The Duke Conspiracy (32 page)

Now Rose found something to laugh about. “Why
Mary, I had no idea you were so exacting in your tastes.”

“When it comes to you, Miss, I would say no
one is quite good enough, but I set myself a set of standards and I
stuck to them. The only other name I could come up with was Lord
Dunkirk, the Earl of Strathgowan.”

“Really? I have not yet had the pleasure of
making his lordship's acquaintance. I am impressed with how
thorough you have been, Mary, although disappointed in the scanty
results. I shall have to see about finagling an introduction to the
earl as soon as possible.”

“Or you could just apply your mind to making
peace with the Wrenthams,” Mary argued.

“I think learning to fly would be easier,”
Rose answered tartly. “Mayhap you ought to be a trifle less
discerning in your tastes. I do appreciate your concerns for my
welfare, but I should remind you that I do not currently have a
title and am just fine with that. I am quite convinced that being a
lord does not guarantee that a man will make a good husband.”

“No, I would have to say that I agree with
you on that, but wouldn't you like to have a title to pass to your
children? I heard you say that the Season is a wee bit of a
drudgery when you are only a baron's daughter.”

“'Tis true, Mary, I did say that.” Rose
sighed. “I guess you are right. Well, now what shall I do?” Seeing
her maid's significant glance Rose laughed. “No, Mary, I do not
think I can take you up on your suggestion of negotiating peace
between the Smythes and the Wrenthams and then setting my cap at
the duke. I do believe we are going to have to rethink the options.
Just as soon as I ensure this situation with Broderick is cleared
up.” Feeling as though she were quite finished with this
conversation, Rose strode across the room toward the wardrobe
containing her newest gowns. “Now Mary, although I cannot fathom
preparing for a ball while I am in such a state of mind, I think it
is best if we get started. Mayhap a bath would help me relax and
feel more the thing.”

“Very well, Miss,” Mary wisely chose to hold
onto her own council for the moment, merely turning on her heel and
ringing for a footman to start bringing the water.

Rose stood on the sidelines of the dance
floor, feeling as though all the ballrooms in London looked very
much the same. It was rare to see new faces at any of the balls she
attended, it really was a rarified society she was circulating in,
she thought drolly to herself as she scanned the crowds around her,
looking for a friendly face.

Her gaze had just met that of her dear friend
Elizabeth when a cold hand on her arm stopped her upraised arm from
waving. Her attention snagged, her blood turned to ice in her veins
as she heard the dreaded voice near her ear.

“Miss Smythe, what a pleasure to see you here
this evening. Might I have a word with you?” The words were
correct, but the grip on her arm belied the request. Rose winced as
Sir Broderick tugged her toward the back of the room.

Rose glanced around rather frantically,
calculating the damage to her reputation should she make a scene,
wondering if she should cry for help, or see the situation out and
take it from there. Broderick took the decision out of her hands
with his next words.

“Do not bother calling for help, my dear
girl,” his low menacing tone brought a shiver to Rose's stiff
spine. “My associates have your mother in their control and will
not hesitate to hurt her if you do not cooperate with my
requests.”

With an effort of will Rose managed to
control the scream threatening to crawl up her throat. She felt as
though her features had turned to stone as she hurried along beside
the ungentlemanly knight. Her ever active imagination wondered
fleetingly what others might see if they really looked at her. From
her frantic gaze, it did not appear as though anyone were noticing
that aught was amiss. She castigated herself for not ensuring her
mother was safe. They should not have ventured out this evening.
Alex had tried to warn her that there might be a threat and she had
thought she knew better.

Giving her head a shake, Rose forced the
recriminations from her mind—they were not at all helpful at the
moment. Hoping to buy a little time, she dug in her heels and
slowed down. “My lord, I beg of you, I cannot in all decency run
after you. If you do not wish to be remarked upon, it will not do
for us to be seen dashing from the room.”

Broderick's grip on her arm did not lessen,
in fact, his grip tightened painfully, but he did slow down his
pace somewhat. Rose wracked her brain for ideas as to how to
extricate herself from this predicament, but the threat to her
mother curtailed any of her schemes. She would have happily
shredded her reputation and screamed at the top of her lungs in
order to get away from the slimy Sir Jason Broderick, but the
thought of his henchmen harming her mother kept her lips firmly
clamped shut.

Before she could formulate any executable
plan, they were treading down a hallway and the knight tugged her
down another dimly lit passage. Rose's terror heightened as she
realized she was about to be escorted from the house entirely. She
could see no way of escape and wondered fleetingly if her parents
would ever find out what had happened to their only daughter. Rose
decided not to just meekly go to her death.

Digging her heels in once more, Rose tried to
come to a standstill. “This has gotten ridiculous, my lord. I wish
to know the meaning of your actions. I do not appreciate your
threats toward my mother. I have accompanied you from the ballroom
as you requested. I assume you wish to have words with me. Very
well, my lord, have your say, but then I insist that I be reunited
with my mother. I must be reassured of her welfare.”

Broderick's smile put Rose in mind of a
weasel as he looked at her steadily through his small, dark eyes.
“You are in no position to be making any sort of demands, Miss
Smythe, are you? There is no one about to aid you in enforcing
them, but in fact, just around the next corner several of my
friends are waiting for us, so if you should start to struggle or
call out, they shall be here to aid me in the blink of your pretty
green eyes. So screaming shan't do you a lick of good.”

“What do you want, Sir Broderick? Why have
you accosted me in this ill-bred manner?”

Broderick grinned. “I know you think I am
lower than the dirt beneath your dainty little feet, Miss Smythe,
but you are not the one in control here.” He tugged on her arm once
more, but again Rose resisted. His words implied to her that there
were other undercurrents in play, but her scattered wits could not
quite get a grip on any of her ideas. She determined to try further
speech.

“I refuse to go one step further until you
tell me what is going on, Sir Broderick. You know it is not at all
the thing for me to be accompanying you anywhere unchaperoned. If
you were wishing to spend time with me you ought to call upon me at
my home at the prescribed time like any other gentleman.”

Despite her fears, Rose had to exert an
effort to suppress her amusement over the look of incredulity that
flitted across the knight's twisted features.

“I am not trying to fix your affections, Miss
Smythe,” he declared with disgust. “I am trying to keep your
meddling ways from interfering with my plans.”

“What plans have I been meddling with, my
lord?” Rose inquired, trying to ascertain the depth of her
danger.

“Do not play coy with me, Miss Smythe. I have
been well aware of your meddling ever since Vienna. Did you think I
would find it difficult to figure out that it was through you that
your father and his cronies always seemed to be one step ahead of
me? You might have been able to thwart me in Vienna, but you are
not going to be able to do so this time. Prinny
will
sign
the territories over to me, and there won't be anything you or your
interfering father can do about it.”

“What are you going to do with me, my lord?
Surely you are too smart to be able to be thwarted by a mere girl,
so you need not trouble yourself with me.” Rose was becoming truly
terrified as she examined the maniacal look that had settled itself
upon Broderick's features as he spoke of the Prince Regent and his
land. She could not contain the yelp of pain that escaped her as
his fingers dug deeper into her upper arm.

“You are far more trouble than you ever let
on, aren't you? Now quit resisting, Miss Smythe. If you give me
anymore trouble I will not hesitate to bash you over the head and
carry your insensate body quietly from this house. I highly doubt
you would enjoy that experience. It would not bother me one little
bit. In fact, I do believe I would enjoy it immensely.”

Now Rose could see that he was looking at her
rather lecherously and her fear ratcheted up another notch,
threatening to choke her. Looking behind her frantically once more,
she realized there was no one coming to her aid. She needed to keep
her wits about her and figure out a way to rescue herself. She
could not afford to have him deprive her of her senses. She stopped
resisting and forced her feet to move once more, but she could not
make herself stop questioning him.

“Where are you taking me, my lord? And why?
What do you hope to accomplish by taking me? Surely you must
realize that it will merely draw attention to your intentions if a
hue and cry is made over me.” Rose was hoping to appeal to the
greedy little man's logic.

“But that is where you are wrong, my dear
Miss Smythe,” the awful man replied with an oily grin. “No one
noticed our departure and there is no reason to associate your
disappearance with me in any way. In fact, if you disappear it will
keep your father far too occupied for him to even consider going to
Paris and interfering there. And all of the
ton
will be too
abuzz with speculations over what could have possibly happened to
you to be bothered with matters of government. It is an absolutely
brilliant plan.”

“But if my mother is missing as well, surely
it will become obvious that something nefarious is afoot.”

“Ah, Miss Smythe, you really do need to learn
not to trust what everyone tells you. The last I saw of your
mother, she was happily sipping punch and listening raptly to
something old Lady Rotherham was jabbering away about.” Broderick
chuckled cruelly over the look of disbelief he saw on Rose's face.
“And soon, you will write a note to your parents telling them you
have run off with a seaman you met in the park, so that will give
them some direction in their thrashing about over you. It should
buy me just enough time to accomplish my ends.”

“And just what might those ends be, my lord?”
Rose could not resist asking.

“Never mind about that now, you have wasted
enough of my time, hurry along or I shall be happy to carry
you.”

Rose did not doubt he would enjoy knocking
her unconscious so she did as he had bade and forced her feet to a
quicker pace. By now they reached a small door and had been joined
by two other unsavory looking characters.

“Where are you taking me?” she squeaked as
she saw the dark carriage through the open doorway.

“I'll tell you when we get there,” was
Broderick's unhelpful reply.

Rose's teeth began to chatter from a
combination of her nerves and the cool night air. She clenched them
together to hold back the screams of alarm that were clawing to be
heard. She took one frantic glance back at the large house before
ducking into the carriage. She could have sworn she saw Alex at one
of the brightly lit windows, but she chastised herself for
conjuring him in her fear. And besides, even if it was him, there
was no way he could see her in the dark gloom from within the
brightly lit room.

Taking her seat across from Sir Broderick,
Rose stared at him stonily.

****

Elizabeth was in a quandary. She had been so
certain that Rose was about to approach her, in fact Elizabeth was
sure Rose had been raising her arm to wave to her when she was
approached by Sir Broderick. Because of the distance that had
separated them Elizabeth had been unable to see clearly what was
taking place, but she was absolutely sure that Rose would not
happily accompany the knight anywhere. But what should she do about
this information? She had not spoken with Rose in a day or two, so
she was unsure of the latest developments. As far as she knew,
Rose's parents were still unaware of the association Rose had been
having with the Duke of Wrentham and why she had been doing it, so
it would require too much explanation if Elizabeth were to seek out
Rose's parents and tell them what she thought she had seen. And
there was part of the trouble, she was unsure of what she had
really witnessed, but now Rose was nowhere to be seen in the
ballroom and Elizabeth was growing increasingly uneasy.

She took one more turn around the dance
floor, looking around as innocuously as she could manage, then she
headed toward the ladies' retiring room, thinking Rose could
perhaps be there. When Elizabeth could not locate her friend there
or in the refreshment room she was truly concerned and starting to
verge onto panic. With relief she spied the Duke of Wrentham in the
crowd.

“Your Grace, I am terribly sorry to disturb
you, but might I have a word with you?” She tried to be as discreet
as possible but her urgency must have conveyed itself clearly as
she gained the duke's full attention.

****

The hairs at the back of Alex's neck stirred
uncomfortably as he heard the young woman's voice at his side. He
recognized Rosie's friend, Lady Elizabeth, and wondered at her
nervous tone. “What can I do for you, this evening, my lady?” he
asked solicitously.