The Foundling Read online

  Tom’s eyes glistened enviously. He instantly demanded to be told the whole. It did not seem to him at all strange that anyone should desire to kidnap such an unimportant person as Mr Rufford, so the questions he eagerly asked were none of them embarrassing. He expressed his heartfelt chagrin at having had no hand in the Duke’s escape, and promised to guard him in future with all the might of his large fists. It occurred to him that Belinda might also have been kidnapped, and he began to make plans for her deliverance. But the Duke had made some enquiries about Belinda’s new protector, and he was obliged to dash Tom’s hopes. Mr Clitheroe, according to reliable report, was an elderly gentleman of impeccable morals, who lived with his sister on the outskirts of the town, and busied himself largely with charitable works. In what circumstances he had encountered Belinda the Duke could not guess. She had gone out after she had breakfasted that morning, and had returned quite shortly under Mr Clitheroe’s escort, to collect her two bandboxes. The landlord had been unwilling to allow these hostages out of his hands, but he seemed to stand in some awe of Mr Clitheroe. From what the Duke had been able to discover, that stern Quaker had severely rated him for admitting seducers and abductionists into his house, and had cut short all his attempts to explain that Belinda was travelling in the company of her brother and his tutor. ‘And what’s the use of me telling him she has a brother when he’s bound to ask where the brother may be, and all I can answer him is that he’s clapped up in the Round-house?’ demanded the landlord, justly aggrieved. ‘I’m sure I don’t know how you’ve got him out, sir, but if it’s all the same to you I’d as lief you didn’t bring him here! And –’

  ‘It is not all the same to me,’ had said the Duke, very gently indeed.

  There was much that the landlord had meant to say, the chief item of information being that he would not harbour any of the Duke’s party in his house another night, but the air of hauteur which this rather insignificant young man could upon occasion assume made him uneasy, and he decided to leave it unsaid. He told his indignant wife that he hadn’t dealt with the Quality for twenty-five years without knowing when a high-up gentleman had entered his inn. ‘He can call himself a tutor if he so chooses,’ he said, nodding darkly, ‘but I never saw a tutor that wore a coat like that of his, nor one that looked at you as though you was twopenn’orth of nothing.’ He added philosophically: ‘Besides, he ain’t staying more than one night.’

  So the Duke, who had now formed the intention of boarding the London stage on the following day, was allowed to remain at the Sun for one more night. Tom, delighted by this change of plan, promised very handsomely to behave with the utmost propriety, and at once began to make interest with his protector for visits to Astley’s Amphitheatre, the Royal Exchange, and other such places of interest. He was just confiding to him his burning desire to witness a bout of fisticuffs at the Fives Court, and the Wax Effigies at Madame Tussaud’s, when the door opened, and Belinda tripped into the parlour, carrying her bandboxes, and looking as unruffled as she was beautiful. She smiled blindingly upon the Duke, and said: ‘Oh, you are come back, sir! I am so very glad to see you again! Oh, Tom, I quite thought you had gone to Newgate!’

  ‘Much you would have cared!’ growled Tom, by no means gratified by her sudden appearance.

  ‘Oh, no, but I am so pleased Mr Rufford is here! It is beyond anything great! How do you do, sir?’

  He had risen from his chair, staring at her. ‘Belinda!’ he exclaimed.

  She untied the strings of her bonnet, and cast it on to a chair. ‘We have been in such a pickle!’ she informed him. ‘Only fancy! Tom was arrested for a highwayman, sir!’

  ‘Belinda, what became of you?’ demanded the Duke.

  ‘Oh, I was never so taken-in!’ she informed him mournfully. ‘For when you went away, sir, and Tom was put in prison, I didn’t know what I should do. And I must tell you that they were all in an uproar here, so that it was excessively uncomfortable. And the landlord was so uncivil to me this morning that there was no bearing it! So I went out after breakfast, to look at the shops – they are the shabbiest in the world, I am sure! I saw a quiz of a hat, and was in whoops! And just as I was looking into a window where there were all manner of trinkets, but none of them in the least pretty, a very kind gentleman came up to me, and made me a bow.’

  ‘Mr Clitheroe?’ interpolated the Duke.

  She laughed. ‘Good gracious, no, sir! I don’t know what his name was, but he was quite a young gentleman, and modish, too, and handsome! And he asked me if I would like to have a ring to put on my finger.’

  ‘And what,’ asked the Duke, with deep misgiving, ‘did you reply to that?’

  ‘I said I should like it above all things,’ said Belinda innocently.

  ‘Lord, I think girls are the stupidest things!’ said Tom, in disgust. ‘If he had asked me, I would have told him that I would rather have a pair of stilts, or something jolly like that! Oh, Mr Rufford, there was a man at the Fair, walking on a pair so high that I daresay he could have looked into all the upper windows in the town! If I had a pair like that, I could have such larks, and frighten all the old ladies in their beds by looking in at them! Will you buy me a pair, sir? I daresay there may be a shop which sells them, and I know I could learn to walk on them in a trice.’

  ‘No, I will not,’ answered the Duke, not mincing matters. ‘Belinda, didn’t I tell you you must not speak to strange men?’

  ‘Not even when they offer to buy me a ring?’ she asked.

  ‘Least of all when they offer to buy you a ring!’

  ‘But how shall I ever have a ring, or a silk dress, if I must not speak to any gentlemen?’ she asked reasonably.

  ‘If only you will be good, and mind what I tell you,’ said the Duke, ‘perhaps you shall have a silk dress!’

  Belinda sighed. ‘That is what Uncle Swithin said, only he never gave it to me,’ she observed.

  ‘Well, never mind that now! What happened when you told this buck that you would like a ring?’

  ‘Oh, it was so sad!’ she exclaimed, her eyes filling with tears. ‘He said we should go into the shop, and he offered his arm, and I am sure I had not so much as noticed Mr Clitheroe, for why should I?’

  ‘Wait a minute!’ begged the Duke. ‘What has Mr Clitheroe to do with all this? When did you meet him?’

  ‘Why, just then, sir! He was standing on the other side of the road, though I did not notice him, for he is quite old, you know, and not at all handsome. He came smash up to us, and began to abuse the kind gentleman, and he said I should not go with him. But I would have gone with him, only that he went away, as red as fire! I thought it was so poor-spirited of him! And then Mr Clitheroe asked me where I lived, and how old was I, and all manner of things.’

  ‘Well, I call that a great piece of impudence!’ declared Tom. ‘You should have sent him to the deuce, only I dare swear you did not!’

  ‘Oh, no, how could I? I told him that I did not live anywhere, but that I was staying with you, sir.’

  She smiled enchantingly at the Duke as she spoke, but although he found it impossible to be angry with anyone so lovely or so ingenuous, he was easily able to refrain from returning the smile. He said, in a tone of resignation: ‘Did you tell him that I was a very kind gentleman, Belinda?’

  She nodded, and her curls danced. ‘Of course I did!’ she assured him. ‘And he said that he would like to meet you.’

  The Duke shuddered. ‘I may readily believe it! I trust he may never have his wish granted!’

  ‘Oh, no! he is a dead bore!’ agreed Belinda. ‘Besides, I told him that you had gone away and left me, so he knew he could not meet you.’

  The Duke sank his head in his hands. ‘Belinda, Belinda, if I do not speedily contrive to hand you into safe keeping I foresee that there will be scarce a town in England where I shall dare to show my face again! So you told him