FortunesFolly

by Barbara Miller

  There would be plenty of tongues who claimed she had jilted the old man because of his reverses. And she had dragged Holly into the sad affair of her father and his finances, or rather Holly had intruded into her affairs. True friends did that kind of thing for you. He had been less than a friend to Rox and meant to make it up to her.

  He also meant to marry her if she would have him. She had not accepted Sir John because he was the only offer. She’d done it out of sympathy, after he’d told her the man was penniless. Friends did that kind of thing.

  He decided to go home and change for the Meisners’ ball. He’d be damned if he’d propose on the dance floor but surely he could get her alone for a moment, even if he had to carry her off to the library.

  He’d been waiting in his drawing room twenty minutes, rehearsing his proposal, before he realized the house was absurdly quiet. Then he recalled they were all supposed to gather at Lady Sherbourne’s and leave from there in her carriage. No matter. He would simply walk. If he knew those two girls, they would be comparing dresses for many minutes before they left for the ball. And even if he missed them, he could hire a hackney.

  On the way out of the house, he checked with his butler and confirmed that Fredrick had come for Holly and his mother some time ago. It was a fine, cool night and the walk cleared his head. When he arrived at Lady Sherbourne’s and was shown into the drawing room, only Rox and her aunt were waiting.

  “Where are Holly and Mother?”

  “We were just wondering the same thing,” Rox said. “Fredrick went to fetch them.”

  “Could they have had an accident?” Lady Sherbourne asked.

  “I suppose there is more than one route from here to there. Perhaps I missed them.”

  He heard carriage wheels in the street and Roxanne stepped to the window. “There is our carriage. Shall we go out and save them the steps?”

  He helped them into their cloaks but as they started down the outside steps, his mother leaned out of the carriage window.

  “Spencer! Thank God. Holly and Fredrick have been abducted!”

  “What?” Tanner shouted.

  “A carriage cut us off, sir,” the coachman said, “and while I was struggling with the team, three men came upon us and dragged them away. They knocked Mr. Whitcomb out. It was a trap.”

  “I told him to pursue them, Spencer, but the press of traffic hampered us.”

  “Which way did they go?” Roxanne demanded.

  “East.”

  A hackney cab stopped and Harding got out. “Shall I hang on to this cab? Do we have enough seats in the carriage?”

  Roxanne ran to him. “Holly’s been abducted and Fredrick with her.”

  “What? But why?”

  “I should have remembered that wealth makes her a target,” Tanner said. “Mother, can you go inside with Lady Sherbourne and wait for us here? We must rouse the watch and try to find them.”

  “We will wait here,” her aunt said as she helped Tanner’s mother up the steps.

  Roxanne grabbed the carriage door as Tanner was about to vault into it. “I’m coming with you.”

  “I think you should stay with the other women.”

  “Not a chance.”

  “Of course Rox is coming,” Harding said then helped her into the carriage.

  “Drive to the docks,” she commanded. “Father’s yacht, the Silverloo, is anchored somewhere there.”

  “I saw it. I know where it is.” Harding climbed up with the driver and took the reins rather than waste time giving directions.

  “Are you sure?” Tanner asked.

  “Vance has taken them. He plans to kill Fredrick, I know it. I’m not sure what he plans for Holly but we must find them now.”

  When the carriage stopped, it was between two warehouses, with the quay barely in sight. Harding flung himself down and opened the door.

  “They’re still anchored here. They have to wait for the tide. But we need more help. My ship is nearby. I propose leaving you here to keep watch while I go get reinforcements. Tanner, you might discreetly try to engage that lighter to carry us out to the yacht.”

  “If your superiors find out what you are doing, you could lose your rank,” Tanner warned.

  “What does that matter if I lose Holly?” Harding mounted the box again and took the reins.

  Tanner pulled Rox back against the wall. “It’s Captain Harding she’s in love with.”

  “See how much he loves her?” she asked.

  “I always thought him simply reliable.”

  “Just what one wants in a husband.”

  “We shouldn’t have let you come,” Tanner said. “This could be dangerous.”

  “When we do find Holly, she may need me.”

  “That’s true but what if all your tenuous guesses are wrong? Then Harding is ruined and we have still lost them.”

  “We have to do this.” She peeked around the corner of the building. “They’re on that ship. I can feel it.”

  “How?”

  She didn’t answer him for a moment because she didn’t understand it herself. The smell of the harbor, the offending slap of water against the sides of the yacht, all spelled a hopelessness at variance with her childish memories of the Silverloo. Her father had won it in a card game, hence the name, and kept it at Exeter for fishing. But the ship looked dirty and in disrepair now. It had been besmirched by Vance’s evil.

  “I have an instinct for guessing what people are thinking.” She pressed her back against the brick warehouse beside him. “If I were as evil as Vance, it’s what I would do.”

  “Very well, I have learned to trust your judgment.”

  “I know people, and I know I’m right in this case. No other conclusions make any sense.”

  “You were right to introduce my sister to a Preventive officer.”

  “A captain of the Coastguard. Besides, you just told her she need not marry to please you.”

  “Fortunately, yes.”

  “I am right about this as well. If Vance were to get them out of port, I fear for both their lives. Are you going to hire that boatman?”

  “Stay here.”

  Tanner was happy to see Harding back in twenty minutes and with a dozen stout fellows packed into the carriage or riding on top. Now they would know if Rox was right. For all their sakes, he hoped so. He had no alternate plan, no idea at all where his sister could be.

  “Only two guards posted and they look half drunk,” Harding said. “They must be confident that they have gotten away with this. Afraid there isn’t room for you in the boat, Rox. Stay with the coachman. Come along, Tanner. Don’t worry. We do this sort of raid all the time.”

  Tanner breathed a sigh of relief as Rox stepped back from the edge of the quay.

  “No problem,” Rox replied. “I’ll cover you from here.”

  “Cover us?” Tanner asked as Harding pushed him down into the boat. “What does that mean?”

  “Don’t worry,” Harding advised.

  As they were rowing away, Rox produced a long-barreled pistol from her cloak and rested it on her forearm.

  “Now I’m worried.” Tanner glanced at Harding to get his reaction.

  “Give over. Would she bring such a weapon if she didn’t know how to use it?”

  “I don’t know. Sometimes I think I don’t know her at all.”

  “You underestimate her just as you did Holly.” Harding stood and held on to the mast in the small space left in the lighter.

  “You’re probably right. Have you any authority for what we are doing?”

  “Absolutely none. There is some risk in any profession. If, as I suspect, the ship is also carrying French brandy hidden and not taxed, then I’m home free. If, as I fear, they have Holly and Fredrick on board but no brandy, then I’ll be reprimanded but not court-marshaled.”

  “If neither are true?”

  Harding shrugged. “Apologize and hope for the best.”

  “You’re hanging your career on Rox’s
guess.”

  “It’s mine to risk. And you are here, after all.”

  “I have learned what comes of not listening to her.”

  “The crew probably won’t be armed with pistols. If they were, they’d get drunk and shoot each other.”

  “They’re speaking some foreign language, like those footpads who attacked Fredrick and me in St. James,” Tanner whispered. “They have a foreign crew.”

  “It’s French. What of it? You speak French, don’t you?”

  “Seems to be a missing chink in my education.”

  Harding gave him a look of reprimand then drew out and cocked his pistol.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Roxanne was glad for her black cloak as she worked her way along the quay until she had a good view of the deck of the Silverloo. She climbed a stack of crates to get a better angle, much to the distress of the coachman, yet he obeyed her orders and stayed at the horses’ heads in case they should have to make a quick getaway.

  No one on the ship seemed to notice the feathered oars of the lighter as it was pulled toward the yacht. But perhaps in the smuggling trade the arrival of small boats in the night was only to be expected. The lamps swinging on the yacht in no way lit the dark sides of the vessel. Harding’s crew seemed to swarm up the sides of the ship as silently as snakes.

  The boarding party surprised the sleepy watch and Roxanne thought the Frenchmen seemed inclined to give up, but Stone stepped on deck and started to shout at Harding. Stone was drunk himself so Tanner had no trouble disarming him. When Harding took one of his men and went toward the cabin to search, Roz saw Stone draw another pistol out of his waistband and point it at Tanner, who was helping to disarm the crew of their knives and cutlasses.

  She shouted a warning but no one heard her so she took aim and fired, knocking Stone to the deck. His other pistol slithered toward Tanner, who grabbed it. Tanner looked over at her in accusation, she thought. Then he smiled and she fell in love with him all over again.

  She had not brought the kit to reload. Foolish of her. So there was nothing she could do for the long minutes of the search except listen to Stone whimpering and cursing to the point where she wished they would gag him. If you didn’t expect to be fired upon then you shouldn’t try to shoot someone in the back.

  Then she saw Fredrick being led onto the deck, supported by both Harding and a crewman. There was blood all over his shirt and he looked pale but he was alive. Half her fears were relieved as Harding got the keys to his manacles from Stone. It appeared she hadn’t given Stone a mortal wound but he was holding one arm.

  “You attacked my vessel,” Stone shouted.

  “You abducted an Englishman with the intention of murdering him,” Tanner said. “Where is my sister?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Fredrick’s head came up. “I was knocked out. I thought I was the only one taken.”

  “My crew is searching the vessel from stem to stern,” Harding said. “If she is harmed in any way, you won’t live to face trial.”

  “Hold him here,” Tanner said. “I’ll go below and search for myself.”

  Harding shouted in French the punishment for attacking a Preventive officer and the French crew froze. He also held a pistol to the head of Stone, demanding to know where Holly was. The Frenchmen waited for Stone to give her up but he shook his head.

  Tanner saw the splintered door to the cabin and no trace of his sister. This was where Fredrick had been held but why keep them separate? He heard a thumping and went to the built-in chest under the aft windows.

  It was locked but he broke the catch with the butt of the pistol and found Holly bound and gagged inside. He lifted her out with tears in his eyes. Thank God for Rox and her wild notions.

  “Are you truly all right?” He pulled the gag off and worked the ropes off her bruised wrists.

  “Yes. What about Fredrick?” she asked breathlessly. “They knocked him senseless.”

  “He seemed well enough to walk.”

  “What would they have done to us?”

  “Don’t think about it.” He hugged her to him and picked her up in his arms. “I’m taking you home to Mother.”

  Harding was raising the pistol to deliver a blow to the recalcitrant Stone when Holly gave a small shriek of joy at the sight of him.

  “James, you came for me?”

  “We all came,” Harding said. He let Stone slump to the deck with a painful thump.

  Tanner was sure he would have embraced Holly if not for so many witnesses to the rescue.

  “Rox is on the quay, probably reloading her pistol,” Harding informed her.

  “What true friends you all are.” Holly hugged Harding in spite of the witnesses.

  “Captain Harding, sir, we found brandy bottles under a layer of cordwood ballast, hundreds of them with no stamp.”

  “Good work, lieutenant. Lock the crew in the hold that doesn’t have the brandy and tell them if they make a sound they will be bound and gagged. Set a watch to catch any buyers who might row out. I’ll report all in the morning and send you a relief guard.”

  Roxanne waited impatiently for the lighter to bring the others back to the quay. Before Holly let herself be lowered to the boat in the boson’s chair, she went straight up to Stone, who had just struggled to his feet with bound hands, and kicked him in the shins hard enough to topple him. The British crew chuckled at this. Harding’s pistol was knocked askew but was replaced by the one Tanner held to Stone’s head.

  “Drag this scum into the boat,” Harding shouted. “He has more to answer for than smuggling.”

  “What?” Stone protested.

  “Kidnapping two British citizens.”

  “Now you are kidnapping me.”

  “You’re under arrest,” Harding said. “Make no mistake about that.”

  “You don’t want to do that. Think of the scandal.”

  Harding cocked the pistol. “I couldn’t care less about scandal. But you are right. Perhaps it would be better if you were accidently shot while attempting to escape.”

  Roxanne thought she could see a sheen of sweat on Stone’s face in the lamplight.

  “But Vance will tell everyone. Little Miss Holly will have no reputation left. You’d be better off letting me go.”

  “You going to gossip from your cell?” Harding asked. “Be my guest.”

  “He may be right,” Tanner said. “Holly could be ruined in society.”

  “As if I care,” Holly said. “I’m marrying Captain Harding. I want this man arrested and punished. I shall testify against him myself if I have to.”

  “You’ve become remarkably decisive, my dear,” Harding said.

  Tanner laughed as he helped Holly into the boson’s chair.

  Roxanne was pleased he had unclenched. He truly was a hero now and he had not disdained her help. The next time he asked her to marry him, she would say yes. She just hoped it was after she rescued her mother.

  * * * * *

  When they arrived at Lady Sherbourne’s house, the comment that stopped them in their tracks was her aunt’s astonished, “Roxanne, you’ve ruined your dress.”

  They all burst out laughing as Holly looked down at her tattered white gown as well.

  “I must go change. Come, Holly. I should have a dress that will fit you.”

  Fredrick laughed. “If you are still planning on going to that ball, Holly, I’m afraid I’m not up to it.”

  Agatha stood. “We must go, all of us, to show that nothing untoward has happened.”

  “We are pressing charges but no one need know the circumstances,” Tanner said. “Yes, let us go and dance with wild abandon, except Fredrick, who was hit over the head yet again.” He was standing by his mother’s chair with his hand on her shoulder.

  “Be careful of her, Spencer. Bring her back safely.”

  “I shall stay here with your dear mother,” Fredrick announced, “until my head stops spinning.”

  The g
irls went upstairs to find new gowns to wear.

  “Was she harmed?” his mother asked Tanner.

  “Her wrists are bruised. Stone was too drunk to attempt anything worse. I’m afraid Rox was right. Stone was planning on dumping Fredrick overboard.”

  “Probably at Vance’s request,” Fredrick said. “Why didn’t I listen to Rox? She’s always right.”

  “I wish Harding had been able to come home with us,” Tanner said. “He does enjoy dancing and the girls will miss him as a partner.”

  “Where is Harding?” asked Lady Sherbourne.

  “He’s busy delivering Stone to jail and writing up all his reports. However, he does plan to call on me tomorrow—well, Holly and me.”

  “He helped save her life, Spencer. I will not object to the marriage in the slightest.”

  “I see now how I have erred in many matters, not valuing Harding being one of them.”

  “Good, I knew you could change.”

  Tanner shook his head. “Imagine Rox putting that ball through Stone’s arm.”

  Fredrick squinted at him as he held a cold compress to the back of his neck. “Rox said he was going to shoot you.”

  “I did not realize that. Such unplumbed depths your sister has. Catch me doubting anything she says from now on.”

  * * * * *

  Roxanne looked down at her cream gown with scallops of lace, the one she had worn to Holly’s ball. She liked it much better than the wispy blue one that was now muddy and torn.

  As Roxanne had suspected, Vance was attending the Meisners’ ball and her mother was not. He would not be surprised to see her here since she had not been on his list of victims. Or was that true? What if the abductors thought they were taking Fredrick and her but got Holly by mistake? She shuddered at the thought that they might have killed Holly in her stead. An innocent life on her conscience would have driven her mad.

  She made sure she got Vance’s attention early and watched him watching her as she made small talk with her aunt while Holly took part in a country dance. She wanted to make sure she was watching Vance when he noticed Holly.

  “What are you doing?” Tanner asked.

  Roxanne jumped a little at the sound of his voice but the shivers he sent along her arms were not ones of fear. “Trying to see if Holly’s presence surprises Vance,” she replied.