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. She had not wanted him to be grateful, but she had expected him to be pleased, perhaps a little admiring of her enterprise and resolution. Now he seemed to be angry with her.
‘You spent your last resources, you put your life and reputation in danger on the word of a complete stranger who you had every reason to think was a dangerous felon?’ He was looking at her now, his eyes blazing, his hoarse voice no longer angry, but full of admiration. Katherine felt her heart thud. The tight knot of misery melted.
‘I believed you. I had spent the night with you and you treated me honourably. And if you were innocent, then I had no choice but to help you.’
‘Kat, come here.’ He put up a hand to his eyes.
‘Why? What is wrong? Is that bandage chaffing your throat?’ Anxious, Katherine got to her feet and leaned over the bed. The next moment she was caught around the waist, pulled down against Nick’s chest and was being thoroughly kissed.
He had kissed her once before. Once only as the prison clock struck eight with the turnkeys at the door. This was different. A slow slide of his lips across hers, a gentle pressure that tantalised, promised, stirred feelings inside her which burned and ached and made her arch instinctively closer.
Her lips parted and his tongue slid inside her to touch hers. Katherine gripped his shoulders as though she were drowning and tried to hold on to the remnants of rational thought. Those remnants were telling her that this was outrageous, that she should not be doing this, allowing this. Her self-control struggled briefly with the newly discovered wanton instincts that seemed to be rioting through her and finally got the upper hand. She opened her hands and pushed.
Nick released her immediately and she sat back panting on the edge of the bed. ‘No! We should not!’
‘I wanted to thank you, Kat, I just don’t have the words, but perhaps I had better try if you will not let me kiss you.’ His face was serious under the unruly tumble of damp black hair and Katherine caught herself before she could reach out and brush it back from his forehead. ‘You saved my life, you put yourself in danger to do it and you gave up the last remnants of your financial security in the process. I do not deserve that and I can never repay it. I had resigned myself to dying, I felt it was probably a just return for the last six years of my life, for listening to my pride and not my duty and turning my back on my responsibilities.
‘I had resigned myself, I thought, until I met you and found there were still some things I wanted.’
Katherine felt herself blush and he smiled wickedly at her. ‘Not just that, although I have to admit that kissing you reminds me of why it is good to be alive.’
‘I am glad,’ she said simply. ‘But