Netherby Halls

by Claudy Conn

  Oh please, she begged, don’t let this be true. Not him, not him.

  Something sick and dreadful was going on at Netherby, led by the headmistress. She did not blame these girls. They were young and had been led astray. They were being used. All her suspicions had formulated into fact as she stood outside their door listening to them. They were being used as prostitutes by the people who sheltered them. It was horrid beyond thought.

  Her mother had once taken her to a place that sheltered indigent women. She had said that some of them sold their bodies to make ends meet and that Sassy should never judge them, for no one could possibly understand what one would do when starving, when one had no shelter, no clothes. Sassy understood their plight, but this, this was despicable, that these young girls should be sold in this way by greedy scoundrels.

  That the marquis should pay to have a young girl was unthinkable.

  How could he? He couldn’t. Percy Lutterel! She couldn’t be wrong about Percy, who was sweet and good and in love with Sophy. The marquis could not conduct himself this way with Percy in the house, could he?

  She slid off her cob horse and rushed headlong to the front door of the marquis’s lodgings, doing once again the forbidden—and this time at night, full with determination!

  When the butler appeared she rubbed her ring and told him to stand aside. “And you will not remember allowing me to enter or that I am here.”

  “Yes,” he agreed.

  “Where is his lordship?”

  “In the study,” he answered vaguely.

  “Thank you. Now go about your business,” she said and strode hard and fast towards the room she and Sophy had been in only a week ago.

  * * *

  The marquis unbent from what he was doing to face a darkly clad and hooded young woman charging into the room.

  He frowned, thinking that Percy and Dobbs were late and the chit was early. He said, “My dear, you are early.”

  “Am I?” Sassy asked between tears and obvious agitation.

  “What the deuce?” he said as he went towards her.

  His first thoughts were confused. He had asked for a fresh young beauty with experience be sent to him, and they sent him Sassy? How could this be? Sassy? Sassy was a part of this?

  It was as though she had ripped the heart from his chest, and all he could do was stand there and watch as a beast devoured it. His reaction was an angry sneer. “I see. Well, well, Sassy, I was not expecting you.”

  “Who were you expecting then? Were you expecting someone from Netherby?” she demanded. She didn’t wait for a response. “I feel as though I have never known you.”

  His eyes lashed her fiercely, wanting to hurt her as he was hurt. “I was expecting a whore or perhaps some young thing about to embark upon the worthy old profession! I know I professed a preference for you, but never thought …”

  Sassy’s hand went to her heart. She held onto a nearby chair back, looking as though she were about to collapse.

  He saw the moment she started to use her magic to engulf herself in a circle of protection. “How … how could you?”

  It infuriated him. With a flick of his finger he dispelled the protection mana. In one stride he had her arm in his grip. Shaking her, he demanded, “How could I?” He sneered at her. “Do you know what you have lost this night? I was going to offer you everything—my heart, my life, my devotion …”

  His lips tore at her own brutally. He wanted her to feel his agony, and he poured it into that kiss as he pressed her hard against him. He wore only his shirtsleeves and breeches, and he set her aside to remove even those.

  “Stop!” she cried.

  “Oh no, madam. We are in too deep to one another to stop now,” he said, feeling the heart she had reassembled over the last few weeks break beyond repair. “Tell me, Sassy—how many have you had before me?”

  * * *

  “What? What is wrong with you? What are you saying?” It dawned on her. He thought she was the girl they had sent over. “Oh! You odious scoundrel—it is not what you think.”

  He laughed mirthlessly. “Oh, but you are every bit of what I think you are! I was going to ask you to be my wife—imagine that? Egad what a fool I turned out to be.”

  “You were going to ask me?” Sassy shook her head. “Yet, you were hiring a girl for the evening? It is I that am saved, not you, my lord.”

  He frowned. “What the deuce is wrong with you?”

  He scooped her into his arms, and she pushed with all her strength. When that did not work, she closed her eyes and used her mana. She was able to thrust him across the room, and he stumbled.

  As he righted himself he said, “Ah, do we use our powers then?”

  “I am leaving, and do not ever cross my path again, for I shall never look your way again. And I am reporting Netherby, Sallstone, you—everything—to the authorities!”

  * * *

  “Justin!” Percy shouted as he entered the room. “What in thunder are you doing?”

  The marquis turned to find Percy and Dobbs standing in the doorway looking astonished. He said to them as he ran a hand through his hair, “Where the devil have you two been?”

  “We were delayed, but never mind that now—he is outside in the courtyard with the girl,” Percy said, going to Sassy to bow. “My dear, I do not know why you are here, but you must make haste and leave!”

  “I-I … what is going on? You cannot all mean to … to—she is only fifteen!” Sassy said.

  Dawning lit in the marquis’s eyes, dawning and a quixotic strangulation of emotions: joy, relief, and instant remorse.

  Sassy had come to his lodgings to protect the girl. Somehow she had found out, and either she knew the girl was coming to him, or she had come to him to ask for help.

  The marquis took Sassy’s arm and hurried her through an adjoining door to a small anteroom. “Remain here and be quiet.”

  * * *

  Dobbs and Percy were blabbering at him, both at the same time. He put up his hand and ordered them to sit. “Just sit.”

  Dissatisfied, Percy sat, though he was visibly worried about Miss Winthrop’s presence in the next room. He cast his glance between the adjoining door and the marquis’s grim expression.

  The time for explanations was lost, as Delia Standish was shown in by the disapproving butler at that moment. She entered with a flourish, swishing her dark cloak off her shoulders and exposing her youthful body ensconced in a red gauzy gown that was transparent in many areas.

  The marquis was quick to recognize the gown that had slipped from Dr. Bankes’s hold in the headmistress’s private offices. He said softly, “How lovely, Miss …?”

  “Delia, sweetings, just Delia,” she said as she swayed invitingly towards him. She stopped when she spied Percy and Mr. Dobbs and stared at moment. “Hold on now. I’ll take the two, you and that pretty, yellow-haired one.” She jerked a look towards the stout and unattractive man with the bowler hat. “But not him.”

  “Would you like a drink, Delia?” the marquis said, ignoring her remark.

  “Yes, yes, I would. I find it loosens me up a bit,” said the girl.

  “Then this is not the first time you have been sent to visit a gentleman in his lodgings?”

  “First time? Lord, no. They wouldn’t send someone who wouldn’t know how to please you, my lord,” she said, going closer to him.

  “Was not Mr. Wheeler supposed to accompany you this evening?” the marquis asked in a casual tone.

  “Yes, but we had a bit of a problem,” Delia said and sighed.

  “A problem?”

  “Yes, but don’t worry—she won’t be a problem for long.”

  “Who won’t be?” he pursued.

  “Well, I suppose ’tis safe to tell you, since you and I are going to be very close, very soon.”

  “That’s right, and I do like to know who I am dealing with and how safe they keep my private life.”

  She waved this off confidently. “Just some teacher at Nethe
rby. Nosey thing, caught my roommate coming in the other night from … a client.” She shook her head and sighed. “It is too bad about her really, so young, and I rather liked her, in a way …” She smiled saucily. “But talk is not what you want from me … is it?” Her hand slid up his chest.

  It was hard to believe the child was fifteen; she behaved as though she were thirty. “No, but I have paid handsomely for your time, and I do hope they have given you a fair share?”

  “That is a joke. Between them and the doc, there is scarcely anything left for me. But you could be kind to me, and they need not know …” She batted her dark lashes.

  “Mr. Dobbs?” The marquis looked at the stout gentleman sitting stiffly to his right.

  “I told you, I won’t do him.” Delia frowned over her brandy and downed it.

  “Mr. Dobbs is a Bow Street Runner and has come all the way from London to end the little games your elders have enlisted you to play at Netherby!” the marquis said, trying not to grit his teeth.

  The girl backed up, and he saw real fear in her eyes. “Wait—no! You … you can’t take me to prison—I’ll die there!”

  “You won’t have to go to prison if you cooperate,” said Mr. Dobbs. “Now sit, I’ll take a statement, and, young lady, I want names, and I want to know how long this has been going on.”

  * * *

  Sassy did not do what she was told. Her heart and mind were in a jumble, and she immediately left through the other door that led to the hall. She made her way to the back of the house and out the back door.

  She reached her cob horse, lowered the stirrup, and hoisted herself up, all the while silent tears rushing down her cheek.

  She hurried off before she had adjusted her stirrup, doing this as she walked her horse into the darkness. She rubbed her ring and called on magic. She was a white witch, and it was time she began to help herself, but before she could complete the spell, a familiar voice rang out.

  “Sassy? Sassy … is that you?”

  Oh, she thought, closing her eyes. She had forgotten to pull her hood over her head. The sky was alight with stars and a nearly full moon, but still, how had he known her?

  She turned to face the music, determined to use her magic and make him forget. “Yes, James?”

  He rode up to her, but he wasn’t alone. Miss Sallstone’s husband was with him, and before she knew what he was doing, he had her reins!

  “Sorry, love, but you pose too much of a threat,” James said softly.

  She was too shocked to move for just one instant, but only one instant. In the next she grabbed her horse’s mane. After one hard yank, the cob pulled frantically away, tore loose from the doctor’s hold, and bolted.

  Sassy gathered the reins as they galloped through the darkness, but no sooner did she get control than the horse nearly stopped in his tracks and reared. In front of her was the Tangiers man in the turban!

  The man spread out his hands, but the cob was in a full spook. It swerved to the right and then reared again, and Sassy, who had lost her stirrups, went flying backwards. When she landed, the wind knocked was out of her. Before she could regain her position, he was on her, roughly shoving her over, to tie her wrists at her back.

  He pulled her up, and she saw a coach coming towards them She screamed out, “Help!” She tried to touch her ring, but he had her wrists crossed in such a way that she couldn’t quite connect.

  She would have to find a way to call on her magic without her ring. Could she do it?

  * * *

  Once he was sure Mr. Dobbs had immediate matters in hand, the marquis hurried to the door to the adjoining anteroom. Sassy would have overheard what had just transpired, so now she surely understood he was not hiring young girls to service him.

  Percy was hot on his heels as he opened the door and found her gone. He closed his eyes. “She doesn’t know. She must have left as soon as I put her in here.”

  “What is going on? Why was she here?”

  “Come on, Percy. We haven’t time! Get your pistol, for I do believe we shall have a few blackguards to confront!”

  “Aye then, but I want an explanation. Why was Miss Winthrop here? You didn’t force her, did you?”

  “Don’t be a fool!” The marquis rushed out of the anteroom and across the study, took his pistol from the cabinet and stuffed it into his breeches, picked up his riding cloak, and stopped before the Bow Street Runner. “You have things under control here?”

  “Yes, mean to take her to the guardian I set up at the lodgings you prepared. Don’t want anything that may look improper, so I’ll hand her over to Maude and then join you at the ship, where we’ll round up the scoundrels behind all of this ugliness.”

  The marquis strode out with Percy looking grim at his back, and he turned to throw him a solemn smile and announce, “You were right, Percy—I am hopelessly besotted. She probably went back to Netherby, so we’ll head straight for the school.”

  They mounted up and hadn’t gone very far when they came across a riderless horse calming himself by eating the grass along the roadside.

  The marquis stopped his gelding and took a moment to think. “They have her, Percy—they have my Sassy!”

  “Hell and fire, where would they take her?”

  They regarded one another and said as one, “The ship!”

  * * *

  Winded, but not unconscious, Sassy was shoved into the coach opposite Bianca Sallstone and her husband, Tom Wheeler.

  “You don’t know what you are doing,” Sassy said. “This will not go well for you. Too many mistakes to clean up.”

  “Shut her up,” Bianca said angrily, and Tom Wheeler took a filthy rag and shoved it in her mouth.

  At her back, Sassy tried to loosen the ties at her wrists and reach her ring. She had never really used strong magic without it. Could she? Could she call on a spell without the aid of her mother’s ring?

  “She be a pretty mort,” said Bianca’s husband, reaching for Sassy’s cloak and throwing it aside to view her figure. “Aye, I could do with a piece of that.”

  Oddly enough, Sassy was saved by Bianca, who slapped his hand away. “Don’t you dare touch her. I hate her and don’t want her scent all over you.” She turned to Sassy and hit her hard on her shoulder, which sent her reeling to the narrow floor of the coach.

  Wheeler laughed and took a hold of her bodice to pick her up. “Ye be on m’feet—don’t mind if ye be at m’feet but not on ’em, darling.”

  She yanked away from his touch and felt something sharp catch her ring finger just as he cursed and pulled her up to throw her back on the seat. Her ring! Her ring had fallen to the floor, and her blood was all over it from the nail catching her finger. No, oh no!

  “What’s this?” Bianca bent and retrieved the gold ring with the unusual stone in the center. “Ah … pretty.” She gave Sassy a hard smile. “You won’t be needing it,” she said and slipped it on her finger.

  When Sassy glared at her, Bianca laughed. “We fetched a pretty price for you, better than little Beth who got herself with child.” Bianca shook her head. “Don’t have it all figured out yet, do you?” She leaned into her. “Let me tell you where you are going—Tangiers, my dear … to service the sheik who will pay handsomely for you, and there you will remain until he tires of you. He must be tired of Beth, because he sent us a request for another pretty, and I thought you would be perfect for him.” Bianca began to laugh as Sassy closed her eyes and tried to collect herself for what she would have to do.

  * * *

  “Percy, go and find us some strong yeoman, and hurry—we are going to need them,” said the marquis as he watched Tom Wheeler and Bianca drag Sassy, gagged and tied, onto the plank to the Sea Winds.

  Why isn’t she using her magic, he asked himself. Rage threatened to take over his mind, but he quelled it. He needed to think clearly. He had to find a way to get to her.

  Percy grumbled but hurried off to do just that, telling the marquis he would bring a dozen of them an
d not to worry.

  The marquis surveyed the ship for a few minutes before making his way on board, wondering if all the crew were asleep. He knew they set sail at dawn. He stood for a moment, uncertain which way to go. Then he turned and came face to face with a boy who inquired suspiciously, “What be ye up to, mate?”

  The marquis grinned at him and landed him a swift right hook that sent him flying backwards and landing hard. He stuffed his handkerchief in the now groggy seaman’s mouth. Then he grabbed a coil of rope he found nearby and tethered him behind a crate. He said to the frightened seaman, “There now, you can have no doubt of my purpose. I am here for the girl that was just brought on board. Which way did they take her? When I take the gag out, you had best answer me, or you won’t like what I will do.”

  When the boy nodded, the marquis took out the gag and said grimly, “Which way?”

  “Below deck,” the young seaman whimpered. “Go down the companionway to the first cabin. It’s that fellow who calls himself Abdul’s cabin.”

  “Good lad,” the marquis said, patting his cheek. “I will speak on your behalf when my friend arrives with the yeoman and the magistrate.” So saying, the marquis stuffed the gag back in the boy’s mouth and started for the companionway stairs.

  There he found the local magistrate and two others, who quickly told him that Mr. Dobbs had sent round a note instructing them to hurry to the Sea Winds and make certain she didn’t sail. They were then joined by Percy and five yeoman, who had undoubtedly been promised hefty payments. They appeared pleased at the adventure as they followed him onto the ship.

  Percy silently directed two of the yeoman to pick up whatever they could find as cudgels and to remain on top deck. The other three followed him and the marquis down the narrow companion stairway to the deck below.

  * * *

  Sassy had been pulled and shoved until she was finally presented to the dark Moslem in his cabin. She eyed her surroundings, hoping for a means of escape. The cabin contained a cushioned bunk, a table and chairs, and one small porthole.

  The turbaned man from Tangiers appeared consumed with dark thoughts. And although those thoughts were unreadable, she could tell by his aura that his ethics and priorities were very different than her own. She would get no help from him. He removed the gag from her mouth and lifted her chin. She kicked him in the shins, and he yelped with pain and smacked her so hard she was sent out of Tom Wheeler’s hold to land heavily on the floor.