Regency Pleasures and Sins Part 1

In response the limp figure stirred, coughed and said, ‘Urgh.’ He coughed, grimaced and tried again. ‘Hell.’ It sounded more like a statement than an oath.

‘Nick, open your eyes,’ Katherine urged.

There was a long moment of stillness, then, with an effort that was almost tangible, he dragged his lids open and stared up at her.

Katherine gasped; his eyes were red with broken blood vessels. ‘Nick …’

‘Kat?’ He broke off, coughing desperately. ‘Told you not to come.’

Katherine pulled off her pelisse, rolled it up and pushed it under his head. ‘Do not try and talk. Someone, please fetch me water.’

‘Katherine.’ He was not taking the slightest notice of her words. ‘I’m not dead?’

‘Of course not,’ she snapped, the nervous tension of the last few hours breaking down her control at last. ‘Now be quiet, for goodness’ sake, and lie still and we will … we will …’ Suddenly she was shaking. Arthur started forward, John swore under his breath and elbowed the younger man aside and Nick, moving like a marionette with half his strings cut, lurched into a sitting position then on to his feet.

‘Kat, Kat, don’t cry.’ She found herself gathered into his arms and held against a very malodorous frieze coat. It felt marvellous. ‘Kat, what have you done to your head?’

She had forgotten it; now the pain over her eye returned with a vengeance. ‘Carriage accident.’ Justice Highson spoke. ‘We would have been here yesterday evening if it had not been for that. But never mind that now. You, young man, should be in bed and your wife should not be in this place.’

Katherine pulled herself together. ‘Oh, yes, please let us go home! Governor, will we be able to get out now?’

She found she was still clinging to Nick, although which of them was holding the other up she was not quite certain.

‘John, help Mr Lydgate. Is the coach near? I can hardly recall where we got out and began to run.’

‘Near enough, if the Governor can get us out away from the crowd,’ John said stolidly. ‘Come here, sir, you put your arm over my shoulders, we’re much of a height. There we go.’

They made slow progress down the maze of passages. Katherine could not bring herself to look at Nick, to see more closely the purple swollen flesh of his throat where they had cut the noose away or the frightening bloodshot eyes. She just wanted them all out of this place. At the gateway she turned and held out her hands to Mr Highson.

‘How can I thank you, sir? I feel so guilty for your injuries.’

‘Nonsense, my dear.’ The magistrate shifted his left arm, which was resting in a sling, and grimaced. ‘A sore head and a dislocated shoulder are a small price to pay. Think how I would feel with an innocent man’s life on my conscience. I’ll be off now, you will want to get home. Goodbye, my dear Mrs Lydgate. Write and let me know how your husband goes on.’

Impetuously she put her arms around him and kissed his empurpled cheek. He smelt of snuff and Spanish leather and reminded her suddenly of her father.

‘Now you just sit here a minute, sir.’ John was propping Nick into a corner embrasure. ‘I’ll be back directly if that brat I left the horses with hasn’t sold them.’

Katherine went to Nick’s side and regarded him anxiously. He was leaning back against the wall, eyes shut. Should she take his arm? Or would he dislike that? She was still hesitating when a rumble of wheels announced John and the old carriage.

‘Arthur, will you come back with us?’

Mr Brigham finished helping Nick into the coach and turned to offer his hand to Katherine. ‘If I may. I hope I will be of some assistance, and I confess I cannot conceal my curiosity about how you pulled off this miracle.’

Katherine settled opposite Nick and watched him for a moment before answering. His eyes were closed, but he was responding to the shifting movements of the carriage, so he was conscious. She had a strong suspicion that he would react somewhat strongly to her story and she wanted him rested before he heard it.

‘Yes, of course, I will tell you later, Arthur. But where is Philip? Was he not with you?’

There was an awkward silence. Katherine’s heart sank—oh, no, not drunk again.

‘Yes, where is my esteemed brother-in-law?’ Nick enquired in a voice like a rusty saw. He had opened his eyes and was regarding Arthur’s embarrassed face with sardonic interest.

‘France.’

‘France?’

‘Well, he won’t be there yet, I expect, but that’s where he said he was going. He left the day before yesterday. I tried to stop him,’ Arthur protested as she stared at him, appalled. ‘I did try, Katherine, but he said he had had enough and couldn’t stand it any longer.’

‘He had had enough?’ Katherine bit her lip to stop the angry words and tried to breathe deeply and calmly. ‘How could he afford to travel?’

‘He pawned some things,’ Arthur said reluctantly. ‘I said I would lend him the money, but he said he didn’t want to be indebted to a friend.’

‘Which things?’ Katherine asked, suddenly all too afraid she knew what they were. ‘The only things left of the slightest value are Grandmother Harrison’s ormolu mantel clock and Mama’s pearl ear-bobs.’

‘There was a clock,’ Arthur confirmed. ‘And a small jewellery box.’

Katherine wrestled with hurt and anger. They are only things, she reasoned miserably. You do not need them to remember the people who left them to you.

‘It appears Mr Cunningham has scruples about borrowing from his friends, but not stealing from his sister,’ Nick rasped and Katherine wondered at how good that flash of anger on her behalf felt. ‘Do you know which pawnbroker he used?’ Arthur nodded. ‘Do you have the tickets?’

‘He left them in the study, I think.’

‘Then will you redeem them for Katherine? You will be repaid.’

‘Yes, of course,’ Arthur said eagerly.

The exchange appeared to have exhausted Nick, for he fell back against the squabs, eyes closed again. Katherine sat watching him anxiously until at last they drew up in front of the house in Clifford Street.

Between them John and Arthur got the tall, unsteady figure out of the coach and up the steps to where Jenny was waiting. ‘Jenny, run and set water to heat. When John has helped Mr Lydgate up to Mr Philip’s room, he can carry the bath tub for you.’

The two women hovered anxiously outside the bedroom until first Arthur came out grinning, followed by John with a bundle of clothes held at arm’s length. ‘These need burning, Miss Katherine. Mr Lydgate says, begging your pardon, ma’am, that he isn’t a bl—er, perishing child and can wash himself without the pair of us helping him. And do we have a back-brush?’

Katherine smiled, relieved. At least if Nick was capable of throwing out his would-be helpers he could not be feeling too dreadful. ‘Fetch my back-brush, please, Jenny. John, what are we going to do about a nightshirt? Philip’s will never fit, he is far too broad in the shoulder.’

‘I’ll get one of mine.’ John turned to go downstairs, then looked back. ‘Mind, I don’t think he has any intention of going to bed.’

‘As we’ve removed all his clothes, he had better,’ Katherine said firmly. ‘Especially as I intend to go in and bandage his neck and wrists.’ She took the nightshirt when John returned with it and thrust both it and the back-brush into Arthur’s hands. ‘In you go, and make it quite clear he is to get into bed.’

Arthur grimaced, knocked and went into the bedchamber. No sound reached the listeners on the landing until eventually Arthur appeared, looking more than a little damp.

‘What on earth have you been doing?’ Katherine demanded.

‘He threw the sponge at my head when I refused to bring him any clothes. I suppose it could have been the back-brush.’

‘Has he gone to bed?’

‘Yes, but only when I told him that if he did not, you would come in with your salves and bandages anyway.’

With some apprehension she tapped on the door and entered. The tub stood surrounded by sodden towels and Nick was sitting up in bed, looking pale and decidedly mutinous.

‘Will you please ask John to lend me some clothes?’ he croaked.

‘Not until tomorrow,’ Katherine responded calmly, setting her tray down beside the bed. ‘You need sleep and quiet and rest. Tomorrow I will see. If you are not better, I will call Dr Wilkes; if you are better, then you may get up.’

‘You are a very managing woman.’ He broke off to cough and Katherine tried to keep the anxiety off her face.

‘I have had to learn to be, certainly. Now, if you will just sit forward and let me fold your collar down—’ She broke off at the sight of the empurpled flesh and swallowed. ‘Is your neck very sore?’

Nick nodded and winced. ‘Inside and out.’

‘Then try not to talk. This may sting a little.’ She smoothed the salve over the torn skin with as gentle a touch as possible, resolutely ignoring the indrawn breath that hissed through his teeth. ‘There, I will just put a soft bandage round to keep it in contact with your skin. Now, let me see your wrists.’

Obediently he held them out, then, as she reached for them, caught her hands in his. ‘Tell me what happened.’

‘When you have rested.’ She looked down at their joined hands and told herself that it would be undignified to start struggling. ‘Let me go, please, Nick.’ His pulse was strong where her thumb rested against his wrist and his hands were warm.

Slowly he freed her and she reached for the salve and bandages. ‘These are much better than they were a few days ago. Did you manage to keep the bandages on under your manacles?’

Nick nodded as she tied the last knot, then recaptured her hands. ‘Tell me now, Kat. Why am I not dead?’

Katherine met his eyes and read in them a will that was stronger than anything she could summon up. If she did not tell him now, he was quite capable of getting up and finding John or Jenny to ask.

‘Very well, if you promise me you will stay in bed until tomorrow if I do. I went to Hemel Hempstead, found the magistrate who had you arrested—Mr Highson, he was with us today—and convinced him he had mistaken his man. Naturally, once he realised the truth he determined to have you released as soon as possible. We were travelling back yesterday and the wheel came off. Poor Mr Highson was knocked unconscious and put his shoulder right out of its socket and Jenny was badly shaken up.’

‘And you?’ Nick reached up and touched the bruise on her forehead. ‘That gave you a headache. Are you hurt anywhere else?’

‘No, just a few more bruises. I landed on Mr Highson. How did you know I had a headache?’

‘Because I had one too,’ he said simply.

For some reason Katherine was feeling quite flustered. ‘Anyway, that was why we were so late. Mr Highson’s carriage was badly damaged and poor Jenny was at her wits’ end with the pair of us unconscious … I mean …’ Botheration! She had not meant to let him realise she too had been knocked out.

‘I see.’ The rasp in his voice was even more pronounced. ‘Perhaps you could tell me the whole story without editing out the bits that you consider would alarm me?’

Katherine flushed. ‘John caught up with us, but Mr Highson’s carriage was too badly damaged to repair quickly. We set out at five this morning in my carriage, which is slower, of course, but the crowds were terrible, we could not get through with the carriage and in the end John set us down and we had to run.’ She could feel the colour draining out of her cheeks and broke off for a moment to compose herself.

‘We could hear the crowd and every so often the noise would reach a crescendo and we realised another poor soul had been executed. We had no way of knowing whether we were already too late.’ Her voice faltered and she bit her lip before continuing. ‘It seemed to take an age to get to the Governor and for him to hear what Mr Highson had to say and then when we got to the scaffold … I am sorry to be so foolish. It is just that it was such a shock to see you there, to see the trap open.’

Nick reached out a hand and took one of hers in his gently. She felt his thumb caressing lightly over her palm. ‘Shh. I should not have made you relive it so soon. Leave it now.’

‘No, no, I am all right. I screamed and John ran forward and jumped down through the trap to hold you up. He found Arthur was already there and between them they managed to support you while they cut the rope above. The rest you know.’

They sat in silence for a while, Katherine content to let her hand rest in Nick’s. Then he said, almost too low for her to hear, ‘There was a young woman. Just a girl. She was behind me as they led us out, but she pushed through to the front. I think she was so afraid that she could not bear to wait and only wanted it all to be over.’

‘Poor soul,’ Katherine murmured, then the realisation of what he had just said struck her. ‘You mean, if it were not for her, we would have been too late?’

‘Mmm. Strange how lives can hang—literally—on such chances.’ He fell silent. Katherine raised her eyes to Nick’s and found that he had not begun to doze off as she thought, but that he was watching her, his dark, bloodshot eyes intelligent.

‘You still are not telling me everything, are you, Kat? No, do not look so innocent and protest you have no idea what I mean.’

Chapter Eight

Katherine shut her mouth, only too aware that Nick was right and she had been about to say she had no idea what he meant.

‘Come on, Kat. How did you convince that magistrate that I was innocent? He would not take your word for it, however charmingly you pleaded.’

Katherine stared back stubbornly. He would be furious if he knew what she had done, she knew him well enough already to guess that. On the other hand, he was not going to give up. If she did not tell him, John or Jenny would.

‘I went to the Lamb and Flag and talked to the barmaid about Black Jack, and he was there.’ Nick’s eyebrows snapped together in an intimidating frown and she hastened on. ‘I put it to him that to temporarily confuse the authorities was one thing, but to leave an innocent man to hang in his stead was not the action of a famous highwayman such as himself. I thought an appeal to his pride would work and it did.’

‘Dear God.’ Nick let his head fall back on the pillow. ‘And he might just as easily have slit your throat.’

‘Well, he did not. I rather liked him,’ Katherine said, unwittingly adding fuel to the fire.

‘Did you, indeed?’

‘Yes, I did. He looked a lot less frightening than you did the first time I saw you.’

Nick merely rolled his eyes. ‘And I suppose he wrote you a little note to take to the magistrate? Or did he turn himself in?’

‘Neither. We went to Mr Highson’s house. I pretended to faint and asked to have the window opened and Black Jack got in. Then we explained.’

‘And instead of having you both arrested, he consented to listen?’ Nick sounded incredulous. Katherine found she was becoming indignant. The more she thought about it, the more proud she was of her audacious plan.

‘I was clinging to the magistrate so he had to listen, and John was guarding the door to stop the servants getting in. Mr Highson recognised Black Jack, who gave him his watch back and repeated something he had said when he stole it. So Mr Highson was convinced and was naturally anxious to have you pardoned as quickly as possible.’

‘Let me be sure I have this right,’ Nick rasped. He sounded absolutely furious. ‘You travel into Hertfordshire, you beard a notorious highwayman in his lair, you assist him breaking and entering a magistrate’s house, you assault the magistrate and, I presume, you help the highwayman escape again. Is that correct?’

‘Yes,’ Katherine said mutinously.

‘And how did you pay for this excursion into crime?’

‘I sold a hideous diamond necklace I had been hiding away for a rainy day, if you must know.’

She waited, a hot knot of misery inside her. She had not wanted him to be grateful, but she had expected him to be pleased, perhaps a little admiring of her enterprise and resolution. Now he seemed to be angry with her.

‘You spent your last resources, you put your life and reputation in danger on the word of a complete stranger who you had every reason to think was a dangerous felon?’ He was looking at her now, his eyes blazing, his hoarse voice no longer angry, but full of admiration. Katherine felt her heart thud. The tight knot of misery melted.

‘I believed you. I had spent the night with you and you treated me honourably. And if you were innocent, then I had no choice but to help you.’

‘Kat, come here.’ He put up a hand to his eyes.

‘Why? What is wrong? Is that bandage chaffing your throat?’ Anxious, Katherine got to her feet and leaned over the bed. The next moment she was caught around the waist, pulled down against Nick’s chest and was being thoroughly kissed.

He had kissed her once before. Once only as the prison clock struck eight with the turnkeys at the door. This was different. A slow slide of his lips across hers, a gentle pressure that tantalised, promised, stirred feelings inside her which burned and ached and made her arch instinctively closer.

Her lips parted and his tongue slid inside her to touch hers. Katherine gripped his shoulders as though she were drowning and tried to hold on to the remnants of rational thought. Those remnants were telling her that this was outrageous, that she should not be doing this, allowing this. Her self-control struggled briefly with the newly discovered wanton instincts that seemed to be rioting through her and finally got the upper hand. She opened her hands and pushed.

Nick released her immediately and she sat back panting on the edge of the bed. ‘No! We should not!’

‘I wanted to thank you, Kat, I just don’t have the words, but perhaps I had better try if you will not let me kiss you.’ His face was serious under the unruly tumble of damp black hair and Katherine caught herself before she could reach out and brush it back from his forehead. ‘You saved my life, you put yourself in danger to do it and you gave up the last remnants of your financial security in the process. I do not deserve that and I can never repay it. I had resigned myself to dying, I felt it was probably a just return for the last six years of my life, for listening to my pride and not my duty and turning my back on my responsibilities.

‘I had resigned myself, I thought, until I met you and found there were still some things I wanted.’

Katherine felt herself blush and he smiled wickedly at her. ‘Not just that, although I have to admit that kissing you reminds me of why it is good to be alive.’

‘I am glad,’ she said simply. ‘But we should not … not be alone, I think. After all, as soon as Arthur can arrange it, the marriage will be annulled.’

‘How can it be? Have you forgotten why you married me in the first place? How will the debt be paid?’

Fear rolled back like a cold fog. ‘I had not forgotten precisely,’ she stammered. ‘It just did not seem important under the circumstances. The last few days, all I have thought about was making sure you did not hang.’

‘And by saving my neck you have resurrected the debt. The moneylenders will be interested to hear about this, I have no doubt. We had better leave town as soon as possible.’

‘There is no “we” about it,’ Katherine said robustly, fighting down the waves of panic. ‘It is my debt, not yours.’

Nick grinned. He seemed invigorated by the dreadful mess they found themselves in. ‘How can you smile about it?’ she protested. ‘I only married you because I thought the debt would make no difference to you. Neither of us has any money, for goodness’ sake! You must disentangle yourself from my affairs.’

‘Kat, you saved my life. Do you think I value that at less than a few thousand pounds?’

‘Five thousand,’ she said miserably. ‘You might not be going to hang, but if you remain married to me you will end up in a debtors’ prison.’

‘I will not agree to an annulment, Kat.’

‘Then I will go to the moneylenders and tell them the marriage was not consummated. That will do just as well.’

Nick sat up, the smile vanishing from his face. ‘For one thing they will not believe you, and for another, if I really believed you would do that, I promise you I would make it a lie before you could leave this room.’

Katherine scrambled to her feet and backed off from the bed. ‘No!’ There was a very determined glint in his eyes. ‘If I promise I will not go to them today or tomorrow, will you promise me you will rest now?’ She received a reluctant nod. ‘Would you like something to eat? No? Then I will bring you some lemonade.’

‘Claret.’

‘Lemonade.’ She had reached the door and looked back, her hand on the knob. ‘We have no claret.’

‘Liar,’ he observed amiably.

‘Oh, very well, but it will do you no good whatsoever. In fact, I would not be surprised if you ended up with a brain fever!’

Katherine shut the door with a snap and went downstairs to find Jenny, feeling she had definitely come off worst in that encounter. She should have explained only what she had intended to about her adventures in Hertfordshire, she should have accepted Nick’s thanks with dignity and decorum and she should have convinced him they should seek an annulment at the earliest opportunity.

What happened instead? she berated herself as she walked into the kitchen. He knows every detail, you let yourself be kissed until you almost lost every shred of self-control and modesty and he is refusing to annul the marriage.

‘Are you all right, Miss Katherine?’ Jenny asked anxiously, emerging from the pantry with a bowl of eggs.

‘Perfectly, thank you. Could you ask John to clear the bath from upstairs when he has a moment? And if there is any left of that dozen of claret that Mr Philip thinks I do not know about, please will you take one up to Mr Lydgate?’

Jenny wiped her hands on her apron and went off to do as she was asked, leaving Katherine brooding at the kitchen table. And there is still that debt and not the slightest hope of paying it.

She was still deep in thought when the maid came back. ‘I asked Mr Lydgate if he’d like a nice omelette and some ham and he said he thought he would, so that’s good, isn’t it, Miss Katherine?’

‘He told me he was not hungry.’

‘That’s men for you.’ Jenny reached for an empty bowl and began to crack eggs into it. ‘They need tempting; I told him all about how good my omelettes are, though I say it myself. There’s the front door, that’ll be Mr Brigham and he’ll be hungry too, I make no doubt.’

Need tempting! The last thing that Nicholas Lydgate needed was tempting, he appeared to take what he wanted quite easily without any such encouragement.

‘Oh, hello, Arthur.’ The young lawyer put his head round the kitchen door, saw Katherine and came in, his arms full of a handsome French clock.

‘Here you are, and here are … where did I put them …? Yes, here are the earrings.’

‘Thank you so much,’ Katherine said gratefully, running a hand over the ornate metalwork of the clock. It brought back her grandmother so vividly she smiled as she touched it. ‘What do I owe you?’

Arthur looked embarrassed, ‘No hurry at all, don’t think of it. Anyway, I thought Lydgate was going to pay. You have other things to consider before that, it’s a mere trifle; I told you I would have lent the money to Philip.’

‘I do not borrow money and I have saddled Mr Lydgate with more than enough debt already,’ Katherine said rather grimly. ‘Please tell me.’

Reluctantly Arthur said, ‘One hundred and twenty pounds.’ ‘Is that all? Honestly, you would think Philip would have the gumption to get a better price than that.’ Katherine felt half-relieved—for at least she could repay Arthur from what remained of the necklace money—half-exasperated at Philip’s foolishness.