Georgette Heyer Read Online Free

some it seemed the dream of a distracted youth; to others a scheme, sound at core, but impossible to be put into action. Voices out of the dusk implored the King to abandon a notion so fraught with disaster, to trust in Leslie, to consider the difficulties to be met with, to be guided by older and wiser heads.
      Talbot only seemed undecided, until Wilmot suddenly said, his light voice jumping a little: 'I agree with you, sir, and I will go with you.'
      Buckingham, whose dare-devilry no man could deny, was nettled, and gave an unkind laugh. Wilmot flushed in the darkness, knowing his own soul's shrinking, but repeated: 'I will go with you. In London, they will never think to look for you; and in London you have faithful friends who will transport you back to France.'
      'You amaze me, Wilmot, by God, you do!' said Buckingham.
      'You should bear in mind, my Lord Duke, that I have the advantage over you of fifteen years' experi ence!' Wilmot flung back at him.
      'Oh, hush!' the King said. 'Here is nothing to quarrel about, my good friends. My resolve is taken. Now I am in your hands, my Lord Talbot.'
      'Leslie must be informed of this,' Talbot said, and again called up Cornet Lane, and sent him galloping up the road in the wake of the retreating Scots.
      Derby said, with distaste vibrating in his voice: 'Your Majesty has scarcely considered what this project must mean! To put yourself into the guise of a country fellow will require of you a behaviour which must be wholly against your birth, your breeding, your high estate! Your Majesty does not know – cannot know –'
      'My lord, my dear lord!' interrupted the King, half amused, half-soothing, 'my Majesty is not so nice, believe me!'
      'Sire, you are a King.'
      'I may be a King,' Charles replied, 'but I know something of how beggars live.'
      This frank allusion to his financial straits made Derby, a nobleman of the old school, stiffen a little.
      The King tried to see the faces about him. 'Well, gentlemen?'
      Buckingham yawned audibly. 'Dear sir, you have told us your mind is made up. We await your commands.'
      'I have only one left to give you. It is that you do now look to yourselves. You can do no more for me, and for what you have done, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you, gentlemen. I shall not forget.'
      'So please your Majesty, before we look to ourselves we will see you to some place of safety,' said Colonel Blague.
      'And where may that be?' enquired Buckingham.
      Derby said reluctantly: 'If your Majesty is determined on this course, there is a house known to me where you may find safe shelter for a day at least. It stands retired, and is inhabited by a very honest fellow, one of five brothers who harboured me lately, after the defeat of my force at Wigan. My Lord Talbot, you should know it, I think. It is a hunting-lodge called Boscobel, in the parish of Tong in Shropshire, and belongs, they told me, to the Giffards.'
      'I have one of the Giffards with me now,' said Talbot. 'But Tong must be forty miles from here!' He spoke hesitantly, thinking of the King, who had scarcely been out of the saddle since early morning.
      'I like it well,' Charles said decidedly. 'Can you lead me, my Lord Derby?'
      'I dare not attempt it, sir. In this darkness, only a native of the country could hope to find his way.'
      'Pass the word for Mr Charles Giffard!' Talbot commanded.
      Before Mr Giffard could come up, Lane had cantered back to them, accompanied by General Leslie, who seemed, from the sound of his voice, to be in no very good temper. He spoke civilly, however, to the King, warning him that delay was dangerous, and begging that he would keep up with the brigade. When he learned that Charles had taken the resolution of separating alto gether from the brigade, he was at first thunderstruck, and then coldly furious. He represented to the King in the strongest terms the folly of such a course, and made such an acid