Lady Ellingham and the Theft of the Stansfield Necklace: A Regency Romance by Miriam Rochester Page A

quietly dressed.  She quickly threw on her
dark blue riding dress fashioned in the popular military style with gold frogs
on the bodice and roughly tied her unruly golden curls back in a band. To
complete her attire she perched a matching hat with a silver grey feather
jauntily on her head.  The house was quiet and she silently crept down the staircase
across the hall to the front door.  Thank goodness, the rain had abated.  Quickly
she made her way to the Mews to collect her loyal steed Artemis.  
          Artemis was a tan
thoroughbred hunter that she had brought down from Yorkshire and she had named her
suitably after the Greek goddess of the hunt, not that there was much hunting
to be done in London.  The streets were deserted, there were no footpads out
and about at this time in the morning and even the hardened revellers had long since
retired to their beds.  Felicity’s short trip to the mews was uneventful. 
Artemis whinnied and nuzzled her nose into Felicity’s neck as she recognised
her mistress. ‘Come Artemis,’ she whispered. ‘Are you ready for an adventure? 
We have some work to do, come girl.’  She quickly saddled the mare and led her
into the yard and within minutes, she was galloping out toward Hampstead Heath in
the direction of the South Wood. 
          Richard had no
idea that Felicity had left the house before him and Jeremy Leighton called for
him dutifully at 5.30am. Richard was ready, he had managed to grab some rest
but had tossed and turned, anxious that he should not oversleep. He dressed
himself in a coat of drab grey, which he hoped would blend unobtrusively into
the grey of the dawn.  He was not going to make himself an easy target for Thorndale
to put a bullet through him. He handed the Manton pistols up to Jeremy and
climbed up into the phaeton beside him. Jeremy looked uncommonly cheerful and
patted his friend on the shoulder. ‘Don’t worry old chap, I spoke to Giles last
night.  He says that Thorndale rarely shoots to kill.’
    ‘Do you mean he makes a
habit of this?  I can well believe it but all the same I will be pleased when
this morning is over.’
          Jeremy urged the
horses on, the carriage moved forward and the two companions made the rest of
the journey in uneasy silence.
          Unknown to Richard,
Felicity was a good way ahead.  She left the London Streets and was in open
ground.  She needed to find a suitable place to hide where she had a good long
view up the lane and to wait for Thorndale to come along in his carriage.  She
only hoped that he was not on horseback as that would ruin everything but she
knew that Richard was travelling in Jeremy’s phaeton and hoped and prayed that Thorndale
would choose a similar mode of transport.
          Felicity chose a
dense thicket of trees in which to hide and waited. It was fifteen minutes
before she could hear the sound of carriage wheels approaching.  She looked out
into the gloom of the early morning and could just distinguish Richard and
Jeremy Leighton bowling along at a stately canter. Artemis was restless with
standing still for so long and she whinnied at the approaching sound.  Felicity
held her by the muzzle and stroked her neck. ‘Quiet girl,’ she whispered
comforting the horse. ‘You must not give us away.’  AArtemis
whiined
          As always Richard
was early, a fact on which she had relied, everything was working to plan, at
least to what little plan she had.  She quickly retreated behind the thicket
until they passed and waited impatiently for Thorndale to arrive.  It was a
full ten minutes before Thorndale came into view and Felicity was starting to
shiver in the early morning cold.  The Marquis was seated in a high-perched
phaeton and he was driving himself with Giles Kavanagh seated up on the perch beside
him. They were ambling along at a sedate trot. Thorndale appeared to be in no
hurry having timed his arrival to the minute.
           All