, and Theo realized grimly that they were calling for support. She stumbled, fell to one knee, and was up and running again in the same breath. The pounding of heavy booted feet behind her seemed to be in her blood, and she could almost feel the hot breath of their pursuers on her neck. Edward couldn't run as fast as she could, his body was unbalanced, and she hung on to his hand, desperately trying to keep him from tripping.
And then the curricle bowled around the corner from Smithfield. The galloping team drove straight past the fugitives and came to a plunging, rearing halt in front of their followers, who fell back in terror before the flailing hooves, the wildly rolling eyes of the four magnificent animals.
Theo and Edward gulped air into their tortured lungs, allowing the slow relief of salvation to seep through them. The Earl of Stoneridge said nothing to the three from the Fisherman's Rest, but he sat still as a graven image, the curricle and team blocking the street. His hands moved on the reins and the horses reared again. The two men and Long Meg retreated backward to the door of the tavern and disappeared behind it.
Only then did the earl bring his horses under control. The street was too narrow for him to turn his equipage. He cast a glance over his shoulder to where Edward and Theo stood, still gasping for breath.
"Get up," he said. "Both of you."
Theo gazed at her husband's face, and the realization crept inexorably over her that she was about to exchange the frying pan for the fire.
She stepped up to the curricle. "You mustn't blame Edward for -"
"I don't," he interrupted with icy calm. "Get up."
Chapter Twenty-three
The curricle wasn't built to accommodate three people, and Theo found herself sitting practically in Edward's lap once they'd scrambled up to the seat.
Sylvester said nothing and beyond moving sideways a couple of inches offered no assistance as they scrunched into place. Once sure that they were securely seated, he gave his horses the office to start. No one said anything until Dock Street was well behind them; then Edward cleared his throat and spoke with more than a hint of constraint
"I beg your pardon, sir, for bungling it like that. I should have thought… remembered -"
"I don't hold you responsible for my wife's actions, Fairfax," Sylvester interrupted, his voice as hard as iron.
Edward fell silent, wrestling with his mortification. Once he would have been able to handle that situation; instead, he'd had to be rescued like a cocky schoolboy who'd tried to take on the school bully.