‘You look a little flushed, Lady Adela.’ They happened to have finished close to the corridor leading to the withdrawing rooms. Mr Barker steered her in that direction with a grasp on her elbow so tight that she worried he might leave a bruise. He was no longer smiling, and she felt suddenly afraid of him. ‘It’s cooler out here.’
‘I prefer to stay in the ballroom, thank you.’
He ignored her request and continued to propel her in the direction he wanted her to take. She had no choice but to go with him or risk being pulled from her feet.
‘Really, Mr Barker, I must protest. Let me go at once. I wish to return to my mother.’
A strong pair of hands grasped her from behind a partially-open door. A cloak was thrown over her shoulders and the hood pulled up to cover her head. She was pushed forward by two pairs of hands this time. She tripped but was hauled to her feet again. Her hair had tumbled down during the melee, falling across her eyes and blinding her. She had no idea where she was being taken and cried out in protest, but the sound was muffled by the noise from the ballroom and anyway, she didn’t sense anyone else loitering in this passageway who would come to her aid. If anyone was there, they would have seen what was happening and already come to investigate. But no one had. It was hopeless.
A door opened and fresh air peppered her face. She tried to turn around and look at her captors. At least she knew who one of them was, and had been completely taken in by his disarming charm. Why was Mr Barker doing this to her? Surely he couldn’t be the traitor? Before she could ask any questions, she was bundled into a carriage which immediately moved off. The aroma of an unmistakable cologne assailed her nostrils. Anger gave way to genuine fear when she realised she was not alone in the conveyance.
She lifted her head and glowered at Daniel, sprawled on the seat across from her, leering.
‘What the devil is the meaning of this outrage!’ she demanded, trembling with a combination of anger and terror.
‘You only have yourself to blame,’ he replied, looking smugly self-assured. ‘If you had been a good girl and done as you were supposed to, none of this would have been necessary.’
‘Married you, I take it.’ She wrinkled her nose, doing her level best to disguise her fear. ‘I would rather die.’
He gave a hollow laugh. ‘Beware what you wish for.’
His words were slightly indistinct, and she realised he was intoxicated. She recalled the whisky he had been drinking in her drawing room earlier, and suspected that had not been his first taste of liquor that day. Intoxicated people’s reactions were slowed, she knew, which gave her a glimmer of hope.
‘Death is not the most terrible thing that can happen to a person.’ She sent him a scathing look, banging her elbow painfully against the window when the carriage lurched through a rut in the road. ‘There are worse fates.’
‘You really are most delightfully naïve.’
He had underestimated her, Adela decided. The fool hadn’t even bothered to tie her hands, assuming she would tremble with fear and meekly permit herself to be abducted. He really didn’t understand her at all. Escape would be impossible at present since they were travelling at a fast trot, the sound of the horses’ hooves beating against a cobbled street clearly audible. She was in a closed conveyance, alone with Daniel. She was fairly sure that Mr Barker had returned to the ball. That meant the only people she would have to overcome were the solitary driver and her vile, intoxicated cousin. It was unlikely that anyone else would be involved with this outrage. The driver might not even be aware that he was aiding her abduction. However, if he was employed by the person who had ordered her to be taken, she couldn’t assume that he would help her. But if he would just obligingly slow down…
Adela continued to ponder, wondering again how she could have been taken in by Mr Barker’s spurious charm. He was clearly involved with the traitor in some way, as was her cousin. But none of that mattered. Her priority was to escape. She had no idea where they were going but refused to contemplate completing the journey and finding out.
‘Where are you taking me?’
‘A mutual friend wishes to speak with you.’
Adela lifted her chin. ‘I very much doubt that we have friends in common. If we had, they would politely request my company, not bundle me into a carriage against my will like a sack of potatoes.’
‘You would have agreed to marry me,’ he said, a sudden vicious edge to his voice, ‘if Bairstow had not turned your head.’ He gave an ugly laugh. ‘No need to worry about him interfering anymore. He’s been dealt with.’
Adela leaned forward, worried and afraid—for Ezra, not herself. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked sharply.
‘You will find out soon enough, and it will be all your fault for letting him influence you. He was not a problem to us before that. My father told me not to worry about him, but I could see that you and he were getting a little too comfortable.’
‘Talking to the dead now, are we?’ she asked scathingly. ‘Your father has been in the ground these past several years.’
‘My father…? Ah, of course, you are not aware.’ His vindictive smile was illuminated by the shadowy light cast by the swinging carriage lantern, causing Adela to shiver. ‘My father is Lord Jordan.’
‘I see,’ Adela said slowly. And she really did. Everything made sense now. ‘You were born as a result of your mother’s affair with Jordan, but my uncle acknowledged you as his own son, thereby making you my father’s heir when Mama failed to produce a son.’
He gave a smugly-satisfied shrug. ‘So it would appear.’
‘My father found out. That’s why he argued with my uncle and allowed the Ripon estate to fall into decline. He didn’t want a non-blood relative to inherit a going concern, even though there was nothing he could do to stop you from taking the title. A title that’s pretty meaningless without a wealthy estate to lend it credence.’
Chapter Sixteen
Ezra was accosted by Harker the moment they reached Lady Harrington’s mansion.
‘Blimey, m’lord, what happened to you?’
‘No time to explain,’ he replied breathlessly, seeing Harker’s agitated expression and feeling a sense of foreboding. ‘Has something happened to Lady Adela?’
‘That’s why I’ve been looking all over for you. I sent a footman inside, but they said you’d left.’
‘You’re hurt, too.’ Ezra peered at a bloody graze on the side of Harker’s temple.
‘Just a scratch. Sorry, m’lord, but Lady Adela’s been taken.’
‘Taken?’ Snelling asked in some perplexity. ‘Taken by whom?’
Harker peered at Snelling, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. Ezra quickly introduced the two men and Harker’s belligerence evaporated.
‘I hung around the door that led to the mews, just like you told me to, in case anyone tried anything funny. Then I saw Lady Adela being dragged along by her elbow. She was wearing a cloak that was probably supposed to disguise her features and make her look like she was heading for an assignation, but I saw her face right clear. I tried to intercept, but someone clouted me.’ Harker let out a frustrated growl. ‘Damned jackanapes were one step ahead of us all the way. I came round just in time to see her being driven off in a barouche. Putting up a hell of a fight, so she was, but there was nothing I could do to help.’ He shook his head, looking and sounding disgusted with himself. ‘I failed her. Again.’ He swallowed and scowled simultaneously. ‘That cousin of hers pushed her inside and got in behind her; that much I do know.’
‘Ripon!’ Ezra kicked at a loose stone. ‘He was the one who dragged her from the ball?’
‘No, he was waiting outside. She wouldn’t have gone anywhere with him.’ Harker’s scowl intensified. ‘It were that friend of yours, that man Barker, who brought her out.’
‘The devil it was!’
‘How long ago, Harker?’ Snelling asked.
‘Not more than ten minutes.’
‘They’re catchable then, or th
ey would be if we knew where the hell they’re taking her. Ripon don’t have a London home. Besides, he’s not the mastermind.’
‘Jordan’s behind it all, m’lord. They thought I was unconscious. Well, I was right woozy, otherwise I’d have done something. By the time I could see straight, the carriage had gone, but I did hear the driver being instructed to return home to Highgate. He was in Jordan’s livery and Jordan lives in Highgate, so…’
‘Right, Harker. Borrow two saddle horses from Harrington’s groom. Snelling and I will ride. You drive my curricle. It’s lighter and faster than a barouche. We should be able to overtake them and lay on a surprise or two.’
‘What about Lady Gantz?’ Snelling asked. ‘She will wonder what has become of her daughter.’
‘Good point.’ It was fortunate that someone was still thinking coherently, Ezra decided. ‘Go back inside and talk to her quietly,’ he said. ‘I can’t go in there looking like this,’ he indicated his ripped coat and bloody arm. Tell her that Lady Adela had a headache and asked you to escort her home.’
Snelling raised a brow. ‘It will seem like a deuced odd thing for her to do.’
‘You were her father’s right-hand man, and she probably grew accustomed to depending upon you, so it won’t seem that strange to Lady Gantz. Barker has gone back inside, I assume.’
Harker let out a low growl and clenched his fists. ‘He wouldn’t dare to show his scheming self out here and face me like a man.’
‘We will deal with him later, Harker, never fear.’
By the time Snelling returned, Ezra was mounted. Snelling swung into the saddle of the second borrowed horse.
‘All is well,’ he told Ezra. ‘I was able to reassure Lady Gantz and persuade her that it wasn’t necessary for her to return home too. Hopefully, by the time she does, her daughter will be safely tucked up in her own bed and her mother need know nothing about it.’
‘Did you see Barker in there?’ Ezra asked.
‘No, but it’s still crowded. Hard to see anyone clearly.’
‘How are we going to do this?’ Snelling asked.
‘The barouche will have to go across Hampstead Heath to get to Highgate from here,’ Ezra replied, pushing his horse into a trot the moment they cleared the relentless flow of carriages arriving and leaving the Harrington mansion. Harker drove close behind them in Ezra’s curricle. ‘We can get there first and cut them off. With just a driver and Ripon, who’s a snivelling coward, in the carriage, we shouldn’t have much trouble.’
Ezra and Snelling concentrated upon riding as fast as was safely possible and spoke little after that. Ezra mulled over what he had learned, saddened that his mild suspicions about Barker had proven founded. He was not the traitor, but he was in his pay and had been manipulated into delivering Adela into Ripon’s conniving hands. Ezra’s plan to draw him out by using Adela as bait had worked a little too well. He cursed his dedication to duty. When this was over, Gaunt could find someone else to do his dirty work. Ezra had had enough.
As they rode on, he wondered where Ripon featured in the whole sorry business. He was too self-centred to have risked his own neck acting against British interests. Besides, he wasn’t close enough to anyone who could supply him with the intelligence that the French paid good money for.
Ripon had lined his own pockets during the war, trading horses and running the blockades to smuggle illicit goods in and out of France. Easy enough to smuggle secrets in and out, too. Jordan must have known that and made use of him accordingly. It was probably Ripon’s manipulative mother who’d talked him into it, pointing out the lucrative nature of the business. He had seen for himself how she had clung to Jordan’s side the entire evening, despite that fact that Lady Jordan was in attendance. She clearly still had feelings for the despicable excuse for an Englishman, and he had exploited that situation for his own advantage.
They reached a fork in the path across the heath, where Jordan’s coachman would be obliged to slow his conveyance. It would be the best place to stage a rescue, with the least danger to Adela.
‘Pull the curricle sideways across the path and block it completely,’ Ezra instructed, when Harker caught up with them a few minutes later. ‘Make it look as though your harness has broken. Quick! I can hear a carriage approaching. It must be them. We don’t have much time.’
*
Adela didn’t want to talk to her cousin. She couldn’t stand even to look at him, but needs must. She suspected that he would not be able to help boasting about having successfully abducted her if she persuaded him to talk.
‘What do you hope to achieve by taking me off against my will, Daniel?’ she asked, in a brisk tone.
‘I am simply claiming what is mine by rights.’
‘My fortune, you mean.’ Adela shook her head. ‘You have already taken Papa’s title and estate when you, a bastard, are not entitled to them.’
‘Hardly a bastard, my dear.’ He seemed discouragingly indifferent to the insult.
‘Really?’ Adela quirked a cynical brow. ‘You are welcome to the title, and the estate, but you won’t see a penny from me, no matter what coercion you and the vile earl bring to bear.’
Daniel chuckled. ‘My father has nothing to do with this.’ He puffed out his chest. ‘It was all my idea.’
‘Nonsense! He has been manipulating you throughout, but you are too dull-witted to realise it. He already knew from Bess that I would be riding in the park that morning you shot at me.’ He looked surprised, but didn’t attempt to deny he was the shooter. ‘It was too good an opportunity for him to miss when you happened to descend upon him for the night. It must have seemed to him as if it was meant to be, so he mentioned it to you and knew you would be stupid enough to try something.’
Daniel sneered at her. ‘My father is barely aware of your existence.’
‘Even so, he told you about my intended ride.’
‘Only to point out how loose your morals are; riding alone with a single gentleman. He was probably more worried that your behaviour would affect my reputation.’
Adela simply shook her head. Her cousin was far too easy to manipulate, but he would never see it.
Daniel leaned forward, his features twisted into a disdainful expression. ‘You and I will spend a delightful night together in a room that has been set aside for me in my father’s house. The servants will not interrupt us. And after that your reputation will be in tatters.’
Adela shivered with apprehension. The fool really did mean to force himself upon her. Or attempt to. She was undoubtedly supposed to wilt at his feet, terrified, and offer him large sums of money in return for her virtue. Unfortunately for Daniel, Adela disliked being predictable, was allergic to begging and had absolutely no idea how to wilt.
‘In your current inebriated state, I very much doubt if you will be able to make good on your threat,’ she replied with a dismissive wave.
‘Don’t make the mistake of underestimating my prowess.’ She could see his eyes gleaming in the dim interior of the carriage. ‘There is something about you that I find intriguing. You have hidden depths and a certain allure that grows upon one. Bairstow has noticed it, too. That’s why he’s been hanging around your petticoats. Unlike me, my dear, he has no interest in matrimony and respectability. He merely wants from you what I intend to take first, beating him to the spoils.’
‘You are certainly welcome to try but I give you due warning, you ridiculous fool, that you will not find me a willing victim.’
‘Doesn’t much matter either way. Once you are missed and the alarm is raised, it will not be possible for our night of unbridled passion to be covered up, and you will be ruined. You will have no choice but to marry me, and then I will have got the better of my uncle, even though he is cold in his grave.’ Daniel’s head slumped to one side, as if the motion of the carriage and the amount he had imbibed combined to make him drowsy. ‘He once called me a parasite. Did you know that?’
‘I did not, but I think it a fair des
cription. You are spoiled and indulged, Daniel, and have been brought up with expectations you had no right to harbour. Even so, there is nothing to prevent you from making the Ripon estate profitable again. Nothing other than the hard work and the careful planning that will be necessary. Both of which, I suspect, are beyond your feeble capabilities.’
He chuckled and shook his head. ‘You really don’t understand me at all. A man in my situation should not have to get his hands dirty like a common labourer.’
‘You are aware, of course, that Jordan has his own reasons for suggesting my abduction.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. He has no interest whatsoever in you.’
‘Which is why he had you seduce my maid in order to get her to spy on me.’
‘Daniel’s body jerked forward, and Adela instinctively flinched. ‘How the devil did you…’
‘I didn’t, not for sure, but you just confirmed it.’ Adela plucked at her lower lip as she tested another theory. ‘Bess is actually in Jordan’s employ and was happy to report back to him initially. But you took over that responsibility and won her confidence, probably by making her promises that you have neither the means nor the intention of fulfilling.’
Daniel lifted one shoulder. ‘I mentioned to my father that you were coming to London and required a lady’s maid. My aunt said she knew of someone suitable, but being unacquainted with your mother, couldn’t recommend her. Happily, she secured the appointment anyway.’ Daniel flashed a lurid smile. ‘And a most obliging girl she turned out to be. I was able to sate my frustrations with her whenever you were being particularly stubborn.’
‘So vulgar.’ Adela twitched her nose. ‘And you have aspirations to become a gentleman?’
She fell momentarily silent as she considered Bess’s appointment. She had not conducted the interviews herself, but Mrs Fleming had assured her that Bess was by far and away the best qualified candidate, and came with impeccable references. If Adela had thought to ask to see those references, presumably supplied by Lady Jordan, it would have been a far simpler way to expose the identity of the traitor and would have saved Ezra the trouble of pretending to like her. She was convinced now that Jordan had to be the traitor, but was unsure whether Daniel knew it.
A Season of Romance Page 21