One Fine Duke

by Lenora Bell

  “Ah, my reputation precedes me to England,” said Le Triton.

  “We know you have smuggled cargo,” called Langley. “And I’m not boarding your ship for all the assurances in the world. My men have you covered. Surrender or face cold, hard British steel.”

  “I have a better idea,” said Le Triton, his voice carrying clearly on the breeze.

  I’ll wager you do, she thought. This was all going according to plan.

  “I’ll exchange Lord Rafe for Miss Penny, Inspector. And half of my cargo. You will be the hero who defended the coast of Britain and saved a duke’s brother. I go back to France never to return.”

  Even though Mina had known that Le Triton would make the suggestion, it still chilled her to the bone. What would he do to her if he captured her?

  That wasn’t going to happen. They had a good plan. Drew must be on board by now. Once he rescued Rafe, Langley would move in and take the ship.

  “You must be mad,” said Langley. “I’ll never give you Miss Penny.”

  “Don’t be a fool, Inspector. She’s only a chit of a girl. Let me see you more clearly, Miss Penny.”

  Langley shook his head violently but Mina decided to risk everything. She rose higher above the rock until she was standing. She flung off her cloak to reveal her scarlet gown. “I’m not afraid of you, Le Triton.”

  “You don’t have to be. Let’s go on an adventure together, no? Come with me back to France. I have uses for a young girl of your beauty and obvious intelligence.”

  “Stop right there,” said Langley.

  “I’ll wager that I have more men than you do, Inspector Langley. And I’d wager they’re more desperate. And they fight dirty, don’t you boys?”

  Shouts from the ragged and rough-looking smugglers.

  “No one has to know about the girl, Inspector,” said Le Triton. “Who’s to even tell that she was here? Miss Penny for half my cargo and the chance to be a hero. She’ll be unharmed, I give you my word.”

  Inspector Langley pretended to waver, to be swayed by the idea of riches and glory. “What’s in your cargo?”

  “Rare artworks and antiquities. One of the paintings in this hold would be more than your life pension. And I have an even greater prize. The Wish Diamond.” He pulled the diamond out from his collar, holding it up by a silver chain. “I’m sure you’ve heard of it. It’s worth a king’s ransom. It’s certainly worth more than one little girl.”

  “How dare you, sir,” Mina sputtered. “Don’t listen to him, Inspector. He’s trying to trick you.”

  “How much did you say that diamond is worth?” asked Langley.

  “How can you ask him that, Inspector?”

  Le Triton’s laughter made her shudder. “I’m afraid we all have our price, Miss Penny.”

  Follow Mina’s plan. Don’t deviate from it.

  Don’t think about her bravely facing all of those evil men carrying pistols and knives.

  She’s no damsel in distress. She doesn’t require rescuing. Rafe does.

  It wasn’t the belly of the ship that Drew was afraid of—it was his own mind. His mind held him captive, trapped in the past. And he could break that hold right here, right now.

  Drew scaled the hull of the ship, working silently and swiftly. Hand over hand. Grip the rope, muscles knotting, heart pounding.

  Don’t think about anything except rescuing Rafe. Everything else was in the past.

  This wasn’t the same ship where he’d been held. His palm slipped against the rope and he nearly fell. Darkness danced at the edges of his eyes. His chest tightened.

  Steady now. Remember to breathe.

  I am not my thoughts. I am not my memories.

  Mina was relying on him to be strong. To conquer his demons.

  No sentries watching the stairs down to the hold—everyone watching what was happening on the deck, riveted by Mina and the Inspector.

  He heard her voice ring out, so bold and brave.

  “I’m Miss Wilhelmina Penny,” she shouted.

  That’s right, Le Triton. You’ve met your doom.

  Darkness behind him. Small space. Panic seeping in at the edges of his mind, spilling through the cracks, ready to flood his mind until he drowned.

  He steadied his breathing as he inched along the narrow corridor. “Rafe,” he called in a low voice. “Rafe, are you there?”

  “Thorny?” came a thin voice. “Is that you?”

  He followed the sound, feeling his way along the wall, fighting panic with every step. The feel of the ship rocking beneath him. The smell of salt water and unwashed male.

  He stopped to retch.

  Rafe needed him. Mina was relying on him.

  No one guarding Rafe. They’d stuffed him in a small cell under the stairs, hardly big enough to contain him. Drew rattled the door. It was locked.

  “Rafe,” he said through the rusted iron bars covering the small square hole in the door. “I’m here to rescue you.”

  “Thorny.” Rafe’s voice was weak. “You came.”

  “Of course I came, you big idiot. Now who has the keys to this door?”

  “Hanging . . . on the hook.”

  Drew’s eyes finally adjusted to the darkness. The keys were hanging on a hook on the wall facing the door, a cruel location meant to humiliate the prisoner who could see the keys but never reach them.

  His hands trembled as he opened the door. Corbyn was watching the entrance to the stairs. “Hurry,” he hissed. “Something’s happening up here!”

  Drew fit the key into the lock and turned. The door creaked inward. Rafe was lying on the floor, his leg twisted at a bad angle.

  “How did you know where to find me?” Rafe asked.

  “Mina and I translated your diary.”

  “Who’s Mina?”

  “Never mind, we have to hurry. Mina and Inspector Langley of the London Metropolitan Police Service are out there right now risking their lives, distracting Le Triton so that I can rescue your undeserving arse.”

  “But—”

  “There’ll be time for all of these questions once you’re safely in a bed at Thornhill House with a physician attending you.” Drew hauled Rafe upright. “Can you walk?”

  “They broke my leg. I can hobble.”

  Rafe’s face was white and his leg dragged along behind him. It made Drew sick to look at it. He tore the cork off his flask and handed it to Rafe.

  “Drink this.”

  Rafe downed the whisky in several gulps. “I’m ready.”

  Drew propped him up against his chest and helped him hobble out of the cell. The stairs were difficult. Drew and Corbyn pushed and pulled Rafe up the stairs and toward the railing.

  Drew was about to lower Rafe over the railing into the waiting arms of Langley’s man in the rowboat when he saw a slash of scarlet on shore and heard a shot fired. Mina.

  He turned back, desperate to know that she was safe.

  “Bring up the hostage,” a voice shouted.

  “I’m right here, Le Triton,” Rafe shouted.

  “Rafe, what are you doing? Go over the railing. Get out of here.” The fool would get them all killed.

  Men rushed at them. Drew stood his ground, thrusting Rafe behind him. He cracked the first one on the jaw and the man crashed to the deck.

  Another shot exploded. Another man went down by Drew’s fists.

  His blood ran cold and hot at the same time. All he saw was scarlet. All he could think of was protecting Mina.

  This wasn’t supposed to happen. Drew was supposed to quietly spirit Rafe off of the ship but instead a fistfight had broken out on the deck.

  Mina had thought that they would be gone by now but they were still on board.

  Drew plowed through men, fists huge and face a grim mask. Mina trained her pistol on Le Triton. She didn’t have a clear shot. Inspector Langley’s men were engaging the smugglers with fists and pistols.

  One of the smugglers saw her and raised his pistol. Fear shot her full of holes
as she watched him aim and fire. She unfroze just in time to move out of the way.

  The bullet whistled past her, missing her by only a fraction of an inch.

  Had she warned Drew about Le Triton’s knives? Some of them were tipped with poison.

  One scratch from a knife and Drew could die.

  A bullet whizzed past her left ear. She dropped to the ground instinctively, seeking cover.

  Another bullet sprayed sand in her face.

  In that moment she discovered three very important things: (1) she didn’t like being shot at, because she preferred to be alive; (2) she didn’t want to shoot anyone else, because she didn’t want blood on her hands; and (3) she loved Drew.

  Of course she loved Drew.

  Blindly. Explosively.

  Like a bullet lodged in her chest in such a way that it would have to stay there forever because the extracting of it would kill her.

  Perhaps that wasn’t the best metaphor, given their current perilous situation.

  She loved Drew, and she wasn’t about to let him die at the hands of the same monster who had killed her parents.

  “Cover me,” she shouted to Langley, rising fully, balling her skirts up into one fist, and exploding into a run.

  Chapter 30

  Mina raced onto the deck of the ship. Everything was a blur. Men grunted in pain and the deck groaned beneath her feet. Inspector Langley fought bravely, knocking people over the head with the butt of his pistol and clearing a path for Mina.

  “Mina, get back,” Drew shouted. He had blood dripping down his face. He was moving toward Le Triton, who was fighting with one of Langley’s men.

  “Drew, I love you,” she shouted. “You can’t die.”

  He startled. A knife whizzed past his ear.

  “Keep fighting,” she shouted. “But be careful. His blades are dipped in poison!”

  Le Triton’s laughter echoed into the night. “You know so much about me, Miss Penny,” he shouted, parrying a blow from the Inspector’s man. “Why don’t you come a little closer?”

  In that moment, Mina stared into the face of the man who had murdered her parents. Was this the last image her mother had seen before she died? The flat planes of his face, rust-colored hair, pale blue eyes. Had her mother asked for mercy and found none?

  Le Triton threw another knife, narrowly missing Drew, who ducked just in time.

  The two men circled each other. Mina trained her pistol on Le Triton’s heart, but the man wouldn’t stand still—he danced and leapt, always moving.

  She’d have to move closer, distract him somehow.

  Her uncle’s voice echoed in her mind, the words he’d used when he trained agents and she’d spied on the training.

  Keep your target talking. Identify weakness, hesitation, and use it to your advantage.

  “Le Triton,” Mina shouted. “How is Claudette? How old is she now, nineteen?” She’d read the name of his daughter in one of her uncle’s secret reports.

  Her enemy faltered for a second and Drew darted toward him and landed a blow on his jaw.

  Le Triton staggered for a moment but regained his balance swiftly. The knife in his hand glittered wickedly in the moonlight. He slashed at Drew, who was forced to retreat.

  Where was Langley? Mina caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye. He was engaging more of the smugglers, keeping them from rushing to their leader’s aid.

  “Claudette is the same age as you, Miss Penny,” said Le Triton. “She’s twenty.”

  “The same age Sir Malcolm’s daughter Rebecca would have been if you hadn’t killed her.”

  Le Triton paused, panting for breath, his poisoned knife extended like a shield in front of his chest. “I don’t kill girls. She wasn’t supposed to drink that poison. It was meant for Malcolm.”

  “You killed his wife and his daughter.”

  “By accident.”

  “What does Claudette like to eat for breakfast? Does she have a beau?” She kept talking about his daughter, she could see it was enraging him. Drew moved closer.

  Mina advanced in step with him.

  If they could move close enough, Drew could kick the knife out of Le Triton’s hand and Mina could shoot him.

  Without warning, a knife flew through the air, but it was aimed at Le Triton. It struck home, the long, sharp blade piercing his shoulder and flinging his arm back. Le Triton’s knife clattered to the deck.

  “I told you I’ve been practicing with a knife, Thorny,” Lord Rafe shouted from his slouched position on the deck.

  It was the opening she and Drew had been waiting for. Drew lunged for the hilt of Le Triton’s knife and flung it off the ship. In the next movement, he slammed his foot into Le Triton’s kneecap.

  Attacked from all sides, Le Triton fell to his knees.

  Mina was on him in seconds. She pressed her pistol to his forehead. “You murdered my parents, you bastard.”

  Le Triton laughed, spitting blood on the deck. “Your mother was quite a woman. It was a shame to have to kill such a beauty.”

  Mina’s hand trembled. She could take his life.

  His life for the lives of her parents.

  “Mina,” said Drew in a low, steady voice. “He’s not worth it. Let the Inspector arrest him. This isn’t who you are.”

  A cold-blooded killer. A spy with no heart to lose.

  He was right. It wasn’t her. She’d already lost her heart to him.

  She lacked the detachment, the coldness necessary to complete the deed.

  Her finger hesitated on the trigger.

  “What are you waiting for, Miss Penny? Avenge your parents,” Le Triton taunted.

  “Don’t shoot him, Mina,” said Drew. “You’ll regret it the rest of your life.”

  A sob choked her throat. She wasn’t ruthless.

  She was no spy.

  She flung her pistol into the ocean.

  Drew grabbed both of Le Triton’s wrists and Inspector Langley arrived out of nowhere with a length of stout rope.

  Mina raised her eyes. All around them men lay on the deck moaning or silent. The wood was slick with blood.

  She tasted blood inside her mouth where she’d bit her cheek.

  Drew stepped between her and the gory scene until all she saw was the wide ocean on one side and an enormous duke on the other side.

  “You’re unharmed, Mina?” Drew asked her, cupping her face with his hands.

  She loves me. She said she loves me, his heart sang.

  Her voice shook and her face was drained of color. “Some blood and bruises here or there. And you?”

  “Better than I’ve ever been.” He was stronger and more powerful with Mina inside his walls.

  He’d realized while they were fighting side by side that he didn’t even need the walls anymore. Inspector Langley’s men rounded up the smugglers. With their leader captured, it was easy to bring them in line.

  Rafe was leaning against the railing. He hadn’t gotten very far with that mangled leg, but it was his well-timed knife attack that had brought down Le Triton.

  One of Inspector Langley’s men came up from below with a struggling Miss Lachance.

  “Unhand me, you imbecile,” she cried.

  “We’ll be questioning you, mademoiselle,” said the policeman.

  “Look at all of that cargo,” said Inspector Langley, motioning toward the piles of linen-wrapped parcels on the shore. “Is it really priceless antiquities?”

  “You will be astounded,” said Mina. “My uncle will help identify everything and return the items to their proper owners, or donate them to museums. You will be hailed as a hero, I have no doubt.”

  Inspector Langley shrugged his shoulders. “It was a group effort. His Grace with his fists, you with your pistol. You’re a very good woman to have around in a crisis, Miss Penny.”

  “And don’t forget my knife,” called Rafe. His voice was weak from pain and fatigue.

  “We need to convey my brother to a physician,” sa
id Drew.

  “Some of my men, and my new prisoners, require attention as well,” said the Inspector.

  “You brought your strumpet with you, Thorny?” Rafe asked. “The one who wants to marry me?”

  “She’s Miss Wilhelmina Penny,” said Drew proudly. “And I’m the one who’s going to marry her.”

  He swept her off the deck and into his arms and kissed her possessively, impulsively, with complete abandon.

  He didn’t think, or reason, or deny . . . he knew what he wanted. For once in his life, losing control was the clear choice.

  Because surrendering his control to Mina, to the woman he trusted and loved, was the only future he cared to see.

  He knew what he wanted. He wanted her.

  Bold, brave, Mina.

  He kissed her and his heart cracked wide open.

  Chapter 31

  The kiss was passionate, but far too brief, in Drew’s opinion. It was interrupted by pressing matters such as men bleeding from bullet wounds and Rafe crying out from the pain of his leg.

  There had been no time to talk, no more kisses.

  They’d helped bring Langley’s injured men back to the hotel, where a physician was attending them.

  The physician in Falmouth had given Rafe something for the pain and Rafe had insisted on going back with them to Thornhill House, saying it was only a broken leg.

  He’d even sat a horse, gritting his teeth the whole way and complaining, but they’d made it.

  Mina had ridden behind Drew and remained uncharacteristically silent almost the entire ride, which Drew attributed to exhaustion. It had been one hell of a day.

  Now Rafe was ensconced in a bedroom at Thornhill with the village doctor attending him. The doctor had said he’d keep the leg, but he’d probably walk with a pronounced limp the rest of his life.

  Mina had gone upstairs to wash and she hadn’t come back down.

  Drew sat by Rafe’s bedside, offering whisky as the doctor set his leg and wrapped it in clean bandages.

  “Are you comfortable, Lord Rafe?” asked the doctor.

  “A little more whisky and I’ll feel no pain,” he replied.

  “I can give you something stronger.”