by Vella, Wendy
“It is customary to be asked into a person’s cabin, I believe.” Harry was seated at his desk, staring at the same set of figures he had been for the last ten minutes, now minus his pen.
Why had they not come for him?
Faris turned around and left, closing the door behind him. He then knocked loudly.
“Enter.” Harry felt like a fool.
“Good evening, Harry. How is the injury today?”
It was fair to say that Faris had the patience of a saint, and this Harry knew as he’d tested him constantly in the days since he’d left Essie and Max’s house.
“Better, thank you. I am healthy once again.” Was it nighttime already? Harry wondered how many hours he’d been sitting here staring at nothing, thinking of her and them.
“That was a swift recovery.”
“It was.”
“I had not believed it when I saw you. You took a shot to the side, Harry, and yet you were sitting up, looking if not exactly healthy, a great deal better than I had thought you would.”
Harry grunted something. He couldn’t tell Faris the truth, that his family had healed him.
Faris did not speak again, and Harry could feel his eyes on him.
“What?”
“You are a bear, Harry; a very unhappy one. You have torn strips off me and everyone who comes near you since your return from your family.”
“I don’t want to talk about them.”
He’d thought they would come for him, simply because they were persistent and had said they’d cared. And yet they hadn’t. Such was his perverseness, he was hurt by this, even though he’d chosen to leave.
I am unraveling like my grandmother’s shawl.
“Your men are drawing wood splinters to see who will speak to you if an issue arises. The shortest one loses.”
“Christ, really?” Harry lowered his head to the desk and banged it softly. “Life was easy before we came to England, Faris.”
“It was, but was it fulfilling, Harry?”
He looked into the eyes of the man he trusted more than anyone… Not quite true, he thought, thinking of a few more he could add to that list.
“I thought it was.” He decided on honesty. “My father told me to never trust a Sinclair, Faris. How can I betray him? He made me vow that I would never become one of them.”
“Perhaps he was wrong, Harry, and not all Sinclairs are bad. Or Ravens for that matter. I spent a few hours talking with those people when you were unconscious and out of your head rambling and dribbling in pain.”
“As you just said I was the picture of health, I fail to see how that was possible.” He raised his head with a piece of paper now stuck to it.
“They are good people, Harry. A little odd, and far too involved in each other’s lives, but the best type of people.”
“What type of people are they, Faris?”
“Good and loyal. Harry, they are your people. Even your grandmother likes them, and she doesn’t like anyone.”
“Grandmother and you are the only people I need.”
“And we will always be there for you, as will my family. But these are your blood, like your grandmother, and the real surprise here is they seem to like you.” Faris smiled, and Harry threw a ball of paper at him.
“Go and see them, Harry. We are to sail soon, and you must make amends by then.”
“How do you know I need to make amends?”
“A hunch. Do you?”
“Perhaps.”
He’d left without a word. Just walked out of the house after what they’d done for him.
“You must decide whether England or France is to be your home now.”
“France!” Harry said with force, because he really wanted to believe that.
“Perhaps, but then perhaps not.”
“Well, which perhaps is it,” Harry snapped.
“Only you can decide that.”
“You want to return to France without me?”
His friend reached across the desk and held out his hand. They clasped as they had that first day when they met as young boys.
“Brothers,” Faris said softly, “and that we will always be, my friend. Any distance between us will never change that.”
“You just want me out of the way so you can marry Natalie. We both know she loves me best.”
“Very true. And no matter where you are, I expect you to return to France for the wedding.”
“I will be with you on this boat when it leaves London.”
“We shall see.”
He felt it then, tension, so strong his teeth snapped together as a knock sounded on his door. Anxiety settled heavily inside his chest.
“What?”
“I don’t know. I’m suddenly tense.”
“Enter!”
Barney, his boson, entered.
“What is it?” Harry barked.
“Pardon for the interruption, Mr. Sinclair, but something odd has just happened.” Barney’s face was wrinkled with worry. “I was out getting a few supplies and passed the Watch House on my return.”
Harry had to stop himself roaring at the man to get to the point. The look Faris threw him said that he needed to be patient. Not easy when acid swirled inside his gut.
“It was right odd, but as I passed I watched two men take a woman inside, and she held a little black dog in her arms.”
“And you’re telling us this because?” Harry snapped.
“The woman was the same one we took on board in Calais. Her with that sweet little girl.”
“What?” The word erupted from Harry as he surged to his feet.
“She was being led in there by two men, and to me it looked like she was in some kind of trouble,” Barney added. “I came right here to tell you.”
“Call me a hackney, Faris, I must go!” Harry could feel it inside him. Something was very wrong. “You did well, thank you, Barney.”
Faris did not argue and left the cabin behind his boson. In seconds Harry had retrieved his jacket and hat. He stuffed the book he’d recently purchased into his pocket and followed. His side was healing, and he was getting stronger, but he still tired if he walked too far. Right at that moment, he felt stronger than he had in weeks.
Walking down the gangway, he nodded to Faris, then climbed into the hackney and gave the address Barney had given him.
The trip was twenty minutes in traffic, and the entire time all he could think was why had she been there alone? It made no sense. Her brothers would never have allowed Maddie to fall into the hands of the Watch. They mustn’t know, he realized. That could be the only reason for this.
But why? Where were they?
“I’ll pay you double if you get me there as fast as you can,” Harry bellowed at the driver through the opening above his head.
The tension was nearly choking him as finally they pulled up outside a gray stone building.
After paying the driver, Harry stopped outside the door. Switching his vision like Dev had taught him to, he searched for Maddie. She was in there; he saw the flash of lavender. The little dog, Hep, too.
The relief that she was, as far as he could see, unharmed nearly had his knees buckling. Drawing in a large breath, he exhaled slowly. No good would come from storming into the Watch roaring. He needed to be rational, no matter if inside he was anything but.
Maddie needed him, and he would not let her down.
Chapter 20
The Watch House was as he’d expected it to be: bleak, sparse, and uninviting. The thought of Maddie anywhere near this place made his anger climb.
Walking to the front desk, he nodded to the man seated there.
“Good day. I am Mr. Sinclair.”
“Constable McDagger, sir,” the man said.
“I believe you have a friend of mine in here, and I would like her released at once. Her name is Mrs. Caron.”
“We do, sir, but I’m afraid she can’t be released.” The constable’s expression never changed.
“Can you tell me what possible reason you could have to bring her to such a place?”
Stay calm, Harry.
“I’m not sure as that’s your business, Mr. Sinclair.”
The man was doing his job, Harry understood that, and also that it wouldn’t get him anywhere if he leaned across the desk, grabbed his collars, and shook him.
“I wish to speak with your superior officer, please.”
“He won’t tell you any different.”
Harry leaned on the desk and looked the man in the eye.
“Do you have any idea who that woman is related to?”
The man nodded. “Mr. Huntington, a wealthy businessman.”
There were many who weren’t overly impressed by wealth unless it came with a lofty title. It appeared Constable McDagger was one of those.
“Her brother is a duke.”
That got him twitching. McDagger jerked in his chair. He then leaped to his feet.
“I suggest you get your supervisor out here now before he arrives.”
Harry checked on Maddie once more after the constable had left; she was exactly where she’d been when he’d arrived at the Watch House, and her color was strong.
The injured muscles in his side pulled as he paced the room. He ignored them.
“Mr. Sinclair, I am Sergeant Gavell.”
The man was short and round, with a great deal of bushy facial hair.
“Sergeant, I wish to know why you have detained Mrs. Caron.”
“We have charged her on theft of jewelry, Mr. Sinclair.”
“On whose word?”
“I’m not at liberty to say.”
“And yet Mrs. Caron has been in this country for a short period of time and lived with her family since her arrival. I fail to see who she could have stolen from.”
Sergeant Gavell made a show of looking at the papers in his hand.
“I wish to have her released at once.”
“We can’t do that, as there will be a trial.”
Someone very well-established and with a great deal of power had to be behind this. He just had no idea who or why. None of it made any sense. Maddie had only made the connections with James and the others since arriving in London. None of this rang true.
“I wish to see her.”
“We can’t do that either,” Sergeant Gavell said.
“Do you know who her family are, Sergeant?”
“Constable McDagger said a duke?” The man raised a brow as if Harry was lying.
“Her brother is the Duke of Raven; her closest friend is Lord Sinclair. Her other brother is one of the wealthiest men in the United Kingdom, Mr. Maxwell Huntington. Do you really want me to leave here and tell them that you wouldn’t let me see her? That I cannot reassure them that she has been treated fairly by you and your men?”
The man’s face didn’t change, and Harry battled the need to punch him.
“I want to see her now!”
“I’ll have to ask you to leave—”
“If you do not allow me to see Mrs. Caron, I will do everything within my power to make sure you pay for what you have done. I will bring the full weight of her family and mine down upon your heads. Your reputation will be in tatters, and you will never work in London again.” Harry’s words were a growl. “One of her family owns a well-respected newspaper in London. I will have your name splashed all over the front pages if you do not let me see Mrs. Caron now.”
Something in Harry’s words had the sergeant shooting the constable a nervous look. He was not quite so smug now.
“I’ll allow you to see her, but she’s not leaving here with you, sir. No matter who her family is. The charges against her are serious, and as such she must face the full weight of the law.”
Harry thought he could take both men, even contemplated it. He’d seen no other colors inside, which told him they were alone. He could knock them out and take the keys in seconds.
“Whoever put you up to these trumped-up charges will be made to pay alongside you, Sergeant Gavell,” Harry said.
“We don’t take kindly to threats, Mr. Sinclair.”
“I don’t take kindly to my friends being incarcerated!”
The man swallowed loudly, and Constable McDagger was now looking ill.
“Yes, well, if you’ll come this way, Mr. Sinclair.” Sergeant Gavell opened a door.
They walked down a corridor, and then he opened another door, and Harry found three wooden cell doors with squares cut out of them and replaced with iron bars.
“I can’t let you in to see her. She’s in the last one.”
Heart thumping, Harry looked through the square. He found Maddie seated on a chair cuddling Wolf’s ugly black dog.
“Maddie.”
“Harry!” She hurried to the bars.
“It’s all right.” He put his hand through and cradled her cheek. It felt hot to touch. “We will get you out, but I need your brother to achieve that. Are you all right?”
She sniffed, then sneezed.
“You’re unwell?” Her brown eyes were red and watering.
“I want to go home, Harry. I don’t know why I’m here.”
“I know, sweetheart, and I’m working to make that happen.”
Shrugging out of his jacket, he forced it through the bars. “Wrap this around you.”
“I-I am all right.” She pulled it around her shoulders. “I don’t understand this, Harry. They said I stole something, but I didn’t.”
“I know. Something is off, and I will find out what, Maddie. But you have to be brave now. I will need to go and find some of your family, the more powerful ones, to get you out. It seems I don’t have blue enough blood to do so.”
“Hep is helping me be brave. He wouldn’t leave me when they came for me, but you should take him now.”
“I doubt that podgy little dog will fit through the bars.”
That made her snuffle.
“Yes, take the dog. He should not be in there, but we have not been able to part him from her,” Sergeant Gavell said from the doorway. “I will allow the door to be unlocked so you can remove the beast from the Watch House.”
“Her?” Harry said. “She is Mrs. Caron to you, Sergeant. Pray never forget that. The dog stays,” he added, looking at the way Maddie held it close.
Ignoring the scowling sergeant, Harry talked to Maddie.
“Where are the others?”
“At an exhibition in the park. Fleur will wonder where I am if I’m not there when she returns, Harry.”
“You have to leave now, Mr. Sinclair,” Sergeant Gavell said. “Your time is up.”
He didn’t want to leave her. It went against everything he felt inside. He’d felt protective of this woman since he’d found her vulnerable and alone that day in Calais.
“I don’t want you to go, Harry.” He heard the fear.
“But you know I must, Maddie. Just as you know I will return to you. I would never leave you for any longer than I had to, sweetheart.” He gripped the hand she held out to him. “Stay strong, and I will return soon, and then we will leave together.”
She nodded. Eyes streaming, standing there clutching the ugliest dog in all of Christendom.
“I do not like small spaces, Harry. Please get me out before the dark comes.”
“I don’t like snails,” Harry said, which made her laugh again.
“Don’t they eat those where you come from?”
Harry shuddered. “I am a constant disappointment to my grandmother.”
“Come back soon, Harry,” Maddie said softly.
“I will, I promise. Ask them questions while I am gone, Maddie. Demand answers as to why they have you here. It is your right, sweetheart. Be brave and strong, as I know you can be.”
“You don’t know that about me.”
“I do. You are brave and strong to have risen above what had you fleeing to Calais.”
Her eyes caught his. “How did you know I was fleeing?”
“I see a gr
eat deal, as you know.”
“I can be strong,” she whispered to him.
“Because you’ve always had to be so?”
“Yes. Because it was the only way.”
“Then call on that now, Maddie. Be strong until I return, and know that I will, and with me will be vengeance in the form of your family.”
“Yes, I know they will come. I am no longer alone.”
“You’ll never be alone again, Maddie.” He touched her cheek. “I brought you something. It is in the pocket of my jacket, Maddie. I bought it for you and Fleur.”
She found the book and pulled it out.
“Practice your words until I return.”
Their fingers touched, and then he turned and walked away from her, and it was the hardest thing he’d ever done.
“A word of warning,” he said to Sergeant Gavell before he left the building. “If I come back here and she has not been treated like the lady she is, then someone will pay… and dearly. I want a blanket and tea brought to her at once. Then, Sergeant, prepare yourself to face hell, because when next you see me, I will have an angry duke at my side, and he is only one of the men you will face.”
Chapter 21
Leaving Maddie, Harry took a hackney to Max’s house. He hoped the family had returned before he arrived. Rapping on the front door, he tried not to think about Maddie in that cell and focus on what he needed to do to get her out of it.
“Mr. Sinclair!” George looked shocked the see him.
“Where are the family, George? I need to speak with them at once.”
“I will take you to Mr. Huntington.”
The pain in his side was barely noticeable as he took the stairs up. The need to get Maddie out of the Watch House superseded anything else. He saw the flash of colors as he approached the room they were in.
“Mr. Harry Sinclair,” the butler announced him.
He stepped through the door.
“Harry!” A little figure climbed off Emily’s lap and ran at him. Bending, he scooped Fleur up and held her close. “I want Mama.” The little girl was crying into his neck, her arms wrapped around him.
“Shhh now.” He patted her back gently. “All will be well, Fleur, trust me.”
“Why are you here?” Dev came forward, the look on his face stony.
