by Julia Donner
She scanned Asterly’s scrawl, struggling to think through the shock. A damp chill slithered over her flesh. She lowered the letter and looked up into his worried expression. She swallowed and said, “Asterly received a message from my son’s uncle. He’s made threats that cause Asterly no concern, but…Grieves, Archibald has my son!”
Strong arms surrounded her, a small comfort, but one nonetheless, to stave off the worst of the immobilizing horror. “What are his demands?”
“That I present myself to him and assure Ned that I favor his guardianship. Or face prosecution for hiding him.”
“A threat he can’t produce.” Warm hands moved over her back, firm caresses meant to soothe, but nothing reached the cold hollow inside her chest. She had to leave, or do something and pulled away.
“Calm, Evangeline. Try to stay calm and think what you will do next.”
She rested her cheek on his chest, slid her hands under his arms, and clutched his solid presence. “Grieves, help me! I can’t think through the image of my son in that man’s hands.”
He hushed her, gently rocking to soothe the shivering fear. “I suggest we return to Asterly in London as quickly as possible. He has influence everywhere. We’ll find your Ned and make sure he’s well. Then we’ll deal with the uncle.”
She inhaled a shaky sigh and felt some of her faculties return. Withdrawing from his embrace, she straightened her shoulders and hardened her resolve. Fury began to replace fear’s void. Now, she wanted Archibald’s head on a spike.
“Thank you, Grieves, for standing with me in this.”
A gentle smile curved his mouth. “Evangeline, I’m not your only ally. By becoming Elizabeth’s friend, you were brought into the fold. No one survives a purposeful slight to one of our own.”
She frowned, tilting her head. “What fold?”
“The friendship, our coterie, even though you don’t recognize your membership.
Rave, Asterly, Harry, and I, we share a bond stronger than family. Can you imagine any person with the wherewithal to face down Ravenswold? Or his wife?”
“Ravenswold?” She pressed her hand flat on his chest. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable involving him.”
Grieves took her hand and tugged her to the couch, where he put away the pistols. “It’s too late for that. I’m sure Asterly has already sent word. I urge you to get back to London. A fortified Asterly House and friends will make a formidable wall.”
“I’m not sure I can ride all the way to London. Parts of me are still feeling last evening’s adventure.”
He closed the case lid and draped her cloak over her shoulders. “You know Elizabeth better than that. There’s a carriage on the way. Tim had it readied and sent from Rolands. He rode ahead.”
The tree branches still sparkled with melting ice when the equipage arrived at the front of the lodge. Evangeline inwardly quailed at the sight of a racing curricle. She’d never ridden in one. A fur-lined cloak and rug covered its seat, holding in the heat of a coal-filled foot warmer on the tufted cushions. Jeffords, one of Asterly’s grooms, who had driven the curricle to the lodge, moved the flat container to the curricle’s floor, while Grieves gave instructions for the horse he’d rented last evening.
After she settled on the seat, Evangeline rubbed her chilled flats on the foot-warmer. Heat soaked up through the soles. Clean, cold air stung her nose. The curricle dipped slightly when Grieves climbed in beside her. He adjusted the second cloak around her shoulders and tucked the lap around her knees before taking up the reins and whip.
Tim mounted his horse. “My lord, I’ll ride ahead for a change of horses at the Dancing Fox and come back for Jeffords.”
Evangeline gestured to Jeffords. “Give this note to the housekeeper at Rolands, please.” When Jeffords tugged his forelock and stepped back, she said to Grieves, “We have no outrider?”
Bracing one boot on the curricle floor and the other on the splashing-board, he answered, “Less weight, better speed. Stay covered up and hold fast. Press on, Tim.”
The groom took off at a full gallop. In the next second, the curricle team leaped forward, rattling over the lane’s partially frozen ground. She quickly learned how to brace her back and set her teeth so they wouldn’t clack during the jarring ride. Sir Harry kept some of the fastest horses in England, and she discovered why men were so addicted to racing and what it meant to fly.
Chapter 14
Freddy admired Evangeline’s pluck, but his heart constricted at the sight of the shadows under her eyes and her blanched cheeks by the time they reached Cavendish Square. He’d raced plenty of times, but she had never experienced the nonstop tension of fast driving in an open carriage.
Crimm came out on the doorstep. A gesture brought two footmen down to the street to walk the lathered, blowing horses to the mews. Freddy prayed he hadn’t ruined them as he went around to help Evangeline down. Footmen held the horses steady as Freddy reached up for Evangeline. Her hand trembled in his palm. She wilted when she stood to descend. He caught her, marveling at her lightness, when she buckled. He carried her into a warm vestibule.
Asterly came swiftly down the staircase. “How is she?”
“Quite done for.”
“Shall I take her from you?”
“No. Lead the way to her rooms. Not sure if I remember correctly.”
Asterly nodded, going up the steps two at a time. Over his shoulder, he said to Crimm, “Is her maid there?”
Crimm answered from behind Freddy. “And a warm bath being prepared. She must be frozen through. Lord Grieves, were you not able to stop on the way?”
“Only to change out the team. She refused to leave the curricle.”
Grieves lowered her into a chair when they reached her sitting room. A maid scuttled forward to chafe her wrists, and he backed away.
Evangeline’s eyes fluttered open. She extended a hand to him. “Grieves, we’ve arrived. Please ask Lord Asterly if he has received any word.”
Asterly said from the doorway, “I’m here. We can talk after you rest.”
She struggled to stand. Freddy took her arm when she wobbled. Shaking her head, she said, “I must know. Has Archibald said anything about Ned?”
“Only that he’s well. The tutor was dismissed somewhere along the way. Crimm is having him chased down. Once we find the tutor, we’ll have a better idea of what happened and how to proceed.”
Evangeline looked at the floor and then around the room with a lost expression. “I am so dreadfully sorry to have created this fuss.”
Freddy took her hand, her despair squeezing his heart. Before Asterly could say more, Freddy said, “No more of that. Rest and we’ll make plans. A hot meal and a lie down will help.”
Footmen arrived with steaming pails of water. Freddy had no choice but to leave. He refused to stray far from her room and paced the long hallway with Asterly.
Asterly strolled with his hands clasped behind his back, his gaze on the passage of his boots over the shiny floorboards. “There’s something havey-cavey about this, Freddy.”
“I agree. The feeling of something being off makes me want to not stray very away from her.”
“You know that Crimm would have the head of anyone who came near.”
Freddy rubbed the bristles along his jaw. “How did that odd connection form?”
“I expect you should ask them about that. All sort of hush-hush, but I believe Elizabeth knows the whole.”
The hallway ended with a wide, high window and Persian rug. They stood on the cushion of densely woven pile in silence for a time, looking out windows that faced the square. Recently lit street lamps glowed in the gloom of fog and oncoming night.
“Peregrine, I can see no other way out of the contract with Lady Caroline without a payout of some sort.”
“I’d come to that conclusion myself. Don’t make any offers in your present state. You look like something that rolled off a pirate ship.”
Freddy felt one side of his mouth quirk up
. “Always so supportive.” He nudged the rug’s fringe with the toe of his no-longer-shiny boot. “May I stay the night? I find that I can’t leave her just yet.”
“Of course you may, and I fully understand. T’would feel the same if it were Elizabeth caught up in this shocking mess.”
Freddy returned his gaze to the street. “I very much doubt that Elizabeth would allow herself to be placed in such a position. I expect she is current with the particulars?”
“Crimm has kept her abreast of the minutiae, you may be sure. Notes have been flying back and forth. She’s frothing at the mouth to get at Havardshire.”
“I’ve no sympathy for the lout. Would sooner shoot him down than deal with his mischief.”
He felt Asterly’s sharp-eyed inspection when he darkly asked, “But you won’t do that, will you, Freddy?”
“As much as I would enjoy putting a period to a pederast, one can’t. The pity is that the devil won’t end up in court. Dukes don’t find themselves standing in front of the big wigs or magistrates, no matter how they may have been pilloried at an inquest. But I suppose her son is the actual duke.”
Asterly clasped his hands behind his back. “From all I’ve gathered, the uncle isn’t all that interested in the title. I have the feeling its retribution for being denied control of his nephew. I believe we’re dealing with an altogether unsavory sort. Lizzie happened to encounter him socially. She said he made her flesh cringe.”
Freddy stared in silence through the glass panes. What he wanted most at that moment was to be with Evangeline. The sight of her spent from worry and the grueling drive to the city evoked odd feelings, the combination of anxiety and the sense of something ominous.
Freddy rolled the stiffness from his shoulders. “I’m not convinced the uncle would physically hurt Ned, but I think the man wants Evangeline under his control. Using the boy as an instrument to force her to comply to whatever he’s after is a more likely object.”
“Yes. Using them against each other. I’ve encountered people who are taken up with an unreasonable need to control others. Perhaps it’s that sort of situation. Can’t see the fascination in it myself.”
The maid stepped out into the hallway. Her curtsey brought Freddy swiftly to the doorway, where she said to Asterly, “She’s resting, your lordship.”
Asterly nodded. “Thank you, Smith. That will be all.”
When Smith reached to pull the door closed, Freddy placed his hand on the panel. He gave Asterly a questioning gaze. Asterly nodded and stepped back. “Leave the door ajar. No one would ever speak against her, but we know how particular she is.”
“My thanks, Peregrine.”
Asterly squeezed his arm before he left. Freddy eased the sitting room door wider. Heat from a crackling fire smothered the room with warmth. He crossed to the bedroom. Only one lamp remained lit at the bedside. The dressing room door stood partially open to share the heat from that fire and reveal a sheet draped over the bath.
Freddy realized that he still wore his driving coat. He removed that, his scarf and the wrinkled jacket underneath. After unfastening a few buttons on his vest, he sat in a wing chair by the window.
Evangeline slept on her side, hands tucked under her cheek. The grey tinge of exhaustion that had worried him earlier was gone. Color had returned to her complexion, perhaps from the heat of the bath.
He hadn’t thought he would sleep, but a tap on the door jerked him awake. Crimm stood in the sitting room doorway.
Freddy got up and went out with him to the passageway. “Any word?”
“We’ve located the tutor. He’s been badly roughed up, but is most anxious to help us in any way he might.”
“What about her son?”
“All the tutor knows is that he was taken against his will, but not harmed. There was a suggestion that the boy had been misled as to his mother’s whereabouts. That he thought he was being taken to her.”
Freddy inhaled and tried to think. Weariness, and the soundness of his recent sleep, clouded his mind. “Crimm, would you send word—”
“Begging your pardon, my lord, but I have already sent for your valet. Mr. Didier waits downstairs. Shall I ask him to come up to your room?”
Freddy followed the direction of Crimm’s gesture at the door across the hall. With a rueful grin, Freddy said, “I should’ve known. Please tell Didier to go to bed. I’ll ring for him in the morning.”
After Crimm bowed and went down the passageway to the back stairs, Freddy returned to the wing chair. Evangeline hadn’t moved. He set more logs on the fire, enjoying as he always did, Lady Asterly’s expensive tastes and her refusal to have coal in the house. He couldn’t imagine the cost of heating a mansion with firewood, and realized tiredness caused his thoughts to wander. He settled in the chair, contented to be near her, and slept.
Chapter 15
Evangeline’s maid woke Freddy before dawn. He rousted his valet and dressed properly. Time to evict the household pests and finagle a way out of a marriage contract with a ninny.
It was too early for anyone to be in the breakfast room. He drank down a cup of sweetened coffee and had a footman hail a hackney, which he shared with Didier. Before sending Didier onward to pack up his West End lodgings, he stepped down in Mayfair at the house he’d inherited with the title. As the team had rolled up to the brick mansion, Freddy was once again grateful that the modest dwelling had none of the fortress-like dimensions of Asterly House. The previous Viscount Grieves came from a line of prudent men, who invested wisely and spent little, a trait well-entrenched in the Bates family heritage.
Freddy’s friends often deemed him parsimonious, a taunt that slid right off his feathers. He preferred not to waste, rarely played cards, only bet on the horses a few times a year, but he did sink hefty sums into excellent weaponry. That was his vice, and he never lost a moment’s sleep over the cost. Because of his thrift, he now had a great deal of largesse to bestow on his bride. He again rued that weak moment in his youth that bequeathed him now with the predicament of getting out of a marriage contract in order to obtain the wife he truly wanted.
As he swept through the door and into the gloomy vestibule, the thought occurred that the place could use some brightening. He handed off his hat, gloves, and outerwear to a fidgeting footman. Ah, well, they’d get used to him in time.
Perhaps the secretary still in residence would have some advice about redecorating. He should ask while settling the correspondence accumulation. It had been weeks since a note, notice, or letter sent to his cousin had been answered.
Then again, Evangeline would know what to do about refurbishments, since he had no patience for that sort of thing. Not like Harry, who fussed over every item that graced his houses. Evangeline wouldn’t overspend or lean to extravagance, which gave him the idea he should start looking about for suitable gift for helping refit the house. Had he asked her to do that yet? No matter. He’d make a bride gift. There was that delightful fowling piece, small enough in gauge not to knock her off her pins. Or perhaps a bit of jewelry. Women liked their trifles.
A footman’s wide-eyed expression halted his thoughts and progression down the hallway. The fellow gaped as if Freddy were a seven-headed beast. It was then the sounds penetrated. Primitive noises. Obvious ones. From behind the door a nervous footman guarded, came the male groans and female entreaties of a different kind of beast, the one with two backs.
Freddy stepped up to the footman, who sidled out of the way. The lout knew who owned the house, even if he hadn’t seen the new master more than a few times.
A louder shriek of pleasure came from behind the door. The duchess was definitely receiving today.
With a snarl of anticipation twisting his lips, Freddy shoved open the door. His first impression was that of the duchess hiding her face in the man’s neckcloth, her legs up and wrapped around the fellow’s waist above his bared rump. Then she flung back her head of blond curls into one of the pillows strewn across the couch. Not the bitch
duchess.
Both froze, when Freddy, still not believing his eyes, said, “Caroline?"
The girl shrieked, shoved at her lover, and struggled to sit up. She fumbled to close her bodice, while the man hauled up his breeches. Lud, it was a scene straight out of a naughty French farce.
Caroline clutched the front of her gown. “It’s not what it seems!”
Freddy cocked his head to one side and squinted. “It looks exactly what it is. You’re shagging a git on the couch.”
The fellow started to protest the crude remark, but Caroline spoke over him. “What are you doing here?”
“I live here.” Freddy had to swallow so he wouldn’t laugh, but hadn’t been able to keep the merry sarcasm from his reply.
Outraged, Caroline stood, uncaring that her released bodice revealed all. “You have no right to come in here, making accusations.”
Scorn twitched at his upper lip. Freddy lost his patience and sense of humor. “Lady Caroline, in light of your actions today, you will agree to void the contract between our families.”
She stuck her pretty nose in the air. “I never wanted to marry you anyway. It was Mother’s idea. She felt sorry for you, since you couldn’t have her and she preferred my father. You can have one of my sisters.”
“Thank you, no. There are too many fallen apples beneath those branches. From this point on, we will only have contact through legal representation.”
“See here,” her lover sputtered. “I’m not sure I like your tone.”
Bored with the ridiculous scene and it participants, Freddy larded his reply with sarcasm. “If you’re going to shag my former fiancé, you might offer your name.”
Red-faced with fury, Lady Caroline informed, “You are speaking to the Honorable Rupert Hardwicke-Baines, and he’s going to shoot you down for your insults!”
“Doubtful,” Freddy murmured, while reaching for the door latch.
The door handle was jerked from his grasp when Hardwicke-Baines shoved the door shut. “Name your seconds, sir!”
Staring at the lad, Freddy realized he wasn’t much older than he had been when Lady Caroline’s mother had so ruthlessly crushed his heart. The daughter was a mirror image in every way, utterly self-involved and without scruple.
