The door slowly opened, creaking loudly with every careful inch, bringing Orion’s attention fully back to the men. By now a smart man would realize all attempts at stealth were useless and rush the bed where their victim was supposed to be peacefully sleeping. Orion was almost embarrassed by having the two men, Thomas and John, waiting on each side of the door with him. Anyone with just a little skill and wit could defeat these two idiots and he did not think it too vain to acknowledge that he had both. Now the only advantage to not being alone was that the whole capture-and-interrogate plan he had devised would proceed with much more ease and little bruising.
The moment the men stepped inside and started toward the bed, Orion’s companions shut the door behind them and stood with their pistols aimed at the men’s backs. Orion lit the lamp by the bed before the men could think of the possibility of there being a hostage they could use and then aimed his pistol at them.
“Might we assist you, sirs?” he asked and was pleased to see both men pale. “Disarm them,” Orion ordered his two men, and then he shook his head when both of the intruders fumbled with their coat pockets a heartbeat before Thomas and John relieved them of their weapons. “Slow. Too slow. Too loud. Too stupid.”
“Hey!” the bigger of the two cried, looking outraged despite standing there in the bedchamber of a woman he intended to kidnap, unarmed, and with three pistols pointed at him.
Orion ignored them as Thomas and John set two chairs behind the men. “Sit down,” he ordered Morris’s men and nodded at his own men when the two fools obeyed.
As Thomas and John tied the two failed kidnappers to the chairs, something Orion decided was probably unnecessary, he thought on what he wanted to know. It was possible that these two thugs knew no more than where to find Lady Catryn and where to take her, but there was a slim chance they had been with Sir Morris long enough to have some useful information. Before he dragged the men to the magistrate to be dealt with, he intended to get them to tell him everything they knew.
“Who are you?” asked the big one.
“That really isn’t your concern,” said Orion. “Who are you and who sent you?”
“I be Jed and this fellow is Robbie. We got sent here by some fancy fellow named de Warrenne to get his woman back. Suspect you be the one who took her.”
“She is not Sir de Warrenne’s woman.”
“But he has her brat.”
“He kidnapped her son and now obviously wishes to add the mother to his collection.”
Robbie frowned. “But the brat and the woman be named de Warrenne, too.”
This was going to be very slow work, Orion thought and sighed. “It is a common enough name in France. Rather like Jones in Wales.” He ignored the sound of choked-back laughter from his men. “So de Warrenne wanted Lady Catryn and sent you to get her. Where were you supposed to take her?”
“We were to take her to the Downs to a sheep shed and wait for him to come and collect her,” replied Jed.
“Nay,” said Robbie. “We would find word on where else to go first. Remember, Jed? Weren’t seeing him then but at the next place, and do not know where that is.”
Jed nodded. “Robbie has it right. De Warrenne said there we get word where to go next and to be careful dragging the woman around with us. He told us she was his and so not to bruise her much. You sure she—”
“Very sure,” Orion replied through tightly gritted teeth as he fought the urge to pistol-whip both men for the ease with which they spoke of not bruising Lady Catryn too much.
“Huh. Ne’er thought the man would be lying. Women run a lot.” Jed shrugged his big shoulders. “Thought that was what she did. Saw she was following him, too, and was thinking she done changed her mind.”
“She wants her son back.”
“Not his son then. Thought so. Said that, aye, Robbie?”
“You did that, Jed. Brat calls him uncle, too. Should have thought on that more.”
Orion suspected it would have been a painful process if they had tried. “How long have you been with de Warrenne?”
“Just long enough for him to give us some money and tell us what he wanted us to do. Found us in the pub, he did,” answered Jed. “Came in with a couple of big fellows and sat down and said he had a job for us to do. We needed some coin. Ain’t worked in awhile. So, here we be.”
“What pub?”
“The Hanging Tree in the next village.”
“How apt,” Orion murmured, pleased with the way both men paled as they abruptly realized the possible consequences of their actions. “Did de Warrenne say anything about what he planned to do with Lady Catryn when he had her in his grasp?”
Jed shrugged again. “Said he had to take her home, that she needed to be with her family and all. The little lad was with him. One of those men had a good hold on the boy. Boy said his mother would never be family with de Warrenne and she was going to come and get him and leave de Warrenne coughing up her dust or maybe just shoot him in his big, fat head. Thought that a fine threat, I did, but he got a good slapping for it.”
Robbie nodded. “Got another for telling the man he would pay for that first slap because someone was going to tear out his innards and tie them around his neck in a bow. That was a fine, fine threat, that was. Better than the first. Got the lad knocked to the ground though.”
That was not something he would tell Lady Catryn, Orion decided, even as he wondered how a five-year-old child could think of such a gruesome threat, one that sounded oddly familiar to him. She was worried enough and, wrong though it was for de Warrenne to touch the boy, a slap would not kill Alwyn. Orion would make the man pay for it though.
He looked at his men. “Get them on their feet. We will take them to the magistrate.”
Jed and Robbie protested, but Orion ignored them as they all left the inn. The magistrate’s home was not a long walk away and he was impressed by the speed with which the man answered their early morning rap at his door. He also appreciated how the man had neither protested nor admonished him when Orion had punched both men, something he could no longer resist doing as the two had babbled on about how they had not intended to hurt the lady too much. The magistrate had summoned two men to come and drag both unconscious fools off to a cell.
Orion told the man all that had happened and was given a date to return to tell his tale to a judge, since an attempted kidnapping was a crime beyond the magistrate’s powers to judge and sentence. That was an inconvenience he was not looking forward to, but Jed and Robbie needed to be dealt with. Any man who saw nothing wrong with kidnapping women needed to be transported or hanged. There was no doubt in his mind that both men had a long history of petty and brutal crimes for which they had somehow escaped punishment.
As they returned to the inn, they met up with three more men sent by Morris. Morris may have seen the limitations of the first two men and sent more in case they were needed to get the job done. Orion and his men quickly beat them unconscious although not without gaining a few bruises themselves. He stood staring down at the men sprawled on the ground.
“Jed and Robbie did not mention bringing others with them,” he murmured.
“Might be because these were sent to keep a watch on the two idjits,” said Thomas, the larger of his two men. “Might also be because they are so witless they think these fools will be out to save them.”
Orion nodded. “I thought the same. Their mistake.” When one of the men groaned and partly opened his eyes, Orion bent down, gripped him by his filthy hair and asked, “Who hired you?”
“Fellow named de Warrenne,” the man answered and then turned his head to spit out a tooth.
“To do what?”
“Watch those fools Jed and Robbie and finish the job if they mucked it up. If they did it right we was to make certain you could not come rushing to the lady’s rescue. Man was not happy when he discovered you had joined with her.”
Orion silently cursed, for that meant de Warrenne now knew for certain that Lady Catryn was not alone. “And where were you to meet to turn over the woman or collect your coin?”
“On the Downs in a wee sheep shed he would leave word telling us where to go next. So, nay having gone to the sheep shed, have no idea where that is.”
At least Jed and Robbie had told the truth, Orion thought. “Morris find you in a pub?”
“Aye. How’d you know that?”
Dropping the man’s head so abruptly it hit the ground hard and caused the man to curse, Orion watched as Thomas and his brother John tied up the three men. “Can you take them to the magistrate and tell the man what happened? I should not leave Lady Catryn and my son alone any longer. Who knows how many more of these twits de Warrenne has sent after us? Also, is it possible for you to go to this sheep shed on the Downs to see what message may have been left?”
Both men nodded and Orion paid them well before slowly making his way back to his bedchamber. One thing Jed had said had confirmed a growing suspicion in Orion’s mind. De Warrenne wanted Lady Catryn, and she knew it. His anger over her keeping such a secret grew a little with each step he took. He had asked her to tell him everything, and she had not done so. A part of him understood. There were a lot of good reasons for a woman to keep silent about a man other than her husband lusting after her. Yet this situation called for complete honesty. Knowing every fact, no matter how trivial it might seem, was how one achieved success in a mission, a lesson he had learned early in the dangerous game he played for king and country.
Still angry, Orion leaned against the wall outside his bedchamber and attempted to calm himself. It was easy enough to forget the two men he had just handed over to the magistrate. Just as easy to forget the three that had just been taken to the magistrate to join their friends. He had been expecting Morris to try and get him out of the way simply because he was helping Lady Catryn. That would have happened even if there were not a few facts she had neglected to tell him. It was a little harder to not consider all he would like to do to Morris for hiring thugs and thinking he could kidnap Lady Catryn and make her bend to his will.
Suddenly, he grinned. Morris would be in for a large comeuppance if he actually believed he could make that woman bend to his will. Lady Catryn had spirit, and she also had a temper when provoked. Her marriage had been a failure, judging from all she had said about it, which was not too much; but he suspected she was not a woman to silently accept her husband’s acting the bachelor after the marriage vows were said. No, Morris would never be able to get Lady Catryn under his thumb even if he somehow got her in his hands. He never had the ghost of a chance, and even if he had, stealing her son had ended that forever.
Orion had no intention of letting the man get his hands on her. He had guessed that Morris was motivated partly by lust for Catryn, but she should have told him. He should have been planning to protect her from that from the very beginning. The only reason he had men on hand to call to his side and help was because he and Giles had known she was hiding something.
What struck him as odd was that it was more than a need to protect a woman from a man she did not want that was brewing his anger at Morris, and at her for not telling him the truth. There was a thread of sharp possessiveness running through all the emotion he was having so much trouble subduing. That was something he had never felt for any woman. When his affairs ended, either by his choice or because the woman strayed, he always walked away without another thought and never felt a twinge of any emotion upon seeing that woman with another man. He knew he would feel more than a twinge if he saw Morris even try to put his hands on Lady Catryn. Orion was also concerned about how even the thought of walking away from her bothered him.
Shaking off such thoughts as they accomplished nothing, he decided it was time to confront Lady Catryn. He had not stilled all of his anger over what she had neglected to tell him, but now he could talk to her about it without a lot of yelling or sharp words. That would have to do. He opened the door, planning his first words, and found himself facing a pistol aimed straight and unwavering at his heart.
Chapter Six
“I believe there is a part of this tale you have neglected to tell me.”
Orion was impressed by how quickly she hid her shock over his statement, but he had seen it. That glimpse of emotion had also revealed a hint of guilt. She was definitely hiding something. He and Giles had known it, but seeing the proof of it in her eyes still stung a little.
He was also impressed by how she had aimed the gun at his heart when he had entered the room, her small hand so admirably steady and her face set in cold, determined lines. The way she had so quickly shifted her body to put herself between him and the boy won his hearty approval. Giles grinned at him over her shoulder and Orion suspected his son found Lady Catryn’s attempt to protect him amusing and a little too endearing. When he got the full truth out of her, Orion intended to have a talk with Giles about his growing attachment to Lady Catryn. There was a chance Giles was thinking he would play the matchmaker, and that was something Orion wanted to put a swift stop to. If he ever decided that the life of a bachelor no longer held an appeal for him, and he would like to think that was still a very big
if
, he would do his own courting without direction from an eight-year-old boy.
“You can put the pistol down now,” he said as he stepped into the room and shut the door.
“Oh.” Catryn quickly set her pistol down on the small table near the bed. “My apologies.”
“No apology necessary about that. You did not know who was coming through the door. Next time I will announce myself before entering.” He moved to the washbowl to clean off his hands, the now cold water soothing the slight sting in his knuckles.
Catryn watched him. He did not look wounded, aside from some scrapes on his hands, just mussed. It could be that Giles’s confidence in his father’s skills might not be born of nothing more than a boy’s blind belief in his sire.
“Did you find out what the danger was?” she asked when he dried off his hands and moved to stand in front of her, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Morris sent five men after you,” he replied.
“Five? After me?”
Her heart sank as she realized that her fleeting thought that Morris may have taken Alwyn to get to her should not have been shrugged aside. Marrying her would put Morris in reach of all he coveted. The moment they were married, his chance of becoming Alwyn’s guardian would become a certainty. When he had turned to the courts after her resounding
no
to his proposal, she had foolishly believed that he had given up the idea of marrying her.
“They were not after kidnapping me or Giles,” Orion said. “The two we caught sneaking into your bedchamber even had the good sense to confess that they were after you. The three we met outside were to kidnap you if the first two failed or, if their friends succeeded, to make certain I would not be able to set out after you immediately.”
“They were here to hurt you and Giles?” Guilt washed over so strongly she felt ill with it.
“Which means that Morris not only knows you are on his trail but that you are not alone.”
“He has been watching for me,” she whispered, shocked by such foresight on Morris’s part.
“It would appear he has, and there is no way we can be sure who is doing the watching and reporting, so we must go on with the knowledge that Morris is fully aware of the fact that you are chasing him.”
“And just what were they supposed to do with me?” she asked.
“Take you to Morris. Unfortunately, none of them knew where he was. The man had devised a rather clever and convoluted way for them to get word to him if they were successful in capturing you. A message left in a sheep shed on the Downs would be only the first step. I have men going to see if they can find it. Once they finished following whatever trail Morris set out for them, only then would Morris come to collect you and pay off his hired ruffians. Or send someone else to do so.”
“He thinks he can use Alwyn to make me do what he wants.”
“And what does he want aside from all your son’s holdings as his father’s heir?”
Catryn inwardly cursed, knowing that she was cornered and could not hide the truth from Sir Orion any longer. It had been wrong to hold back anything when the man was so willing to help her. The fact that the truth embarrassed her, even made her worry she might sound vain, did not justify her actions. In truth, none of the reasons Morris had for wanting her were the sort worthy of stroking a woman’s vanity.
“When Henry was barely cold in the ground, Morris suddenly decided that marrying me would be a good idea. He obviously believed it was the easiest way to get his hands on all that Henry’s will had denied him. It was after I said no that he started trying to get everything through the courts. Not only did I refuse him quite vigorously but I told him I was certain it was actually illegal for a man to marry his brother’s widow.”
“Under ecclesiastical law, yes; it is illegal. But he could take you to Scotland or to some other country where they do not demand by law that you be wed in a church as they do here The only legal way to end such a marriage is if a close relative protests it, takes it before the courts.”
It took only a moment for Catryn to understand the ramifications of that. “Then my father could be in danger, for he would protest very loudly and Morris knows it.”
“Not until you are actually married to Morris. And I have come to believe that he is rather consumed by his plans of the moment. Those plans now appear to be getting his hands on your son, which he has done, and then you, which he just failed miserably at.” He frowned. “That could mean he is not willing to leave the country until he has both of you, which could definitely complicate matters.”
“I believe matters are quite complicated enough now.”
“For you, yes. I was speaking of myself.”
It was an effort, but Catryn stopped herself from rolling her eyes. “I do so beg your pardon.” She silently cursed when he grinned at her, revealing that he had heard that touch of sarcasm she had not been able to fully repress, and found it amusing.
Orion quickly grew serious again. “It makes plotting his course of action a little more difficult. I thought his plan would be to go straight to a port, catch a berth on a ship, and try to become your son’s guardian from a safe distance, all the while holding Alwyn as the weapon to force full cooperation from you and your father.”
“Which brings us back to the chance that my father is in danger?”
Her voice was calm but her fear was clear to see in her eyes and the paleness of her face. Orion knew her father was important to her. It had been apparent even in the few times she had spoken of the man. He hoped the possibility of two people she deeply cared about being in danger did not make her reckless. Then he remembered that they were together because she had stolen his carriage to chase Morris down, and inwardly grimaced. For once in his life he might have to be the one with the calm, steady hands on the reins. His family would laugh uproariously at the thought.
“As I said, your father is safe as long as you remain unwed to Morris.”
“That has always been my plan. I was wed to one de Warrenne. I have no wish to repeat the experience.” Not unless it would save her family, she thought, and suspected Sir Orion knew exactly what she had left unsaid.
“We will have something to break our fast now and then I will leave you and Giles here whilst I go a-hunting.”
Before she could say a word, he opened the door and waved her and Giles toward it. Sir Orion really was far too accustomed to giving orders, but she was not accustomed to blindly obeying them. Rebellion was difficult, however, when the orders were so rational and he was just telling her to do what she had planned to do anyway. But, she thought as she walked down the steps with Giles, it would not hurt Sir Orion if he made an attempt to just ask instead of command.
It was not until the morning meal was winnowed down to a few scraps on the plates that Catryn finally thought of what to say to Sir Orion. “Why are Giles and I to stay here? Would it not be better for all of us to go after Morris? If you do find the man’s trail, you will only have to return to collect us anyway.”
“I can hunt better alone and on horseback,” Orion replied and watched her as he sipped his coffee.
Lady Catryn de Warrenne did not take orders well. He knew she was struggling to be cooperative only because he was going to help her find her son. That temper he could see flash in her beautiful sea-green eyes would break free soon. Although he was tempted to see it do so, he knew they did not have the time to play that game. Nor would it be fair. Neither of them spoke of it, but despite Giles’s presence, she was risking her good name by traveling with him, no matter how good and righteous the reason might be.
He set his cup down. “At first I thought as you did. Morris was either going to his home in Easebourne or some other house he considered safe, or to a port to flee the country. Now that we know he seeks to grab you as well, the port is the only possible place, for he is heading in the wrong direction to go to Scotland. It is the safest. What I am no longer certain of is whether Morris will take that route.”
“Is it truly that difficult to guess what plan he may have made?” she asked.
“It is proving to be so. The man is either brilliant beyond anyone I have dealt with before—”
“No, I do not think that could be the reason.”
“Neither do I, considering who he hires to carry out his little plans. So, he is not brilliant, but so erratic, so without a hard, clear plan that it is difficult to sort out what path he will take next.”
“Spoiled child,” said Giles as he grabbed a sharp knife to cut up an apple.
Catryn almost reached out to take the dangerous knife away from the child, only to nearly gape. The way Giles wielded that knife as he cut and cored the apple was smooth and fast. Far more efficient than she had ever been with a knife. She had to try harder to recall that Giles was not your normal eight-year-old son of the gentry.
“We know that,” said Orion. “It is but a part of the puzzle though. Why do you think it important to remind me?”
“Suspect you have had little to do with a spoiled child,” said Giles. “I watched the gentry a lot. Naught much else to do and always best to keep an eye on the ones who might think you need jailing, or transporting, or some other less-than-kind reformation. Seen some spoiled children. Easy to say what they are like, but if you never dealt with one or watched one, suspect you cannot really know one. He will never do as you think he should. Can change his mind in a heartbeat. Can get so furious you can never guess which way he will jump. Blind furious. ‘I want, I will, I can and you cannot stop me.’ Bounce all about, they do.”
“‘And if you try to stop me you will suffer for it.’”
Giles nodded his head. “Seen one lad throw himself such a fit he had trouble breathing and all, but he did not stop until his nurse gave him what he wanted, mostly because she was terrified he would harm himself. Then, when he caught his breath, he kicked her and called her a stupid bitch and he was going to see her tossed out on the street. Next minute he is smiling and laughing and playing with some other boys.”
“That sounds like Morris,” Catryn murmured. “I can easily imagine him doing the same as a child, if the opportunity arose. Did the poor nurse end up out on the street?”
“Aye,” Giles replied. “She did, but I got into the house and had a word with the father, who was a reasonable man and he made sure she had a good recommendation. Next I saw the lad, he had a big ugly brute of a fellow watching over him.” Giles grinned.
“So there is a problem in using my usual skills with this man,” murmured Orion. “Yet I have dealt with a few like him, or nearly so, before. It remains a bit of a puzzle. I will keep it in mind while I go do a little hunting today. You two are to stay here, and I will hire John and Thomas again to stay close and keep watch.”
“We are not to go with you?” Catryn asked. “It is good weather for following Morris. If you find him, I should be there to help Alwyn. He has to be terribly frightened.”
“We now know that Morris is fond of hiring men who probably should have been hanged long ago to deal with anything bothering him. It could be very dangerous to continue to chase him. A little spying-out of the situation is called for. Once I gain some useful information on where he is, perhaps what direction he is now headed in, since his plan to grab you failed, and how many men he has riding with him, it will be safer to follow him. We can then better plan the inevitable confrontation in a way that will keep us and your son safe.”
Catryn wanted to argue with him but could not. Everything he said made perfect sense. They were but one man, one boy, and one small woman against Morris and whoever he had hired to do his dirty work. Blindly approaching him would be foolish. Accepting that fact did not ease her worry over her child, however. It was not going to be easy to sit at the inn and just wait, not knowing how Alwyn fared or what might be happening to Sir Orion.
“You will send word if there is any trouble?” she asked, unable to hide her concern for him.
“I will. And the two of you are to stay here and yell for John or Thomas if there is even the smallest sign of a threat.”
“Agreed.”
“Then I shall set off now.”
Catryn watched him go back to his room to gather his things, tried to keep her mind on drinking the last of her tea, and then gave up. She hastily excused herself, leaving a smirking Giles behind, and went outside to wait for Orion by his mount. John nodded a greeting to her and walked away, but she could see him settle down on a bench just past the door to the inn. He was already taking up his guard post. She wanted to ask if he had discovered anything at the sheep shed but decided to wait and ask Orion.
When Orion walked out, he looked surprised to find her there waiting for him but smiled as he settled his packs on his horse. “Going to plead to go along again?” he asked.