The Convenient Bride

by Winchester, Catherine

  “Where are Max and Charles?”

  “Where is the money?” Marie demanded. Her smile gave Lucy chills.

  “Close by but you’ll never find it without me and if I don’t see that they’re safe and well, I won’t tell you.”

  Her hands were damp with sweat and her heart was racing but she was determined not to show any fear.

  “You will tell us,” Giles said, stepping forward and aiming his gun at her face.

  “I care nothing for my life next to theirs,” Lucy answered. “Either you show me that they’re alive, or kill me, and you’ll never find the money.”

  Marie looked angry enough to kill but thankfully, she didn’t have a gun.

  “They’re in the tack room,” Giles told her, his desire for the money more important than Marie’s for vengeance. “Dismount and follow me.”

  Lucy tied the horse to the fence that lined the driveway and although every bone in her body was screaming at her to run, she approached them. The biggest of the thugs they had hired took hold of her arm and they all walked around to the rear of the house.

  ***

  Donald and Mr Pennington were heading past Norbury, about four miles north of Croydon, when two familiar figures came towards them.

  “Max?” Donald asked, slowing his horse to a trot as they neared.

  Max slowed to a stop.

  “Don, what are you doing here?”

  “I could ask you the same thing; you were kidnapped!”

  “One of the men they hired learned of the plot to kill Lucy and wouldn’t be a party to murder; he set us free.”

  Donald’s face turned white.

  “Don?”

  “You didn’t see Lucy?” he asked.

  “Why would we?”

  “We’re chasing her,” Don said. “She wouldn’t tell us where the meet was so I went to see Mr Pennington, who thought the Croydon house the most likely place to hold you.”

  “Lucy?” Max paled. “We- we had to talk someone into loaning us two horses without any money or proof of who we are… She must have come past then.”

  “We’re not far,” Don assured him. “We can gallop the rest of the way in a few minutes.”

  Max and Charles turned their horses around.

  “No, Father, go to London, summon help, in case we’re too late.”

  Knowing that he was more of a liability than a help, Charles nodded. “I will.”

  Charles turned and headed back towards London.

  “Go with him,” Max urged Mr Pennington. “His health is failing.”

  “You’re sure?”

  Max nodded.

  “Very well.” He withdrew a pistol from his coat and handed it to Max. “Good luck.”

  “Thank you.”

  ***

  As they neared the tack shed, Lucy was held uncomfortably close, as the big thug grabbed her upper arms and held her back against his chest. She could feel that he was tense, as tense as she was, so she didn’t complain, sensing that there was something else going on here.

  They stopped directly in front of the door, a few feet away and the redheaded thug approached and opened the door… to an empty room.

  “NO!” Marie shrieked, pushing the man aside and storming into the room. “No, no, NOOO!”

  The hostility that she felt radiating from Marie actually made Lucy lean backwards, into the large man holding her. He may be one of the bad guys but he was a safer option than Marie right now.

  “Where are they?” she demanded, although no one answered. She stormed up to Lucy and repeated the question.

  “How should I know? Do you honestly believe that I could stand to be in your vile presence, if I already knew they were free?” Lucy demanded.

  Marie slapped her and the big man’s grip tightened on her arms. Lucy looked a little irritated but when she looked back to Marie, she was smiling.

  “Max is free, that’s all I need to know. Do your worst, Mary Pool, because I no longer care.”

  Marie grabbed a gun from the youngest looking ruffian and aimed it at her head.

  “You will care, when you know you’re about to die!”

  “We need her alive!” Giles shouted but no one seemed to hear.

  Lucy’s smile widened. “You really don’t understand love at all, do you?”

  “I love Max! I love him, not you! He was mine first!”

  “He was always mine, Mary; you were just a distraction until we were brave enough to admit the truth to each other. But you see, I really do love Max so while I have no actual wish to die, I don’t mind so very much, not now I know that he and Charles are safe from your abominable scheming.”

  “If he loves you so much, your death will cripple him.”

  “Marie, put the gun down now, without Lucy we won’t find the ransom,” Giles tried to reason with her.

  “You think I care about that!” Marie screamed at him, although she never took her eyes off Lucy.

  Giles aimed his gun at Marie. “Let her go.”

  “No, Giles. I will get the location out of her before she dies and you will get your precious money, but not before she suffers.

  Lucy could see the ginger haired and the young henchmen exchanging looks with the one who held her.

  Marie smiled coolly at Lucy. “When he sees how much pain you were in when you died, he won’t be able to go on.”

  “Yes he will,” Lucy shook her head sadly, unsure of how she was able to remain so outwardly calm when inside, she was terrified. “He knows that I wouldn’t like that so he will go on, he will heal and he will find happiness again, because it’s what I want for him.”

  “And you would sacrifice your own life so that he might find happiness with someone else?”

  “I would. You might once have been able to bend Max to your will, Mary, but you will never break him. He’s made of stronger stuff than you can imagine, stronger than I think he even knows.”

  “Thankfully it won’t come to that.” Everyone tuned to the new voice, Max, as he approached them from the woods. His gun was drawn.

  From the opposite side came Donald, his gun also drawn.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  With a screech of primal rage, Marie took aim at Lucy.

  The big man holding her pulled her to the side, so violently that they both fell and the bullet grazed Lucy’s left arm, before embedding itself in her captor’s upper arm. She ended up on her stomach with the man on top of her, in an almost protective position.

  Marie made to fire the second barrel of the gun but before she could pull the hammer back, three shots rang out. Marie took a shot to her chest and a second to her hip from Donald and Max’s guns, while Max was hit in the shoulder by Giles.

  Somehow Lucy was able to wriggle free enough to get to get to her father’s gun at the back of her breeches and she fired at Giles, hitting him in the knee. He fell to the ground and Donald approached and took the gun from him.

  Max stepped closer and helped Lucy to her feet then, holding her close to his side with his injured arm, he went over to Marie, who was sobbing hysterically and aiming her gun at anyone who got too close. Max held his gun on her, a hair trigger ready to fire the moment she made a move.

  “Max,” she implored. “I love you.”

  Max actually looked sympathetic. “I don’t think you do but either way, I don’t love you. I’m sorry.”

  Marie’s tears fell harder, then suddenly the arm that held the gun began to curl around.

  “Don’t do it, Marie,” Max implored.

  “They’ll just kill me anyway.” And with one last longing look, she put the gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger.

  “Jesus Christ!” Giles exclaimed.

  Max pulled Lucy to him and held her tightly and no one spoke for a few long moments.

  Finally Donald stepped forward and threw his coat over Marie to shield everyone from the gruesome sight, and Max turned to Big.

  “My father is sending reinforcements, so you’d better go while you
can.” He gave him his father’s London address and told him to call tomorrow about employment.

  “What about these fellas?” Big asked. “I got them into this.”

  “Neither have harmed any of us, so I make the same offer to them.”

  Big nodded and held his hand out, which after passing his gun to Lucy, Max shook.

  “Thank you for your help, and doing what you could for Lucy.”

  Big nodded then he and the other two men headed into the woods.

  Donald stepped up beside Max and Lucy. “He’s the one who set you free?”

  “He is,” Max nodded. “I think he’s basically a good man, just desperate.”

  “I'm not sure I could offer a job to someone who had kidnapped me.”

  “You could if he'd just saved May’s life.”

  Donald conceded the point with a nod.

  Lucy had been silent since Max arrived, feeling a little overwhelmed and oddly like crying, even although everyone was safe. She took a shuddering breath.

  “We don’t know how long the reinforcements will be,” she said, her voice shaking just a little. “Let’s go inside and get that wound cleaned and dressed.”

  They headed for the house.

  “What about him?” Donald asked, pointing a thumb back at Giles.

  “Leave him,” Lucy commanded. “I don’t think he’s going anywhere.”

  Once in the kitchen, Donald boiled some water while Max and Lucy argued over who was treating whose wound first.

  “Mine is a graze, you’re still bleeding!” Lucy argued.

  “And I won’t sit still until I can see that for myself,” Max countered.

  “Oh will you both shut up!” Donald snapped, feeling a little shaky and short-tempered after the shocking events of the last hour or so. He put down the bowl of boiled water that Lucy had asked for, spilling some of it over the kitchen table. “She’s right, Max, you are in the worse state, so sit down and let her clean and bandage the wound for you.”

  Outnumbered, Max did as he was told, and sat down to allow Lucy to peel his clothes off and examine him. Donald went outside to light his pipe and wait for the help to arrive.

  “It went straight through, thankfully, so you’re saved the pain of digging the bullet out.” She tore his shirt and blotted the blood away with part of it. “It isn’t bleeding too badly so I don’t think the bullet hit anything important,” she said, then tore another strip from his shirt and began to clean the area, dipping the cloth into the boiled water.

  Although it was crude, Lucy used part of his shirt as wadding, then she managed to tie strips around his shoulder and across his chest to hold it in place.

  Max’s wrists were also bruised and bloody from where he had tried to saw through the ropes, so she cleaned and bandaged those too.

  He watched as she worked, marvelling at her bravery earlier and touched by her compassion and her loving touch as she tended to him.

  He had wiped away most of the blood from his head wound and the cut was hidden by his hair. He decided not to mention it since he was anxious to examine her injuries.

  “There, all done,” she finally proclaimed.

  “Thank the Lord!” Max shot up from his seat and immediately tore the sleeve of her riding habit and blouse.

  Lucy waited patiently as he used the rest of his shirt to clean and bandage her arm, pleased to see that she had been right; it was just a graze, albeit deeper than he would have liked.

  He looked so worried as he played nursemaid that she reached out and touched his cheek when he was finished. He looked down at her.

  “I was so worried,” she said, her tears finally falling.

  Max pulled her into his arms and held her tightly.

  “Promise me you won’t ever do anything so foolish again,” he told her, his voice catching as he remembered how close he had come to losing her.

  “I promise, as long as you promise not to get kidnapped again.”

  Donald checked on them from time to time through the kitchen window but each time he looked, they remained exactly as they had been, just holding each other, both crying tears of joy that they were alive and tears of sadness that they had witnessed such an insane act. The memory of Marie’s final moments would haunt them both but as long as they had each other, Donald felt that they would be fine.

  Charles, four of the Bow Street Runners, a handful of soldiers from the local garrison and a doctor arrived after about twenty minutes and Donald went inside.

  “The cavalry has arrived,” he proclaimed. “Giles tried dragging himself to the wood but he hasn’t got very far.”

  “You just let him?” Lucy asked.

  Donald shrugged. “It seemed fairly clear that he wasn’t going to get away on that leg, so I couldn’t see the harm.”

  The absurd image of Giles, usually so suave and debonair, trying to drag himself away struck Lucy as comical and soon her tears were of laughter. Max joined in and eventually even Don began to laugh, which is how Charles found them.

  “Well, it looks as if you had fun in my absence,” he said, though his sharp eyes had taken in their temporary bandages.

  Max and Donald quickly sobered up but Lucy continued to laugh.

  “I'm sorry,” Lucy said in between her laughs. “I can’t- can’t help it.”

  “Hysteria,” the doctor said. He wasn’t their regular doctor and Max wondered where Charles had found him. “If she witnessed that ghastly scene in the courtyard, I'm not surprised.” He put his bag down on the table and opened it. “Now, let’s take a look at you and put some proper dressings on those injuries.”

  Max and Lucy allowed themselves to be poked and prodded, then sat patiently as the Runners questioned them. They both said that they had been unable to see the faces of the men who had been paid to help, and added that they were certain the men hadn’t signed up to murder and had in fact, not only aided Max and Charles to escape, but they had also protected Lucy.

  Since Marie was dead, Giles was in custody and they had no description of the men who had been hired to help, Max knew that they wouldn’t search very hard, if at all.

  Thanks to the excitement of the last few days, Charles’ cough was playing up so the doctor gave him another dose of laudanum and recommended complete rest for a few days.

  Giles was next seen by the doctor, had his leg bandaged and was then escorted to London by the Runners, to await trial.

  Although it was dark, two of the Runners went into the woods with oil lamps and using Lucy’s directions, they soon returned with the ransom money. Their horses were then rounded up from where they had been tethered and were put into the empty stables.

  “I think perhaps you should stay here tonight,” the doctor said as he was packing his medical bag. “You have all had something of a shock.”

  “It’s not a long journey,” Lucy said. “And I think after everything that’s happened, I would prefer familiar surroundings.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Charles added.

  So they saddled their borrowed horses and rode back to London, although at a far slower pace than when they had left the city.

  They made plans as they rode. Charles decided to send a message to his wife by overnight messenger but not wanting to worry her with a night time delivery, he would tell the messenger to deliver it in the morning, then it could be brought to Eleanor when she awoke.

  Donald agreed that he and May would head back to Kent first thing in the morning, and carefully reveal everything that had been happening.

  Max and Charles had to remain in London until they knew what was happening with Giles but if they could return home tomorrow, they would, even if it would mean arriving late at night.

  Donald split off from the group to collect May from Lucy’s house and take her to their home, while Charles, Max and Lucy headed to the Stark house, since Lucy’s was still being decorated. Besides, their house still felt more like home to her.

  They were all tired and after a brandy for sh
ock and a quick dinner of bread and potted ham, the housekeeper had prepared basins of hot water for them and they retired to their rooms.

  They all kept some clothes here to make travelling between houses easier and although most of Max and Lucy’s belongings had been moved to the house they had rented for the end of the Season, a lot had been left, since they didn’t own that house and couldn’t leave possessions there once they vacated it.

  Max felt better after a wash, although now that the excitement was over, he was beginning to feel bone weary. He was just towelling off when his door opened and Lucy came in. She looked as tired as he felt and she didn’t speak as she stripped off her night shirt and climbed into bed. He joined her a few moments later and within seconds of embracing each other, they were both sound asleep.

  ***

  The next morning, Lucy awoke to aching muscles; she had never been in the saddle for so long before and of course, she had a few bumps and bruises, as well as her bullet wound. Still, what she felt was probably nothing compared to how Max and Charles would feel.

  As well as Max being shot and suffering a head wound, both men had been forced to sit in an awkward position, on a cold floor, for more than a day.

  Max was still sound asleep so she quickly checked his bandages, pleased to see that only a few spots of blood had seeped through the dressing. She slipped from the bed and pulled her nightgown on, then Max’s dressing gown, before heading down to the kitchen.

  ***

  Max awoke reluctantly but as each movement hurt, he soon had little choice but to awaken fully. He immediately realised that Lucy was missing from his bed and his heart plummeted as he remembered the last time they had shared this bed, and she had left him before he woke up.

  He wouldn’t blame her for being upset with him, after all, this whole situation was his fault. If he hadn’t gotten involved with that woman, none of this would have happened.

  Although he wanted to lie still and wallow in self-pity for a while, he knew that he had to check on his father. The long term effects of their ordeal on his father’s illness weren’t known and he needed to check on him, so reluctantly, he swung his legs out of bed and stood up, slowly stretching his protesting muscles. His left arm hurt far too much to use but at least he was right handed, so he wouldn’t be too inconvenienced.