Page 10 of Escape of the Highwayman (Escape #3)

As though reading his sudden horror, Grandison said, “I don’t think you should read too much into that either.

The man confronted in Greater Lessing had committed no crime there and who could blame a mischievous young man for leading the over-zealous law officers on a merry dance?

There is even a possibility he was showing off to a young lady he had previously been talking to at the market. ”

That could easily have been pre-war Jon. But the new, tense and irritable Jon? “You believe his pursuers to be over-zealous?”

“The runner seems to be.” Grandison shifted in his chair. “Fellow called Dance. One other thing. During the pursuit from Greater Lessing, one of the constables claims to have shot the suspect.”

Robert’s fingers curled involuntarily around his chair arm. It doesn’t matter. This man was not Jon. It couldn’t have been Jon.

Only there was Cavalo, the fearless jumper...

“I don’t know if the shooting is true,” Grandison said hastily. “The constable may have been boasting or simply mistaken. At any rate he was over-zealous when the rider had offered them no violence, and they had no proof he was the highwayman they sought.”

“I think I should go to Greater Lessing myself and discover the truth,” Robert said reluctantly. And if Jon was shot... He swallowed. “First, though—I don’t suppose Lord Wolf is still your guest here?”

“No, he and Lady Wolf have returned to Wolverton Hall. Sanderly is still here, however. Having recently become engaged to my wife’s goddaughter, who is staying with us, he is a hard man to be rid of! Would you like to speak to him?”

“Actually, I would. If only to ascertain whether or not the Captain Berry of the Duck and Spoon is my brother.”

Grandison rose and went to the door. “Ask Lord Sanderly to step into my study at his convenience,” he ordered, presumably to a waiting footman.

After closing the door, he turned back to Robert.

“Don’t believe all you may have heard about Sanderly, or read in the scandal sheets.

His manner can be unfortunate, but I am beginning to know him as an honourable man and a kind one.

My goddaughter and all her siblings are devoted to him. ”

“I’ll bear it in mind,” said Robert, who never let anyone intimidate him.

The Earl of Sanderly, however, did not appear to be ferocious or even haughty.

He sauntered in with supreme casualness, saying, “Did you want me, sir? I am about to pack and be out of your hair for a while...” Catching sight of Robert, who rose at his entrance, he paused and nodded in an off-hand but civil kind of way.

“You are leaving us?” Grandison said in surprise.

“Well, I have to ready house and staff to receive the new countess and make other arrangements. If you are still prepared for us to be married here?”

“Of course,” Grandison said, although Robert suspected it might have been the first he had heard of the arrangement. His wife and goddaughter had no doubt come up with the scheme. “But I asked for you in order to introduce you to this gentleman, Mr. Robert Berry, of Worcestershire.”

Sanderly’s eyebrows flew up. He had intensely blue eyes that were almost shocking when focused directly on one. “Jonathan Berry’s brother?” he asked at once, thrusting out his hand.

“Indeed. That is, Captain Jonathan Berry, late of the 95 th Rifles.”

“Then I am very pleased to meet you,” Sanderly said, sinking Robert’s fading hopes. He had a firm if brief handshake.

“You were a Rifleman yourself?” Robert asked politely.

“No, but our paths crossed on many occasions. I owe him my life, in fact, and account him a friend besides.”

At this point, Grandison quietly excused himself, and Sanderly indicated the more comfortable chairs grouped by the empty fireplace.

“I suppose you have come about the rumours that Jon is this highwayman and burglar extraordinaire who abducted a lady from under this very roof?”

“Do you know anything about that?” Robert asked.

Sanderly shrugged. “I know what Wolf said and that he believes it. Jon was at the Duck and Spoon and played hazard with Wolf and me and several others. I certainly didn’t see him at the Grand Inn here, and I cannot imagine under what circumstances Jon Berry would take to burglary.

Highway robbery I can almost believe as some kind of jape.

But burglary and assaulting a lady? Absolutely not. ”

Robert tried not to sag with relief. “That is what I told Sir John. More or less.”

“It’s what I told Wolf, too, though he doesn’t appear to believe me.”

“Why is that? Does he have some kind of a grudge against my brother? Did Jon beat him at dice?”

“Actually, I think I beat him. And no, Wolf does not bear that kind of grudge. He genuinely believes it, which I’ll own worries me slightly.”

“Then what reason could he have? Other than that it is true?”

Sanderly hesitated, then said, “Between ourselves, it was Lady Wolf who was abducted. Wolf was beside himself. And when he had found her and seen her on the road to recovery, he came back here to Grand Court with this theory of Berry being the culprit since Wolf had run into him at the Grand Inn down the road from here on the day of the ball and burglary.”

“ Did he, though?”

Robert’s question was largely rhetorical, but Sanderly answered anyway.

“Well, neither of them seemed to recognize the other at the time, beyond some vague feeling of familiarity on Wolf’s part.

My own feeling is that, in his considerable anxiety and anger, Wolf was looking for someone to blame.

He liked Berry at the Duck and Spoon and knows he is a friend of mine, but he has fixed on the idea of his lameness.

Beyond telling me and Sir John his suspicions, he has pursued the matter no further, to my knowledge.

The last I heard, he and Lady Wolf were considering the idea of a belated wedding journey. ”

Robert nodded slowly. It struck him that Sanderly might well prove to be a valuable ally in whatever mess Jon had got himself into, wittingly or not. “Have you heard from Jon since you met him at the Duck and Spoon?”

“Not a word. Have you?”

Robert shook his head. “How was he?”

“Remarkably well, considering. I would guess he is in pretty constant pain, but dealing with it. He was cheerful enough.”

“Did you find him much changed?”

“From Spain? A little less firm of limb and a look of frailty about him that was never there before. But he had the same humour and the same instinct to meet life head on.”

“And death, too?” The words were out before he could stop them.

Sanderly’s gaze was painfully searching.

But it was his gaze that dropped. “To own the truth, I was not perfectly sober myself and hardly at my best in terms of subtle observation. Berry was never reckless, or fearless, not with his own life and certainly not with his men’s.

You are giving me the impression that you believe Wolf’s story. ”

“No,” Robert said at once. Under Sanderly’s returning, steady gaze, he shook his head. “But I must consider the possibility. I will be honest with you, my lord, I did not know my brother when he came home from Spain. He was...lost.”

Sanderly was silent for a few moments, then he spoke with apparent difficulty.

“It is no easy thing to adjust from what has been your whole life—the army—to civilian existence. I can vouch for that. And in Berry’s case, there was his injury.

He was the most active of fellows, never still, and even when well again, he could never be quite the same. ”

“He is my father’s heir.” Robert wasn’t quite sure why he said that.

It just seemed relevant. “My father only bought his commission because Nigel and I remained at home. He thought Jon would get playing at soldiers out of his system and come home and be content. Still, he began to teach me about the estate, as he had earlier done with Jon.”

“And Jon felt even more useless.”

“My father thinks he left home because we irritated him, treating him like the invalid he was but did not want to be. Is it not better to face reality?”

“Yes. But perhaps one can make one’s own reality. With a little knowledge and compromise.”

Robert blinked and pushed the remark aside for later musing.

More important things still bothered him.

“Constables in Sussex shot someone believed to be this highwayman. If that was Jonathan... Do you know of any reason he would go to Sussex? Does he have other friends there we don’t know about?

Forgive me, my lord, but he never mentioned you either, not in letters nor conversation when he came home. ”

“I wasn’t Sanderly then. Just Captain Fforbes.” His lips gave a sardonic quirk. “With two Fs.”

“Ah.” Robert blinked. “Then I have heard of you after all. But who does he know in Sussex?”

“I can’t think of anyone, off the top of my head. But it is possible, if he is, in fact, our highwayman, that he was merely escaping pursuit.”

“I need to go to Sussex. That is the other thing that worries me. Only Jon would be attracted to a town called Greater Lessing.”