Left At The Crooked Pine Book 7

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

All of the little travelling party was exhausted by the time it reached its destination of Lucas house. Juliana and Frank were waiting anxiously in the open door way wrapped up warmly in thick cloaks.

“What happened?” they exclaimed together when George shouted for a doctor for the carriage driver. Bianca hopped out unaided and was swept up by a distraught Juliana.

“It was the high way man,” she told them calmly, “He shot the poor driver and threatened our lives then made off with my purse, happily a small one, and my jewellery, something I was much more attached too. But George assured me the drivers gunshot wound was just a flesh wound and he will be fine. It is really nothing to worry about.”

“Nothing to worry about!” Frank bellowed “the fiend attacked my own guest, my best friends little sister he has to be brought to justice. God if Jonnie finds out about this it will be me that swings from the hangman’s noose for endangering you rather than the highway man.” He paced up and down running a hand through his dark hair, scowling.

“There is no need for Jonnie to know,” Bianca soothed him then catching sight of Juliana’s white face she redirected his worry. “Jewel needs you Frank.” She ordered him shoving him in that direction. Then closing her eyes to dredge some patience from her tired body she quietly told them. “I am going to bed; we will talk in the morning.” She yanked the front door open and trudged up\ the stairs to her room.

Frank and Juliana stared after her speechless, but realised after a moment’s hesitation that she must be feeling awful and they should leave her alone, for now, to sleep they supposed. Upstairs they went too. They could not be more wrong though; tired as she was Bianca could not sleep. She tossed and turned unable to sleep exhilarated by her night’s adventures. Emerald green eyes haunting her mind’s eye.

~

The next morning dawned grey and drizzly and depressing. Bianca slipped out of her bed despite the early hour and dressed in her riding habit. The house was silent and asleep still as she used the kitchen door to head for the stables. Unlatching Jupiter’s stable door she saddled him quickly and efficiently and rode off into the misty woods surrounding Lucas House.

Being the younger sister of a horse expert had its advantages. She trotted through the wet morning air, ignoring the way her skirt were growing heavy with damp and her hair formed a frizzy halo of way ward curls around her rosy cheeked face. The woods thinned out after a while and Bianca took full advantage of the open road to canter along with purpose. The soft ground held deep obvious tracks from the wheels of her coach last night.

She pulled Jupiter up short suddenly. They had reached the spot of their attack the night before surprisingly quickly. She studied it with interest. As far as she could tell there was nothing different or particularly special about the area. It must have been pure chance he had chosen them and this place the night before. Sliding down from the saddle and looping the reins over Jupiter’s broad golden head she lead him behind her as she inspected the mixture of footprints, tracks and hoof prints imprinted liberally through the mud.

The majority of the tracks were simple boot prints like those she often saw left behind the servants who assist her brother and his friends on their hunts. There were two sets of hoof prints from the horses that lead their carriage and a few sets from single horses and their riders but they only followed the roadways. She distinctly remembered the highwayman fleeing - no, he had not fled because he was not afraid; rather he made a tactical retreat to his hideout through the woods. His foot prints, at least she was almost certain they were his foot prints, were precise and clear he definitely knew what he was doing and where he was going.