The stagecoach lurched then, with what seemed infinite slowness, toppled on to its right-hand side, precipitating Antonia into the lap of the portly bank clerk next to her. Clutching wildly at his lapels only served to take both of them on to the floor of the coach, where they were joined by a curate, a basket of apples and a small child who promptly set up a piercing wail.
‘Donna?’ Antonia attempted to lever herself upright from the mass of tumbled humanity. ‘Oh, I do beg your pardon, sir,’ she apologised, removing her elbow from the clerk’s midriff. ‘Donna, there you are, thank goodness. Are you unhurt?’
‘A little shaken, my dear, but otherwise without injury, I believe.’ Miss Maria Donaldson rose into Antonia’s view over the heap of bodies, patting her neatly-coiled hair into place. Her pince-nez were already firmly back in position on the tip of her nose. ‘But I believe we should alight as soon as may be.’ She turned to the red-faced farmer wedged next to her. ‘If you could force open the door, sir, I believe I could climb through.’
It seemed the best solution. Antonia certainly could not move until someone had enough space to remove their booted foot from her skirts. After considerable upheavals, the farmer managed to boost Donna’s slight frame through the door and on to the sloping side of the coach. Sensing escape, the small child set up a fresh wail and, to Antonia’s relief, was handed up to his mother who followed Miss Donaldson into the spring sunshine.
Antonia was the last out and joined her fellow passengers. Shaken, bruised, but largely unhurt they assembled on the rutted road to view the wreck of their conveyance. The driver and guard unhitched and calmed the horses, but further useful activity then seemed beyond them. The driver removed a filthy hat the better to scratch his equally dirty hair, the guard helpfully kicked the nearest wheel and the men amongst the passengers stood around sucking their teeth in contemplation of the depth of the ditch into which the coach had fallen.
‘Really, my dear Antonia,’ Donna murmured gently. ‘I have never been able to understand why men feel that giving something a sharp kick will restore it to working order.’
Antonia laughed. ‘It never works, but I think it must make them feel better. We had better see if our luggage is still safely strapped on behind.’
‘Your elbow has come through the sleeve of your gown,’ Donna observed as they turned from their scrutiny of the large luggage basket at the rear of the stagecoach and its tumbled contents. ‘Is your pelisse still in the coach?’
‘It must be,’ Antonia responded indifferently. She tried twitching together the hole in the threadbare linen sleeve but it only gaped again. ‘It proves I was right to wear this old gown for the journey. I have too few good dresses to damage.’
She set her straw bonnet straight on her head, tucked in a straggling curl and retied the ribbons under her chin. ‘l think we will achieve little by waiting here until the coachman finally realises he must send for help. The last fingerpost said Rybury was only three miles further on. If we take our pelisses and the small valises from the coach, we can walk and at least wait for our luggage in comfort at the inn.’
The curate, an energetic young man, kindly climbed back into the coach and handed out their things. He was just scrambling out again when, with a thud of hooves on the wet chalk, two horsemen rounded the bend and reined in at the sight of the shambles in their path.
‘Your Grace!’ exclaimed the curate, popping out of the door like a rabbit from its hole.
A duke? Here? She had never seen a duke before. Antonia put down her valise and prepared to be entertained.
The curate, who had regained the ground, was obviously on familiar terms with the man who sat astride a tall chestnut gelding. ‘This is Providence indeed, Your Grace. Would you be so kind as to instruct your groom to fetch help to right the coach?’
‘Mr Todd.’ The Duke nodded to the clergyman, dismounted and tossed his reins to his groom before striding over to regard the wreck. ‘Has anyone been hurt?’ He turned to survey the ill-assorted group of passengers.
Antonia encountered the brief scrutiny of a pair of dark brown eyes before they moved on to as swiftly peruse, and dismiss, the small figure of her companion. She found herself colouring with indignation at such a cursory survey. Very well, she was shabbily dressed and undoubtedly not at her best after a long coach journey, to say nothing of being tossed around in the toppling coach, but she was not used to being dismissed with such a complete lack of interest by gentlemen.
He is a duke, she reminded herself as she watched the tall, rangily elegant figure as he stood, hands on hips, regarding the stage coach and the ditch. Doubtless dukes do not find the common herd as fascinating as we find them.
He was unconventionally bareheaded, the light breeze ruffling his dark blond hair which was, she decided, in sore need of his barber’s attention. He might appear careless of his dress, but cut and cloth were of the finest and the burnished leather of his long boots spoke of a man who need not, unlike lesser mortals such as herself, watch every penny.
Mr Todd the curate trailed after him, explaining the circumstances of the accident and the fortunate fact that no one had been injured. The groom nudged his own hack forward. ‘Shall I ride to the village for help, Your Grace?’
‘No need, Saye. We passed Shoebridge and Otterly hedging the Long Meadow back around the bend a few minutes ago. Fetch them and we will have enough men to right the thing.’
As the groom cantered off, the Duke turned to the coachman and guard who shuffled to attention, recognising authority when they saw it. ‘You – hitch the horses up on long traces, and you two, fetch cut poles from that pile there.’
‘Which duke is he?’ she asked Mr Todd.
‘Marcus Renshaw, Duke of Allington,’ the curate whispered back. ‘I had heard that he has decided to oversee improvement works at his estate here and to hold a house party at Brightshill. Normally he visits one of his other country houses at this time of year, so it is quite a novelty for us to have him here for long.’
Antonia watched Allington take command, organising and ordering until the male passengers were marshalled into an obedient team, some levering up the wheel, others with their shoulders to the rear of the vehicle. With the addition of two sturdy hedgers and with Saye at the horses’ heads, the stranded coach began to teeter upright, then stuck again in the soft soil of the bank top.
‘I fear we cannot do it, Your Grace,’ Mr Todd gasped, brushing hopelessly at the mud smearing his clerical black. ‘We must summon more help from the village.’
Without reply, the Duke stripped off his buff coat, rolled up his sleeves, and applied his shoulder to the coach. Either he was very strong, Antonia mused, or the sight of a duke exerting himself galvanised the other men. Whichever it was, when he said, ‘Now!’ they strained themselves to the utmost and heaved. Seconds later, with a shuddering crash, the vehicle once more stood on four wheels.
The coachman and groom re-hitched the team, the grateful passengers picked up their luggage and began to climb aboard and the Duke, fending off the flustered attempts of the curate to brush down his coat, remounted and rode off.
‘How very gratifying to have the leisure to ride round the countryside setting we lesser mortals to rights,’ Antonia remarked waspishly, pausing on the step of the coach to regard his retreating back.
She caught the sideways glance Donna gave her. Sometimes her companion reverted to the governess she had once been. ‘His Grace appears to have ruffled your sensibilities, my dear,’ she murmured with a hint of reproof. ‘He is a local nobleman, by all accounts,’ she continued calmly. ‘We must be travelling through his lands. And you will concede, Antonia, that it was fortunate that the Duke had the leisure to rescue us today.’
Mr Todd, must have caught the tail-end of that remark as he handed Donna into the coach. ‘As I think I mentioned, the Duke’s estate is Brightshill. His is of an old Hertfordshire family and he owns all the land on this side of Berkhamsted to the crest of the Downs.’
Antonia settled in her place. ‘Not quite all, Mr Todd. You forget, do you not, the Rye End Hall lands?’
‘One hardly regards those any longer.’ The curate shrugged dismissively. ‘The lands and Hall are sadly neglected, as one might expect after the scandalous behaviour of the last owner. But I shall say no more of that in front of ladies. It will be a good thing if the rumours are correct and the Duke does intend to add them all to his own estate. They will then be subject to the good husbandry which characterises the Brightshill lands, and the tenants will be employed. There is too much want in Rybury.’
Antonia opened her mouth to speak, then closed it and stared out of the window, trying not to let the curate’s words worry her. It was probably just local gossip, people liked making things seem worse than they actually were.
Donna said, low-voiced, ‘Did you never meet the Duke when you still lived at Rye End Hall?’
‘Hardly. It is twenty years since I left there. As a four year old I don’t think I noticed anything or anyone outside the walls of the garden. Great Aunt snatched me away to live with her in London and I have never been back to Rye End. It must have been this man’s father who owned Brightshill when I was a child, I suppose. I doubt my father or brother were on visiting terms.’
‘No, dear, I suppose not,’ Donna murmured, tactful as always.
Antonia repressed a grimace. From what she had heard of her late and unlamented father, Sir Humphrey Dane, normal social intercourse with his neighbours would not have figured large either for himself, nor for her deceased brother Howard.
The coach finally rumbled into Rybury and pulled up before the only inn the village boasted. The host of The Bell walked out to greet the passengers as they flocked in, clearly all only too pleased at the chance to sit in comfort and drink his ale while exclaiming loudly over their recent misadventure.
The coachman and guard lifted down the ladies’ luggage and Antonia looked round. She suspected that Rybury, neat rather than picturesque, was looking at its best in the spring sunshine with primroses on the green and children fishing for tiddlers in the Rye Brook. Her vague memories of that were of a wide river and she smiled at how childish eyes differed from the adult view. The turnpike road cut across the green and a by-road led over a bridge to a straggle of cottages on the edge of a fine stand of woodland already showing new foliage. Try as she might, she could not remember it.
‘Would you ladies be requiring the use of a cart?’ She jumped a little, lost in the mists of the past. The landlord waited, wiping his hands on his apron.
‘Yes, thank you. We will need these trunks taking to Rye End Hall. Is there a carter who can help?’
‘The Hall, is it?’ His eyebrows rose. ‘Our Jem can help you, ma’am, just as soon as he’s finished serving the coach passengers. It’s a nice clean cart for you ladies, better than that old thing.’ He nodded towards the stagecoach. ‘Would you care to step into the private parlour and take some refreshment while you wait, ma’am?’
As he ushered them into a rather dingy front room, he chatted on. ‘Going to be staying at the Hall, then? That’s been empty this last six months since Sir Humphrey and Master Howard were both carried off within a fortnight of each other.’ He shook his head. ‘Sometimes I wonder if it weren’t a judgement on the pair of them and the wicked life they led.’
Donna cleared her throat in a meaningful manner and he darted a quick glance at her rigid profile. ‘Begging your pardon, ladies. You did know what had occurred.?’
‘Sir Humphrey was my father, Mr Howard Dane was my only brother,’ Antonia said. There was no point trying to hide the fact, the villagers would know soon enough.
‘Oh. Ah, sorry, ma’am, if I’ve spoken out of turn. The coach is just leaving now, I’ll get young Jem out directly.’ He hurried away, clearly embarrassed.
‘I can see the local people held my father and brother in as high regard as Great Aunt did, Donna,’ Antonia remarked, pacing up and down the rather lurid Turkey rug before the fire. ‘Goodness knows what we will find when we finally get to Rye End Hall.’
Young Jem, a skinny little version of his father the landlord, soon appeared with a cart drawn by a placid cob, and set about loading the baggage and trunks.
Donna, after a sharp glance at the narrow seat, began to climb into the back. ‘I can sit here on the trunk, my dear.’
‘I shall not hear of it, Donna,’ Antonia protested. ‘You sit up here in the front with Jem. Jem, which way is the Hall on foot?’
‘Over yonder, ma’am. ’Bout a mile as the crow flies.’ He gestured towards the woods.
‘There, just as I thought from looking at the maps.’ She had been studying them since she realised that this was now going to be her home. ‘I will walk there. I have a headache coming on, and it is only a mile, after all,’ she added as Donna still looked unsure.
Antonia followed the cart across the green and past the cottages, pleased to find, after a few yards, the beginning of a footpath heading in the right direction. As she picked up the hem of her skirts and hopped over the frequent muddy patches in her stout boots, Antonia she thought how strange it felt to be coming back to a home she had no recollection of.
When her mother died her father had embarked on the course of drinking, gambling and philandering which ruined the family fortunes and would soon corrupt her brother. She had no recollection of things being wrong, other than the fact that her mother was gone, there were no more hugs and cuddles and everything seemed empty and cold.
As soon as rumours of her father’s conduct began to reach polite Society, her great aunt, Lady Honoria Granger, had descended and borne her off to Town. From the little Great Aunt had said about the situation she had expected some opposition from her niece’s husband, but Sir Humphrey had been apparently been only too pleased to be spared the trouble of bringing up a daughter.
It had been fortunate that Lady Honoria had been left well-provided for by her late husband and had been able to afford to educate and then bring out Antonia, for Sir Humphrey, with her off his hands, had shown every sign of forgetting he had ever had a daughter.
Antonia stopped every few yards to pick primroses, her headache easing now she was out of that wretched, stuffy, stage coach. She had been right to wear her old gown, she thought, seeing the chalky mud spatters around the hem.
Whilst she had lived with her great aunt, she had wanted for nothing, but as the old lady had finally become frail she had gone to live under her grandson’s roof. Antonia’s cousin, mindful of his own inheritance, had wasted no time in pointing out to her that she could expect no more support from that quarter.
Antonia had been under the misapprehension that she had been living on income from her mother’s legacy to her, but Cousin Hewitt had soon, and with smug satisfaction, put her right. Not only would she now have to manage without Great Aunt Honoria’s beneficence, but he had also made it pretty plain that she and her companion, Miss Donaldson, must find alternative accommodation. Immediately.
The winding path led her to a clearing full of sunlight. Around her the only sounds were bird song and she took off both bonnet and pelisse, sat on a fallen tree and tipped her face up to the warmth, grateful to be in the clear air and out of London. Glad to have stopped traveling.
In the midst of the upheavals of her aunt’s infirmity and removal, the death in a driving accident of a brother whose face she could not even recall, and the sudden demise of her father from an apoplexy a mere two weeks afterwards, had passed as though they had been no concern of hers. The family solicitor had dealt with everything. After a precarious half-year in lodgings whilst the lawyer sold all he could find to settle Sir Humphrey’s debts, Antonia had finally received word that only the house and land remained. There were no male heirs that anyone could trace, so this meagre inheritance all came to her.
She was just reflecting, and not for the first time, on how fortunate she was that Donna had offered to accompany her to Rye End Hall, when she heard a boy’s voice raised in a yelp of pain. She ran across the clearing, pushed through a straggle of branches and found herself in the company of two urchins, neither of them a day over ten years of age.
One, a wiry redhead, was disentangling himself from the bramble bush into which he had tripped. His companion, an even grubbier child, was holding four limp-necked, and very dead, pheasants by the feet.
There was a long moment while the children stared at her, round-eyed with terror, then, as she took a step towards them, they dropped the birds and took to their heels.
Well. The local poachers certainly start young hereabouts, Antonia thought, stooping to pick up the still-warm pheasants. No doubt they were encouraged by a lack of keepering, for in the depths of debt Sir Humphrey had apparently discharged all his servants except for a cook and maid of all work. Still, the birds were hers, snared on her own land, and they would at least serve as supper tonight.
‘Caught red-handed,’ a triumphant voice said behind her. Antonia spun round and found herself confronted by two burly individuals in decent homespun, shotguns under their arms and a couple of terriers at their heels. ‘Did you ever see the like, Nat? A female poacher, as I live and breathe. You give us those birds, my pretty, and come along of us quiet-like.’