Chapter Ten
It took a while for the brothers to accept Grace’s idea. Richard finally acknowledged that it might work, but Wolf stubbornly refused to agree.
‘What you suggest is madness,’ he declared. ‘I cannot let you take such a risk for me.’
‘The risk is all yours,’ she replied. ‘I shall be safely away from here before you make your escape.’
‘No!’ he said explosively. ‘I cannot have you involved in this!’
Grace sat back on her chair. ‘Can you think of a better plan?’
Wolf glared at her, his look a mixture of frustration and fury.
Richard laughed. ‘I have to admit, Miss Duncombe, we cannot.’
‘Then we must use mine.’ She rose. ‘It is time for me to go.’
As she walked to the door she heard Wolf’s smothered exclamation behind her.
‘No, Grace, I cannot let you do this!’
She looked back. ‘I do not think you have any choice, sir, unless you want to hang.’
* * *
Grace hurried back to her carriage. The cool resolution she had shown in the prison had been replaced by a nervous energy that made her blood sizzle. How was she ever to explain this to Aunt Eliza, let alone to Loftus? The sad truth was that she had no intention of telling them of her involvement in this daring plan. Indeed, if everything went well there was no need for them to know anything about it. Her part in it was negligible. She would tell Papa and she prayed he would understand, even if he thought her misguided.
A memory stirred. When Henry had been brought back to the vicarage and it had been explained how he had been stabbed protecting a woman from her husband. Papa had given way to emotion then and for once he had railed, saying Henry had been impetuous and misguided to tackle the man alone. Now Grace remembered dear Henry’s words as she nursed him through his final hours.
‘I had to try, Grace. I could no more leave them to their fate than I could stop breathing.’
‘That is it, exactly,’ she murmured. ‘Oh, Henry, you understand why I must do this, don’t you?’
* * *
Wolf paced the floor of his cell. It was five days since they had agreed to Grace’s idea and throughout each of them he had worried their plan would be discovered and she would be arrested. Richard had called this morning to tell him everything was in place, Kennet had been despatched with his instructions and now Wolf was waiting for Grace to make her final visit. He wished to heaven she need not come, but to all his protests she had calmly pointed out that it was necessary if their plan was to work.
‘All your visitors save myself are searched upon entry here,’ she had told him. ‘The guards trust me and that is our advantage.’
And much as he disliked the idea of putting Grace in danger, for the life of him he could not think of any alternative.
When the door was unlocked and she stepped into the cell he fixed her with a grim stare. She put back her veil, pale but composed.
‘Good day to you, Mr Arrandale. I trust you are well?’
Her greeting was the same every time and he replied with his usual scowl, which always made the guard grin as he locked the door upon them.
‘I wish you did not have to come,’ he muttered, as she put her basket down beside the table.
‘I pray this will be the last time.’
Wolf walked to the door and looked out through the grille. The passage was empty, but he was not taking any chances and kept his voice low.
‘Everything is ready?’
She nodded. ‘A hackney coach will be waiting for you across the road from the gaol at the appointed time.’
‘Kennet has found a couple of choice spirits who are even now spending money in the local gin house. Their customers should be roaring drunk and filling the cells within the hour. So you must go as soon as possible, the streets will not be safe.’
