Read Online The Viscount's Revenge (The Royal Ambition Series Book 4) by M. C. Beaton - Free Book Online

held it out and Bluebell immediately started trotting obediently after Richard’s horse.
     
    They did not speak until they had unsaddled the animals, rubbed them down, and put them in their respective stalls for the night.
     
    Then they sat down in the harness room, and, by the light of one candle, prised open the lid of the jewel box. Diamonds, pearls, rubies, and emeralds sparkled and blazed up into their wide, shocked eyes. Richard silently drew out Lord Hawksborough’s large ruby ring and handed it to Amanda. It looked like a great drop of glistening blood.
     
    “I feel sick and dirty,” said Richard, his voice seeming to come from far away. “I meant to revenge you by taking his ring.”
     
    White-faced, Amanda nodded and handed him back the ring, which he dropped into the box with the other jewels.
     
    “We should never have done it,” said Richard slowly. “It was exciting at first, but frightening old men and women is a terrible thing to do. Those servants were too old to protect anybody. What was that shot?”
     
    Amanda took off her tricorne and handed it to him. There was a hole through the crown. “Lord Hawksborough,” she said. “Bluebell would not move. He climbed on the roof of the carriage. The coachman jogged his arm or I should not be alive.”
     
    “What will we do?” said Richard, his voice hoarse with the effort of holding back tears. “I don’t want the jewels. I don’t want any of it.”
     
    He looked very young and vulnerable. Amanda took his hand in hers. “We’ll bury them in the earth of the stable floor,” she said. “And if we ever get a chance to go to London, we’ll dig them up and leave them at Lord Hawksborough’s house. Oh, I wish I were dead.”
     
    Richard shivered. “If you could have seen the look on his face, Amanda. He would have killed me with his bare hands if he had not been concerned over the welfare of his mother and sister. Vengeance, that’s what he wants. And he won’t rest till he gets it.”
     
    “Any minute now the search will be on,” said Amanda urgently. “Fetch a pick and spade, Richard, and let us get finished with this terrible evening.”
     
    Richard worked like a man possessed, hacking and digging at the hard-packed earth of the stable floor until there was a sizable hole.
     
    They wrapped the jewel box carefully in the sack, threw the tricornes, wigs, and masks on top of it, and piled the earth back in, stamped it down, and covered it with straw. Richard dusted his hands and gave a sigh of relief. “I feel a little better, but not much. Oh, Amanda, you and your crazy ideas.”
     
    “At least I have some ideas, crazy or not…” began Amanda hotly, and then she looked at her brother, her eyes glittering with unshed tears, and said, “Don’t let’s quarrel, Richard. We are
both
fools. I feel so terribly guilty.”
     
    “Aunt Matilda!” exclaimed Richard. “I think I hear her calling.” He buttoned up his coat, saying urgently, “She must not find you in boy’s clothes. I will go and talk to her while you go in by the kitchen door and change.”
     
    Amanda did as she was bid, tearing off the clothes in her bedroom and stuffing them into the back of a closet.
     
    When she pushed open the door of the morning room it was to find Richard waiting impatiently by the fire while Aunt Matilda sat in one of the wing chairs, very upright, very excited.
     
    “Now you are here, Amanda,” she cried. “I would not tell my news until we were all together. You will never guess where I have been today. I have been at Hember Cross for a meeting with my old school friend, Maria Pitts!”
     
    “Well, that was very pleasant, I’m sure,” said Amanda, wondering if she dared send Richard to fetch the rest of the brandy.
     
    “But it is better than that!” cried Aunt Matilda. “You see, I heard she would be staying at the Feathers, although she did not attend the ball. I called on her and told her of our plight. I would not have