Two hours passed, leaving her restless and unsettled. Her mind still churned with possibilities despite her resolution to let the problem be, or rather the potential for a problem be. Deep in thought, she startled when the coach began to slow. Garrett swung down out of the seat above as they rumbled to a stop.
“Hello.” Deep appreciation sparkled in those unfathomable green eyes. That she could spend the rest of her life in that gaze struck her again, just as surely now as the very first time she looked a him.
She caught back a sigh.
“Hullo.” A second face joined his at the window, and then a third.
“Maura.” Sean touched his hat.
“Are ye ready to play a broken-down traveler, Maura?” Liam rubbed some dirt across his cheek, simulating his efforts to fix the broken whatever on their coach.
“Ye’ll need to appear a bit overset.” Sean sprinkled dirt on his jacket and then turned to Garrett.
“Aye.” Garrett coughed as a cloud of dust rose from Sean’s efforts.
“And somewhat impatient with the lot of us.” His normally refined tones slid into a soft lilt with surprising ease and authenticity. “Do ye think ye can manage such a tall order?”
She couldn’t help but smile. Managing to seem overset at the moment was not going to be as tall an order as they supposed.
“I believe I can manage, gentlemen.”
“Proceed.” Garrett gave the one-word order over his shoulder as he levered himself into the coach beside her, all trace of the lilt gone. “From here we go forward on foot.”
“On foot?”
“Aye, the coach will be within easy reach of the lodge if anyone cares to check our story. We’re taking off one of the wheels right now. We’ll make a break in a couple of the spokes, and that will be our excuse for needing repairs. If they have something to hide, it is more than likely they will not allow us inside. So we’ll have to do our best to observe and question from the outside.”
He took her hands in his. “There is the outside possibility that you might be able to gain entrance. If you are very, very careful.”
“I will be.”
He gave a smile that was part grimace and shook his head. “Somehow I knew that would be your answer.”
“Then we’re ready, except for this.” He leaned toward her and took her mouth in a gentle soul-searing kiss that poured molten heat through her.
Everything inside her still dwelling on her concerns for the past two hours melted into a warm pool of desire. “I have needed that,” he said.
“I have too.” She breathed her answer back to him.
“Ahh, don’t look at me that way, darlin’, or we’ll need to postpone the entire day.” He traced his fingers over her cheek. “And I don’t know if the Doyles can spare their coach a second day.”
“Think how disappointed Liam and Sean will be if we don’t get to play broken-down traveler today.” She smiled. “They have talked of little else since yesterday.”
“Come then. I would hate to disappoint
them
above all else.” He answered her smile with one of his own and her heart did an odd tumble. “We must be off.”
Within moments they were walking a rutted path that led up a slow incline into a thickly wooded area, not a path often traveled apparently.
Sean rolled the huge carriage wheel along beside him. There was something grim and determined in the set of his jaw despite the easy way he rolled the wheel, the teasing tone he’d maintained in the two days of this expedition.
Liam’s face also showed determination and concentration. Maura transferred her gaze to Garrett. “What is the best you hope for here?”
“Enough information to assure us this is the place we’re looking for. If it is, we’ll come back tonight with the rest of our . . . friends.”
“Aye, friends.” Sean smiled and offered her a wink, his mask of casual carelessness firmly in place once more.
“Surely, this is a matter best given over to the authorities, to the army even,” she argued.
“We’ve a great many, experienced friends who will give us whatever help we need in order to accomplish this mission.” Liam spoke with assurance. He did not sound boastful, just confident.
Garrett nodded. “Enough to complete the job.”
Again she was struck with the differences. This man, this man that had somehow worked his way into her heart, was not the same man who had played cards, visited her draper’s shop, and offered information about a supposed missing niece.
And the men around him were as changeable as he was. Now they moved together, focused on the goal of obtaining information. They made frequent reference to this broken-down traveler guise as though they as a group used it often. She had thought of it as youthful sport, a game from their younger years. But it was somehow more serious, more important. Then there was the unspoken, but recognizable acknowledgment that Garrett was their leader, that he had been for some time.
What did all this mean?
They topped a rise and entered woods. Deepening shadows spread in all directions. The mountains surrounding them disappeared, hidden by the treetops.
The woods gradually closed around them. Tall trees stretched upward to the sky, blotting out the sunshine. With little breeze it was eerily quiet; even the distant rustling of the leaves overhead seemed to whisper of secrets best not known. Garrett’s hand took hers. She was grateful for the pressure of his fingers against hers, and grateful she was not alone amidst the gathering gloom. This place didn’t feel like a good place.
The road grew even more rutted and uneven, almost as though the wood and shadow, the unwelcoming road, would deter all but the most determined of visitors. For the first time a shiver of dread crawled over Maura’s back. Would they truly be believed as travelers in need of aid?
She wasn’t sure whether to hope her growing fears were baseless, all in her head, or to hope they were approaching the right place after all.
“This is it.” Sean’s announcement came short and tense as they rounded a slight bend in the rutted path. Up ahead beyond a large field of tall grasses, Maura could make out the outline of a large structure squatting solid and heavy amidst the tall dark trees. It looked to have been there for a very long time. She shivered.
Garrett squeezed her hand again and she turned her gaze to his. “You don’t have to—”
“I am all right,” she told him quickly. “I think my imagination is holding sway. This place looks . . . it looks . . .”
“Aye. Ye’ve hit the same thing we did, Maura. That’s why we’re here.” Sean managed a wink despite their surroundings. “Don’t ye be aworryin’ yer head too much. We’ve plenty of experience with nasty places.”
“And nasty folk as well.” Liam tugged his hat farther down over his brow and slouched.
“Maura.” Garrett squeezed her fingers again.
“I will be fine.”
“Forward then?”
“Aye.”
They approached the lodge as she tried to quell the concerns rising inside her. She could too easily imagine Mary trapped here, along with a number of the other young women who had come to Garrett’s attention recently.
Dear God, if there was yet one more young woman, or a group of them, within these dark and foreboding walls she would do whatever she needed to do to help them get out.
As they approached the small circular drive and columns that somehow seemed out of place with the rest of the architecture, the front door opened and a woman stepped out. Maura thought she could see someone else standing in the shadowy depths behind her.
“Greetings, good neighbor.” Sean’s smile broke forth with the warm geniality he seemed able to conjure at will. “We are mighty thankful to see ye. Our employers have had trouble on the road. Would the master of this household be about?”
“Trouble?” The small woman’s gaze ran over them as her hands smoothed her apron front. “What kind of trouble?”
“Our coach wheel broke a few spokes, Mum.” Liam helped Sean heft the wheel up as evidence. “We’re in sore need of repairs. Can ye offer us a hammer and a few wee nails?”
“We’d greatly appreciate any help ye could spare, good lady.” Garrett’s tone lilted. “My wife is weary from our travels. We are hours late trying to make it home to Naas and she is not well.”
“We are expecting our first child.” The words popped out of Maura’s mouth before she realized. Her hands slid protectively over her flat belly.
Garrett’s gaze, along with Sean’s and Liam’s, shot to hers as hot color filled her cheeks.
She offered him a shy smile, hoping she appeared as a shy, young wife to the woman still hovering in the doorway.
“Aye.” Garrett nodded and turned his gaze back to their possible benefactor without missing a beat. “And it has been a long walk in search of your aid. She would appreciate a moment of rest before we continue on our way, even if you cannot aid us with our repairs.”
“Of course I can give ye poor folks some aid. What am I about? We do not get many visitors out this way.” The faux pregnancy seemed to have unbent the woman’s stiffness enough to allow her to comply with their request, though she was still far from welcoming. If Garrett was correct, that meant they were indeed in the right place.
“Oh, thank you so much. Darling, could you help me?” Maura leaned heavily on Garrett’s arm as he helped her up the few short steps to the portico.
“Yer fellows will find the tools they need in the stables around to the back. Don’t touch anything else. The master is most particular about who he allows about his property. And ye’ll have to be quick about yer work. There’s a party tonight, and ye’ll want to be well clear of here afore they arrive.”
“Thank you so much.” Garrett’s tone still held warmth as though her offer contained all that they needed instead of just barely allowing them to remain.
“I’ll take care of yer wife.” The gnarled woman blocked the entrance to the lodge. She was nervous but unwilling to budge. Her hands ran repeatedly down the front of her apron. “Ye’d best see ta them repairs.”
Her hard-worked hands were at Maura’s elbow and shoulder, almost bodily taking possession as Garrett relinquished his hold. He managed a reassuring squeeze just before releasing her.
“Thank you very kindly.”
“Aye.”
Maura’s heart sank as he retreated back down the steps and her hostess stewarded her into the lodge’s shadowy interior. It took a few moments for her eyes to become accustomed to the dimness within the house. She was not prepared for what she saw, not if this was the site of a party in the making.
Chapter Fourteen
As Maura’s eyes became accustomed to the dimness inside this menacing lodge, she found the darkness held little promise of any ordinary party preparations, that much was clear.
Her reluctant hostess held fast to her arm as they stepped inside. The heavy thud of the door closing made Maura acutely aware she was cut off from Garrett, and his men. Their easy comfort and familiarity with what they were attempting here bolstered her nerve.
Now . . . she drew a deep breath and tried to concentrate on the task at hand. What would they need to know when she rejoined them? How many details could she absorb and remember to report back to them?
“Did ye feel the need of a wee drink, then? I can scare up a little watered spirits ta settle yer stomach.”
The room to the right of the hall they stood in was wide and spacious, though sparsely furnished. From ceiling to floor, the wood-paneled walls were only broken by the occasional stuffed deer head, some chairs, and a long table still covered with a sheet of heavy cotton. Not a welcoming place. Maura struggled to keep from shuddering.
“Anything would be greatly appreciated, thank you.” She tried to infuse the same note of warmth Garrett has used to address her hostess.
“Ye have nice manners, that much I’ll say fer ye.” The woman nodded her gray head once. “Come along then. I’ll give ye a drink in the kitchen. Can’t be too much harm in that, can there?”
The question didn’t appear to need an answer. Maura made some agreeable noises.
The woman released Maura’s arm at last from her tight grip. “This way, stay close ta me. I canna have ye wandering about.”
She spoke almost more to herself than to Maura as she led the way down a narrow hall with rooms leading off in different directions. The doors were all closed. The woman’s steps were quick and light, making little or no sound.
All of the doorways remained closed as they made their way into the depths of the shadowy interior. Maura strained her ears in an effort to hear anything that might give her a clue that someone waited even now behind one of these doors for any hope of rescue or relief.
She felt ineffectual at best. What was she looking for? What would help aside from this woman’s obvious reluctance to have anyone enter and her need to rush Maura through whatever reluctant hospitality she could manage to provide?
“This is a much larger place on the inside than out.” Maura’s comment seemed almost to be swallowed into the shadows. For a moment she wasn’t even sure her companion heard her. She was about to repeat herself when they reached a bend in the hallway.
The woman turned, her wizened face coming close to Maura’s. There was fear in her gaze. Her breath smelled of stale cheese.
“Please, ye must be quiet. There’s no need to disturb . . . to disturb”—her gaze darted away as though searching the rest of her sentence—“to disturb the peace. There will be disturbance soon enough, and I’ll not be responsible for it starting up aforehand.”
Her whole manner during this odd discourse was enough to set the fine hairs on the back of Maura’s neck on end. “Disturbance?”
“Aye. Come this way please, and do not dawdle.” She turned off to the left. “Drinks and travelers, they never said anything about that. What’s a body to do?”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. . . . Mrs. . . .”
“It doesn’t matter what my name is. Don’t worry yerself about that. This way.” She ducked her head as the hallway sloped downward. In a few moments, after another twist or two, they entered a rather gloomy-looking kitchen. It was large and open with the simplest of accommodations, as though having dinner parties and guests were the least of concerns to the owner of this odd place. “Here we are.”
With deft movements the woman poured a draft of ale into a pewter cup and handed it to Maura. “This will have to do. There’s naught else. Don’t know what I was thinking. Tea takes too long fer yer stay. All that boiling.”
“Why . . . thank you.” Maura took the cup and sipped carefully. It was palatable. She moved toward the broad hardwood worktable taking up the center portion of the kitchen. One chair was positioned next to it.
“May I sit for a moment?” She sat as the question left her lips, guessing the answer would not be positive.
Silence held.
“Suit yerself.” Her hostess’s lips pursed together in displeasure.
“Oh, thank you.” She sighed and rubbed her back as though to soothe an ache.
The silence descended, heavy with unease, as Maura searched her mind for a topic of conversation.
“Yer first?”
She nearly started out of her chair as the woman spoke first.
“Aye. My first,” she agreed. “I must admit to being a bit unnerved by the whole idea.”
“I thought as much. Ye dinna have the look of an experienced mother. But ye’ve broad enough hips, and it’s clear yer man has a care fer ye. Ye’ll do fine.”
The tiniest bit of warmth infused the woman’s voice. Obviously this would be a good topic.
“Do you really think so?”
“Oh, aye. The way a man looks at his woman tells ye everything. There’s them what don’t care about a woman any more than their horse. Maybe less.” She snorted. “Then there’s them what think ye’re some kind o’ treasure. That’s what ye got in yer man.”
There was envy and resignation in her tone.
“I appreciate your kindness. Does your husband work here with you?”
“What?” The woman snorted again. “Don’t have a husband, dearie. If I did I wouldn’t be here, ye can be sure of that. This isn’t the place for a decent woman. Not one with a family. But sometimes ye canna be too choosy about where ye find the money to get yer own bread. The master provides fer me, and I mind me own business.”
“The master? Can you tell me his name so we can write and thank him for this hospitality?”
“Oh no. I can’t tell ye that. He values his privacy, fine-spoken gentleman he is. Although I canna vouch fer his friends and his parties.”
“His parties?”
“Aye, has them about every month. Supplies come outta nowhere along with a note tellin’ me to ready the place. Very demanding he is. But he pays well. I stay here in the meantime so I have a roof over me head, money enough to see to my needs when I’m too old ta work. I know when to keep me mouth shut.”
“I’m sure he appreciates that.”
“Indeed. Ye know there’s not that many who could do what he wants and keep their mouths shut. It’s a bit lonely sometimes because I canna talk with the loonies he leaves behind. But . . .” She trailed away as though having realized she’d said more than she should have.
“The loonies?” A chill shivered down Maura’s arms again.
“Aye. But ye don’t need to hear about that. I can tell ye’re far to refined ta care about the likes of them. Less ye know the better ye’ll like it.”
The woman peered out her sink window. “Have ye finished yer ale? Do ye think yer menfolk are finished their repairs? Ye’ll all need to be getting on yer way before the master comes. He don’t take on with people he don’t know. And visitors have to have approval.”
“Of course.” Maura pushed to her feet. “I do not want to cause you any difficulty after all your hospitality. I will be happy to hurry my husband along.”
“Right.” The woman scooped up Maura’s used cup and strode to the basin by the grubby window where she dunked it quickly in water and set it aside to dry. Erasing any evidence of a visitor?
“Come along then. The sooner ye’re on yer way the better.”
They started back down the winding hallway with the closed doors.
“There are so many rooms.” Maura offered the comment in a louder tone and gained an instant reaction.
The woman turned back to her with consternation clear on her homely features. “Hush. I told ye not to disturb ’em.”
“Them?” She lowered her tone obligingly. “Who are we disturbing? I thought there was no one here but you.”
“Aye, well there might as well be for all the help I get from those great hulking buffoons he’s got guarding the place. I’m here with the loonies. I told ye that.”
She waved a hand to encompass the row of closed oaken doors. “They carry on something terrible at times, and at others they try their best to convince me they’re as right as ye or me. Peace is few and far between when ye have to care for them. Today is one of their quiet days. I told ’em his lordship . . . I told ’em the master would be returning tonight with his friends. That was enough to settle ’em down. Along with a sleeping draught. Can’t have another of ’em go missin’, now can I?”
She snickered into her hand as though drugging the
loonies
under her care were a great joke.
Cold fear coiled in Maura’s stomach, souring the ale she’d drunk. One of the loonies had gone missing? Mary?
“Most of the time he don’t let me drug ’em,” the woman continued. “But when he’s coming for the night with his company he wants ’em rested and ready fer his guests.”
She shrugged and ran her hands over her apron again. “Least it gives me a nice quiet day ta get ready. Even the guards take it easy, ta rest up. That’s the only way ye got this close. They takes care ta turn most away.”
Maura’s mouth was dry, and she struggled to keep up her end of the conversation as if she were just idly curious. She let her gaze fly from one door to the next. “These loonies . . . are they . . . are they . . . dangerous?”
“Oh, la no. They’re harmless as lambs at the moment. I wouldn’t trade places with ’em. Not on yer life. But it’s a livin’ and sometimes that’s all a body can ask fer.”
This woman knew what was going on here. She knew and it didn’t matter to her. Maura was convinced to her marrow that she knew, too. Behind each of these doors, some poor young woman who’d been stolen from her family or lured with the promise of a future might be sleeping, resting for the rigors to come. Dear God.
Unlike this woman who knew for sure, Maura only had her suspicions. The walls swayed for a moment. The fear of waiting, of dread, hung heavy in the stale air.
“Come along. We canna dawdle here.”
The clawlike grasp was on her arm again, hurrying Maura back down the gruesome hallway. She went without protest, knowing she had more than enough information for Garrett and his men.
They would have to mount their rescue immediately. There was no time to lose if indeed there were plans for some kind of party tonight with poor hapless girls at risk. Nausea swirled in her stomach at the thought.
“Maura?” The call came from in front of them down the hallway. “Maura, where are ye?”
“There’s yer man now. I told ye his care was true.” The woman dragged her forward. In the light spilling from the open doorway Garrett stood silhouetted.
“Is yer wheel fixed?”
“Aye, thank you for your kindness.”
“Here’s yer lady.” She released Maura’s arm. “As I told her, I’ll tell ye. Ye need to be gone as quick as ye can. The master don’t like having strangers about. I hope ye left the stables as ye found ’em.”
“Aye, we did.” Garrett nodded and his hand snaked around Maura’s waist. She was grateful for the contact, drawing strength from his warmth. Her knees had begun to quaver as the enormity of the situation around them came home to her.
“Then yer welcome to what ye needed.”
“Thank you again.” He turned Maura back out the door.
Air.
She took a deep breath of freedom and realized just how close and discomfiting the house had been. Dark and gloomy and confined.
“Oh, Garrett, it’s . . . it’s . . .”
“Shhh, not yet, love. Let’s put a little distance between this place and our backs before you tell us anything of what you saw.”
She was only too grateful to comply. They walked quickly with Sean and Liam, falling into step behind them. None of them spoke. All that she had to relate swirled through Maura’s mind over and over again. Fear and anger twisted inside her. They needed to get those girls out of there. They needed to do it now.
A dip in the path took them downward and then to the left.
Finally Garrett stopped, and she turned to him. “We have got to get them out of there. We have got to. Oh Garrett, I don’t know how many of them there are or who they are, but she knows. She knows what is going on in that place and does not care.”
“Take a breath, Maura.” He reached for her shoulders and pulled her close. As his hands spread over her back, she shuddered.
“It is an awful place. Awful.”
“Aye.” He soothed his hands over her again and again.
“Tell us what ye heard.” This from Liam, but in the gentlest tone she’d ever heard him use. “We need to know anything ye can remember.”
“Aye. And everything you saw, even the smallest detail.” Sean’s tone was equally earnest. There was a quiet desperation in his gaze she hadn’t seen before. A haunted look. “Think carefully.”
She pushed back from Garrett’s arms to find his gaze intent on her face. “I am sorry you are so overset.”
“Do not be, please. I am just so angry and . . . and . . .” she stopped and blew out a long breath. “I am all right. I . . . I . . . this is the right place. This must be, and tonight they are planning on having guests. She kept making references to the master of the house and guests and . . . she talked about the girls who are being held there. She called them loonies. One of them went missing. Perhaps Mary?”
All three men wore identical frowns. Concern tempered with steel. She felt oddly reassured. “I have no idea how many of them there are, and I am not sure where they are, but there was a long, winding hallway that slanted downward. There were rooms leading off that hallway on either side. All of the rooms were closed, and there was no sound coming from anywhere. I think she drugged them. From the way she spoke it seemed this is a regular occurrence.”
She pressed a hand to her stomach as the nausea swelled once more.
“Anything else?” Garrett asked.