A Warriner to Protect Her

by Virginia Heath

  Jack saw the fear in Bainbridge’s eyes and did not waste his chance. He reached under his greatcoat and retrieved his own pistol, taking great pleasure in aiming it at the old, wrinkled Earl and slowly dragging the hammer back.

  ‘You are still outnumbered, Warriner!’ he spat back defiantly as Layton and the remaining lackey aimed their own weapons straight back.

  In the brittle silence another pistol clicked. Joe emerged from the bushes and poked his weapon into the lackey’s back. ‘And now there are three of us.’ For a man who was more likely to heal a fly than hurt it, even Jack was convinced his brother meant business.

  Jack’s relief at his brothers’ arrival was palpable, but the battle was still far from won. At best, it was a stand-off. Layton was only inches away from Letty—one false move and she might be hurt. He glanced at her and he saw nothing but determination and strength in her lovely eyes. For his benefit, she flicked her eyes to her abandoned pistol on the ground. It lay between them like a beacon, too far for either of them to snatch it up. Their only hope now was Jacob—but he had yet to make an appearance...unless he had stayed behind to look after the farm...

  With a sinking feeling, Jack realised he might well have done. If he had been in charge, he might well have insisted someone stay behind to shoulder those important responsibilities. As if any of that was as important as Letty’s life?

  Jamie yanked back her uncle’s head by the hair and pressed his blade against the whimpering man’s neck. ‘Drop your weapons now, or I will sever his treacherous head from his quaking, cowardly body.’

  ‘Do as he says!’

  It gave Letty some satisfaction to hear her uncle was terrified. However, it did not deter from the fact that all four of them were in a very precarious position. There were still two pistols pointed at Jack: Bainbridge’s and Layton’s. Only one would be required to kill him. Fortunately, all eyes were on her squealing uncle—not her. With one decisive lunge, she threw herself at the abandoned pistol, landing on the cold ground with a thud.

  Layton instantly turned his gun towards her as she scrambled to grip the weapon in her hands. Letty rolled on to her back and aimed right back at Layton. ‘Now you are outnumbered.’

  But only just. Jamie had a sword to her uncle’s neck, Jack had Bainbridge in his sights, she had Layton and Joe had the remaining man.

  ‘Then we have nothing to lose.’

  Letty watched in horror as the Earl’s index finger began to squeeze the trigger. She twisted to aim her gun at him, and pulled the trigger. The bullet tore through Bainbridge’s leg, sending a spray of blood and flesh into the air, and at the same moment Jack knocked the pistol from his flailing hand.

  Layton made a grab for her and Letty scrambled to her knees to try to crawl away. He fisted his hand in her hair and yanked her roughly back.

  ‘Get your filthy hands off her!’

  Jack went to attack, but stopped when he saw the man’s pistol pressing into her neck. Behind her, Letty could feel Layton’s laboured, frightened breathing and tried to remain calm.

  She had to focus on the practicalities.

  They were winning and Layton sensed it. A cornered animal was always the most dangerous.

  ‘Go ahead, Mr Layton. Shoot me. It will be the last thing you ever do and we both know it.’

  Beneath her, Letty could feel vibrations through the ground. Someone was coming. Layton realised it, too. His hold on her hair tightened and he gazed around him in panic. ‘Murder is a capital offence, Mr Layton. If I die, you will be hanged. That is if my fiancé doesn’t shoot you first.’

  The hoofbeats came closer. Lots of them. In the distance there was the sound of voices, too. All she had to do was keep him from pulling the trigger until they arrived. ‘You can’t escape, Mr Layton. You are surrounded. Your accomplices have already lost.’

  Her eyes locked with Jack’s, warning him to stay back. The last thing they needed now was for Layton to shoot him in panic. His stormy eyes were furious, but he nodded curtly, he had delegated the responsibility for saving them to her and she loved him for that. Jack never relinquished control. Ever.

  ‘If you surrender now, the worst you can be charged with is kidnap. If you are lucky, you will be transported.’ She felt his fingers uncurl against her scalp and pressed her advantage. ‘Throw down your weapon, Mr Layton. Don’t let them see you holding a gun to my throat.’

  The ‘them’ she was referring to trundled noisily towards them and Layton finally complied. He let go of her hair and threw his pistol down angrily just as Jacob arrived at the head of a large mob of men. His eyes took in the scene and he grinned down at her.

  ‘I see I timed my arrival perfectly.’

  He grasped her hand and hauled her up. A middle-aged man next to him stepped forward.

  ‘Are you the Tea Heiress?’

  When she nodded he appeared relieved.

  ‘Miss Dunston, we heard you were in distress. Kindly point out the scoundrels who tried to kidnap you.’

  Letty happily pointed at the guilty four, taking great pleasure in seeing them manhandled by the rescue party. Jamie kept his sword pressed against her uncle’s throat while his hands were bound. Only then did he lower his weapon and climb out of the carriage. Two men took Layton by the arms, and he stood in quiet fury as he, too, was bound. Jack roughly hoisted Bainbridge by the shoulders and, in spite of his shattered leg, dragged him unceremoniously towards Letty and dropped him at her feet.

  ‘I want to kill him.’

  She threaded her arm through his and rested her head gratefully on his powerful arm. ‘He will get his come-uppance. It’s best to let the law deal with him. You can say your piece at his trial.’

  Jamie limped beside them. ‘With any luck, they’ll hang. Did the fools not realise? When you mess with one Warriner, you mess with us all.’

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Finally, midnight, 4th January 1814...

  Letty and the four Warriners watched the locals make short work of securing the prisoners. Then they all returned to Baldock. The middle-aged man, it turned out, was the local constable and a great reader of the gossip columns. He gave orders for her abductors to be locked up in the local gaol and accompanied Letty and the brothers to the inn to hear their testimony. They all crowded around one big table, sipping steaming cups of tea, while he began with the formalities.

  ‘I shall need your full names for the record.’

  ‘Well, you already know my name is Violet Elizabeth Dunston. And this is my fiancé Jack Warriner, the Earl of...?’ She turned to Jack in question as it occurred to her she didn’t know.

  ‘Markham.’

  ‘Oh, that’s nice. Your title is named after the house.’

  ‘Actually, the house is named after the title. But that is neither here nor there.’ He smiled at her indulgently before turning towards the constable. ‘These are my brothers. Captain James Lionel Warriner, Joseph Lucas Warriner and Jacob Lawrence Warriner.’

  More information Letty had not known. ‘You all have exactly the same initials?’

  ‘My parents were creatures of habit.’

  ‘Does your middle name begin with the letter “L” also?’

  Letty watched matching slow grins creeping up his brothers’ faces and wondered why. She turned to Jack to see him smiling in amusement.

  ‘Clearly it’s a stinker if you are all grinning like idiots. Well? What is it, then?’

  Joe answered for him. ‘It’s Leo. Like the constellation.’

  ‘Leo?’ Letty started to giggle, not caring that she snorted twice in the process. ‘Leo the lion! Of course it is.’ And never had a middle name suited its owner more.

  The constable was extremely thorough. By the time they had all finished answering his questions, and writing down their personal version of event
s, it was almost two o’clock in the morning.

  ‘What I don’t understand,’ Letty asked the brothers after he finally bid them goodnight, ‘is how you came be in the exact right place at the exact right time?’

  ‘You can thank Jamie for that,’ Joe replied. ‘We hid in the woods after you left Markham Manor and fooled them into thinking we had fled, too. When they headed to London in pursuit, we followed them. Jamie, apparently, can track anything. It was all very exciting and they never suspected a thing. We were less than a mile away when you decided to stop off at that inn.’ He began to blush and Letty realised they had guessed what she and Jack had been up to in there.

  Jacob, who clearly did not feel even slightly embarrassed, grinned. ‘While the pair of you were indisposed, Jamie managed to get close enough to Bainbridge to hear what they were planning. Seeing as they were stupid enough to consider doing it so close to a town, we decided to let them ambush you in order to trap them. Catch the scoundrels in the act so that we had irrefutable proof of their guilt. I was sent to gather reinforcements.’

  Jack appeared perturbed by this. ‘How did you convince so many men to accompany you? Did you neglect to tell them your surname?’

  ‘Oh, for goodness sake, Jack! Nobody in Baldock has ever heard the name Warriner. But they had all heard about Letty. Once they realised it was Violet Dunston who was the heiress in distress, they were surprisingly keen to offer their assistance.’ Jacob screwed up his face, suddenly a little sheepish. ‘I might have mentioned there would be a reward. Sorry, Letty—but I promised them five pounds apiece.’

  Letty rose from her chair, grabbed his face and kissed him soundly on the forehead. ‘I can afford it. It was good thinking on your part and I will be eternally grateful.’

  She then marched to Joe and enveloped him a hug. ‘Thank you, Dr Joe. For everything. You were very brave. And frightening. The ladies are going to love you.’ The most studious Warriner blushed profusely and earned a ribbing from his younger sibling.

  Letty finally stood in front of Jamie and felt a knot of emotion. For all of his inscrutability and curt comments, he hid a heart of pure gold. ‘Thank you for saving me.’

  ‘That’s what families do, Letty—and I assume you are about to become family and that my pig-headed oldest brother has finally come to his senses.’ Jamie offered her one of his almost smiles. ‘Consider it our birthday gift and wedding gift combined. And you can stop those tears right now before they fall, madam. I don’t do waterworks.’

  Letty felt Jack come up behind her before he curled his arm possessively around her waist. ‘Now that we are not in such a hurry to get to London in the morning, shall we see if there is room for us all at this inn?’

  ‘Inn? Haystack? I don’t care so long as I am with you.’ And she didn’t. ‘But I don’t want to go to London. I want to go back home to celebrate my birthday—to Markham Manor.’ Because there was nobody important in London apart from her solicitor and he could jolly well come to her. She would build her foundling home in Nottingham instead. It was equally as rotten and just as desperate.

  Jack winced and heaved out a deep breath. ‘With all of the worry and excitement, I completely forgot that today is your birthday. Now I feel bad. I haven’t given you a gift.’

  Letty grabbed his lapels and kissed him noisily. ‘Yes, you did. You’re my birthday gift. And don’t let it go to your head, but for a girl who has everything, you, Jack Warriner, are the best present I have ever had.’

  Joe and Jacob grinned. Jamie groaned.

  ‘Seeing as you two are getting all soppy, I’m off to bed.’ He tossed Jack a room key. ‘Come on, boys. Let’s leave the Earl of Markham and his beloved to it.’

  Even though she knew they were creating a shocking spectacle, Letty could not bring herself to let go of Jack just yet. She needed to keep touching him to reassure herself that he was safe. And she didn’t want to cry, even though the tears were so close to the surface. Her new life had already started and she was not going to spoil it with tears. They would fall, she knew, but not tonight. Tonight, she just wanted to enjoy being unashamedly with Jack. Her Jack. A farmer and, apparently, an earl.

  ‘Why did I not know you had a title?’

  ‘I’ve never had cause to use it.’

  ‘I used to want a title. It was on my list of attributes for any potential future husband.’

  ‘What other attributes did you want your future husband to have? I should be interested to know how I measure up,’ he teased.

  ‘Let me see...’ Letty tapped her chin and pretended to consider it. ‘He had to be handsome, which of course, you are. So that is good news. He also had to be witty, and whilst you are nowhere near as funny as I am, you can hold up your end—when you are not being stubborn and dictatorial, that is. I wanted him to be an excellent horseman. I like to ride and I needed my husband to have a fine seat on a horse. You ride well enough, but your seat is most excellent.’

  She wiggled her eyebrows shamelessly and he grinned wickedly at the compliment. ‘Aside from my superior posterior, is there any other criteria I will be judged against?’

  ‘Of course! I am very particular. My future husband would have to be a connoisseur of the theatre—and I know you read plays when you can tear yourself away from those awful ledgers—and I suppose I could loosely class your portrait of Sir Hugo as evidence of your being a patron of the arts. I also wanted my husband to be the absolute envy of all of my society friends, but seeing as I am not altogether sure I have any real friends there, that hardly counts any more.’ Letty wrapped her arms around his waist and stared up into his hypnotic blue eyes adoringly. ‘Most importantly, my future husband had to be hopelessly in love with me. Which, it goes without saying, you are. And who could blame you. Just as I am hopelessly in love with you.’

  His hands came to rest gently on her shoulders. ‘You do realise absolutely everyone will assume that I have only married you for your money.’

  ‘Not everyone. I know the truth. Your brothers know the truth. I don’t care what anyone else thinks. Just as long as I get to marry my handsome, responsible, proud, stubborn Earl.’ She walked her fingers up his broad chest suggestively before placing her palm flat against his steadily beating heart, secure in the knowledge it belonged to her, not the pile of banknotes which came with her. If it took her for ever, Letty was determined to banish all of his insecurities about his unworthiness away. ‘Have I already mentioned how determined I was that my future husband would have a title? It was the one frippery I never had.’

  With great deliberation, Jack took her right hand in his and slid the emerald ring off her finger. Then he took her left hand. He slipped the gold band slowly on to her ring finger, arranged the stone just so, then brought her hand up to his lips.

  ‘Well, I am glad I can offer you that, at least. Once we’re married you can call yourself Countess. No more Violet Dunston, the Tea Heiress. You’ll be Letty Warriner, the Countess of Markham.’

  Letty held out her hand to examine the ring’s new position and grinned. ‘I quite like the sound of Letty Warriner—but I find myself surprisingly ambivalent to being a countess. It sounds so...superficial and privileged, don’t you think? I believe, going forward, you should simply call me sweetheart.’

  Jack kissed her long and hard until the walls of the inn swayed and her knees almost buckled. When he finally prised his mouth from hers, he stared down at her and smiled. It was his roguish smile. The one which always did funny things to her insides.

  ‘Happy Birthday, sweetheart.’ His deep blue eyes swirled with mischief and promise. ‘If you follow me upstairs, I might be persuaded to let you unwrap your present.’

  * * * * *

  If you enjoyed this story, you won’t want to miss these other great reads from Virginia Heath

  MISS BRADSHAW’S BOUGHT BETROTHAL

  THE DIS
CERNING GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE

  HER ENEMY AT THE ALTAR

  THAT DESPICABLE ROGUE

  Keep reading for an excerpt from THE DUKE’S UNEXPECTED BRIDE by Lara Temple.

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  The Duke’s Unexpected Bride

  by Lara Temple

  Chapter One

  London—1819, summer

  Sophie inspected her prey. The stout pug lay in the middle of an enormous chartreuse-velvet cushion placed strategically close to the fireplace in Lady Minnie’s back parlour, which was known as Marmaduke’s Parlour—though never within the hearing of the lady of the house.