Death of a Fop (Bow Street Consultant series Book 1) (27 page)

They were then ready to proceed upstairs.

And there would be little notice taken of a bar room brawl in so rowdy an inn.

“Beg pardon I’m sure, ma’am” said Caleb, lifting his beaver to the almost naked prostitute whose door he had just kicked in.

“Strewth! Charmed I’m sure” said the lightskirt half ironically, wriggling provocatively as a matter of course.

“And sorry about this too, ma’am” said Caleb, whipping the key from her side of the lock, pulling the door too and locking it.

He hastened away; the language was indescribable. He had a grim look on his face; this, the second floor, was where Jane was apparently held; and seemed to be given over to prostitutes. They had ignored the first floor as well as the ground floor to get Jane out first; and hope that she had not been taken to some other chamber. Well, he had miscounted; and yet….. there was no other room further along…..

Caleb peered at the panelled wall at the end of this passage; and pounced on what appeared to be a knothole.

There was a click of a latch; and then the concealed door swung open, revealing a villainous looking fellow in the livery of a coachman standing outside another door. He went for a pistol; and Caleb shot him without compunction., thrusting the discharged weapon back in his belt and pulling the second as he turned the key, still in the lock, and kicked the door in.

“Good morning Mr Armitage; I am afraid I cannot offer you any refreshment” said Jane.

Her face was white and strained; and much bruised; and Caleb jerked her into his arms.

“Oh yes you can” he said and kissed her hard.

Jane had never been kissed like this, with this longing need and passion; and her legs felt quite weak as she surrendered to the embrace of her wonderful Caleb who had no sense of propriety at all to kiss a widow with quite such ruthless abandon.

And since he was irredeemably abandoned in any case, Jane kissed him back with equal fervour since he had plainly run mad and one should always humour a madman.

He lifted his lips from hers.

“Jane-girl, they have hurt you….
WHERE ELSE
?” he demanded terribly.

“Only a demonstration with a needle under one nail,” said Jane in a whisper, “you are come in the nick of time; I have heard a church clock strike the quarters from somewhere; and I was to be left an hour to contemplate. Oh Caleb! I fear I am close to swooning!”

“Here, Jane-girl, you can’t do that yet awhile,” said Caleb firmly, “you keep behind me, see; and we’ll take in the precious villain what took you – Sir Richard Malodorous as I do believe.”

“Yes; and oh Caleb! I believe that he may be Sparkler Jack; for knowing this inn near Hampstead Heath; I recalled why it was familiar, because of the highwayman attack.”

“Yes and that tallies with what an informant has told me too” said Caleb “And what’s more I am hoping to find some of the baubles here that may even convict him of that; I want that …..man……to go to bed with a hempen collar!”

“De Vries is here too” said Jane.

“Is he begawd!” said Caleb, “well he ain’t stirred out since the robbery on the heath…. And I must say, with losing you I weren’t about to be ready for reports if they’d come in of him stirring today; so there’s a good chance of finding all that got took. And if I’m not mistook that’s them a-comin’ t’see why a shot was fired.”

Sir Richard was in the fore and De Vries’s voice was to be heard behind him yelling hysterically, “If dot
dombo
coachman of yours has shot the wench he vill be in trouble isn’t it!”

Sir Richard came face to face with Caleb as he came round the top of the stairs.

“Mornin’,” said Caleb, “I am an officer of the law and you are under arrest. Are y’comin’ quiet-like or do I get the pleasure of hurting you?”

Sir Richard recovered quickly.

“Why – what can you mean?” he said, “an officer of the law? Why should you arrest me? I have committed no crime. I am Sir Richard Marjoram; you are making a big mistake my man.”

“Well abduction in itself may not be a crime, cully, but torture now, that’s a different matter” said Caleb “’Old out yer fambles; I got darbies yere for them.”

“Why, a hysterical woman of good family but hardly high degree is scarcely going to have her word believed over mine,” said Sir Richard, “now do yourself a favour, fellow, and accept a gift to make it worth your while to just forget this nonsense.”

He reached towards a pocket.

“Sparkler Jack is going for a pistol!” shouted Jane from behind Caleb.

The shock of the use of his soubriquet made Sir Richard freeze momentarily; and in a stride Caleb was beside him, kicking his feet out from under him so he fell down the steep, narrow stair, taking the Dutchman with him.

“Take them, lads!” shouted Caleb.

There were brief sounds of a scuffle and a yell from Jackie

“Gottem!”

“Good; tie them securely then search their rooms thoroughly. Daniel, fetch in Miss Bates and see about making tea for her and Mrs Jane” Caleb called back, turning just in time to catch Jane as she swayed and would have fallen had not his strong arms been there to catch her.

Jane came to with the awful smell of burning feathers in her nostrils; Miss Bates’ kind, anxious face swam into her vision, waving the smouldering feathers.

“Oh Aunt Hetty!” whispered Jane, “Caleb did not bring
you
surely?”

“Only after I insisted that he did so, my dear Jane,” said Miss Bates, “now if you feel ready to sit up there is a cup of tea here for you; the tea is stale but Daniel at least knows how to make a tolerable brew.”

Jane sat up – no easy task for the sofa on which she found herself was an overstuffed thing of too many curves that appeared to attempt to frustrate any move save rolling off it – and took the cup of tea that Miss Bates held out to her.

“They are taken then?” she said. “Is Caleb certain he can get a conviction?”

Caleb’s own cheerful voice answered her.

“I am now I am able to make deposition that I found the baubles that bridle-cull prigged last Sunday in the room which also has items in it provable to belong to Sir Richard Marjoram; and his change of duds in which he plays at being on the High Toby. You knocked him all of a piece calling out about him being Sparkler Jack; I had been going to shoot him and deprive the nubbing-cheat of some ripe fruit. But that will be a fine prize award to you for Sparkler Jack as well as De Vries. And I’ll get my reward too; he sang like a canary. I only had to hint that Frank had already informed and that you were a furious virago out for revenge and that you knew his doxy – I presume he must have one – and he caved in, cursing and blaming the Dutchman for bringing in Frank in the first place. It turns out that someone Sir Richard robbed had vowels from Frank, among others, in with his money; and De Vries hit on the idea of using forged provenance just as you guessed to pass off jewellery changed enough to disguise it. There should be a nice haul of the same, partly broken up, at his workshop; which is where I shall be going next. It’s done, Jane-girl; no more danger! And you have found out who killed Frank; you wanted to do that, didn’t you?”

Jane nodded and she laid aside the tea cup.

“I did,” she said, “oh! Does it always feel so flat when you have succeeded?”

Caleb came and knelt by the sofa and took her hands. Miss Bates tiptoed tactfully out of the room to leave them together.

“Jane, Jane! It only feels flat because you have swooned!” he said, “tomorrow you will be elated!”

“No I shall not” said Jane sadly “For you have no more excuse to stay with us.”

Caleb paled slightly.

“No, Mrs Churchill, I do not; and now of course what happens depends on whether you will receive a low creature like me socially or whether the excitement of the chase has brought about feelings you prefer to forget and all who are associated with it” he said.

“If you mean to abandon me without coming to court me properly when the time is right after kissing me so hard upstairs, Caleb Armitage, then you are nothing but a flirt!” said Jane.

Caleb grinned.

“Why Mrs Churchill, if it is your wish, then I shall most certainly visit you…..every day if my duty permits. But I shall remove from your house so that nobody might say anything improper is afoot. And you and Miss Bates shall visit my more humble abode, that Sir Henry Wilton arranged for me; nothin’ fancy you know, but snug.”

“Why if it is not too snug to rear children in then I fancy it may do well enough,” said Jane, “and you must take Simmy into your home right away!”

“Yes, bless the brat; he found us the one beggar in all London Town as knew where Sir Richard was a-takin’ you; and that he stables a horse there that some might say was similar to the one Sparkler Jack rides. So I had my information too. How did you come by the conclusion?”

“I fear merely by that uncertain route of female intuition,” said Jane, “for he is known to have excellent horses and to ride and drive; and to visit this inn that was famous for having once harboured Dick Turpin; which is close by Hampstead Heath where Sparkler Jack was known to operate. That a horseman should be associated with jewellery thieves made a connection in my thoughts and I took a leap of faith in the matter. That is all.”

“Well it is to my mind an astute assimilation of what little we knew – and a good working guess,” said Caleb, “and on that information I’d have felt safe to raid this inn I have to say, even if I might not arrest Sir Richard or search his town house. Which now I might do” he added in satisfaction. “And take this precious pair to lie right-and-tight in the lock up; and once it is known that they are caught, then their confederates might be induced to talk to get transportation instead of hanging” he grinned suddenly, a savage grin, “and the queer-cuffin – magistrate to you, Mrs Churchill! – might have been unwilling to give credence to arraigning a noble knight without the overwhelming evidence we have here; but once one of their own class turn bad, they get might peevy about it. There’ll be no mercy for Sir Richard; and as he’s entitled to a jury of his peers, he won’t be able to browbeat no low class types with his rank neither” he winked at her “They’ll only be impressed, and not favourably either, at how rank he is!”

“Oh Caleb you are so very handy with words!” said Jane. “And I should put aside my mourning and marry you tomorrow but for one thing.”

“Indeed; you must not do Frank’s brat out of his property if it is a boy,” said Caleb, “and I support you in that with all my heart; and I shall fight for my stepson’s rights too.”

Jane gave a sigh of contentment.

This time she had made a good choice in a future husband!

She put up her mouth for a kiss; and Caleb obliged her with a heady and passionate embrace that almost caused Jane to swoon again from the sheer excess of emotion and anticipation of what was yet to come!

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