Maddy frowned. None of this made any sense. Why would Rose go in and out of a shop? And why would she direct the girl to wait on the corner so far away? “Was she meeting someone, do you think?”
The girl shrugged. “I don’t know, miss.”
“Very well. Go on.”
Tessa took a moment. She was still obviously shaken and was trying to catch her breath.
“Aw, go on,” snapped Gilly. “Tell ’er about the men!” Maddy threw the maid an irritated look, but it was Kit who silenced the woman. He simply took the maid’s arm and steered her out the door, speaking in charming accents.
“I’m going to need to write a letter,” he said to her. “Would you please fetch me the implements? Paper, ink—”
“But—”
“Right now, please. It’s most urgent.”
“Yes, sir. Right away, sir.”
That took care of Gilly, thankfully, which left Maddy free to focus on calming Tessa. “Come now, Tessa,” she said gently. “Rose went in and out of the shop twice. And then . . .”
“These men just up and grabbed ’er! Three of ’em on horses. Right off the street! She screamed, miss. She screamed right loud, but it happened so fast.”
“Three men snatched her off the street?” But how could that be? And why? Meanwhile, Kit returned to Maddy’s side, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. It was the lightest of touches, but it felt like a single source of heat against her very cold body.
“What did they look like, Tessa?” asked Kit in a soft voice.
“Dock rats. Smelled like dock rats.”
Maddy bit her lip and glanced up at Kit. She didn’t know what to ask. She couldn’t make sense of it all. He didn’t say anything but extended the crumpled piece of paper for her to read. It was mashed and smeared with tears, but mostly legible. And it was written in Rose’s own hand.
I have been kidnapped by pirates!!!! They want gold and rubies! Help me else I will surely die!! Oh, what will happen to me?
Rose
Maddy read the missive three times before she looked up. A horrible picture was forming in her mind, one that was as ridiculous as it was completely plausible. Meanwhile, Kit spoke with Tessa, his voice as gentle as possible.
“How did you get that letter?”
“One of ’em. The men. He threw it at me as they were riding away.”
“He threw it at you,” Maddy said, knowing that Kit already guessed what had happened. “So he already had the letter when he grabbed Lady Rose?”
The girl nodded, but her eyes went to the crumpled missive. “What does it say?”
Maddy sighed, as she straightened to her feet. “It says that Rose is a bloody idiot.”
She would have said more, but at that moment the door burst open again as Gilly came in with a tray with paper, ink, and quill. She set it down in a rush, her gaze hopping from Tessa to Kit to Maddy.
“Excellent timing, Gilly. Tessa here has been most helpful and deserves a treat. Would you please take her to the kitchen? See that she gets whatever she wants?”
The woman nodded, then sternly took hold of Tessa’s hand. The two disappeared a moment later, and Maddy was quick to close the door behind her. But she couldn’t turn around and face Kit. How did she tell a man that Rose had just had herself abducted so that she could get her hands on his gold? It was beyond idiotic, but she was absolutely certain that Rose had done just that.
Then she felt his hand on her shoulder. He applied gentle pressure to pull her back against him. She fought at first. She was about to impose dreadfully on him, but he insisted. Within a moment, she surrendered and allowed herself to fall backward into his embrace.
His chest was solid and his arms were warm as they enfolded her. Then he pressed his cheek against the side of her head and just held her. For two wonderful breaths, neither one of them said a word. But after that, Maddy had to speak.
“I’m so sorry, Kit.”
“Did you know of this scheme ahead of time?”
She twisted abruptly in his arms. “Of course not!”
He smiled at her, and she saw a gentleness in his eyes despite the hard cut to his jaw. “Then it is not your fault. But you must tell me what you think has happened.”
Maddy threw up her hands in disgust. “I think Rose was upset because her father insisted on throwing me out of the house. So she hatched a plan.”
Kit nodded. “She needs money, so she had herself abducted? So her father would pay the ransom?”
Maddy put her face into her hands. How did she explain that it was so much worse than that? “No,” she said. “That’s not her plan at all.” She focused on Kit’s face, on his mouth and then the kindness in his eyes. “Rose believes that you and she are destined to be wed, and I think she was rather upset that you kidnapped me last night rather than her.”
Kit huffed out a disgusted breath. “I have never given her any encouragement.”
“I know. Rose doesn’t need any encouragement to spin her own romantic view. Though I believe what you did sparked her idea. She told me last night that she had a plan, but I was so tired and confused—”
“You couldn’t have expected this.” He shook his head. “So Rose thinks it’s romantic to be abducted by pirates?”
“No, no,” murmured Maddy, thinking hard. “That wouldn’t be it at all.” Then she knew. “That’s why she said pirate gold! She wants
pirate
gold! And you’re the pirate!”
Kit stared at her, a brow lifted in question.
“It’s the not kidnapping that is romantic, Kit, it’s the rescue. She wants you to rescue her, and she thinks once you do, you’ll fall instantly in love with her.”
“What about the gold and rubies? Does she really believe I have such things?”
Maddy nodded. “Of course she does. She thinks you’ll rescue her, marry her, and then I can come live with you two as your housekeeper so I won’t have to be a governess somewhere.”
Kit took a moment to process what she’d just said. Then he grimaced. “Do you think she mentioned the gold and rubies to the men who abducted her?”
Maddy frowned, not understanding.
“She had to hire someone to abduct her, right? Dock rats.”
“Yes. Yes, she’d have to.”
“Do you think she told them—”
“Oh! Of course! She doesn’t have any pin money of her own. She would have hired them on the promise of payment afterward.”
“And those men will be expecting gold . . .”
“And rubies. Oh, bloody hell.” Her gaze connected with Kit’s. “What will these men do if things don’t go as she predicts? If she’s not a cooperative captive?”
Kit stroked her arm in a long caress. “It won’t come to that.”
Maddy gripped his other hand. “Of course it will! Do you know how whiny she can get when one of her plans goes awry? Good God, I love the girl, but I often want to—” She abruptly cut off her words. She was about to say she often wanted to strangle Rose just to silence her. “Oh my God,” she whispered.
Kit wrapped her in his arms, tucking her tight against him. “Don’t worry. I’m going to write a quick note to Alex. He’s a good man in a crisis, young as he is. With his help, we can find Rose. We’ll save her. And then we’ll beat some sense into her.”
Chapter 27
Alex came quickly enough and with the rope that Kit had requested. Kit met him at the door and explained the situation, including the fact that the earl had retired just this morning to the family estate and would not be able to help. True to form, Alex asked one thing.
“Just how stupid is this girl?”
Kit simply shrugged, but he glanced significantly at Maddy, who was pacing the parlor with increasing agitation. He needn’t have worried that she would be upset by Alex’s characterization.
“She’s silly and romantic and young. Very, very young.” Her gaze sought out Kit’s. “And we need to find her.”
“We will,” he returned gently as he crossed back to her side. “They need the ransom. They will contact us—” He hadn’t even finished speaking when Gilly hauled a dirty boy into the room. This time she was accompanied by the butler as well.
“Miss! Miss!” the woman gasped. “He came to the kitchen door.”
Maddy came forward quickly, but she didn’t speak. She simply folded her arms across her chest and arched her brows in query. It was a pose designed to intimidate, and she did it very well. So well in fact, that the boy’s angry glare at the maid settled into a sullen pout in front of Maddy.
And then they stood there, Maddy arching her brow in query and the boy shoving his hands in his pockets and looking at the floor with a mulish expression. The child appeared to be about twelve years old, small for his age, but already hard. He would not be the one to break first.
Maddy must have realized it too because she opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She was that upset and yet trying to be strong. She glanced up at Kit, silently begging him to help, so he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and tucked her close. From that position, he spoke to the boy.
“What’s your name?”
The child lifted his chin. “Ain’t gonna say.”
“Fair enough,” Kit returned. “I wouldn’t speak either if I was about to hang for kidnapping the daughter of an earl. Nothing you say will save you anyway.”
He felt Maddy tighten in shock at his words, but the boy’s face rushed through a cycle of emotions starting with shock, horror, but ending in fury.
“It weren’t no kidnapping!” he snapped. “She’s sitting pretty enough and complaining about the ale.”
That sounded like Rose, but he needn’t tell the boy that. “You would expect us to believe that an earl’s daughter asked to be kidnapped off the street in Mayfair?”
“I ain’t got nothing to do with that!” the boy bellowed.
“But you are involved, boy. You’re here demanding the ransom, aren’t you?”
He shook his head, his jaw tight with fury. “I’m to tell you where to go after you gives me the gold.”
Kit smiled, allowing his slave’s face to shine through. In seven years, he had seen hundreds of men have their spirits killed, their will broken. Did this boy think he could withstand a man hardened beneath a pirate sail?
The boy looked up, and his expression faltered but didn’t break. It would take a bit more convincing. Kit didn’t even have to look behind him to Alex. Twisting his hand behind his back, he flicked his wrist at the young man. He knew exactly what to do. After all, it had once been a favorite game of Venboer’s. Nice to turn it to their own advantage for once.
Alex shifted silently into position, then neatly slipped a noose over the boy’s head. “Ey!” squealed the boy, but it was too late. His throat was already constricted tight enough to cut off his words and nearly all his breath. And the more he struggled, the tighter the noose became. Meanwhile, Kit gently disentangled himself from Maddy to bend down close to the boy’s face.
“I care nothing for you, boy, or Lady Rose. She is mad and deserves to rot in Bedlam. So you decide. Do I kill you now? Or do you tell me where she is so we can pretend none of this ever happened?”
The boy’s eyes bulged, but Kit could tell he wasn’t convinced. The child simply didn’t believe that Kit would carry through on his threat.
“You know,” Kit said in a conversational tone to Alex, “Rose was only kept at home out of pride. I’ll bet the earl will thank me if she dies. No one wants a madwoman on the family tree.”
Alex nodded, obviously picking up the thread. “But, sir, we can’t count on the street rat keeping silent. He’d tell the earl that we purposely let her die.”
Kit sighed and pulled out a knife from his boot. It was long and thin and perfect for what he was about to describe. “I’ll do it,” he said. “You’ve never gutted a boy before. Sad to say what I’ve learned among the pirates. First thing they taught me was the fastest way to make a child bleed out silently.”
Alex nodded and pulled the child around by the noose. “Yes, sir. But where do we take him? There will be a lot of blood.”
“Not so much. A regular tub will catch it. Then we throw it and the body into the stream. There’s one not so far away.”
“Excellent idea, sir,” Alex returned. Then he looked up at the maid, who was standing there slack-jawed with shock. “Be so good as to inform the cook that we shall be needing the large pot. And then have them all take a holiday, will you? Best they not know what for.”
The maid’s mouth opened and closed, opened and closed. It took Maddy to snap her out of her daze.
“Gilly! Do as they say! Good God, girl, don’t you understand that they’re
pirates
!”
The maid started then quickly bobbed a curtsey. “Yes, miss. Right away, miss.” Then she dashed away.
That was all that was needed for the boy. It was one thing for the peerage to be calmly talking about killing him. It was quite another to see the maid rush off to carry out the orders that would lead to one’s demise. The boy started waving his arms frantically, trying to get Kit’s attention.
“I’ll tell! I’ll tell!”
Kit sighed and shook his head even though Alex was already loosening the noose enough so that the child could speak. “I’m sorry, boy. It’s too late. I’ve decided it’s easier to kill you than rescue one mad daughter.”
“No! No! I’ll tell you everything!”
Kit tilted his head. “But I don’t want to hear it.”
“You do! You do! They’re in an old warehouse. Near the docks! They ain’t touched her.”
“I don’t care.”
“She do! She do!” the boy cried pointing at Maddy.
Kit turned to Maddy. Her face was pale, her expression composed. He prayed she understood that he was only pretending. He would never truly hurt the boy. Then he watched her expression shift from frightened to exquisitely sad. She understood, then. Thank heaven! Meanwhile, she folded her arms across her chest and looked out the window.
“I don’t like all this killing in my house,” she groused. “And Rose is my cousin. She has her charms.”
“She
is
beautiful,” inserted Alex.
Kit nodded as if thinking. “She is that. But they’ve probably spoiled her looks by now.”
“No! No, they ain’t!” The boy tried to take a step forward, but he was pulled up short by the noose. “I’ll take you to ’er. I swear it! I’ll make them give ’er to you, all nice and tight. Paps’ll listen to me. I swear!”
Kit shook his head. “I don’t trust him.”
And then, with perfect timing, the maid chose that moment to reappear with a hurried bob. “Everything’s ready in the kitchen, miss. Ain’t nobody there t’ see nothing.”
“Well?” asked Alex as he tightened the noose as tight as it would go without killing the boy. “Do we trust him? Or do we let the pirate out to play with his knife?”
Kit turned eagerly to Maddy, his voice wheedling. “The staff is already on holiday, Maddy. He’s a small boy. There won’t be anything for you to clean up.”
“No, no!” Maddy cried as she threw up her hands. “Enough of the knives and the blood.” She stomped over to grab the noose out of Alex’s hand, then she glared at the child. “You will take us to where they are holding Rose. You will tell them to surrender her without a fight or I will allow him to play.” Then she lowered her voice. “He spent years as a slave to the Barbary pirates, boy. And then he
escaped
. He is capable of killing you and every one of your friends. He already did it to the pirates. You and your Paps will be nothing to him.”
The boy was shaking so hard he could barely nod his agreement. So Maddy reached forward to remove the noose, but she was stopped by Alex.
“Leave it on him. It will make him easier to catch if he tries to run.”
She frowned. “One good catch will jerk his neck and snap his spine in two.”
“Exactly,” returned Alex with a dark grin as he took the rope back from her.
Meanwhile, Maddy shrugged and looked down at the boy. “Do you know what happened to our last houseboy?”
The child shook his head.
“He thought he was faster than a Barbary pirate.”
The words hit the child broadside enough that he paled to a ghostly white.
“We’ll take the carriage,” Maddy said.
Maddy had to physically restrain herself from climbing into Kit’s lap. They were in the carriage heading God knew where according to the boy’s instruction, ready to face God knew what, and all Maddy could think about was that Kit sat beside her and she wanted him to hold her.
It wasn’t just that she was grateful for his help. God knew, she wouldn’t have a clue how to handle this without him. Between him and Alex, she had no doubt that Rose would come out mostly unharmed. And the relief she felt at that made her knees go weak.
But what really made her want to crawl into his arms was the way he let her lead. He hadn’t put himself forward until after she came up empty. She hadn’t known what to say to the boy, how best to approach the child, or even what to do with the ransom demand. Her mind had been so blank that she’d just gaped at the child like a dying fish. And yet Kit hadn’t taken over until she looked up at him for help.
And then he had been masterful.
Later, she would smile at the way he had tricked the boy. At the noose and the nearly bored way he had talked about killing the child. She ought to be horrified, but she really thought the whole thing funny. Kit would no more kill the child than he would a kitten. Thankfully, the boy didn’t know that.
She exhaled slowly, closing her eyes as she tried to release her worry for Rose. Beside her, Kit tightened his grip on her hand, squeezing her gently as reassurance. She felt her lips curve but didn’t open her eyes. If she looked at him, she would likely kiss him, and she didn’t want to do that in front of Alex and the boy. Still, her heart swelled at his gentle grip, and she tightened her own fingers in response.
So this is what being in love felt like. She had expected the joy when they were together, the despair when they were not. She was startled to discover that this was equally precious: the moments of simple reassurance, the shared problems, and her absolute faith that he would see her through.
All her lingering doubts about becoming his mistress disappeared in a breath. All her worries about tomorrow faded as well. For as long as he wanted her, she would be with him. And though the thought that he might someday tire of her cut her to the bone, she focused on what she was feeling now. On the fact that she finally, completely, and wholly loved a man.
“We’ll get her back safe and sound,” Kit said softly.
“I know,” she answered, her gaze going back to his face. It took an act of will for her not to simply stare calf-eyed at him.
“I want you to stay in the carriage when we get there.”
“Absolutely not.” The words were out of her mouth without her even thinking it. Apparently being in love didn’t mean she had to agree to everything he said. “I will grab Rose while you deal with . . . with . . .”
“With the kidnapping criminals?” supplied Alex from the opposite seat.
“Ey!” snapped the boy. “She came t’ us! Offered gold!” He tugged at the cravat noose. “Daft bitch.”
Alex thunked him on the head for his language, but nobody argued with the characterization.
“I will stay out of danger,” said Maddy.
“No—”
“Unless you’d rather deal with Rose’s romantic hysterics. I promise you that she has quite a scene built up in her head. After hours of cooling her heels, she’ll be ready to throw her all into her performance.”
She actually smiled when Kit paled. Alex tried to cover his laugh with a cough, but failed miserably.
“There will be no dramatics,” Kit finally snapped. “You will see to that!” he ordered as he pointed at the street boy. “I’m still open to just killing you and forgetting the whole bloody mess.” That last was clearly added for the child’s benefit. It wouldn’t do to have him relax and stop thinking of them as murderers.
The boy nodded with alacrity, and they all subsided into a brooding kind of silence. And in that state, they finally arrived at the warehouse.