Free Penelope Goes to Portsmouth by M. C. Beaton

with rage. She had found a small, dainty hat to wear on her flaming hair, but it showed the full fury of her face.
    ‘Be quiet, you,’ roared Mr Cato.
    Miss Trenton shrank back in her seat and began to snivel. Mr Cato surveyed her coldly and then handed her a large handkerchief like a bed-sheet, saying in a milder tone, ‘I appreciate your distress, Miss Trenton, for you are the only one among us who don’t seem made for adventures, and I guess that is why you are still a maid.’
    This remark had the effect of shocking Miss Trenton into complete silence. Hannah returned to the inn to question the landlord and servants, but no one had seen or heard anything strange during the night. She told the others of her lack of success at finding any information as the coach swung out on the long road back to Esher.
    The passengers, with the exception of Miss Trenton, who was not consulted, agreed to remain in the coach, even when the horses were being changed, and to have their refreshment brought out to them. The sun rose on another windy day, and as they approached Esher, they fell to discussing what to do. Mr Cato was all for going to the magistrate. LordAugustus said they had no proof. Benjamin’s body might already be lying dead in some ditch or, if he were still alive, he might be at the Manor, lying in some cellar.
    ‘She has to have her revenge,’ he said. ‘She’s that sort.’
    Penelope looked at him, remembered his love-making to Lady Carsey, and blushed and turned her face away.
    ‘So what are we to do?’ demanded Mr Cato.
    ‘For a start,’ said Lord Augustus slowly, ‘I do not think we should go into Esher itself but rack up at some wayside inn before we reach there. Otherwise, she will quickly learn of our return. We will find a place for the night. I shall tell the coachman of our plans.’ At the next stop where they changed horses again, Lord Augustus instructed the coachman to find some wayside inn outside Esher.
    They left the main road before they reached the town and went along a country lane, the coachman eventually stopping at what looked to Miss Trenton’s jaundiced eye like a hedge-tavern.
    She was still complaining that a lady of the carriage class such as herself could not possibly be expected to reside in such a place, when Lord Augustus, who had gone into the tavern to make inquiries, returned to say that there were two rooms available, the landlord and his family having agreed to sleep in the stables for the night. The ladies would share one, and he and the coachman, the guard, and Mr Cato would do the best they could with the other.
    Hannah was relieved to find that although the inn was very humble indeed, it was spotlessly clean. Mr Cato said that, as Lord Augustus had given up his pin to the adventure, he himself would foot the bill.
    They wearily sat down to supper. Now that they were so close, they all felt more hopeless than ever. The landlord and his wife bustled about, laying plates of food, gratified to have so many guests.
    ‘Tell me, landlord,’ asked Lord Augustus, ‘does Lady Carsey still reside in Esher?’
    ‘That she does, me lord, but saving your noble presence, I’d rather not be talking about the lady.’
    ‘Pray tell me why?’
    The landlord looked mutinous and his wife frightened.
    Penelope, with a sudden flash of intuition, said loudly, ‘We all hate her, you see, and think her a monster.’
    The landlord paused and wiped his hands slowly on his apron.
    ‘That be different then, for we’re sore angry with my lady. Our eldest, Greta, was in service to my lady and come home this very day, crying fit to die. Seems she broke a vase and my lady summoned her and whipped her. So she run home, all the way. Nothing the likes of I can do, her being so powerful in the town.’
    ‘Could we speak to your Greta?’ asked Hannah suddenly. ‘You see, she may know news of my footman, Benjamin.’ Briefly she told the landlord of Benjamin’s adventures at the hands of Lady