Obediently he held them out, then, as she reached for them, caught her hands in his. ‘Tell me what happened.’
‘When you have rested.’ She looked down at their joined hands and told herself that it would be undignified to start struggling. ‘Let me go, please, Nick.’ His pulse was strong where her thumb rested against his wrist and his hands were warm.
Slowly he freed her and she reached for the salve and bandages. ‘These are much better than they were a few days ago. Did you manage to keep the bandages on under your manacles?’
Nick nodded as she tied the last knot, then recaptured her hands. ‘Tell me now, Kat. Why am I not dead?’
Katherine met his eyes and read in them a will that was stronger than anything she could summon up. If she did not tell him now, he was quite capable of getting up and finding John or Jenny to ask.
‘Very well, if you promise me you will stay in bed until tomorrow if I do. I went to Hemel Hempstead, found the magistrate who had you arrested—Mr Highson, he was with us today—and convinced him he had mistaken his man. Naturally, once he realised the truth he determined to have you released as soon as possible. We were travelling back yesterday and the wheel came off. Poor Mr Highson was knocked unconscious and put his shoulder right out of its socket and Jenny was badly shaken up.’
‘And you?’ Nick reached up and touched the bruise on her forehead. ‘That gave you a headache. Are you hurt anywhere else?’
‘No, just a few more bruises. I landed on Mr Highson. How did you know I had a headache?’
‘Because I had one too,’ he said simply.
For some reason Katherine was feeling quite flustered. ‘Anyway, that was why we were so late. Mr Highson’s carriage was badly damaged and poor Jenny was at her wits’ end with the pair of us unconscious … I mean …’ Botheration! She had not meant to let him realise she too had been knocked out.
‘I see.’ The rasp in his voice was even more pronounced. ‘Perhaps you could tell me the whole story without editing out the bits that you consider would alarm me?’
Katherine flushed. ‘John caught up with us, but Mr Highson’s carriage was too badly damaged to repair quickly. We set out at five this morning in my carriage, which is slower, of course, but the crowds were terrible, we could not get through with the carriage and in the end John set us down and we had to run.’ She could feel the colour draining out of her cheeks and broke off for a moment to compose herself.
‘We could hear the crowd and every so often the noise would reach a crescendo and we realised another poor soul had been executed. We had no way of knowing whether we were already too late.’ Her voice faltered and she bit her lip before continuing. ‘It seemed to take an age to get to the Governor and for him to hear what Mr Highson had to say and then when we got to the scaffold … I am sorry to be so foolish. It is just that it was such a shock to see you there, to see the trap open.’
Nick reached out a hand and took one of hers in his gently. She felt his thumb caressing lightly over her palm. ‘Shh. I should not have made you relive it so soon. Leave it now.’
‘No, no, I am all right. I screamed and John ran forward and jumped down through the trap to hold you up. He found Arthur was already there and between them they managed to support you while they cut the rope above. The rest you know.’
They sat in silence for a while, Katherine content to let her hand rest in Nick’s. Then he said, almost too low for her to hear, ‘There was a young woman. Just a girl. She was behind me as they led us out, but she pushed through to the front. I think she was so afraid that she could not bear to wait and only wanted it all to be over.’
‘Poor soul,’ Katherine murmured, then the realisation of what he had just said struck her. ‘You mean, if it were not for her, we would have been too late?’
‘Mmm. Strange how lives can hang—literally—on such chances.’ He fell silent. Katherine raised her eyes to Nick’s and found that he had not begun to doze off as she thought, but that he was watching her, his dark, bloodshot eyes intelligent.
‘You still are not telling me everything, are you, Kat? No, do not look so innocent and protest you have no idea what I mean.’
Chapter Eight
Katherine shut her mouth, only too aware that Nick was right and she had been about to say she had no idea what he meant.
‘Come on, Kat. How did you convince that magistrate that I was innocent? He would not take your word for it, however charmingly you pleaded.’
Katherine stared back stubbornly. He would be furious if he knew what she had done, she knew him well enough already to guess that. On the other hand, he was not going to give up. If she did not tell him, John or Jenny would.
‘I went to the Lamb and Flag and talked to the barmaid about Black Jack, and he was there.’ Nick’s eyebrows snapped together in an intimidating frown and she hastened on. ‘I put it to him that to temporarily confuse the authorities was one thing, but to leave an innocent man to hang in his stead was not the action of a famous highwayman such as himself. I thought an appeal to his pride would work and it did.’
‘Dear God.’ Nick let his head fall back on the pillow. ‘And he might just as easily have slit your throat.’
‘Well, he did not. I rather liked him,’ Katherine said, unwittingly adding fuel to the fire.
‘Did you, indeed?’
‘Yes, I did. He looked a lot less frightening than you did the first time I saw you.’
Nick merely rolled his eyes. ‘And I suppose he wrote you a little note to take to the magistrate? Or did he turn himself in?’
‘Neither. We went to Mr Highson’s house. I pretended to faint and asked to have the window opened and Black Jack got in. Then we explained.’
‘And instead of having you both arrested, he consented to listen?’ Nick sounded incredulous. Katherine found she was becoming indignant. The more she thought about it, the more proud she was of her audacious plan.
‘I was clinging to the magistrate so he had to listen, and John was guarding the door to stop the servants getting in. Mr Highson recognised Black Jack, who gave him his watch back and repeated something he had said when he stole it. So Mr Highson was convinced and was naturally anxious to have you pardoned as quickly as possible.’
‘Let me be sure I have this right,’ Nick rasped. He sounded absolutely furious. ‘You travel into Hertfordshire, you beard a notorious highwayman in his lair, you assist him breaking and entering a magistrate’s house, you assault the magistrate and, I presume, you help the highwayman escape again. Is that correct?’
‘Yes,’ Katherine said mutinously.
‘And how did you pay for this excursion into crime?’
‘I sold a hideous diamond necklace I had been hiding away for a rainy day, if you must know.’
She waited, a hot knot of misery inside her.
