Part 8

Adam, Mac and Dick were waiting in the shadows, that is, what few shadows could be cast by the sliver of the moon, for Lord Amesbury's coach. Tonight Adam felt anxiety instead of exhilaration-he was having trouble keeping his mind focused when he heard a noise behind him. He quickly pulled his pistol and turned in the saddle and saw a rider on a white horse, a man with a long cloak thrown about him and wearing a mask. Dick pulled his pistol and Mac, his blunderbuss and all three took aim at the man who put up his hands to show he held no weapon.

"Who goes there?" Adam asked in a threatening tone.

"Your fourth partner," came the shaky response. Adam wasn't certain but believed it must be a boy from the timbre of the voice and the slight build.

Adam sat his horse, his pistol still aimed true. The first thought that ran through his mind was of the fourth murderer who shows up in Macbeth and he smiled to himself. It is the fourth murderer who fouls the plan and allows Fleance to escape.

"I ask again," Adam said, "and then no more for if you do not answer me now, well, dead men have no voice. Who be ye?" Adam heard the sound of a coach approaching but he continued to stare evenly at the man.

"Cap'n," Dick said, "should we take position?"

"Yes," Adam said, his eyes still fixed on the stranger. "If I do not arrive in half a minute after you, do not approach the coach-let it pass." Dick and Mac rode off and Adam carefully cocked his pistol.

"It's I-Julia Gosling." Julia knew that he would shoot her if she did not answer truthfully and she had never been as frightened as she was when he looked at her with the steely glare.

"Damn you to hell, woman! Stay here-don't remove from this spot." Adam eased his pistol's trigger and giving his large black horse a kick, he took off for the road.

But Julia took off after him; she was not going to be left out after she had gone so far, after she had taken such a risk. Her heart was pounding in her throat. She pulled up a few yards behind Adam, waiting. She pulled out her father's pistol; she had learned to shoot as a young girl and also knew her way with a bow and arrow so she felt prepared but her stomach was churning so that she felt as if she would vomit.

Dick and Mac had stopped the coach and the coachman was already off his seat and standing in the road. "Out, Out," Dick said as Adam sat on Jupiter pointing his pistol at them. "Out all of ye and place yourselves on the road." There were two men, one older gentleman in a powdered wig and another younger man who was dressed as foppishly as Joe. Adam smiled at that. A woman practically rolled out of the carriage, her bulk was so great, and she only managed to stay on her feet with the help of the young man.

"Stand and deliver your purse," Adam said as he aimed at the older man.

"I told you, Percival," the woman said as she held her abdomen as if she couldn't breathe. "I knew that some blackguard would be waiting for us."

"Now!" Adam shouted.

"Our purse is inside. I'll have to retrieve it," the young man said. He turned and reached inside the cab of the coach and Adam suddenly felt as if everything had gone wrong. Sounds of riders, two or three, their horses' hooves pounding on the road, could barely be heard but they were coming closer.

"Dick, Mac, be off!" Adam shouted to them and the two men, surprised, took a few seconds to comprehend their orders and then ran to their mounts. At the same time, the young man turned; he held a pistol in his hand and took aim at Adam who had glanced to Dick and Mac but Julia saw him and fired. The young man spun about, having been hit in the shoulder, and then collapsed in the road. Whether he was dead or not, Julia didn't know since she had never shot a person before nor was she going to stay to find out. Adam turned to her, waved his pistol to her indicating that she should go but Julia was frozen on the spot. Adam rode to her and pulling her horse's head around, he then slapped it on the haunch and shouted, "Hup!" to the horse who took off at a full gallop with Adam and Jupiter following behind. Julia had dropped her pistol in order to hold onto her horse's reins so she wouldn't be tossed off its back.

When Adam decided they were a safe enough distance away to escape any pursuers, he shouted for Julia to stop. She did and Adam noticed that she was shaking; whether with excitement or fear, he wasn't sure. He pulled off his mask and reached over and pulled off Julia's. She stared at him, her chest heaving.

"What do you think you're doing, girl?" He was furious. A woman along on any venture always bespoke bad luck.

"I wanted to go along-my father, well, he lost just about everything when you and your men robbed him, 'Cap'n'," she sneered. "So I thought I would get some of ours back."

"Why didn't you just blackmail me as any normal woman would or turn me over to the law?" Adam asked.

"Because…because I don't want revenge-or harm to come to you and I want you to…to still have a friendly 'affection' toward me." There, she had said it. It had been brewing inside her and bubbling at her lips and now it poured forth.

Adam sighed and his anger dissipated as the morning mist does. "Julia, you foolish child. To put yourself in such danger for money." He shook his head. "I'll give you what money you want. How could you take such a risk and place yourself in a position to be killed? This is not a child's game to be played with toys and poppets."

"You put yourself in danger for it-and I doubt you need the money you take-you seem to regard it as a mere game!"

Adam paused for a moment to consider what she had said before he answered. "I have no defense for that accusation, Julia. I do it to make my pulse step up and to feel alive. I suppose I'm a fool to pursue such a dangerous 'hobby' when a woman such as you makes my pulse step up enough" Adam decided to sound Julia out-to see how much she desired his friendly "affection.". "Perhaps if I came to you nights and shared your bed, I wouldn't need to hold up coaches." Adam grinned at Julia who, even in the darkness, he could tell was blushing.

"I saved you," Julia said. "Don't you have something to say to me about that? I may have killed a man for you."

Adam laughed, deep and fully and she felt a thrill run through her as it had when she had heard him sing-actually, every time he spoke. "That ye did, milady, that ye did."

"Do you think I killed him?" Julia asked tentatively.

"No. I don't believe that you did-Hell doesn't yawn before you waiting to swallow your soul."

Julia sighed.

"How did you know?" Adam asked.

"I watched your face while Lord Wentworth was talking about Amesbury's arrival-it's a good thing you weren't gambling because you gave yourself away. So I dressed for this adventure, slipped away from my parents and waited outside your manor until you left on that beastly, black horse. You looked like daemons escaping perdition-Hades bursting from the maw of Tartarus-and followed you. I know you suspected you were being followed as you pulled up twice to listen."

"Yes," Adam said, "I thought I heard another rider. This exploit was doomed from the beginning. So you want adventure, do you? Have you ever been to a public house?" Adam asked. He suddenly had an idea. If Julia wanted to witness the darker side of life, well, he would show her.

"A public house? Is that where women put their…favors up for sale?" Julia leaned forward eagerly as Adam roared with laughter.

"Nay, you foolish, ignorant girl," Adam said. Julia sat upright; she didn't like his holding that opinion of her; she knew she was naïve and she may have been foolhardy but she wanted Adam to think she was brave and true. "That would be a brothel or a whore house. In France, it would be a 'maison close' or 'la maison de la prostituee' and in Italy, I would ask for a 'bordello'."

"Well," Julia replied, "I see that you are prepared to take a whoremonger's tour of Europe."

Adam laughed again; he found Julia Gosling delightful.

"Aye or nay? Visit to a pub, milady?"

Julia sat for a moment and then answered, "Aye. Lead on, Cap'n." And Julia followed his long-legged black steed into London.