Lucy laughed, reveling in her minor victory. She spread blankets on the soil across the clearing from where he laid his. After they had bundled inside their respective coverings and fallen silent for a time, she could not resist one final taunt.
“I have my rapier at hand. If you wish another bout, simply shout ‘en garde!’ Then I shall know you are ready and cannot be taken by surprise.”
“Duly noted,” he replied sleepily. “However, I wonder if the surprises have only just begun.”
…
As Henry lay in his bedroll on the borderlands of sleep, a distant memory came to him unbidden, one he had not thought of in years. It was from a decade earlier, the week after his brother had banished him to live with his sister, Charlotte, in Oxfordshire. Despite the kind welcome he had received from Charlotte and her family, he had remained sullen and reserved. When a marquess had arrived unexpectedly with his young daughter, Lady Margaret Huntington, Henry had slipped into the hidden room behind the library for refuge. Before long, the girl had burst into his fortress like a surge of light to dispel his darkness and had insisted he call her Lucy. Henry shook his head at the memory of that Lucy from another time. She was markedly different than his present companion, so ladylike in her manner. Before drifting off to sleep, he thought with regret of her tragic death only days after their long-ago meeting.
Chapter Four
At mid-morning, Henry and his intriguing traveling mate met up with the Dover highway near the outskirts of London. Lucy remained unusually quiet, apparently deep in thought. Once on the safety of the well-traveled thoroughfare, Henry relaxed somewhat. He watched Lucy’s unkempt braid sway back and forth as she rode ahead of him. She slouched in her saddle, a picture of defeat.
“Do you despise me, then,” he said, “for throwing cold water on your well-laid plan?”
She glanced across her shoulder, dark eyes defiant. “No. I despised you well before that. Your information is simply a disastrous complication. However, I have a new plan but one that still involves you, much to my chagrin.”
He spurred his horse to draw alongside her. “You require my help, you say?”
“Yes. Do not gloat. It does not suit you.”
“I never gloat, but revel from time to time. Regardless, why would I willingly help an associate of thieves?”
Her withering glare raised his eyebrows and forced him to lean away.
“Again,” she said, “your ignorance of my circumstances astounds, yet you continue to speak as if an expert on the matter. I expected little of you, Lord Pink, and thus far you have not disappointed my low expectations.”
She faced forward and made clear her intention to withhold further conversation unless he initiated it. After some time, his curiosity overcame his annoyance. “If I am to consider assisting you, then at least share your brilliant plan.”
She made no indication of having heard him. He gritted his jaw. “Please.”
“As you wish.”
She reached to her neck and removed a locket that had until then remained hidden beneath the neckline of her shirt. “I must return this to the original and rightful owner. Perhaps she will offer a small reward for its recovery.”
Henry eyed the locket dangling from her hand, unable to discern the pattern from where he rode. “Did you steal it?”
She glared at him again. “No. It was given to me by my father.”
“Did he steal it?”
Henry feared he might have overstepped his bounds again when her chin trembled with anger. He dipped his forehead. “I retract that. How did your clearly virtuous father come by it?”
She breathed deeply, apparently quelling rage. “The original owner gave it to him as a show of affection.”
He stretched out a hand. “May I?”
She hesitated before handing the locket to him, making no eye contact when doing so. He studied the engraving on the face of the piece and determined it to be a coat of arms for some noble house. He pried the locket open with his thumbnail to reveal a pair of tiny hand-painted portraits of a middle-aged man and woman. The woman oddly resembled Lucy. Henry peered at the man, sensing vague familiarity. He frowned as he closed the locket. Such an item was priceless to those who had commissioned the artwork inside. How a common thief had come into possession of it through “affectionate” means baffled him. He returned it to her.
“Who, then, originally owned this locket?”
Lucy watched Henry as if attempting to gauge his reaction to her response. “The Dowager Duchess of Ramsbury.”
His expression likely did not disappoint. “You don’t say.”
“I do say.”
He nodded with surprise. “I do not know the duchess, despite having met her husband once when I was young. Does she yet live?”
“Yes, although the duke died some years ago. She is the last of her family.”
“How do you know this?”
“I pestered Steadman until he told me.”
Henry nodded. “And you trust the word of a notorious highwayman?”
“Explicitly. He has never lied to me.” She sighed heavily. “Until yesterday.”
“Right. But that raises a most intriguing question. How is my help required? This is none of my business.”
Lucy looked away, her face coloring slightly. “Because, sir, in my current state, the gatekeepers of the duchess’s house would not allow me across the servants’ threshold, let alone grant me an audience with their mistress. However, the second son of a respected earl might provide me immediate access.”
He glanced sidelong at her, his eyes narrowing. “How did you know that I was the second son, and not his third or fourth?”
“I pay attention.”
He fought to suppress his astonishment at a growing epiphany. “I see, but you should know that I pay attention as well.”
…
Lucy held her tongue while Henry appeared to consider the proposal. She caught him repeatedly glancing at her with skeptical curiosity, but he said nothing for the space of two miles as they entered London’s outer boroughs. Finally, he faced her with a quizzical expression that rendered his grim demeanor much more pleasing.
“As I mentioned earlier, I met the Duke of Ramsbury when I was a boy. Imposing old gentleman with wild eyebrows. Very gruff, he was.”
“Sounds like the duke. Go on, then.”
“He came to visit my brother-in-law shortly after a similar visit from his son and granddaughter.”
Lucy swallowed a gasp. “Oh? Is that so?”