His Lordship's Desire

by Joan Wolf

  At this point, Mr. Bingley appeared on the path. He stopped for a moment to talk to Florrie, then he came over to the duke and Sally.

  “I want you to help me walk back along this damned path,” the duke told the young man.

  To Sally’s keen ears, it sounded as if were slurring his words. He hadn’t been doing that before he was hit. She frowned. He shouldn’t try to walk, but what was their option?

  “Certainly, Your Grace.” Mr. Bingham said, and he went to the other side of the duke and braced him with his shoulder. Slowly the three of them began to retrace their steps down the path, followed by Florrie, who was clutching her money in her hand.

  Twenty-Four

  Diana awoke on a hard floor and the feeling of being rocked. She was dazed and disoriented and her head and her chin hurt terribly. It was a few minutes before her memory returned and she recalled the scene on the path at Vauxhall. She put her hand up to her aching chin and winced when she touched the tender spot.

  Someone hit me, she thought unbelievingly. She recalled everything that had happened up to the moment when the world had gone black.

  She tried to sit up, which made her head feel worse. She remembered the sound of the weapon hitting the duke’s head. Her own head was throbbing with pain. I hope Sinclair’s all right, she thought anxiously. I hope he and Sally were able to go for help.

  Giving into the pain, she lay back down, shut her eyes and tried to think. These men wanted to kidnap me. It was the whole purpose of the attack. But why? Why would anyone want to kidnap me? I’m not an heiress. I’m not an important person. Why?

  After a few minutes of hard, painful thinking, she came up with an answer.

  They’re going to try to get money out of Rumford. That’s what this is all about. They are going to make Rumford pay to get me back.

  But will he want me back after I’ve been held hostage by men like this? I will be irreparably compromised if they keep me overnight. People would always wonder what they did to me.

  Tears sprang to her eyes. Dear God, this can’t be happening. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she sat up once again and looked around, but it was too dark to see anything. From the way the floor rose and fell, she recognized that she must be on a boat.

  What am I going to do? Please help me, God. I have to get away from these awful men.

  What if they tried to rape her?

  She wasn’t tied in any way, and she put her hands over her face in despair.

  They hit Sinclair, so he couldn’t help me. And another of the men held Sally.

  Could Sally be in here in the darkness with her?

  “Sally?” she said in a low voice. “Sally, are you here?”

  No answer.

  She tried again.

  Still no answer. And she didn’t have the feeling that anyone was with her. She felt alone.

  Terribly, terribly alone.

  She heard steps and immediately she lay back down and closed her eyes. The cabin door opened and a man entered. Diana could feel him standing over her. The scent of his body odor was enough to make her want to retch. She tried to breathe evenly and slowly.

  “She’s still out,” he called up to the deck. “It doesn’t look as if we’ll have to hit her again.”

  “Good,” a deep voice called back.

  “Are you sure we’re headed in the right direction?” a third voice asked worriedly. “It seems to me we should be there by now.”

  “It’s a hell of a lot harder to do this at night than it was in the daylight,” the deep voice admitted. “But no one knows what happened to her. We’ll be all right.”

  The man in the room with Diana swore. She heard him mutter to himself, “We don’t have time to be sailing all over the bloody river.” The next thing she heard was the sound of footsteps moving away from her. The door opened and closed. After a few moments, Diana cautiously opened her eyes. Doing that made her head hurt worse, so she closed them again. There was nothing she could do right now.

  It seemed a long time to Diana that the boat kept sailing. Twice more a man came down to check on her, and twice more she pretended to be unconscious.

  Alone in the dark, she decided that her only chance of escape would be to continue to feign unconsciousness. They had to get her off the ship sometime, and when they did that, she would make a move to escape.

  She knew how to shove her knee into a man’s groin. Alex had taught her that after her earlier encounter with Hawley. And she could use her nails.

  Go for the eyes, Alex had told her.

  Be strong, Diana, she told herself. Think positively. You can get away from these beasts if you try. You can. You can. You can.

  When finally they came to get her, she was ready. The man with the deep voice was the one who came to pick her up. She did her best to hang limp in his arms as he carried her onto the deck.

  She could feel the man holding her rocking with the motion of the boat. Then he said, “Here, take her,” and she was transferred to the arms of the man with the terrible body odor. It was hard to lie still, not to turn her face away so she would not have to breathe in his disgusting smell, but she didn’t want to make her move on the dock. She would wait until they reached the street, where she would have more room to run away and hide.

  Her captor began to walk down the dock.

  “This’un has turned out to be a simple job,” someone said.

  “Easy as pickin’ cherries from a tree,” the man with the body odor agreed.

  “We ain’t finished yet,” the deep-voiced man warned. “Hazlett toll us we needs to deliver her safely to him before we get any money.”

  Hazlett. Diana filed that name away in her memory. She opened her eyes in a narrow squint and saw that they were approaching a small hut, which must be the office for the boat rental business.

  I’ll give it another minute, she thought.

  Then, to her utter amazement, she heard a deeply familiar voice say, “Unless you want me to shoot each and every one of you, you will hand the lady over to the boatman. Now.”

  Alex.

  Diana’s eyes popped open and relief flooded through every inch of her body. “Alex! It’s you!” She shoved hard at the chest of the man holding her.

  He was so astonished to hear her voice that he actually dropped her. She scrambled to her feet and ran to Alex, who was holding a pistol trained on her captors.

  He didn’t take his eyes off the kidnappers. “Are you all right, Dee?” he asked anxiously.

  Her heart was hammering. She couldn’t believe that he had actually come. “I’m fine, except for my jaw and a bad headache. Somebody must have hit me.” She stood slightly behind him, so as not to impede his aim, and said fervently, “I am so glad to see you! How on earth did you find me?”

  “Sally followed you and saw them put you on the boat,” he replied, never taking his eyes off the men. Then he said to the boatman, who had been standing silently in front of the small office at the end of the dock, “Tie these fellows up and keep them here until I get hold of Bow Street.”

  “Aye, my lord,” the boatman said, and disappeared into his office to get some rope.

  Diana’s heartbeat had finally begun to slow. She pulled herself together and said to Alex, “They talked about a man named Hazlett. Apparently he’s the one who hired them to kidnap me.”

  “I never heard of him,” Alex said, “but I’ll bet Bow Street has.”

  The boatman reappeared with ropes in his hand and proceeded to tie up Diana’s kidnappers efficiently.

  “Thank you for your help,” Alex said to the boatman. He lowered his pistol and turned to Diana. “Come along, Dee. My phaeton is parked up the street. I’ll take you home.”

  Once she was safely on the high seat of the carriage and was moving away from the pier, Diana began to shake. Alex put both his reins in one hand and placed an arm around her to draw her trembling body against him. “It’s all right, Dee,” he kept saying. “You’re all right. There’s nothing to be
frightened of any more. I’m here. Everything is going to be fine.”

  She started to cry. “It was like that time with Hawley,” she sobbed.

  He tightened his arm. “I know, love, I know.”

  She tried to stop crying because crying hurt her head. She pressed against him, feeling immeasurably comforted by the solid bulk of him, by the sound of his voice. She was safe. Once again Alex had saved her.

  The horses moved at a walk as Alex drove one-handed through the narrow streets on their way back to Grosvenor Square.

  At last she was composed enough to ask, “What about Sinclair? Is he all right? I saw one of the men hit him over the head with something.”

  “He’ll have a headache for a few days, but he’ll recover. He was awake by the time I got to him and Sally.”

  She looked up at him. He was hatless and his black curls had fallen across his forehead. He was looking ahead, through his horses’ ears. “Did you say that Sally followed me?” she asked incredulously.

  “Yes. She was amazingly brave. You owe your rescue to her more than to me, Dee. She saw those brutes load you onto the boat, and she got the color of the boat and its name. I thought it sounded like one of the boats from the rental place near the Tower, so that’s where I went. The boatman there confirmed that he had rented out a green craft named Caprice to three men earlier that day. So I waited for you to get back. Rumford was going to check the boat place at Westminster. We’ll have to get word to him that you’ve been found.”

  For the first time, Diana remembered her fiancé. She forced herself to move away from the comfort of Alex and tried to make her aching head function. “But why would someone want to kidnap me?” she asked in bewilderment.

  Alex shrugged. “Perhaps they were going to try to get money out of Rumford. Let’s hope the Bow Street runners will be able to find out the truth.”

  Away from the warmth of his body, Diana began to shiver again. Alex stopped his horses, took off his coat and put it around her. Then he picked up the reins in two hands and the horses began to trot briskly forward.

  When they finally reached home, Alex had one of the grooms saddle Sally’s horse and ride to Westminster to find Rumford and tell him the news. He told another groom to ride Bart to Bow Street and get someone to the rental boat dock by the Tower to take the tied-up men into custody. Then he took Diana into the first-floor drawing room and sent for some tea. “You need something to warm you up,” he said.

  Diana was sitting on the sofa next to Alex, sipping tea, when the Earl of Rumford came in the door.

  “Diana!” he cried. “Thank God you are all right!”

  Diana jumped up and ran to him. He put his arms around her and held her close.

  “Oh, Edward,” she said. “I was so frightened.”

  He was holding her tightly. He had been truly frightened for her, she thought. He really did love her.

  The earl bent his head and buried his lips in her hair.

  She heard Alex get to his feet and she stepped back a little from Lord Rumford to turn to him.

  Rumford looked at Alex, as well. “What happened?”

  There was a very grim look on Alex’s face. “One of the brutes hit her on the jaw and knocked her unconscious. Fortunately, they got lost on the river, so I was in time to intercept them at the boathouse.”

  “Thank God,” Rumford said fervently. He scanned Diana’s face. “You have a bruise on your jaw.”

  “That’s where I was hit,” she said. “It’s given me a bad headache.”

  “You should go upstairs to bed,” he said. “This has been an unspeakable experience for you. You must be exhausted.”

  “I want to see Sally first,” Diana said. “I want to thank her.”

  As Diana was speaking, there came a knock and the night footman opened the front door. Diana heard Sally say, “She’s here? Oh, thank God! Where is she?”

  “In the Red Drawing Room, Lady Sarah,” the night footman said.

  “Come along, Your Grace,” Sally said.

  Sinclair is here, too? Diana thought. She drew away from Rumford and turned to the door.

  Sinclair and Sally came in, both looking excessively disheveled. There was mud along the bottom of Sally’s evening skirt and her slippers were filthy. Diana ignored her pounding head, ran to her friend and embraced her. “Oh Sally! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Alex said that you followed me and got the description of the boat.” She shuddered. “I don’t know what would have happened to me if you hadn’t been so brave.”

  Sally hugged her back. “I’m just so thankful Alex found you.”

  Diana heard Alex say, “Here, Sinclair, have a seat. I’d offer you brandy, but I don’t think that’s a good idea with a head wound.”

  Sally dropped her arms from around Diana and watched the duke as he sat down. She wore a concerned look on her face. Sinclair was very pale and looked as if he would faint any minute.

  “We need a physician,” Diana said. “The duke looks awful.”

  “You don’t look so wonderful yourself,” Alex said.

  Sinclair protested, “I just had a bump on the head. I’ll be fine. I don’t need a physician.”

  Sally frowned in disagreement.

  Alex said, “I’ll go for the physician myself, Sal. Monty’s the only riding horse left in the stable and I don’t want to put a groom on him.” He turned to Sinclair, “We’re not telling anyone that Miss Sherwood was with you. The story of a kidnapping will not help her reputation.”

  The duke nodded, then winced at the pain the motion had caused. “I don’t need medical assistance,” he repeated.

  “I know a bit about wounds, and I know they need to be cleaned out,” Alex replied. “I also know you ought to be lying down.” He looked at Diana.

  “You too, Dee. You took a blow. I’ll wager you have a giant headache right now.”

  “I do,” Diana admitted.

  Alex turned to Sally. “I’ll help Sinclair upstairs to an empty bedroom before I go for Dr. Murray. He seems to be a good chap. I’ve talked to him at Brooks a few times.”

  “Thank you, Alex,” Sally said warmly. “Come along, Your Grace, and we’ll make you more comfortable.”

  Sinclair raised his eyebrows in a look of pure arrogance. His voice was cold when he spoke. “I’ll allow the doctor, but I don’t need to go upstairs to a bedroom. After he comes I am going home.”

  “No, you’re not,” Sally said, not at all intimidated by either the voice or the look. “You obviously have a concussion and will need to be still for a few days. I am not sending you back to your own house, where you will doubtless disobey the doctor’s orders and get out of bed much too soon. Now, come along.”

  Sinclair stared at her in amazement. In all of his life he had probably never been spoken to like this.

  Diana smiled for the first time since she had been attacked. “You had better go with her. When Sally gets it into her head that something is good for you, she’s relentless. Don’t let that sweet, angelic exterior fool you.”

  “It’s for your own good,” Sally said.

  Suddenly, Sinclair went chalk-white. He bent and put his head on his lap. He closed his eyes.

  Sally put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

  When Sinclair finally looked up again, Alex said, “Come along and I’ll take you to a bedroom. Sally’s right. You need to lie down.”

  Without any more protest, Sinclair got unsteadily to his feet and allowed Alex to put an arm around his shoulders to brace him. Sally ran upstairs to ready a bedroom, leaving Diana and Lord Rumford alone.

  “Come and sit,” he said gently, and she followed him to a sofa, where they sat side by side. He put an arm around her and she rested her pounding head on his shoulder. It was not as wide as Alex’s shoulder, she thought, but her fiancé’s obvious concern enveloped her like a cozy cocoon.

  He had been looking for her, too, she reminded herself.

  “I’m so sorry that this happened, Edward,” she s
aid. “I think someone must have had the idea to try to extort money from you for my return. The three men at Vauxhall were just doing a dirty job for pay. The man who hired them was named Hazlett.”

  “There is nothing for you to be sorry about,” Rumford returned. “You did nothing wrong. And do not worry, I’ll get the Bow Street runners on the job. We’ll find the man who ordered you kidnapped. Never fear.”

  “Alex already sent for Bow Street,” she said.

  Once again there came the sound of knocking on the front door. A few moments later, Lady Standish and Mrs. Sherwood were rushing into the room. Rumford had taken his arm away from Diana when he heard the women’s voices and now Diana’s mother came over to embrace her.

  “What happened, darling? Thank God you are here. Mr. Bingham told us about the attack on Sinclair and Sally, but he said you were not with them! Where were you? And where is Sally?”

  “She and Alex took Sinclair upstairs to lie down,” Diana said, then she proceeded to relate what had happened. She had just about finished when Alex came back into the room.

  Mrs. Sherwood gave him a tremulous smile. “Thank you, Alex. Thank God you found her in time!”

  “Sally is the one you ought to thank, Cousin Louisa, not me.” He looked at Diana. “I’m going for the doctor. I think you ought to take the advice Sally gave Sinclair, and get into bed. Your head must hurt like hell.”

  “All right,” she said in a resigned voice.

  “I’ll go with you, darling,” her mother said.

  Lord Rumford helped her to her feet and asked if she wanted him to carry her upstairs. She started to shake her head, then quickly stopped and said, “No. No, thank you, Edward. I can walk. I’m not feeling faint, you know. I just have a headache.”

  She reached up a little and kissed him on the cheek. “Come tomorrow morning. I hope I will be feeling better by then.”

  “I’ll do that,” he said.

  He stood there and watched as Diana and her mother left the room.

  Twenty-Five

  It was almost an hour before Alex arrived back at Standish House with the physician, Dr. Murray. Sally and Lady Standish accompanied him upstairs. He saw both patients and pronounced the duke to be in worse case than Diana. She could get up the following day if she so wished, but the duke was to remain in bed for at least two days. The doctor cleaned the wound, said that the brain was probably swollen and the patient should remain quiet until the headache had reduced itself to reasonable proportions. He gave some laudanum to both patients to help them sleep and went home again.