The Highwayman's Daughter Read Online Free PDF

Alethea’s.
    ‘Presumably you’ll be speaking to the magistrate,’ said the earl, interrupting Jack’s train of thought.
    ‘I’ll ride into town later, although there’s scarcely any point. The robber will be long gone by now.’ Jack made no mention of the wager, knowing full well that his father would turn it against him and not Rupert, and he was certain that Rupert, when he finally resurfaced from the night’s revels, would not mention it either.
    ‘And you had a rapier at your throat, you said?’ the earl continued. ‘Quite an alarming experience, I should think.’
    Jack finished his breakfast and wiped his mouth with a linen napkin. ‘Not one I wish to repeat, although I think it may have been an idle threat.’
    ‘How so?’
    Jack hesitated. If he told his father the thief was a woman, the magistrate was likely to get wind of it too, even if Jack didn’t tell him himself. And that would spoil the fun of tracking down the woman. He was aware that withholding information may not be the noble thing to do, but he was determined to win that wager with Rupert.
    ‘The highwayman was a young boy,’ he said instead. ‘Something tells me he didn’t have the nerve to run me through.’
    ‘Perhaps you’re right.’ The earl sounded doubtful and studied Jack with a pensive look. ‘I see you’ve lost your queue. Did this young robber have anything to do with that?’
    Jack’s hand flew to the nape of his neck and he muttered a curse. Having been so preoccupied with what he could remember about the highwaywoman, he had given scarce attention to his looks this morning, but his father’s comment reminded him that the highwaywoman had shorn him like a spring lamb.
Devil take the wench!
Suddenly it became doubly important that he win the wager against Rupert; he was going to teach that girl a lesson she wouldn’t soon forget.
    The earl laughed. ‘Looks like this young boy managed to best you.’
    ‘For the time being.’
    ‘I’ll come with you,’ the earl said.
    ‘What? Where?’ Jack was confused by the sudden change of subject.
    ‘To the magistrate’s. This is a serious matter.’
    Jack was annoyed at the apparent lack of faith in his abilities, but how could he refuse without sounding churlish? He shrugged.
    Just at that moment the countess appeared. As always Jack was awed by his mother’s youthful looks. Her peaches and cream complexion was flawless, her waist still trim despite motherhood, her bearing straight. The only testament to her years was her grey hair, which she wore high and powdered in place of a wig. This morning she was dressed in an apple-green day gown with lace spilling from the sleeves, a white fichu at the neck, and she held a black straw hat with a matching ribbon in her hand. Her spaniel, Pepper, an elderly white and tan female, was trudging along beside her.
    ‘Am I interrupting anything?’ she enquired in a soft, throaty voice which spoke of her gentle breeding.
    The earl kissed his wife on the cheek. ‘Good morning, Lady Lampton. I trust you slept well?’
    ‘I’m quite well,’ she replied but her eyes were on Jack. ‘You seem … different. Oh, your hair! A drastic trim?’
    Jack sent her a wry smile. ‘Rupert and I were held up last night, on the Heath. For sport, the highwayman cut off my queue.’
    ‘Goodness.’ The countess paled and sat down beside him, her pretty hazel eyes deeply troubled. Jack hoped the shock didn’t bring on another of her headaches; she had them often, and it worried him. ‘But that’s terrible; you could have been hurt.
Are
you hurt?’
    ‘Only my dignity.’
    The countess reached out to put a slender hand on his arm, but then, as if suddenly realising he was now a grown man and too old for such a show of motherly affection, she brought it to her throat instead. ‘This cannot go on. Something must be done about this brigand. I hear such horrifying accounts.’
    ‘Alice,’ the earl entreated, ‘you know better than to listen to