Page 80 of Lady Dramatic
Now the sun was well up and they’d all donned coats and stood outside, ready to wave off Serenity and Lord Thorpe. They were off to Scotland to a fishing lodge of some sort for their wedding trip. It would not be Mrs. Right’s idea of a good time, but Serenity had seemed pleased enough with the scheme.
“They’ll be making quite the journey,” the duke said. “I hope they choose well-appointed inns on the way, you know how some of them are run by rather nervous innkeepers.”
Mrs. Right smiled at the idea. And then her smile dropped and she felt her heart begin to pound. The carriage springs. She’d entirely forgotten about it. Once she’d absolved herself of any fault for being mistaken about Lord Thorpe, she’d not given it another thought.
What was she to do? How was she to stop them?
“There they are!” the duke said.
Mrs. Right stared as trunks were loaded and the husband and wife came out their doors. She felt paralyzed. It was as if she’d been struck by lightning. She clung to her original idea that any coachman worth his salt would regularly crawl under his carriage and have a look at the springs and bolts.
Certainly, he would have.
She watched the scene as if time had slowed. Serenity in her pretty travelling cloak of brown velvet. Lord Thorpe looking every bit the marquess in his greatcoat with too many layers of capes to count. Serenity gave them all a little wave as LordThorpe put aside the groom and helped his bride into the carriage himself.
Mrs. Right squinted. The trunks were loaded, the people were loaded and the carriage appeared perfectly fine. She let out a breath she had not even known she’d been holding.
The carriage set off. The coachman had the horses at a slow walk for the bon voyage. He would drive right by the duke’s house so they might shout their good wishes. Serenity hung out the window and Mrs. Right could not remember when she’d seen her girl look so happy.
As the carriage slowly made its way past the duke’s house there was a sudden shudder of the coach, the back half of it sunk to the ground, and the groom did a slow slide off the hide rumble.
Mrs. Right staggered. There was a moment of absolute silence before everyone sprang into action. The coachman jumped down from his box, the groom scrambled to his feet, and Lord Thorpe carried Serenity out and gently set her down on the street.
Lord Thorpe’s butler ran out as he must have been watching from his window, that fellow keeping the house open and acting as governess to Nelson and Havoc.
The coachman had flung himself on the ground to peer underneath the carriage as Mrs. Right casually stepped behind the duke.
“It’s the springs, my lord,” the coachman said. “They’ve been tampered with, it looks like someone has loosened the bolts and taken a saw to the springs.”
“Sabotage!” the lord’s butler said. “Do you suppose—”
“The bag of tools discovered next to Lord Luddington’s wall,” Lord Thorpe said.
“Do you think it was your brother?” the duke asked.
Lord Thorpe seemed to consider it. “It might have been. I cannot imagine who else would have done it.”
Mrs. Right was rather torn. On the one hand, it was not ideal that Lord Thorpe’s brother was blamed for the damaged springs. On the other hand, it would be even less ideal if it were discovered that she’d crept over there under cover of darkness and done it herself.
“I know what we’ll do,” the duke said. “You’ll take one of my carriages and I’ll have yours fixed up. On the way back from Scotland you can detour to the Dales, and we can exchange again.”
This was thought a genius idea all round. As everybody did seem so happy about it, Mrs. Right comforted herself that she might have been on the verge of admitting her crime, but now it seemed too late. After all, she might have.
Horses were unhitched, the broken carriage pulled away by all the footmen from both houses, one of the duke’s carriages hitched up, and the couple were finally on their way.
Mrs. Right wildly waved, determined to add this interlude to more water under the bridge.
*
The couple tooktheir time making their way north and it was a full six days before they reached Mariton Lodge on the River Carron. As they had been heading north along the usual routes, it was hardly surprising that they did stop at some of the inns where the duke had made his mark.
However, Serenity soothed the innkeepers by pointing out that they would not ask for anything from the kitchens that they’d just invented, did not bring the duke, and did not bring the footmen who liked to live like lords on a grand tour.
They finally did arrive and Serenity had been rather taken aback by their destination. She’d not had any firm ideas of what a fishing lodge might look like, but she had imagined something very modest where they might cook their own food in the fireplace.
She supposed that was never going to be a duke’s idea of a lodge. The place was exceedingly large and well appointed, and housed a bevy of staff. Those staff were rather grim-faced when they arrived, though they’d had notice of it. At least, they were grim-faced to her. They rather doted on Thorpe.
He finally explained that they would be prejudiced against her on account of her being a lady from London. They imagined she would think herself above them and a Scot did not believe they were below anybody at all.
