Then the coach had continued to Gad’s Hill, past the corpses of highwaymen rotting on the gibbets, to Wroxbury.
It was a slow cumbersome vehicle, which, unlike the faster express coaches, stopped at every village.
But Celesta was too anxious to get away from the cottage to be prepared to wait. She knew that at any moment Giles’s body might be found in the wood and be carried home.
Then it would be difficult to explain why she was leaving and to be seen dressed in blue would cause a great deal of local comment.
It was not until her trunk, which was carried to the coach by one of the village boys, was stowed on the roof along with a motley collection of baggage, some hens in a coop and several crates of vegetables that Celesta felt she was safe.
Slowly the horses drew away from the vill
