Beauvallet Read online

  Sir Nicholas frowned into the mirror. ‘I dare not take the risk,’ he said after a moment's thought. ‘We want no questions asked, no tongues set wagging. I’ll have my lady up before me as far as to Villanova.’ He glanced out into the fast gathering darkness. ‘Dark enough for me to venture,’ he said. ‘Can you find that track at need, my man?’

  ‘I have it safe in my head, master.’ Joshua put up the poking-stick. ‘But I would know, sir, what plan you have in mind.’

  Sir Nicholas rose up from his chair. His eyes twinkled. ‘Marry, so would I know, Joshua,’ he said frankly.

  Joshua shook his head severely. ‘This is no way to go to work, master. What, do you think to have the noble lady away this night with never a plan in your head?’

  ‘I know not. I’ve a-many plans, but I move in the dark, my friend, and I have need to nose about a little. Maybe I shall get her off tonight, if opportunity serves; maybe I shall hold my hand a while. We will take the horses in case of need. See a fresh pair saddled, and tell what lie leaps most readily to your tongue.’

  Joshua prepared to depart. ‘I shall take leave to say, master, that a man has to be nimble-witted to keep pace with you,’ he remarked, and went out.

  Sir Nicholas did not inquire what lie had been told when he came down twenty minutes later. Joshua had two good horses at the door, and the landlord seemed satisfied. Sir Nicholas swung his cloak over his arm, and sallied forth.

  They had not far to go to the spinney Joshua had located. It ran on a low wall, crumbling and ivy-grown, which shut in the gardens of the house they sought. The wall was easy enough to come over. The horses were tethered in a thicket, a hundred yards or more from the road. Sir Nicholas set a hand on the low wall and vaulted lightly over; Joshua climbed after him.

  They found themselves behind a yew hedge that bordered a paved walk. There were openings cut in it, and through one of these they went, to the pleasance.

  Ahead of them the house loomed up in the darkness; they could see a light burning through an open window on the ground-floor, and another in a room above-stairs. For the rest there seemed to be no sign of life in the house, or else the windows were shuttered.

  ‘Stay you in the lee of that hedge,’ Sir Nicholas whispered. ‘I am off to see what is to be seen.’ He slipped past, and was across the pleasance before Joshua could expostulate; bare-headed, a hand on his sword-hilt.

  Joshua saw him reach the window of the house, and lost him then for a space. Evidently he was making a reconnaissance of those dark windows. Joshua shivered and drew his cloak more closely about him.

  There was no sound behind the shuttered windows, nor any light discernible. The place seemed to be strangely quiet, or else this side of the house was not much inhabited. Sir Nicholas stole along until he stood beneath the one unshuttered window. Flattening himself against the wall, he peeped cautiously in.

  The window stood wide to the cool evening air; the room seemed to be a sort of winter parlour, very elegantly furnished. In a chair half-turned from the window sat Dona Beatrice de Carvalho, reading from a gilt-bound volume.

  Sir Nicholas considered her for a moment. Then with a little shrug of fatalism he set his hands on the sill and noiselessly swung one leg over.

  Dona Beatrice, yawning over her book, heard a tiny sound, the click of a scabbard against the stone wall. She turned her head towards the window, and for once was startled out of her composure. She let fall her book.

  ‘I give you a thousand good-morrows, señora,’ said Sir Nicholas pleasantly, and came gracefully into the room.

  Dona Beatrice recovered herself. ‘My dear Chevalier!’ she drawled. ‘Or should I say my dear Señor Beauvallet?’

  ‘But were you in doubt?’ said Sir Nicholas, one eyebrow up.

  ‘Very little,’ she said. She lay back in her chair, placidly regarding him. ‘You are a remarkably bold man, señor. I protest I like you. But what do you hope for here?’

  ‘To be frank with you, señora, I am here to carry off your niece,’ said Sir Nicholas. He walked to the door, opened it, and looked out into the passage. There was no sign of anyone stirring. He shut the door, and came back into the room. ‘And if your charming son is at hand I shall be happy to cross swords with him,’ he added.

  She gave a low laugh of pure enjoyment. ‘You are delightful,’ she assured him. ‘But do you think I shall sit quiet while you perform these deeds?’

  He smiled disarmingly. ‘Why, as to that, señora, I am afraid I shall have to use you rather roughly,’ he said. ‘It is not my custom to war with women, and I should be loth to have you think me a brutal fellow, but I fear I shall have to tie you up and gag you.’ The smile grew. ‘Be at ease, I shall not hurt you.’

  She was perfectly at her ease. ‘Holy Virgin, a desperate man, I see! What possessed you to come in at this window, Señor Beauvallet?’

  ‘It was the only one that stood open,’ he replied lightly.

  ‘You might have chanced on my son, señor, instead of me.’

  ‘I had rather hoped that I might,’ agreed Sir Nicholas. ‘I am out of luck.’

  Her eyelids drooped. ‘Yes, señor, you are out of luck; more so than you know,’ she said.

  ‘Am I so, señora?’ The blue eyes were watchful now.

  ‘Sadly, I fear. You will have to be content to talk to me. I confess I could not have hit upon a more entrancing way of spending this tedious evening. You see, I am alone in the house but for my servants.’

  ‘You astonish me, señora,’ said Sir Nicholas, politely incredulous.

  ‘Pray you search the house if it will set your mind at rest,’ she invited. ‘I am a creature quite without guile. This is a most amusing situation, do you not find?’

  Sir Nicholas sat down on the edge of a small table near at hand. He began to play with his pomander, but his eyes never left the lady's face for all they were so careless-seeming. ‘It is unexpected,’ he admitted. ‘But then, as you no doubt know, señora, my genius lies in dealing with the unexpected. Where, dear lady, has your son taken Dona Dominica?’

  She was prepared for that. ‘Rather, señor, he has gone in search of her. Yesterday, not ten miles from here, our equipage was set upon by brigands, and my niece carried off.’

  ‘Brigands is exactly the word I should myself have chosen,’ nodded Sir Nicholas, dangerously sweet. ‘I understand now why you are in so much agitation, señora. A grievous thing to have your cherished niece carried off.’ His voice changed; he let fall his pomander, and Dona Beatrice saw that the laughing eyes were like twin swords. ‘Come, señora!’ he said briskly. ‘Give me credit for some little measure of wit! Where has he taken her?’

  ‘My dear Señor Beauvallet, if he had taken her you would surely not expect me to tell you,’ she pointed out.

  Sir Nicholas’ brain was working swiftly now. ‘I think you have told me all I need to know,’ he said. ‘There is a certain hunting-lodge not five miles from here, is there not?’

  The faintest shade of alarm, or perhaps it was only of annoyance, crossed her face. It was enough for Sir Nicholas, watching like a hawk. ‘My thanks, señora.’ He stood up. There was no smile in his eyes now; they were blazing, and the fine mouth was set hard.

  ‘You know more than I do, señor,’ she shrugged.

  He stood looking down at her for a moment; she gave a little laugh, and looked away. ‘I know,’ said Sir Nicholas softly, ‘that I shall have rid the earth of a very knave when I rid it of Don Diego de Carvalho. As for you, señora –’ He broke off, and threw up his head, intently listening. The sound of horses, approaching fast, was heard. He took a quick step forward, and before she could move had a hand hard clamped over Dona Beatrice's mouth, the other gripping her shoulder. There was a sound of trampling round at the front of the house, and at that moment Joshua's alarmed face peeped over the window-sill.

  The black brows lifted interrogatively.

  ‘Master, master, King's men!’ whispered Joshua.

  He nodded brief