Escape by Moonlight Read Free

you would drop the formality and address me by my name.’
    ‘Mr de Lacey.’
    ‘I was thinking more on the lines of Jack.’
    ‘On no, I couldn’t do that.’
    They had been hearing the train in the distance for a minute or so, but now its approach grew louder and a moment later it drew into the station and stopped with a hiss of steam, and then they could hear her father’s voice loud above the bang and clatter of doors being opened and boxes of goods being manhandled into and out of the guard’s van. ‘Nayton Halt! Nayton Halt!’
    Jack nipped nimbly through the little gate intended for pedestrians when the main gates were shut and set off up the slope of the platform, calling as he went, ‘Think about it, because I shall see you again, you know, and we will talk some more.’ At least that was what she thought he said; it was difficult to be sure when the train was letting off steam and coach doors were banging. His horse was nervous too and she went over to its head to calm it and also in an effort to calm herself.
    ‘He is arrogant and self-opinionated and he thinks of me as someone to tease,’ she told the beast. ‘But I do not think he means to be unkind, do you?’
    Her answer was a whicker of contentment. ‘Yes, I knew you would agree with me. But if he really knew what I thought of him, he would run a mile. He has only to smileat me and I shiver all over and that is foolish, when I know perfectly well he is only amusing himself.’
    She turned her head towards the platform to see Miss Amy de Lacey emerge from one of the carriages. At eighteen, a year younger than Lucy, although you’d never know it to look at her, she was self-assured, had thick reddish hair, which defied all efforts to keep it confined, and a complexion that had the glow of youth made more brilliant by good food and expensive clothes. Before many more years had passed she would be a great beauty and break a dozen hearts.
    After leaving finishing school in July, she had spent the summer holiday with friends in Devon, and that morning she had been driven to Liverpool Street station by her hosts’ son, where they had been met by Annie, sent to accompany her the rest of the way home. Annie had been the girls’ nursemaid when they were children and still kept a proprietorial eye on Amy.
    Lucy knew Annie quite well. She was only a few years older than her charges and the fount of all knowledge as far as the doings at the big house were concerned. Not that Lucy would ever have repeated any of the gossip which was told to her with a great deal of hushed whispering even when there was no one within earshot, and entreaties to swear never to tell a soul. That was how Lucy had learnt that Jack had been Lady de Lacey’s son before she married his lordship and that his lordship had adopted him. ‘In spite of only being a stepson, he had high hopes of being the heir,’ Annie had said. ‘But when Edmund was born, it put an end to them. Not that he seems to mind, he is good-natured to the point of indolence.’
    ‘Goodness what a mouthful!’
    ‘That’s what I heard His Lordship telling Her Ladyship.’
    He was kissing his half-sister’s cheek and laughing with her, and then taking the portmanteau from Annie, which just went to show that he was a true gentleman, for many in his position would not even think of helping a servant. And then they were coming down the platform towards her. She left the horse and returned to the crossing because the train was drawing out and the gates would have to be opened again. There was already a brewer’s dray waiting on the other side.
    ‘Lucy, how are you?’ Amy asked, as they passed each other.
    ‘Very well, thank you, Miss de Lacey. And you?’
    ‘Glad to be home.’
    Jack put her bag in the gig, helped her and the maid into their seats and then climbed up himself and picked up the reins. He winked at Lucy as he wheeled the horse about and set off back the way he had come.
    Her day unaccountably