The Elusive Bride

by Stephanie Laurens

  The third man nodded. The man on her left urged her forward. “Walk quietly. Make no sound and we will let you live. Pray none of your friends notice—if they do, we will have to kill them.”

  She had no choice. Even if she swooned they would simply drag her along. But once they reached the street, someone would see, would notice…

  Her hopes died as they rounded the far corner of the auberge and she saw a dogcart waiting. They half lifted, half pushed her onto the front bench. The man with the knife followed and sat beside her. The third man took the reins and climbed up to sit on her other side, while the other man climbed on behind.

  Wedged between the cultists, the horrendously sharp knife still pressed threateningly to her side, she had to sit silently and be driven out of the lane, into the square, and away.

  Gareth was thinking of calling a halt for luncheon when Dorcas came into the side yard. She looked around. A frown formed on her face.

  When her gaze returned to him, he raised his brows.

  She walked across to him. “Have you seen Miss Emily?”

  “Not recently. She was out here about an hour ago, but went inside again.”

  Dorcas shook her head, looking toward the street. “We can’t find her. No one’s seen her, not since…well, it must be since she spoke with you.”

  A chill coursed through his veins, but Gareth told himself not to leap to conclusions. “If she’s not in her room…is there anywhere else she might go to fill in time?”

  “Not that I can think of. And…well, I don’t want to cause a fuss that might be unnecessary.” Dorcas met his eyes. “There haven’t been any sightings of cultists for days—no one’s come into the common room to say otherwise.”

  “We haven’t seen or heard of anyone lurking around, either.”

  “So there’s no reason to suppose anything dreadful has occurred.” Dorcas looked across the yard, then drew in a breath and rushed on, “But to go off somewhere without telling you, or me, especially now, when we’re all so on edge…that’s very unlike Miss Emily. Still, perhaps—”

  “No.” Grim, Gareth caught her eyes as she looked at him. “You’re right. She wouldn’t vanish of her own accord. Which means—” He cut off the thought, instead said, “We search. Find whoever you can, and search thoroughly upstairs. I’ll get Bister and our recruits to check outside, while Mooktu and I will talk to the Perrots and search the ground floor. We’ll meet in the common room as soon as we’re done.”

  Eyes wide, Dorcas nodded and hurried back to the auberge.

  Grim-faced, Gareth turned to the men in the yard.

  The search didn’t take long. Ten minutes later, Gareth strode into the common room to find Dorcas already there, the normally stoic maid wringing her hands, a worried Arnia standing beside her.

  “She is not upstairs,” Arnia said.

  Gareth turned as Perrot, who had gone himself to check his basement while his sons checked the stables and outbuildings, joined them.

  The auberge keeper spread his hands. “There is no sign.”

  “All our carriages and horses are still here,” one of the sons added.

  Mooktu arrived from the kitchens and storerooms. Grimly, he shook his head.

  Watson and Mullins rose from the table where they’d been waiting.

  The front door crashed open and Bister barreled in, Jimmy on his heels. “She’s been taken by three men in a cart. They headed south.”

  Gareth strode toward them. “Who saw them—and when?”

  Bister was nearly out of breath. “Two old geezers outside. About an hour ago. And yes, they’re sure—they noticed because they thought it odd that in this weather she had just a shawl on over her gown—no cloak—while the three men in the cart were well wrapped up. Hoods drawn an’ all, so no one saw their faces.” Bister looked at Dorcas. “They said she was wearing a pink gown and had a purple shawl. Brown hair up.”

  Dorcas paled. “It was a lavender gown.”

  Bister nodded. “Like they said—pink.” He looked at Gareth. “It was her.”

  Tight lipped, Gareth nodded. “Any advance on ‘south’?”

  “Bister and I ran to the end of the street,” Jimmy put in. “There were lads at the corner, lounging about—they remembered and showed us the road the cart took. It’s not a main road—seems it goes south along the coast a ways.”

  An angry rumble had been growing from the locals. Shock was quickly giving way to outrage. Now someone called out, “That’s the Virgejoie road.”

  Gareth glanced at Perrot.

  The auberge owner clarified, “It is the road that leads to one of the old aristo-family homes—a chateau.”

  “Who lives there now?”

  Perrot spread his hands. “No one. It has been deserted since the family fled during the Terror.”

  “What condition is the chateau in—is it liveable?”

  Numerous local men pulled faces, tilted their heads, then one vouchsafed, “The outbuildings and barn are derelict, but the main house still has walls, shutters and doors, and most of its roof.”

  “Fireplaces, too,” another put in. “One could shelter there even in this weather. Gypsies sometimes do.”

  Gareth exchanged a glance with Mooktu as the exclamations and rumblings rose anew. “That’s where they’ll be.”

  Mooktu nodded. “They’ve taken her so you will come for her—they will wait until you do.”

  He meant “wait before they do anything drastic” the cult was well known for forcing men to watch as they tortured their loved ones. His heart like lead, Gareth nodded—tried to push his reactions, his emotions down enough to think.

  He had to think or he’d lose her.

  He wasn’t going to lose her.

  Perrot tugged his sleeve. “You have to let us help.” The auberge owner gestured to the crowd thronging the common room as the locals who’d come in for lunch were joined by a steady stream of others, alerted by yet others who’d gone out to spread the news. “This cult—they have played us for fools. They have attacked and carried off the lady while she was here, under my roof, and we scoffed and thought you were safe.” Like an aging bantam, Perrot stuck out his chest. “You must let us expunge this stain on our honor by letting us help you get her back.”

  Many locals, young and old, cheered and clamored in Perrot’s support.

  Gareth glanced at Mooktu, Bister, and Mullins, waiting, ready for action, to one side, then he raised his hands and waved to quiet the crowd. Into the ensuing silence he said, “Everyone who wishes to assist—we’ll gladly accept your help. But”—he spoke strongly over the swelling cheers, silencing them once more—“we must do nothing that puts Miss Ensworth’s life at risk. So.” He paused, felt the familiar yoke of command settle on his shoulders, combined with a sharply threatening imperative. His mind raced. After a moment, he knew. “Here’s what we have to do.”

  He sent Bister, Mooktu, and Mullins to circle past the cult’s pickets. “They’ll have more than one or two along the road into the estate, close enough to town to have time to race back and warn those at the chateau of our approach. Take positions between them and the chateau, as close to the chateau as possible without being seen from the building, and stop any messenger, any warning, getting through. We’ll meet you there once we’ve gathered our forces.”

  The three nodded and went.

  Dorcas and Arnia followed, dispatched to find the priest and get his church bell tolling.

  Gareth looked at Watson, met the older man’s eye. “You need to stay here—you know what to do.”

  Watson nodded. “I do. I will.”

  Turning back to the gathering rabble—older locals as well as an increasing number of sailors and others who had days before formed part of their impromptu militia—Gareth waved at the door. “Let’s take this outside. Form up, and I’ll tell you exactly what we must do.”

  Must do. Exactly. He needed these men, but if he didn’t control them, neither Emily nor he would see England again
.

  Sixteen

  Tied securely to a once-elegant chair in the middle of a dusty half-derelict drawing room, Emily stared wide-eyed at the old Indian man her captors had delivered her to. Garbed in traditional Indian dress of dun-colored trousers and tunic, with a colorful woven vest, hat, and a shawl in deference to the cold, he appeared almost kindly, until one looked into his eyes and saw the fanatical light gleaming in the darkness.

  She wasn’t sure he was entirely sane.

  He was, however, indisputably in charge. The three who had brought her there, the knife pricking her side all the way, had bowed and scraped and looked thrilled to receive just a word in reward.

  The old man—Uncle, they’d called him—was the commander Gareth had suspected existed, the one charged with halting Gareth’s mission.

  As she’d been marched through the chateau, she’d seen many cultists, ready, battle-primed, some sharpening their knives. They’d glanced at her as she’d passed, but their dark gazes had slid away—they were already thinking of other things. Of killing.

  Killing Gareth and the others—she knew he, and all the rest, too, would come after her.

  That, it seemed, was the old man’s plan.

  What horrified her, held her stupefied with terror, was how he apparently planned to fill in the time.

  His back to her, he was tending a collection of implements, perfectly ordinary implements from kitchen, smithy, and barn, the sight of which caused not the slightest alarm—not until they lay heating on a bed of red-hot coals in a brazier set before a crumbling hearth.

  If that weren’t bad enough, to one side a once-superb gaming table displayed an array of knives. Not ordinary, run-of-the-mill knives. Many she’d seen only rarely, on docks, at the fishmonger’s or the butcher’s. Filleting knives. Flaying knives.

  Her blood had run cold long ago. She looked at the knives and felt sick.

  She didn’t know what to do. With her feet tied and her arms lashed at elbow and wrist to the chair arms with old curtain cords, she was helpless to move, but she wasn’t going to simply sit and be burned and cut.

  It took effort to force her mind to work—to think of what might distract this man—Uncle—from his grizzly entertainment, at least long enough for Gareth to reach her.

  She couldn’t think beyond that point. She didn’t need to. Once Gareth reached her, nothing would stop them. Together they would win through.

  But what could she do to gain time?

  Was there any way she could make it easier for him to find her, so he could reach her more quickly?

  She recalled the chateau as she’d seen it from the drive. Most of the windows were shuttered, except for this room. Because of the fumes from the smoking fire in the hearth and the brazier, they’d opened the shutters and set the windows ajar. As with all the front rooms on the ground floor, those windows opened to a paved terrace that ran the length of the house.

  Talking seemed her best option.

  She cleared her throat. “Excuse me, sir?”

  He glanced around, arrested, as if surprised she could talk.

  Her expression innocent, she raised her brows. “Would you mind telling me what’s going on?”

  He frowned, straightened, a pair of hot pincers in one hand. “I”—he set his other fist, closed, to his chest—“am a representative of the great and mighty Black Cobra. You are here on my master’s orders, and soon you will die a most painful death—to the great glory of the Black Cobra!”

  She fought to ignore the vision his words conjured, to ignore the heated pincers he held. She forced a confused frown. “You’ll pardon me if I seem a trifle obtuse, but…I’ve never met this Black Cobra person. Why would my death mean anything to him?”

  Uncle blinked at her. “But…” Then he drew himself up. “You were instrumental in delivering the letter a Captain MacFarlane stole in Poona to a Colonel Delborough in Bombay.”

  She opened her eyes wide. “That letter? Was it important? I had no idea. I thought it was a personal message from the captain to his commanding officer.” She did her best to look intrigued. “What’s in it?”

  Uncle hesitated, then said, “I do not know.”

  She frowned harder. “You mean you’ll kill me—and presumably many others—and you don’t even know why?”

  He bridled; his dark eyes lit. “It is my master’s orders.”

  “So he gives orders and you obey—even though you don’t have any idea why?”

  He looked down his nose at her. “That is the way of the cult. It is how cults are.”

  She had no difficulty looking unimpressed. “Regardless, I don’t see how killing me will in any way help your master. I don’t know anything about the letter, and I certainly don’t have it—I gave it to Colonel Delborough months ago.”

  “You may not have it—but Major Hamilton might!”

  “Gareth? Are you sure?” She looked unconvinced. “He hasn’t said anything to me about it.”

  “He has it—or a copy. This is why I have been sent.”

  “To find the copy?”

  “Yes.”

  “Was that you all along—back in Aden and on the Red Sea?”

  He answered, and she knew she was safe for just a little while—as long as relating their journey and the cult’s many actions would take. Like many such men, Uncle was vain enough to want to claim any and all victories he could. She was careful to preserve a suitably innocent mein, encouraging him to impress her with tales of his guile and standing.

  He spoke in ringing tones, declaiming and making grand statements.

  She asked her questions as loudly as she could.

  All the while she listened, strained to hear any activity outside.

  Any sign that rescue had arrived.

  Inwardly, she prayed.

  If the cultists in the chateau saw Gareth’s impromptu army marching up the drive, the first thing they would do was slit Emily’s throat.

  Gareth knew that for an absolute fact. He was consequently unbending in imposing absolute authority over his ragtag forces.

  He’d collected those who knew the chateau’s grounds, and kept them with him at the head of the ranks as they marched in good order out of the town. He halted them all at the bottom of the chateau’s long drive, and impressed on everyone the need for absolute silence from then on.

  With quite remarkable stealth, they crept further up the drive. Those familiar with the place told him how far they could go without being seen from the chateau windows, or even from the roof.

  Seated on a flat rock by the drive’s edge, Mullins was waiting at that very spot. He stood and saluted Gareth. “We caught two of the blighters hurrying back to warn their friends.”

  Mullins whistled—a bird call. An instant later, Bister appeared from one side, then Mooktu came out of the bushes on the opposite side of the drive.

  Gareth nodded. Now came the trickiest part of his plan. He’d spent the march to the chateau juggling options, seeing if any fitted the situation better, but…he glanced at the five “lieutenants” he’d appointed, each leading a group of men. “Here’s what we’ll do.” He assigned each of the five groups their positions—two groups to circle the chateau and attack from the rear, another two to cover the sides and the front, the last to spread out and block any attack from cultists who might still be closer to town and inclined to fall on them from behind. “But before anyone makes so much as a sound, I and my men will go in, and find and rescue Miss Ensworth.”

  “One set of windows in the front are unshuttered,” Bister reported. “Otherwise, all activity’s at the rear.”

  Gareth nodded, and returned his attention to the assembled men. “Three of us will go in and liberate Miss Ensworth.” Knowing the cult’s ways, he felt certain she would still be alive. He prayed she was also unharmed. “Once we have her safe, Bister will signal to Mullins here.” Gareth tipped his head to the grizzled veteran. “Mullins will then give the signal to attack. Once you receive that signal, you c
an overrun the place. You do not need to hold back—I assure you they won’t. They will fight to the death, because that’s their way. Don’t expect them to fight by our rules—they have their own rules, and they worship death.”

  He swept his gaze over the eager faces, read the determination and resolution beneath. He nodded. “Good luck.”

  Many murmured the same words to him as he turned to the chateau. He glanced at Mooktu. The big Pashtun nodded and joined him.

  Bister was shifting from foot to foot. “We ready?”

  Gareth nodded and waved. “Lead on.”

  Bister turned and went, sliding through the shadows beneath the old trees, leading them up and over the slight ridge that hid the dip where their army was gathered from the chateau beyond.

  The building was a typical rectangular structure in stone. What had once been a wide parterre was overgrown and choked with weeds. Bister led them to the left corner of the building. A raised, paved terrace ran all along the front. With the windows mostly shuttered, they could approach and climb up with little risk of being seen.

  Gaining the terrace, Gareth caught Bister’s shoulder, leaned close to whisper, “No guards?”

  Bister shook his head. “Seems they’re relying on the pickets. We found six strung out, but only two reported back.”

  Gareth nodded. He studied the open terrace for a moment, listening…a faint murmur of voices reached him. Someone was in the room with the open windows. The faint tang of smoke teased his nose.

  Drawing the primed pistol from his belt, he cocked it, then, holding the weapon ready in one hand, he walked silently, step by step, along the chateau wall toward those open windows.

  There was rubble on the terrace. He was careful to avoid it. He didn’t need to check to see if Mooktu and Bister did the same, or even if they were following. They’d fought together for so long, in situations like this they acted as one.

  Halting two feet from the slightly open window, more accurately a French door, for which he gave thanks, he listened again. Getting into the room would be easy, but he needed to know if Emily was there, and how many men there were.