But he would have to time his escape perfectly, before the duke’s four grooms emerged from the stables.
After breakfast he strolled casually out the door. Likely, Ashmole would have seen through him, but he had taken care of that by asking Violet to create a diversion. The fire she had started on the nursery floor ought to keep Ashmole busy. She needn’t have thrown Colin’s book onto the blaze, however. He could still hear Colin’s howls from the front doorstep.
None of the footmen knew how to treat him—as a child of the house, or as a by-blow? Their dilemma just made Tobias grin: he didn’t give a rat’s ass how they treated him, as long as they danced to his tune. A solitary groom standing at the horses’ heads gave him a bored glance but said nothing until Tobias pulled open the door to the carriage.
“Here, you!” the man bellowed. Tobias stuck his head back out of the carriage and gave him a cheerful smile. “Just doing an errand for Mr. Ashmole,” he said. “Getting a blanket he asked for.”
“An errand for Mr. Ashmole?” He could see the concept slowly trickling into the groom’s mind. An errand put Tobias into the category of servant. And that meant he could kick Tobias into shape if he wanted to. It was obviously a comforting thought.
“I like to help Mr. Ashmole whenever I can,” Tobias said, ladling it on. “Perhaps someday I can be a butler just like him.” He tried for a soulful look, which probably made him look like a sick calf.
The groom thought this over. Tobias could almost see him relaxing: if Tobias wanted to be a butler, well then he wasn’t getting above his place in life. Much.
“Like to see you a butler!” the groom said, guffawing as he would at any beggar who expressed the same wish.
“I’ll make it someday,” Tobias said, putting on the brave and cheerful face of an orphan. “I don’t mind hard work. That’s why I’m trying to help today.”
“You’d best get on with it, then,” the groom said, waving him on.
“Could I do something for you, next?” Tobias asked. “Hold the horses for a moment, maybe? I do love horses.”
“I could take a piss,” the man said. “Bring that there blanket to Ashmole and come back here, smart-like.”
“Yes, sir,” Tobias said, pulling the blanket out of its place and trotting up the steps back to the house. ’Course, it wasn’t a normal blanket. It was soft as a baby’s backside, and trimmed in some sort of fur. Ermine or suchlike. He handed the blanket to the footman stationed in the hallway and told him that it was to be sent to the laundry.
“You shouldn’t be using the front steps like that,” the groom told him a moment later, as he handed over the reins. “Ashmole will whup you if he sees you at it.”
“I think he said something about that,” Tobias said vaguely, stroking one of the horses’ noses.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” the man said, heading around the side of the building. “Mr. Seffle will be coming to drive the coach around the block again. Doesn’t like the horses to get antsy.”
The moment he disappeared around the side of the building, Tobias called to the footman just inside the door. When he appeared, Tobias shouted, “Tell Mr. Seffle I took the horses around the block.”
By the time the duke’s coachman, Seffle, rushed around the side of the house, Tobias was already hidden in the coach. The horses hadn’t even had time to realize that they were free to trot off. From inside the blanket box, Tobias could faintly hear Seffle swearing, followed by a shouting match between Seffle and the groom and the ensuing search for himself, but after a few minutes it all settled down and Seffle jumped on the coach to drive it around the block.
Tobias wasn’t overly uncomfortable. He could sit with his arms clasped around his legs. They trundled around the final corner and pulled to a halt again. He heard the duke’s drawling voice. “Are you saying that Ashmole asked my son to run errands for him?”