Hiding from Love by Barbara Cartland Page A

are you goin’ to do, when I brings the trap round?”
    â€œI’m going to jump out of the window, Finny, into the trap.  So make sure there’s plenty of hay to cushion my fall!  I am depending on you.”
    Finny picked up the pail, grumbling.
    â€œI’ll do it.  But it’s beyond me why you don’t use them stairs.”
    â€œOh, Finny!”
    Leonora, amused despite everything, drew her head in from the window.
    Finny had been away for two days and had no idea of what had transpired in his absence.
    It had been two days of hunger and humiliation for Leonora.  Two days when her odious stepfather wheedled and finally threatened her from outside the door.
    He threatened her with starvation if she would not agree to marry Lord Merton and as she continued to refuse, even Mr. Schilling grew alarmed.
    Last night in her sleep, she had been half aware of the sound of a key turning, the door opening and closing –
    This morning she had awoken to find a tray on the floor with a jug of water and two slices of bread and jam.
    It had tasted like a breakfast fit for a King and, as she was eating, Leonora had formulated her plans.
    The only person in the whole world who could help her escape was Finny and she prayed that Mr. Schilling would go off on one of his many mysterious errands.
    Leonora was becoming convinced that he gambled, which would explain his need for large sums, such as her mother told her he extracted weekly from his chest.
    She crossed to the bed, where a sheet lay open over the quilt, and began to throw onto it the few items she had chosen for her flight.
    She was not in her own room and had of necessity been forced to ransack her mother’s wardrobe.
    Leonora stepped back and took one last look at the room.  She seized her mother’s hairbrush and then extracted two necklaces from her jewellery box.
    She closed the lid and thought.
    Then she picked up the box and carried it through to the bathroom, where she hid it in an aperture she had noticed near the rafters.
    At least Mr. Schilling would not get his hands on it!
    She returned to the bedroom and surveyed the sheet with satisfaction before knotting its four corners together to form a makeshift bag.
    She hauled it to the window and hoisted it onto the window seat.  Then she turned and went to the chest at the foot of the bed.
    She rapidly found what she was seeking – a brown leather pouch with the letter ‘ F ’ embroidered onto it.  Why ‘ F ’ and not ‘ S ’ for Schilling she had no idea.
    The pouch contained close on fifty pounds.
    She weighed it on her palm and then tucked it into her reticule.
    She knew her action would be construed as theft, but she refused to feel guilty.  As far as she was concerned, this sum of money represented the sum that Mr. Schilling had stolen when he sold her mother’s investment bond.
    There was a whistle from outside the window and Leonora ran over and leaned out.
    Finny waited proudly below.  The trap beside him was drawn up under the window, its passenger-box packed high with golden hay.
    â€œFinny, you are an angel,” whispered Leonora.
    Lifting her bundle, she threw it down onto the hay.
    She tightened the strings of her reticule round her wrist and then clambered out onto the sill herself.
    Finny covered his eyes with his hands.
    She swallowed, took a deep breath and pushed off.
    She landed very safely in the middle of the hay and began to laugh elatedly as Finny rushed across.
    â€œI’ve escaped, Finny, I’ve escaped.”
    â€œEscaped?”
    â€œEscaped from Mr. Schilling.  He locked me in my mother’s room.  I’ve been there for two days.”
    Finny’s eyes were as round as full moons.
    â€œLocked you in?  Two days?”
    â€œFinny, stop repeating everything, please.  There is no time to be lost.”
    She looked round her anxiously, half expecting Mr. Schilling to appear