Lies and Misdemeanours (11 page)

What have you done?
She asked herself as she glanced behind again.

A brief wave of hopeless desperation swept through her when she started to count the number of jailers, but lost count after eight.

If she got caught, especially with Charlie, she wouldn’t need to worry about having to watch his execution for crimes he didn’t commit; she would be hung by the noose right next to his.

“What do we do?” she called when they turned down one road and into another, but the jailers continued their dogged pursuit. “We are going to get ambushed.”

“No we aren’t, darling,” Charlie argued. “Not while I have breath in my body.” He spoke through gritted teeth. His beautiful grey eyes were cold and hard. His mind raced as he plotted the route they were going to take and, in that moment, he was a total stranger to Hetty.

The thought that he was her husband left her feeling decidedly thrilled, at the same time as a little nervous. He was handsome, fierce, strong yet worryingly tender at times. He was an enigma still, but she had no hesitation in placing her life in his hands. 

She had no idea how long they ran for. The horses began to grow tired but they continued to push them on, and raced through the countryside at breakneck speed. Field after field passed in a blur but, unfortunately, each time Hetty looked behind them, the jailers were still there.

“They just aren’t giving up,” she cried desperately when her horse slowed to a trot and refused to canter again, no matter how much she urged it to move.

“See if you can keep the horse going for a bit longer. There are hills up ahead. We can lose them in the trees. We need to change horses. These can’t keep running like this,” Charlie replied distractedly.

While he was fairly certain that Luke and Brendan had been chased, and had most probably evaded capture given how well they rode, there were still too many jailers after him and Hetty.

It made Charlie wonder if Meldrew had already brought in reinforcements overnight.

The thought made him mentally curse the crooked magistrate for his sheer bloody mindedness. If the man had appeared in front of Charlie right there and then, he would have no compunction against shooting him dead where he stood.

Meldrew was a criminal; nothing more, nothing less, and he should be the one being chased through the bloody countryside by half of sodding Derbyshire.

His fury was raw, and enough to fuel his determination to keep both him and Hetty safe. At least he now had Hetty beside him where he could keep a close, personal eye on her. Her presence beside him was enough to remove at least half of the worry that had plagued him since yesterday. The other half – getting to safety – he could practically taste.

The jailers had faded into the distance but she knew, without bothering to stop and study the area more closely, that they were not too far away.

“Why have the jailers pulled back?” Hetty called when she glanced back only to find them considerably further away. “Are we running into an ambush?”

She studied the empty landscape. It was difficult to tell for certain. There was simply nobody around. It felt as if everyone had suddenly vanished, and she and Charlie were the only ones in the country.

There were no farm buildings; no carriages; not even a farmer leading his cattle to market; absolutely nothing. It was more than a little disconcerting.

“There is a small village over that hill,” Charlie gasped. “It isn’t much, but we should be able to change the horses at a coaching inn, if we can find one. We have to go this way first though, then we can double back so that we –”

“We are not doubling back,” Hetty declared firmly. She reined her horse into a trot and pulled up alongside him. “I will not double back, and risk being caught by those jailers. We don’t double back. We keep going. Our horses are tired, but so will theirs be. It’s foolish to keep pushing them at the rate we are; we have to slow down and let the horses catch their breaths. Whatever we do, we are most definitely not turning back on ourselves.”

Charlie lifted his brows and looked at her. The fierce glint of anger in her eyes warmed him, and he found himself smiling at her, in spite of the fact that this was effectively their first argument.

“Fair enough,” he agreed somewhat cautiously.

Right then he would have given anything she wanted. If she didn’t want to double back, even to change horses, then he wasn’t going to argue with her.

God, she is beautiful when she is angry,
he mused. She looked so vibrant, so full of vim and vigour, that he wanted to sweep her into his arms for a hug and kiss the life out of her.

He winced at that mental analogy. Given what had very nearly happened only this time yesterday, he didn’t want to think about anyone losing their lives, and hurriedly turned his attention back to their current predicament.

“We can’t go to the safe house right now,” Charlie declared firmly. He nodded in the direction they had last seen the jailers. “It’s too risky. We can’t bring that lot to Afferley. Sir Hugo isn’t due until tomorrow, and we can’t hold off half of Derby overnight. Wally and Simon are there. While we are being chased, they are safe.”

“Where is it? This, Afferley.” Hetty asked as she glanced around them. “I have no idea where we are.”

If he was honest neither did he, but he wasn’t going to say as much to her. “We are a few miles away, I think. We must find some way we can change the horses. Then we need to find a way to get to the safe house without being seen.”

“Won’t they search this far out?”

“I think they will now, yes. They just haven’t searched this far yet.”

“I hope to God, Mabel and your friends are alright,” Hetty declared firmly.

“My colleagues are very capable men. If anyone can get Mabel out of that town, it is Marcus, Barnaby, and the others.”

“What then? I mean, we can’t just keep riding around evading capture.”

Charlie looked at her. “We have to change the horses first. Once we are on fresh animals, we can find a way around to Afferley. Once Sir Hugo is in Derby, we will be safe because nobody would dare challenge him; not even Meldrew. I have no doubt that Sir Hugo will ensure that he has the relevant documentation, and authority, to remove Meldrew from office with immediate effect. In light of the fact that innocent people are being put to death, Sir Hugo won’t waste time. We just have to give him time to get here.”

Hetty gave him a measured look. “I hope Meldrew will listen to your Sir Hugo.”

Charlie knew that she doubted that Sir Hugo had the authority to deal with Meldrew, but Charlie had no qualms about placing his trust in his boss.

“Sir Hugo can call in the red coats if he needs to,” he confided, and smiled at her shocked gasp. “He has done so before, when we were dealing with some Cornish smugglers. Even Meldrew and his thugs cannot fight the army.”

“Seriously?”

Charlie nodded. “We need to go.”

Hetty froze at the sudden evasive look in his eye. She didn’t want to take a look behind them, but was driven to. When she did, she immediately wished that she hadn’t. A small group of jailers were charging over the hill behind them, relentless in their dogged determination to capture them.

When she turned to face forward, she gasped in horror.

A small group of men were blocking their escape route, and thundering toward them on horses that were evidently fresher than their own.

“This way,” Charlie snapped, and hauled a sharp right.

Once Hetty was beside him, he kicked his horse into a canter. They raced down the road and into an open field that took them over the hill, in the opposite direction to Derby. Unfortunately, their horses still hadn’t recovered from their previous exertions and were slower than the jailers.

“My horse cannot go on for much longer,” Hetty shouted when her horse started to slow down again.

Charlie bit back a curse when he realised just how much she had fallen behind even his horse. Although his horse had also started to grow tired as well, it was still willing to canter whenever asked. Hers wasn’t.

“We will have to find somewhere to stop.”

“We can’t stop,” Hetty cried, panic stricken at the very thought.

“We have no choice,” Charlie argued. “If that horse drops, we are stuck out here on foot. If we stop for a minute or two, the horses might be able to carry us a bit further.”

Hetty opened her mouth to argue, but couldn’t get the words out. Although her instincts warned her not to, she stupidly glanced behind her again only for her panic to increase tenfold at the distance their pursuers had closed in a short space of time.

“Let’s go this way,” Charlie suggested.

“Where to?”

“Those trees over there.” Charlie nodded to a small wood on the horizon.

Hetty followed his horse through the open gate, into the field. They took a moment to close it behind them, and then they raced along the hedgerow. They both ducked low so that their heads couldn’t be seen above the thick bramble as they raced toward the trees, and relative safety.

By the time they disappeared into the gloomy woodland, both the riders and the horses were exhausted. Hetty’s chest heaved with exertion when she pulled her horse to a stop beside Charlie’s. He placed one hand on hers as he fought for his own breath, and they stood in silence while they rested.

Their position gave them a perfect view over the surrounding landscape. At any other time they would have appreciated the outstanding beauty of the scenery, and the large town of Derby that sat quite resplendent, right in the centre of it. Right now though, their gazes were captured by the group of jailers who were studying the area, and trying to decide which parties were going to search which area.

“What’s that?” She turned fearful eyes on Charlie when the sound of clanking metalwork broke the silence.

“It’s a farmer. Keep quiet,” he whispered. He studied the area on the other side of the trees, and heaved a sigh of relief at the sight of a farm about half a mile away.

“Look. Over there,” he nodded to the small group of buildings.

“Do you think they have horses?”

“If they have one horse we can swap for yours, that will be enough,” Charlie whispered. “Stay close to me. Let’s go.” He threw Hetty an apologetic look. “We may have to steal the man’s horse. I doubt he is going to be willing to trade but, once this is all over, I promise that I will put the matter right with him.”

Hetty nodded. Although horse stealing was highly illegal, Charlie was already a condemned convict who had been sentenced to death. Until he could prove his innocence, he had nothing to lose by committing another crime, and they both knew it.

Although it went against everything within her, the thought of ending up at the end of the hangman’s noose was just too horrific to contemplate and, as a result, she was prepared to do whatever she needed to do to keep herself out of Meldrew’s clutches – even stealing.

“We have no choice,” she said, unsurprised when he slowly shook his head.

As they grew closer to the farm, they came across a field which contained three horses and a pony.

“How do we catch them?” Hetty asked.

The mill pony, Doris, was easy to catch because she was always hungry. All Hetty ever had to do to catch her was take a carrot, and Doris would come trotting along.

Given the rather wary way these horses were looking at them, catching one of the farmer’s horses wouldn’t be so easy.

Charlie studied the field, and its distance to the farm house. “I’ll catch one. You keep a look out. We have to be quick, or the farmer’s wife will see us. Wait here.”

“Hurry,” she urged as she dismounted and began to unsaddle her horse.

She stood beside the gate to the field and eyed the surrounding area warily while Charlie made his way slowly toward one of the horses. It was huge and looked incredibly mean but, thankfully, it pricked its ears but made no attempt to run away when Charlie approached.

Hetty heaved a sigh of relief when he led it toward her and put the reins on. Within seconds, he had it saddled and mounted it himself to ensure that it could be ridden before he quickly dismounted and helped her up.

It was a relief to be back on a horse, if a little unnerving when the new animal, fresh from a good night’s rest and a belly full of grass, began to dance enthusiastically beneath her. She tried to murmur soothing words to it, but it seemed to sense that a good long run was in order and was eager to get going.

She managed to keep it under control while Charlie went to catch a new horse for himself. By the time they left their horses behind, and closed the farmer’s gate behind them, Hetty was a bundle of nerves, and felt almost as jumpy as the horse was.

Her ears were tuned to any sound of movement around them but the hedges were just too high to see anything.

“Let’s try to get to into fields again so we can keep running and make sure that we don’t run into anyone. These horses have miles in them so we should have no problems covering the distance to the safe house, even if we have to go around in circles a bit to make sure that we aren’t followed.”

“How did you come to get involved with Meldrew in the first place?” Hetty cried suddenly. She had no idea where the cry came from, but raw anger suddenly welled up from deep within her and demanded to be released.