Kate Moore Read Online Free

did, pushing the steps down with her foot, and descending from the vehicle in a rustle of skirts.
    “‘Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon . . .’” said the stranger, in a deep, rich voice that an actor might envy.
    “Fair sun?” Juliet asked.
    Susannah laughed in spite of herself. Apparently they’d been stopped by a highwayman as romantic as her young cousin. With a sigh Susannah threw off the lap rug and stepped out into the raw evening after her cousin. She looked up at the highwayman, who was staring at Juliet. “Your lines are wasted on the young lady, sir, as she was wont to rebel against memorizing in the schoolroom.”
    “Oh,” said Juliet to the stranger, “you’re quoting. What is it?”
    “
Romeo and Juliet
, of course.” The highwayman sounded a bit surprised and younger than Susannah had first thought.
    Susannah could just make him out now, a cliché in a great coat, mask, and tricorn hat, sitting astride a fine black horse. She could not see a weapon in the dark, but that did not mean he was unarmed. She turned to their protectors and saw only Uncle John’s old coachman.
    “Coachman?” she called. “Where’s Tim?”
    “Fool Tim Dachet’s gone and fallen off the box,” came the reply.
    “Where? How shall we find him?”
    “About a hundred yards back, ma’am,” the stranger told her. “Actually, I assisted him a bit in the fall. I dinna’ wish to have him fire that great pistol of his. He landed in the gorse, and I suspect he’ll catch up to us in a moment. So I must beg a boon of you while I can, ladies.”
    “A boon, sir?” Susannah replied. “After such a rude interruption of our journey, after knocking our protector off the box? A boon would be appropriate had you rescued us rather than inconvenienced us.”
    “My apologies for any inconvenience, of course, but haven’t I rescued you? Have you not been rolling along dull as a Sunday sermon since Staines, hoping for an adventure, which I have been so kind as to provide?”
    “Oh yes, however did you guess?” asked Juliet. “We have been wishing for an adventure all day, but I have no boon to give you.”
    “I can think of a fair one—a kiss.”
    Susannah gasped. The clouds parted slightly and a bright moon outlined the figure of the man on horseback and the girl staring up at him in open admiration. And suddenly Susannah saw the true danger of the situation, for she remembered being just as young and foolish as her charge. “Juliet, no,” she ordered.
    “Don’t be stuffy, Susannah,” said Juliet. “It’s just a kiss, and I am not afraid. It’s an adventure, after all.” She stepped up to the stranger, and the highwayman leaned down. Susannah could think only of putting an end to this dangerous association at once. She strode forward, raising a hand high to slap the rump of the young man’s horse. But the highwayman guessed her intent and drew back, urging his stallion into a quick side step.
    He laughed, and told Juliet, “You are well guarded, my lady.”
    The sound of approaching hooves made them all turn.
    This would end it, Susannah thought. The company of other travelers would dispel the romantic aura that seemed to have caught both Juliet and the stranger. Susannah called out at once, “Halloo, help, a highwayman!”
    The hooves pounded closer, and the masked young man, after only the briefest hesitation, said, “Adieu, my lady Juliet,” whirled his horse, and galloped into the copse.
    Two men also in greatcoats and tricorns rode up immediately, but when they halted at the Lacy carriage, Susannah felt her relief give way to cold fear. The newcomers reeked of ale.
    “What have we here, Dick?” said one rider to the other, over the blowing of their lathered horses. “Sport or goods?”
    “Looks like sport to me, George,” said the second rider.
    Susannah decided to ignore the implications of this exchange. She had often surprised her charges into good behavior simply by stating with