arrive at Elsinghurst about dusk, when everybody’s indoors, eating. Just walk back down the road the way the coach has been coming—” she paused, noting the pale strained face with which Kathryn had been following her instructions.
“No, no, my dearie! What’s wrong with me? You’ll no’ be able to walk several miles after that long, weary ride, and you not well at all!”
“Your plan is better than Lord John’s,” Kathryn said quietly. “Perhaps I might stop at the inn at Elsinghurst, and ask the landlord to send someone for your brother.”
“That’d be a sure way to inform every gossip in the country that a beautiful stranger had arrived in the village. From that, it’d be no more than a cat’s blink till everyone knew that the Lady of Elsingham was at the inn. Och! And I was sure I had such a famous idea!”
It was Kathryn’s turn to rally her companion’s failing spirits. “It is an excellent idea! It just needs a little adjusting. Now, let’s see. Is there any other way to get to the farm than through Elsinghurst Village?”
Bennet nodded eagerly. “Twenty miles before you come to Elsinghurst, there’s a place called Crofton. It’s larger than Elsinghurst, and has two inns. You could dismount from the coach there, and take a room at the smaller of the two inns. Send a boy with my letter to Richard, and stay inside the room until Richard comes for you.” Bennet nodded decisively. “That will serve! Our farm’s about halfway between Crofton and Elsinghurst. Richard could get to one place as well as the other. And he’ll be proud to keep you safe until we can work out something better.”
The enormity of what she was asking a completely unknown man to do suddenly became plain to Kathryn. “I can’t!” she objected. “Think, Bennet! A strange woman dropping in on him from nowhere! He’ll hate it.”
“Not Richard,” said Bennet proudly. “Though I say it myself, as shouldn’t, Richard Bennet is the kindest man in all of England. And Scotland too,” she added, after a second’s thought.
Kathryn considered rapidly. The night was passing, and she must make some decision before dawn if she hoped to escape the exile to Ireland, where the frightening Donner might have to be dealt with. There were objections to Bennet’s scheme—too many to list—but it might work, if she were lucky, and if Richard Bennet would accept the responsibility.
“There’s one thing,” she whispered into Bennet’s anxious ear. “Your brother’s neighbors. They’ll be gossiping about his guest. Someone’s sure to mention the new arrival to the servants at the Manor.”
Bennet, momentarily disconcerted, came back triumphantly. “We’ll tell Richard—and the villagers—that you’re a widow of a soldier killed in America—I’ve heard you talking about the war there. That’ll explain how you come to know something about the place—and your accent, Miss Kathryn, which is not at all the London speech, if you’ll pardon me for saying so.”
Kathryn found courage to smile. “Bravo, Bennet! What a scenario writer you’d have made! Being a widow will give me a chance to wear a heavy veil—which I’ve no doubt you can provide me with! Your staff work is as fine as your powers of invention.”
Bennet was delighted with the praise, but said firmly, “We’ll have fun about this when we have you safe at the farm, Miss Kathryn. If anyone questions you, you can say that you and your deceased husband being orphans, both of you, you’d no folk to go to in London, and I’ve sent you to board with my brother, since I knew your mother long ago.”
Kathryn entered into the spirit of the scheme. “I could be a deaf-mute,” she suggested, “and communicate only by writing on a slate. That would hide my accent, and it really ought to discourage casual questions—”
Bennet was forced to smile, but she said firmly, “Now then, Miss Kathryn, you’re being whimsical. Not that you aren’t in the right of it, at that! There’s few enough of them Croftoners can do more than scrawl their own name, to say naught of writing out impudent questions.”
Kathryn smiled. “I’d just nod, or point, or shrug, or whatever seemed appropriate, and smile sweetly.”
“Oh dear, that’s going to be our problem. Any woman who looks like you do will be a nine-days’ wonder for the whole county. They’ll come to gawk at you, and someone’s sure to recognize her ladyship.”
“I never would have believed I’d have trouble because of being too beautiful,” smiled Kathryn. “But that’s easily fixed. I’ll