“Where could he have taken her?” Jack demanded with aggravated frustration as they gathered in the family parlor that afternoon. Jack, Francis and a half-dozen footmen had all ridden out in different directions, trying to trail the carriage that had taken Kitty away, but met with no luck. The local sheriff was called in to assist and was gathering deputies even as they met to form a search party. General consensus determined Hayes must be the perpetrator of the crime. There could be no one else who would focus on Kitty alone for a kidnapping when any of the residents of Kilberry would have been sufficient impetus for a ransom request to be successful.
So the two lackeys had taken Kitty on Hayes’ command, but where and to what end was the question. Jack had nearly worn out the carpets, pacing in endless worry.
“Well, they couldn’t have gone too far,” Francis reasoned after much debate. “We should have had some sign of them if they had gone any distance. A witness. Something! I would wager they are actually quite close.”
“They’d have to be,” Eve agreed, though she wrung her hands uncontrollably. “Someone would have seen the carriage otherwise. Newport is not a large place.”
“Where then?” Jack paced the room again, agitation clear in each step, running his hands through his hair. “And for what purpose?”
“To have his wife back.” This came softly from Maggie, who sat near the window with Eve as they comforted each other, looking every one of her years as anxiety ravaged her. Everyone turned to her. “We were in New York when Kitty came to us a few months ago. She told us that she was going to visit Eve, but did not want Freddie to know and asked that we not tell him. We tried to have a reason from her but she seemed hesitant to speak on it so we didn’t pressure her.”
Maggie cupped Eve’s face and looked down at the features so much like Kitty’s, kissing her cheeks. “Freddie showed up a couple weeks later in a rage, demanding to know where Kitty had gone. By then we had gotten your telegram and knew we couldn’t tell him anything so we deliberately misled him. We sent him to the Carolinas,” she admitted, earning a stifled laugh from Eve.
“Kitty always hated it there,” she told the others. “Too hot and wet. She never wanted to vacation there.”
“Yes,” her mother smiled sadly, then lost any trace of amusement. “But when he came back, Freddie was truly volatile. He damaged our property and threatened violence against both of us if we did not tell him. It was then we realized why Kitty had left more fully than your telegram let on.” She sighed heavily. “He demanded ‘his wife’, his, and said he was in his rights to have her back. Freddie always was a jealous boy. Hated to share what he thought was his.”
“Why did you make her marry him then?” Jack asked, going down on a knee before her and taking her hand in his. “She never really wanted to, you know?”
Maggie looked with surprise to her older daughter who nodded in confirmation. “She never said anything to me,” she admitted ruefully. “Kitty was always a proper daughter. Obedient, uncomplaining.”
“Unlike me,” Eve added wryly.
“Yes,” her mother agreed. “You fought tooth and nail against marrying Shaftesbury. You were quite vocal about it, if I recall.”
“Always disobedient and complaining,” Eve softly added.
“I loved you both equally, in spite of and because of your differences.” Eve hugged her mother gently. “We were such awful parents,” Maggie sighed.
“You were wonderful parents, both you and Da,” Eve assured her, tears burning her eyes. “You just wanted us to be taken care of and Freddie always professed to love Kitty.”
“And there is where the problem resides,” Maggie reverted to the previous subject. “It is what kept us from realizing how bad the marriage truly was for Kitty. Even after her letter, I guess we never thought it could be this bad. Freddie believes that he loves her, passionately and possessively.”
“Fanatically,” Jack inserted grimly, remembering the way Hayes had acted at the lawyer’s office.
“Yes,” Maggie continued. “And now I believe if he discovers she does not feel the same for him or if he feels she betrayed his love, he will be very angry with her. I fear for her safety.”
“Well, you are right to fear,” Jack informed them all, “because he does know. Jensen sent word that Hayes received his divorce papers yesterday.” Haddington ground his teeth in helpless frustration. When he had followed Eve up to Kitty’s room that morning to locate her in this cavernous mansion, he intended only to talk to her to find out the reasons for her temper the previous evening. Kitty was like a thundercloud, bursting abruptly but usually ready to spread apologetic sunshine over the aftermath. He thought her anger would surely have dispersed. When he had held her in his arms, however, all the passion from the night before flooded him, and her as well, he was sure, and he’d had to take her again. Perhaps it hadn’t been the most romantic interlude, but it had been fulfilling for them both. Still, afterward she hadn’t even looked at him or said a word, clinging to her anger.
Disappointed and uncertain how to proceed, he returned to his own room only to find a packet of papers delivered in his absence. It had taken little time to realize that the legal documents from Mr. Jensen detailed a monetary transfer Kitty had set up while they were still in New York. The paperwork documented a transfer of funds into his account in Edinburgh in an amount tripling the sum he required to remove the lien from his estates. Her generosity left him humbled and disgruntled. Suddenly he wanted nothing to do with their ‘bargain’. He wanted simply to walk away from this troubling relationship, remove himself back to Scotland and a life without the turmoil she had brought into it.
Throwing that sheath of papers aside, he left, taking MacKintosh with him for a hard ride through the countryside. He needed time to think about her reaction and expectations…and his own. To examine the disturbing realization that he was, in essence, a kept man. Jack knew Kitty did not see their affair as such, but what did she want, then? What was her anger based on?
Whether she had misinterpreted his comments or not, Jack was certain Kitty had intended to engage in an extended affair with him. If that were going to be possible, they would have to come to an understanding.
But to do that, he first needed to find her. “We need to find her before Hayes harms her in a fit of rage,” he said aloud, unaware of the emotion that thickened his voice. “If he is so far gone in this obsession to kidnap her, he might in the end decide if he can’t have her for himself, he would rather she die.”
Eve and Maggie both gasped at his grim prediction but Francis only nodded gravely. “Let’s get back at it then. Assume they are close by. We will send a man in every direction to every building we come upon. She must be found.”
“Soon,” Haddington growled, and stalked out of the room.
Chapter 32
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered;
yet we have this consolation with us,
that the harder the conflict,
the more glorious the triumph.
- Thomas Paine, The American Crisis
Kitty dabbed the edge of her skirt against her bloody lip, wincing in pain against the contact. Her cheek and jaw throbbed terribly but she didn’t think they were broken. Her left eye, however, was swollen nearly shut. Damn that Freddie! She thought she was done with moments like this! Freddie had come back in, raving about the divorce and claiming he would never let her go. When she had remained adamant she would never go back with him, he had beaten her again, convinced that domination would eventually force Kitty back into the role she had once dwelt in.
Kitty was done with that life, however. She had fought back against him, using every trick Sung Li taught her, and it had felt wonderful…before his fist had met her cheek, of course. But she would not subjugate herself before him ever again, not even to placate his madness. The worst was yet to come, she was sure, and she needed to be prepared for it. Sooner or later Freddie’s focus was going to return to Jack and he would begin to question the
ir friendship. It wouldn’t matter what she said, his jealousy would override all else and his rage would bear more painful results.
And if he found out Jack was her lover in truth now! She shuddered at what may come but determined not to falter in her resolution. She would not let him see her fear ever again! She would give as good as she got!
Before his next visit, what she really needed to do was find a way out of her prison. She needed to escape! But how? The loft was small, perhaps just eight feet square, and had only a big pair of doors leading to the outside. These doors would have no steps but would rather be where a farmer might prop a conveyor to haul bales and staples to the upper floor of the barn. No help there. With her hands and feet bound, she could not attempt the ladder to search the area below. The only exit was the doors. Such a leap was bound to cause serious injury. So what were the possibilities?
She scooted herself close to the doors and considered the tiny crack where the door met the outer wall. Pressing her eye to the crack, Kitty tried to figure out where she was. Probably not an inn, she reasoned, since she heard no signs of other people being present.
Kitty wished she knew how far they had traveled from Kilberry. Since being rendered unconscious, she had no idea how far they had gone. Closing her eyes, she focused on the sounds she was able to hear. No voices, no footsteps. No carriages or other traffic was audible. They were not in Newport then, not in a town. A farm, perhaps? Animal sounds? No. But she could hear…birds? Yes, she could hear them, but not gulls, no sounds of the ocean. They had gone inland.
Kitty sighed ruefully and shook her head. Much good she had just done. She was still trapped but now she knew there was no one around to help her. Even if she were to scream, she was certain there was no one nearby to hear her.
He had found her, Jack thought with grim satisfaction. The two slovenly men seated outside the barn door across the clearing were dead on for the description Eve provided of Kitty’s captors. Ill-fitting suits on two disreputable, shifty-looking men. It was the eighth such farm Jack had come across over the course of the day. He had searched every house, henhouse and barn for miles around, and with each disappointment his dread and anxiety grew deeper, for who truly knew what evil this Freddie Hayes might be capable of?
Kitty’s brief overview of her married life with this bastard had left much unsaid, and as exhaustion and defeat riled Haddington repeatedly that day, the images and possibilities of Hayes’ retribution upon his former wife had become a bloody nightmare in his mind. He imagined her tortured by the madman’s hand, bloodied and beaten. The idea that any of his imagined scenarios might become reality spurred him on in his frantic search.
But now, he was sure he had located her in the tiny ramshackle barn, currently guarded by the two thugs who were now trading a silver flask back and forth. It was getting dark already and Jack knew he should go back to Kilberry and garner support, returning in the morning, but the earl realized he could not leave Kitty in the clutches of this villainous pair for the night.
And though Hayes was nowhere in sight, there was a chance if he left now the villain might arrive soon, taking Kitty farther away and risking her loss once more.
No, he had to get her out now. Jack contemplated the pair at the barn doors. That had to be where Kitty was being kept, rather than the unguarded farmhouse nearby. He tapped his cheek in consideration wondering if he could take the pair on his own. Of the two men, the brawnier one had the look of a seasoned fighter and was close to him in size, if a wee bit paunchy. The small fellow, though, Jack thought might be the more difficult of the pair, as he looked like a man who faced serious troubles in his past and found unethical ways to emerge the victor. However, the two men looked tired and inebriated as well, which was to his benefit. If they had been long at the flask, drunkenness might make them ungainly and slow.
Unless they were armed. Appearances aside, Jack couldn’t be sure.
Deciding his best chance might be to avoid a confrontation with the unpredictable pair, Jack sidled back into the woods and skirted around the clearing to the backside of the rickety building. Sure enough, though there was no rear door, a small window relieved the side of the barn. Chancing the pair of guards would confine themselves to main doors, Jack slid along the weathered wall. The window was at shoulder height but, thankfully, missing a pane of glass. Removing his jacket, Jack wrapped it around the frame, intending to push it up, but at the slightest pressure the entire window, wood frame and all, fell into the barn. Lurching forward, Jack caught it before it could fall to the floor and break the remaining panes, but it did swing against the wall with a loud thunk that had Jack cursing under his breath and waiting expectantly for the guards to come in search of the source of the noise.
When all remained silent, Jack lifted the window diagonally through the opening and propped it up against the barn. Hefting himself, he went headfirst through the now empty window frame and leapt silently to his feet in what was once the tack room of the barn. The setting sun cast minimal light into the space, but Kitty clearly wasn’t in the room. Cracking open the door, he slipped through, making an efficient search of all the stalls, coming upon two horses and a carriage before finding the ladder to the loft.
Jack cast a quick glance toward the main doors, assuring himself that his presence had yet gone unnoticed, before swinging up the narrow ladder. A peek over the top revealed little in the near blackness of the upper loft. Risking discovery, Jack whispered into the darkness. “Kitty?”
There was a rustling in the hay, then, “Jack?”
“Oh, thank God,” he whispered as he swung up into the loft. “Shush now!”
“Watch…”
“Ouch!” he grunted as his head made contact with the rafter.
“…out,” Kitty finished, as she heard Jack make his way over to her.
Jack dropped to his knees and crawled through the hay over to Kitty. Finding an ankle, he groped his way up until he was able to cup his hands around her cheeks. Lowering his mouth, he pressed a rough kiss to her lips, only to hear her hiss in pain and draw back. “Are you all right?” he asked. “Did that bastard hurt you?”
“Just knocked me about a bit,” she whispered. “How did you find me?”
“We’ve been searching every building in Rhode Island as far as I can tell,” he told her as he untied her hands blindly and moved on to her ankles. “When I saw those two guarding the doors out front, I knew I had finally found the right place. Can you walk?”
“I can if I have to and before you say anything, yes, I know I have to.” Kitty rubbed life back into her feet as Jack started sliding back to the ladder, pulling her along. Finding the edge with his hand, he felt his way along to the ladder, eased himself over and guided her feet to the top rung before he continued his descent.
When Kitty reached the bottom, he was there waiting to lift her down the last step with his hands on her waist. Able to see a little better, she let Jack take her hand to lead her to their escape. But as they turned, the door opened, casting the setting sun upon the darkened silhouette of Hayes, with his two thugs behind him and a pistol aimed directly at them.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Hayes sneered, as the pair shielded their eyes against the brighter light. “I couldn’t believe it when I watched you sneak from the woods, Lord Haddington. I had quite a clear view of the whole thing from the house. Of course, I had assumed these two buffoons had seen you as well, otherwise I would have arrived much sooner. What do you think you’re doing with my wife?”
Jack leaned a shoulder nonchalantly against a stall door, eying the kidnapper with a venomous glare, though his voice held a note of his usual cold arrogance, “Why, I heard she wasn’t married to you any longer and, being such a good friend, decided to come and rescue her from you.”
“She doesn’t need rescuing from me, Lord Haddington,” Hayes spat out, already losing his focus as his irrational anger took hold. “She knows I only want what is best for her.”
�
��I really don’t think that is the case,” Jack drawled, determined to rattle the impetuous fellow into doing something rash and hoping to gain the upper hand. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have become such good, intimate friends these past several days.”
The look on Hayes face was incredulous and he glanced back and forth between his prisoners. “Intimate?”
“Jack!” Kitty hissed in warning, remembering the first time Freddie had assumed the worst of her mere flirtation with another man.
“Extremely intimate,” Jack went on provoking Hayes, regardless of her warning.
Hayes ground his teeth as his face turned an alarming shade of red. “Are you saying…?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Jack smirked with a waggle of his brows. “Didn’t teach her much though, did you? I have to admit– ooofff!”
Hayes lowered himself and plowed into Jack’s midsection like an angry bull, cutting off any further conversation. Jack came up, landing a fair right as he swung around, whipping his left arm about toward Freddie’s lackeys. A length of bridle extended from his hand, catching the smaller man across the eyes. He bent as he went, taking up a wooden bucket in his right hand that arced as he spun around and hit the larger man along the side of his head. Whipping about, he snapped the reins at Hayes, slashing him across the wrists, causing the pistol to skid across the compacted dirt floor and into the hay.
Jack turned back to the other two men. The brutish fellow was wobbling on his feet and holding his head. As Jack had hoped, copious amounts of alcohol rendered him ineffective. The shorter, wiry fiend was already coming at him, though blood streamed from his right eye. His remaining eye shot vengeance at Haddington and the pair met, trading vicious blows.
Kitty caught Freddie’s movement as he searched for the gun and found herself impulsively leaping after him trying to find it first. As always, Freddie did not refrain from playing dirty, but desperation drove Kitty to fight back as she clawed at him, pulling at his hair and earning a grunt of pain, which, she thought with satisfaction, rivaled those Jack was eliciting from the pair of thugs he was fighting. Catching Freddie’s hand, she turned it backwards, locking his thumb down in a better version on the move she tried earlier. This time, Freddie cried out in pain for the second injury to his wrist and was forced to his knees to relieve the pressure.
Questions for a Highlander Page 81
