The Royal Scamp Read Online Free PDF Page A

the very sort of incident that gives Joshua a disgust of your running the inn, Esther. How contrary it is that he should have come bounding in just as we left.”
    “If he had escorted us home as he said he would, this incident would not have occurred,”Esther pointed out. “Mr. Meecham was very polite. I think you were a little short with him, Auntie.”
    “A gentleman does not consider himself on calling terms only because he has lent a hand in a little emergency, my dear. You do not have the advantage of having been presented and having learned the niceties of polite behaviour. I daresay in the country such jumped-up manners pass, but they do not do at court.”
    “Well,”Esther pointed out, “we are not at court, and I think Mr. Meecham was well behaved.”
    Before they fell into any further altercation, Lady Brown retired, just mentioning that she would not be undressing for an hour, and if Mr. Ramsay happened to stop by en route to the Abbey, she would be available to play propriety. As Mr. Ramsay didn’t stop by, Esther soon went to her own room.
     

Chapter Three
     
    It wasn’t till the next morning that Joshua Ramsay stopped at the dower house, and to the surprise of both ladies, he was accompanied by Mr. Meecham. Lady Brown blushed and said, “Why, Joshua, I had no idea you were a friend of Mr. Meecham.”
    “As it turns out, we have several mutual friends,”Joshua explained, “though we didn’t meet till this morning when I went to the inn to hear about Captain Johnnie’s latest victims. Mr. Meecham was at Harrow with my cousin and knows some of my cousins from Devonshire as well.”
    “We’re delighted to welcome you, Mr. Meecham.”Lady Brown smiled and sent off for coffee, to make up for the preceding night’s curt dismissal.
    Mr. Meecham displayed not the least offense. “We thought you might be interested to hear about the victims—Sir Charles and Lady Higgins,”he said.
    “We have been on thorns all morning,”Lady Brown confessed.
    Joshua took over the telling of the story. “The reason the couple arrived on foot at the inn is that Captain Johnnie, after relieving Sir Charles of his purse and his dame of her jewels, set their horses free. The horses bolted, leaving the couple stranded on the heath.”
    “Then it cannot have been Captain Johnnie,”Esther exclaimed. “He would never be so ungallant.”
    “A gallant thief is a contradiction in terms,”Joshua informed her. “You might as well say a clever moonling, or dark sun, but it will take a wart on his nose or a squinty eye for you to admit the man’s a yahoo. He didn’t find as much blunt as he hoped to, and the wife had very few jewels about her. Only a little watch and her wedding rings. He poked the crown out of Sir Charles’s hat, thinking he had something hidden in it, then dumped the contents of his wife’s reticule on the ground. That is when he discovered she had her diamonds sewn into its lining. In revenge he made them turn their horses loose, and fired off a shot to be sure they didn’t linger nearby. He held his gun at Sir Charles’s head, so there was no arguing with him.”
    “It doesn’t sound like Captain Johnnie. He makes the men crawl under the carriage. Did he harm Lady Higgins at all?”Esther asked.
    “Not really,”Joshua said. “He pulled her out of the carriage pretty roughly and shoved her aside when he took the reticule from her, but he didn’t strike her. At least he did not add insult to injury by kissing her, as he has the reputation of doing.”
    “I take issue with that!”Esther objected. “Robbing Lady Higgins of her kiss was the worst insult he could have devised. I daresay her age, not much below sixty, might account for it.”
    “It’s a wretched mistake to glorify villains,”Mr. Meecham declared.
    As Esther studied him, she noticed that despite his handsome face and flashing brown eyes, he had something of Joshua’s stiff and authoritative manner. “Was the highwayman