The trap bounced along the rutted dirt road, the driver was obviously under instructions to get me to my destination as quickly as possible for he had no regard for my comfort. The chest with my belongings was being bounced around and even though I had been assured that it was securely tied to the trap, I feared for some of the more fragile possessions that I had brought with me from England.
This was supposed to be the happiest time of my life when I was to be with my future husband, but alas it was not so. I begged and pleaded with my father not to send me on this journey, but he insisted that he had no option, for if he failed to do so he would forfeit his property to the Marquis of Featherstone, to whom he owed a fortune as a result of ill advised wagers on horses that were never likely to win at the races.
I probably would not have minded this situation had I fond memories of my future husband, the youngest son of the Marquis. He was an arrogant, obnoxious, self opinionated, obsequious young man and the least handsome person I had ever met. He was a short, thin, stooped and shuffling man with the countenance of a weasel and about as trustworthy.
I had tried to escape from the ship when it docked in Cape Town for provisions before the final leg across the Indian Ocean, but I was never allowed out of the watchful gaze of at least one of the crew. That final leg I prayed would be slow allowing me an extended final freedom, but the ship under full sail moved frustratingly quickly, pushed along by the roaring forties, those gales that prevailed in that part of the world. In no time at all we had skirted the south of the Australian continent, through Bass Straight and up the Eastern seaboard to Sydney Town,
Even on arrival at Sydney Town the opportunity of escape had again eluded me, for the driver of this ghastly vehicle was awaiting my arrival at the docks and whisked me away as soon as my chest had been unloaded. Last evening we stayed in an inn and again I had no opportunity to escape for my driver slept on the floor across the door to my room. I was filled with dread at the prospect of meeting once more than man to whom I was soon to be wed.
As the trap wound its way out of a creek crossing and up a winding hill road my thoughts of impending doom were interrupted by the voice of my driver, the first words that he had spoken since leaving Sydney Town. "Whoa there!" The trap lurched to a halt.
I looked ahead of us to see a tree had fallen across the roadway. The driver got down and stood scratching his head and trying to decide what to do next. "Hold up there sir and raise your hands above your head." The voice came from a lone masked rider who had come silently up behind us, he was seated on a fine black horse and had a pistol in his hand that was levelled at my escort. He dismounted and, taking a length of rope from his horse, he advanced towards the driver. "Sit if you will, with your back to the tree." Thus seated the driver soon found himself securely trussed.
The rider secured his horse to the trap and, after a series of manoeuvres, urged the horse in the direction from whence we had just come.
"Who are you impudent sir, and what do you think you are doing?"
"I am your saviour my lady, come to rescue you from a fate worse than death." His eyes laughed at me and under his mask a smile spread across his handsome face. He had a familiar look to him and I tried to remember where I had seen it before.
"I pray that you should reveal your identity to me for I sense that we are not unfamiliar with each other."
"You sense correctly my dear for we have indeed met in the past. My name is Roderick Mason and my family has an estate in the same county as yours."
"Ahh yes. If my memory serves me well, we met at the Marquis' masked ball the year before last, it was your eyes that I remember, they laughed at me then. What is it about me that amuses you so?"
"I am amused for every time I have been with you, you have had such a serious visage, I seek only to bring joy into your life."
"Then why have you abducted me?"
"For that very same reason. I know where you go and I have taken it upon myself to ensure that you do not arrive there. I pray that you will not tell me that you object to this strategy of mine."
"I will not object if the future that is before me is not as bad as the future to which I was destined."
"Any future must surely transcend that of being wed to that odious little toad Gerald Featherstone."
"You are obviously acquainted with man?"
"Alas yes, our paths have crossed on a number of occasions. I find him to be no less a scoundrel than his father, he even cheats at cards like his father. Why, just the other day we had words when I accused him of attempting to influence the outcome of a horse race. I told him that he didn't have the skill or finesse of his father who had been accused many times of the same offence. I also know that it is because of his father using those skills that you find yourself in your present situation."
We had been driving for over an hour and were approaching a farmhouse set at the end of a long path that had wound its way through the bushland from the main road. It was a single storey building with a veranda on all four sides. The walls were of stone and roof was of corrugated iron.
We drew up at the front of the house and a man came around the corner from the rear of the house and took the reins and led the horses towards the barn at the rear. "Make sure that they are rubbed down and fed well before you turn them out."
"Yes sir." The man said over his shoulder as he disappeared around the corner of the house.
The front door opened and a woman emerged. She was not much older than myself, tall and slender. She stood with a straight back that spoke of self confidence. "Welcome to our home Madeleine." She came to me and kissed me on the cheek. "I hope that my brother has acted in a gentlemanly fashion."
"Yes, I could not have asked for a better companion. Have we been introduced?"
"No, we have never met, my name is Charlotte and I know of your circumstances because I have recently returned from England and it would have to have been the worst kept secret in the County. It was I that sowed the seeds in Roderick's mind to undertake this course of action."
"You could not possible comprehend the shame that has been brought onto our family by my father's gambling."
"Your father's problem was not his gambling but his gambling with a cheat."
"Are you saying that my father has been cheated out of his wealth?"
"Yes, and I mean to return it to him." Roderick spoke in the most frighteningly earnest manner.
"How do you propose to accomplish that?"
"I have something of a plan, it has not been fully developed yet, but, with luck we can ensure that justice prevails. Now, you must be tired and hungry from your journey, I suggest that we have a light meal and then you can rest up for a couple of hours before we have our evening meal, Charlotte, would you show our guest to her room, I shall set in place the first part of my scheme."
