The Highwayman's Bride

Chapter One: Stand and Deliver

The coach lurched to a halt on the road between Bath and Bristol, and Lady Catherine Ashworth knew, with the certainty of a woman who had read too many penny dreadfuls, that she was about to be robbed. The driver shouted. A horse screamed. Then a voice, low and amused, cut through the darkness: "Good evening, my lady. I'll trouble you for your jewels and your patience, in that order."

The man who appeared at the coach window wore a black mask, a tricorn hat, and an expression that suggested he found the entire enterprise delightful. His pistol, however, looked entirely serious. Catherine reached for the pearl necklace her father had insisted she wear—the same father who had insisted she marry the elderly Earl of Pemberton, which was why she was fleeing in the first place.

"Take it," she said, unclasping the pearls. "And if you are heading north, I would appreciate a ride." The highwayman paused. It was, Catherine suspected, the first time anyone had responded to a robbery with a travel request.