Both Drake and Christopher acknowledged that.
“I’m sure that can be arranged,” Ellen said.
“In that case,” Aaron said, “I will come to the manor at…shall we say ten o’clock? Plenty of time to study Hardcastle and don my disguise before I need to be at the inn.”
With that agreed, Christopher, Ellen, and Drake rose to leave. Gracella as well as Aaron accompanied them across the campsite.
Walking beside Ellen, Gracella patted her arm. “It is good that you came. Matters like this, meetings like this, should rightly be attended by both lord and lady.”
Somewhat startled, a little unnerved, Ellen shot a glance at Christopher; he was walking on her other side and had heard Gracella—as, no doubt, had Drake, even if he gave no sign of it.
Christopher merely raised his brows at her.
Ellen inwardly humphed and wondered if they—he and she and the understanding evolving between them—were really that obvious.
They parted from Gracella and Aaron beside the last wagon. As they climbed the slope of the meadow to where they’d left the curricle and horses, Drake glanced at Christopher, then looked ahead and asked, “Does Mrs. Codona remind you of anyone?”
Christopher promptly replied, “Great-aunt Helena.”
“Hmm,” Drake said. “Either Helena or old Lady Osbaldestone. That leaves me wondering if there’s some unwritten law that says there has to be one in every tribe.”
Ellen caught Christopher’s eyes and looked her question.
He squeezed her hand. “You haven’t met Great-aunt Helena or Lady Osbaldestone—”
“But you will,” Drake put in.
“Inevitably,” Christopher admitted. “And when you do, you’ll discover that they, like Gracella, are…”
“Perspicacious enough to make every last descendant or connection extremely wary.” Drake reached his horse and untied the reins. He met Ellen’s eyes and quirked his brows. “Even me.” He paused, then added, “And truth be told, my father, which is even more telling.”
With that, he mounted, and Christopher handed Ellen into the curricle.
In less than a minute, they were on their way back to the manor, with Ellen wondering just what she might face in pursuing a connection with a family like Christopher’s.
However, once at the manor, she had no time to think of anything beyond their plans for the night. They returned to the library to find Toby sitting behind the desk, poring over a map of the village, while Louisa, facing the desk, put the final touches to the package of supposedly counterfeit notes that Aaron, as Hardcastle, would hand over at midnight.
Louisa snipped off the trailing ends of the string she’d tied around the package. “There! That’s the best I can do.”
Drake paused behind her chair, placed his hands on her shoulders, and when she tipped up her face, bent to place a quick kiss on her lips. Straightening, he released her and studied the package. “That should be perfect.”
Ellen sat in the other chair angled before the desk and told Louisa about Aaron coming at ten o’clock to study how Hardcastle walked and carried the package.
“I got the impression,” Drake said, dropping into an armchair, “that this won’t be the first time Aaron Codona has impersonated someone.”
Christopher grinned as he sat. “I certainly wouldn’t wager against that.”
Toby, who had listened to their news, tapped a pencil on the map of the village. “Hardcastle was as forthcoming as we might wish regarding his route and the clothes he usually wears. As for matching the latter, work boots, heavy trousers, a pale shirt and a loose coat, no waistcoat, and just a neckerchief of any design should suffice.”
Christopher frowned, then rose and went to the desk. “I’ll send a note to Aaron—he’ll almost certainly have clothes like that of his own, and he’ll be more comfortable in them.”
The note to Aaron was duly written and dispatched via a groom.
“Now,” Toby said, once again tapping the map, “as to Hardcastle’s route, we need to work out where to station our men to ensure the lady, whoever she might be, has no chance of slipping past us. Given Hardcastle says she waits in the wood until he’s long gone, we can’t rely on her not taking off in the same direction as he does, meaning toward the inn.” Toby gestured with the pencil. “We’ll need a cordon around the whole area.”
“I wonder how she reaches the spot,” Louisa said. When the others glanced at her, she elaborated, “Does she ride or come in a carriage?”
“Good point,” Drake said. “Sadly, we don’t know the answer and can’t take the risk of guessing which.”
He rose and joined Christopher and Toby at the desk, and the three began discussing where to site men around the knot of woods to the west of the lychgate.
Louisa and Ellen listened and watched.
Eventually, Louisa reached across and pointed to the east wall of the church. “I think Ellen and I should wait there.”
All three men, until then bent over the map, slowly straightened. They stared at Louisa, then Christopher and Toby looked at Ellen.
Eventually, Drake, his voice hard, but his tone careful, said, “I can’t see any need—”
“For us to be there?” Louisa’s eyes flew wide. “But of course we must—how will you cope if this mysterious lady has her wits about her enough to realize that her captors are all male and”—Louisa held up her hands—“faints?”
“Or dissolves into hysterics?” Ellen added.
“Or simply takes refuge in floods of tears?” Louisa looked pointedly at her husband.
Drake frowned. “We have sisters—that’s not going to sway us.”
Louisa conceded that with a dip of her head. “Ultimately, perhaps not. But in the interim, such tactics will cause considerable disruption, especially among the other men. Trust me when I say that, once she sees Ellen and I are a part of the company, she—whoever she is—won’t try any such tricks.”
Toby looked from Drake to Christopher. “I, for one, vote to include the ladies. Hysterics are the very devil to deal with, even if they are all for show.”
His lips compressed, Drake looked at Christopher.
After a moment, his expression faintly exasperated but resigned, Christopher said, “Ellen was with me at Goffard Hall last Friday night. As long as they agree to abide by the plan”—he shrugged—“I can’t see why they shouldn’t be there. And,” he grudgingly admitted, “it might, indeed, be helpful if they were.”
“There!” With restrained triumph, Louisa smiled at her irate spouse. The message in her green eyes was crystal clear; just because she was significantly pregnant didn’t mean she would consent to being left at home with her feet up on a stool. Then she looked at Ellen and faintly arched her brows. “If it will help, Ellen and I solemnly promise to remain at that spot”—she pointed to the east end of the church—“until you three and the other men have this lady captured.”
Ellen nodded her agreement.
Drake looked from her to his wife and sighed.
Chapter 13