Georgette Heyer (26 page)

  Lassels reddened to the ears, exclaiming: 'But, sir, indeed, indeed you do, and I was not frowning upon you! I was – I was wondering how to contrive that you should not be called upon to eat your dinner in the buttery.'

  'Is that all? Frown no more, then, for I am going to eat in the buttery.'

  He spoke with decision, so that there was nothing for Lassels to do but to acquiesce, though with many inward qualms. He could not conceive how even the stupidest scullion could fail to perceive that the King was no common fellow, and said as much to Jane pres ently, when he found himself for a few minutes alone with her in the parlour.

  She listened to him, but said calmly: 'Perhaps the servants might suspect him of being other than he seems, but I think they will not dream he could be the King. Did not even we look for some stiffness, some haughtiness in his bearing which is not there? Were not you surprised to find him so easy, and – and merry?'

  'Ay, it's very true.' He stole a glance at her, and then lowered his gaze to his own boots, saying with a little constraint: 'One forgets that he is the King, because he delights in laying his Majesty aside.'

'I do not forget it.'

  He went on studying his boots. 'Well, I am glad to hear you say it. You know, cousin, I don't desire to busy myself with what doesn't concern me, but Cousin John in some sort entrusted you to my care, and there's no denying that the King has a way of making himself so generally pleasing that – in short – no one could help loving him.'

  He looked up with an apologetic smile as he ended. Jane replied quietly: 'I understand you, Harry.'

  'I should not like you to regret this adventure,' he blurted out.

  'I shall not.'

  'You know, it's said that he is something free with women. I do not mean that I believe it –'

  Her eyes darkened with amusement. 'I do!'

  He was a good deal taken aback by this. 'Why, cousin!'

  She repeated: 'I shall not regret, Harry. You spoke of our journey as an adventure. Indeed, it is one, and I have thought that since the King is merry we should be so too. We shall never have another adventure like to this, you and I.' She moved her hands. 'He will go his way, and we ours, but this will be a little part of our lives that we shall remember always, like a fairy tale told us in our childhood. You are anxious because the King kissed me, but you need not fear for me. I am not for him, since I am not a princess to whom he may offer marriage, and not a trollop whom he would make his mistress.'

  'Jane,' said Lassels uncomfortably. 'Kings – well, kings are not quite as other men are. They – they do sometimes take what they want, thinking it a Right Divine.'

  'Not this king,' she replied. 'In my heart, I know him for an easy lover, but no ravisher.'

  She spoke so serenely that he began to think he had been indulging absurd fears. He said in his boyishly blunt fashion: 'I'll tell you what, cousin: you're a wise woman, not one to have your head turned. To be sure, he is very ill-favoured, is he not?'

  She looked at him with a blankness in her gaze. She was not aware of the King's dark ugliness, though vaguely she could remember her first impression of him as a swarthy, coarse-featured young man. But then he had smiled upon her, and spoken, and she was aware only of a beautiful deep voice, and of a presence that filled her vision to the exclusion of all others. She said slowly, fumbling for words: 'Is he? Yes, I do recall I thought so.'

  'It's a mighty queer thing,' remarked Lassels, 'but for all I have not known him above a day, I've a notion life will seem an empty business when he goes away from us.'

  'Yes,' she said. 'Yes. An empty business.'

  His words seemed to cast the shadow of the future across the room. She said no more, but moved away to snuff a candle that was guttering.

  She did not see the King again that evening. Mr Tomes readily caused a truckle-bed to be set up in Lassels's chamber: so readily, in fact, that Lassels suspected him of guessing that Will Jackson was not what he seemed to be, and privately informed Jane of it. She was sure, however, that although her kinsman might suppose the King to be a Cavalier, he had no inkling of his true identity. It was evident that he did not wish to be taken into their confidence, for upon Lassels's beginning to tell him of Jackson's tertian ague, he said quickly: 'I ask no questions. I know only that your serving-man is in feeble health, and that is not a matter that concerns me.'

  Lassels went early to bed, and was soon joined by the King, who came up from the buttery, declaring that they fared much better there than in the dining parlour.

  Lassels bolted the door, and knelt down before Charles to pull off his boots. 'Was it very rude and uncomfortable, sire?' he asked anxiously.

  The King smiled sleepily down at him. 'You know, you are as proud as a cock on his own dunghill, Lassels. I wonder you will jaunt about the country with a low fellow like myself. I was right well-entertained in the buttery, and have been exchanging bawdy stories with the butler this hour and more. He is an honest man, and wishes I may escape from mine enemies.'

  'But he did not know you, sir?'

  'Nay, he called on me to drink mine own health, which I did very willingly. Also he pitied me that I must lie upon a truckle-bed in your chamber, and said it was strange that a young man with so kind a counte nance should be so exacting a master as to expect to be waited on by night as well as by day.'

  Lassels helped him to take off his coat, remarking with a grin: 'I dare swear you spun him a mighty fine tale of my harshness, sir.'

  'I did,' said the King, casting his shirt on to a chair. 'If they do not reckon me very good company in the kitchen, trust me never!'

  'We think that John Tomes suspects you of being a Cavalier in disguise,' said Lassels. 'But there is no need to fear him, sir.'

  The King got into bed, and lay down. 'Very well, I won't give him a thought,' he said, closing his eyes. 'I hope you will not find that pallet very hard.'

  'Be sure I shan't, sir.'

  'I am reasonably sure that you will,' said the King. 'The butler told me I should.'

  'Sir,' said Lassels, 'I do not anticipate any sudden danger in this house, but in case the need should arise, will you have one of my pistols beneath your pillow?'

  'Good God!' murmured the King. 'Are you at that again? You are too dangerous a man for me. Put up your pistols, and go to bed!'

  Lassels said, 'Yes, sire,' in an obedient voice, but having assured himself that the King's eyes were still shut, slipped both pistols under his own pillow.

  Nothing occurred during the night to cause him to draw them out from this hiding-place, but although all was quiet in the house he several times awoke, and fancied that he heard sounds. The King slept peacefully, a circumstance that filled the young attendant with a kind of wondering admiration. He did not call out in his sleep, though once he muttered some indistinguish able words. When morning came, Lassels was obliged to rouse him. He woke then with a start, and for a moment seemed bewildered, blinking up at Lassels, and saying in a voice thickened with sleep: '
One
charge! I beg of you – I beg of you, gentlemen!' He broke off, as the dream receded, and sat up, pressing his hands to his eyes.

  'Sire, you are safe at Long Marston,' Lassels said, a little timidly.

  The King's hands fell. 'I do remember. I thought – no matter: it was nothing to the purpose.' He flung back the bedclothes, and got up, saying cheerfully: 'Help me to dress, Lassels. I think your servant would fetch hot water for you to shave with, would he not?'

  The King ate his breakfast in the buttery, and went out immediately after to the stables. As soon as Jane had taken her leave of the Petres, who set off at an early hour, Lassels sent to command his horses. The King brought both up to the house; the saddle-bags were strapped on, and Jane Lane put up into her pillion. Mr Tomes came out to speed his guests on their way, but beyond casting one searching glance at as much of the King's face as he could see for the shading brim of his hat, paid no heed to him.

  It had been agreed that the second night should be spent at Cirencester, which lay some twenty-four miles from Long Marston, and they rode there by easy stages, encountering nothing on the way to occasion them the least alarm. The King seemed to be in excellent spirits, declaring that the only blot upon his enjoyment was the necessity of twisting his head over his shoulder every time he was desirous of looking at Jane. The indulging of this desire upon a very rough part of the road nearly resulted in their both being tumbled in the mud, for the King had let his bridle hang loosely, and the big gelding stumbled badly, setting a foot into a deep pit full of water. Jane clutched the King about the middle with a gasp of dismay, but the gelding recovered his footing, and the danger was past. Releasing the King, Jane said severely: 'Indeed and indeed my mother was in the right of it! What goodly horseman have I to ride before me?'

  The King, whose first governor had been the finest horseman of his day, said meekly: 'But I was taught horse-manage by my Lord of Newcastle.'

  'Then I must say that he taught you very ill, sire, or you were a dull pupil.'

  'He was used to say I could ride his horses better than he could himself,' pleaded the King. 'But being but a lad I was not set up before a lady whose face I most earnestly desired to see.'

  'Being but a lad, sir, you would most heartily have despised it,' returned Jane.

  'Oh no!' said the King. 'I do assure you I had always an eye for a pretty face.'

  'Fie upon you, sir! You must then have been a bad, odious little boy.'

  'I doubt I was,' agreed Charles. 'An ill-favoured urchin, to boot, and one that halted in his speech. My brother James is generally held to be greatly my superior, being fair to look upon, very graceful in his bearing, and with plenty to say for himself.'

  She smiled. 'And you, sir?'

  'Oh, I sit mumchance, and devour good mutton when I should be partaking of French kickshaws. I can tell you, they would give you no good account of me at my cousin Louis's court. In particular, la Grande Mademoiselle looks upon me with disgust, thinking me a great boor.'

  'Does she, sir? Of what like is she, I wonder?'

  'Her teeth stick out,' said the King.

  Laughter quivered in her voice. 'Oh! If my teeth did so, I think I might find you – a great boor, sir.'

  'The unhappy cause of my ill-success with Made moiselle,' said the King primly, 'is my unlucky tongue, which cannot master the French language.'

  '
You
cannot converse in French?' she said, momen tarily astonished.

  The King turned his head, and cast her a sidelong, wicked look that spoke volumes.

  She gave a little chuckle. 'Sir, sir, I think that smith spoke truly who called you
that rogue, Charles Stewart
! Shall you marry Mademoiselle?'

  'Oddsfish, no! Do you think Mademoiselle would wed a penniless adventurer, my Life? You are sadly out!'

  Her face became troubled. She asked: 'What will you do, when you come safe to France, sir?'

  'Listen to a homily from my good Chancellor,' replied the King flippantly. 'Lassels, at the next inn we come to, we will alight, and take some refreshment.'

  'I am very willing, sir,' said Lassels, 'but do you think we should? Mr Tomes had some bread and cheese put up for us.'

  'I have had enough of bread and cheese to last me the rest of my life,' said the King. 'As for my being recognized, if that is what troubles you, I begin to think myself a match for all my enemies.'

  But no one betrayed the least interest in him at the inn which he presently chose to honour with his patronage. His conver sations with the butler at Long Marston had informed him that a gentleman's groom, travelling with his master, was generally a pert, swag gering fellow, and this rôle he enacted with such zest that his anxious companions' hearts seemed several times to miss a beat. When they expostulated, he was quite impenitent, and, indeed, conducted himself with so much assurance at the Crown, at Cirencester, where they arrived at dusk, that they began to think that their fears for him were wasted.

  As at Long Marston, a truckle-bed was set up in Lassels's bedchamber. Both he and the King passed an undisturbed night, setting out again upon the last stage of the journey at an early hour on the following morning.

  Going by way of Chipping Sodbury, they reached the outskirts of Bristol in the late afternoon, crossing the Avon at the Rownham Ferry, and entering the town by Lawford's Gate.

  Neither Jane nor Lassels was familiar with Bristol, and the King, who had blithely engaged to lead them safely through it, found it so much enlarged since his sojourn there some years previously, that he soon confessed himself to be at a loss to find the way. The circum stance of the town's being extremely disaffected, the castle being held by a strong Parliamentarian garrison, made both Jane and Lassels nervous of lingering in it. The streets were full of people and a great many red-coats were to be seen. A small party of obvious travellers did not attract much attention in a sea-port, but when the King, who had been looking about him with great interest at all the changes to be seen in the town, insisted on riding up to the castle and all round it, Lassels could not contain himself, but implored him not to behave so rashly.