He picked himself up out of the mud and went to the back door. He tried the doorknob. He wasn’t surprised it didn’t turn in his hand. He silently apologised to Jasper and Grayson before he went back to where the rock lay rejected on the ground. He carried it over to the window above the kitchen bench and threw it. The loud crash of glass was muffled by the pounding rain and the flash of lightning. He swept the jagged glass away from the window frame as best he could and then lifted himself through the window. The fit was a bit tighter than he would have liked, but he managed to make it through without getting stuck. He landed on the kitchen bench amongst all the glass that had fallen in. Already, there was a great puddle of rain accumulating on the kitchen floor. He didn’t think Cook would be baking for him any time soon.
Blood seeped out of the cuts on his hands. He quickly grabbed a towel from the cabinet and then made his way into the house. The door from the kitchen swung open silently. He thanked Mrs Barnes under his breath for running the house so efficiently and keeping a well-oiled door. Philip crept down the passageway, dripping water onto the carpet and well-polished wood floors, stopping now and then to listen for voices. It seemed to take hours to work his way to the front of the house.
He was so cold, he was shaking by the time he reached the corridor to the library. Finally, he saw a light. It was coming from under the library door. Unfortunately, there was a man leaning against the door. He looked oddly familiar. At first Philip thought he was asleep at his post. His head kept drooping to his chest and soft snores came from his mouth. Philip took a step closer, right onto a loose floorboard. The creak echoed loudly through the hall. The man’s head shot up and he looked directly at Philip. A slow smile spread across his face.
“About time you showed up, I’d say.”
“Rupert? What in blazes are you doing here?”
When Harriet had told him about seeing Rupert the other night, Philip was sure that he would be ensuring Harriet wouldn’t be harmed. Finding him here, guarding the door, was unnerving.
“Shhh, keep your voice down and get over here. They’re about to start.” Rupert tipped his head, beckoning Philip closer to the door where he was standing.
Chapter 36
Harriet stared up at Peter from the floor. She pushed herself up. There was no way she was going to allow him to win this fight. If he had indeed killed her father, he would spend the rest of his short life paying for it. She advanced towards him.
“Ah, I see you do remember. Well then, we can get down to business.” He turned away from her and sat in a chair next to a small table. She noticed there was a stack of papers already on it as though they had the whole thing already staged. She realised that they had.
She had played right into his hands.
“Sit down, Princess. We have some business to discuss.”
Harriet had no intention of sitting with the man who murdered her father but Charlie shoved her into the chair before she could utter a protest.
“Get comfortable, Princess, we are going to be here for quite some time.”
“What is it that you want? What’s in those papers that’s so important you’d kill the man who treated you like a son? What is worth that much?”
“You truly don’t know?” Peter asked in surprise.
“I truly don’t. The King gave me the papers and I took them. He never told me what they contained.”
Peter threw back his head and laughed. “Well, then,” he said once he caught his breath, “it is truly ironic that you will die never knowing what you are dying for, for I never plan on telling you, Princess.”
***
Once he got closer, Philip could hear voices from the other side of the door but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. He turned to Rupert instead. “What are you doing here, Rupert?” he whispered. “You’ve been gone for months.”
“I been busy.”
“You’ve been busy? Seriously? That’s all you’re going to tell me? Jasper could have used you when Grace was kidnapped. You were supposed to be watching her. And all you’ve got to say is that you’ve been busy?”
“Uh huh, I been busy.” Rupert kept his voice low, and Philip could tell he wasn’t going to get any information out of him that he didn’t want to share.
Philip looked at the man he had called a friend and wondered, for the first time, whose side he was on. “Are you just going to stand out here and wait until they’ve killed her?” He had to know.
The look Rupert was giving him made it clear that Rupert thought he was a moron. “I can’t believe you asked me that,” he said, his voice holding no trace of the London slum.
Philip looked down at his boots and noticed for the first time the amount of mud he had tracked into the house. “Are you going to let me in?” He would fight to the death to get to Harriet, even if it meant fighting Rupert. The man towered over him and was twice as wide and had fought for his own life every day. But Philip was fighting for Harriet this time. There was nothing that could stop him from getting into that room.
Philip looked at the closed door and tried to keep his emotions at bay. “Then why are you just standing out here, while they do it?” he hissed between his teeth. “Let me through, Rupert.”
Rupert had grabbed his arm and held him tight as he tried to push past the big man. “If you go in there now, he’ll not only kill her, he’ll kill you too. Trust me, this man is not one to be messed with. He has done things that make me look like I’m ready for sainthood.”
“So you just want me to stand out here, waiting for them to finish the deed? It’s Harriet in there, I have to save her.” Adrenalin coursed through Philip’s veins and he broke free from Rupert’s grasp. They tussled silently in the hallway, each of them consciously keeping their grunts and groans locked inside their lips. He desperately wanted to break into the room, but he wasn’t fool enough to draw attention to himself beforehand. His only chance at saving Harriet was surprise.
“Listen to me,” Rupert panted when he briefly had hold of Philip. “I have been working with those men for months, trying to track her down. I have need for what’s in the missing packet too. But I would never hurt her.”
Philip threw him off and rushed at him, hitting Rupert in the stomach. They both fell to the ground. “Your name’s on the papers in that packet, but we can’t read much more than that. There are just a lot of names and numbers but none of them make sense.” Philip tugged on his arm, trying to wrench it free, but Rupert wouldn’t loosen his grip. He stilled for a moment. He needed to conserve his energy to get them out of this mess. Another thought occurred to him. “How did you know where we were?”
Rupert landed an elbow in his ribs and laughed under his breath, “Easy. I know you and Bingham are best friends, always have been and I suspect you always will be. It was careless of you to come here.”
“You told them we were here?” He couldn’t believe it. Philip heard Harriet moan in the next room and he pulled free of Rupert’s grasp. He jumped to his feet and rushed at the library door, intent on saving her.
“Listen to me,” Rupert whispered, grabbing his arm again. “We’ll only have one chance to do this right. Do as I say. Here.” Rupert held out a gun to Philip.
Philip rubbed his arm before grasping the gun from Rupert’s hand. The grip was raised beneath his hand, the small bumps making for a comfortable hold. He tested the weight. It was lighter than any gun he had handled before, but he thought it would still do the job. He raised his eyebrows in question.
“Follow my lead,” was all Rupert said before he stepped into the room.
Philip took a deep breath and willed his heart to cease its frantic beat and then pressed his face next to the now open door and listened to the voices within.
“What are you doing in here, Harry? You’re supposed to be watching the door.”
Rupert just grunted and after a moment Peter continued to speak.
“You can’t hide now, Princess, and with your dad gone, you have nothing to g
o home to…I’ve made sure of that.”
Princess? There was a princess here too? Why hadn’t Rupert mentioned there were more hostages, Philip wondered.
“What do you mean?” a female voice asked. It sounded like Harriet’s but in an unfamiliar accent. Surely Harriet wasn’t the princess the name referred to
“Who do you think the new King will be? Who has been at your father’s side all these years, eh Princess? Me. That’s who. It’s me The Family trust. I’m the one who’s always there. And after I take the throne? I’ll crush The Family like a bug!”
“But why, Peter? Why are you doing this?” the female voice asked again.
“Because, Princess, I can. And the small fact that I’m Ricardo’s son.”
“You can’t possibly be,” Philip heard the princess whisper in obvious shock.
He poked his head around the door a fraction.
The scene that greeted his eyes sent his blood cold.
One of the men in the room held a gun, very like the one Philip held in his hand, to Harriet’s head.
“Ye idiot, ye can’t shoot her with dat!” said Rupert. “You ’ave any idea what it would look like to the authorities? Put it away. Ye will be needin’ to use this.” He held out a pistol which Philip was more familiar with.
“In that case, Pete, can’t we just use that big statue thingy over there, and smash her pretty head in with it?”
“That statue thingy is called a bust, Charlie, but by all means, smash away.” The man referred to as Peter stood leaning lazily against one of the bookshelves in the corner.
Charlie tucked the gun into his trousers and strode over to the bust, giving Philip his chance. Rupert pointed his gun at Charlie.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Philip stepped fully into the room with the gun he had been given pointing at Peter’s head.
Chapter 37
Harriet didn’t have time to think when Philip walked in the door. Instinct took over, it was as though her mind was waiting for her to remember who she was so she could take care of the situation. She grasped the gun from the back of Charlie’s trousers and held it to his head. She took great pleasure in pressing the barrel hard into his skull.
“Philip,” she said, “the bell pull.”
He reached out his left hand and without taking his eyes off his prey, pulled the rope that connected to the servants’ quarters. Soon, Grayson would arrive. In the meantime, they needed to get the men restrained.
“I see you made it back – Philip, is it?” Peter turned towards Philip with a slick smile which grew larger when he spotted the other man pointing his gun at Charlie. “Attaboy, Harry, I knew you were a good investment.” He laughed softly.
Why she had never noticed how creepy he looked before baffled her. She guessed it was her dad’s trust in him that blinded her as to who he really was.
“Don’t even think about moving, Peter or you and your friend’s brains will be all over the floor. And I wouldn’t want to make Mrs Barnes madder at me than she already is.”
“Ah yes, Mrs Barnes, about her…”
Bingham’s butler emerged at that precise moment. He had managed to get dressed and down the stairs in the amount of time which had passed since Philip pulled the bell. The fact that he didn’t bat an eyelid at the sight of her and Philip and Rupert pointing guns around the room, was testament to the poise which gave him such a high standing in the household.
“You rang, sir?”
“Grayson, could you be so kind as to send for the bailiff? And perhaps find some strong rope and footmen who are good with knots.”
“Very good, sir.” Grayson gave a deep bow and existed the room at a slightly faster pace to that in which he entered it, the only indication he was agitated.
“Harry, shoot her, Charlie doesn’t matter.”
“Hey,” Charlie called out, clearly shocked by his boss’s declaration.
“Sorry, Peter, it’s not the princess I be aimin’ at.” He swung his arm and levelled his gun at Peter instead. Harriet had Charlie well covered.
Peter swung his head around to look at the barrel of Rupert’s gun in surprise. “What are you playing at, Harry?”
“My name’s not Harry, it’s Rupert. Rupert Caine. Son of the Duke of Kensington. The man that the packet you be so desperate to find belongs to.”
Peter’s mouth gaped open so far it was in danger of hitting the floor. There didn’t seem to be anything he could say to that.
Harriet asked the question they all wanted to know the answer to, “Do you know what’s in the packet Rupert? What is so important they had to kill my father over?”
“Aye, I do. It be hard ta believe, what’s inside. But I do know. Peter here let it slip when he didn’t think I was listening.” He nodded at Peter and said, “I always be listening.”
“Well, Rupert, what’s in it? Neal and I couldn’t tell with all the blood.” Philip came further into the room, never taking his eyes or his gun off Peter.
“Well, it’s our family tree, isn’t Pete?”
“What?” The shock on Philip’s face was unmistakably, but his gun still didn’t waver.
Rupert once again dropped his ruffian persona and spoke like the Duke he would one day become. “It’s quite a story and it took me a fair while to piece it all together, but I am satisfied I know the gist of it now.” He stepped closer to Charlie. “It seems that Peter and I are related. I’m his Grandfather, many times removed of course. Your Princess,” he nodded at Harriet, “was sent back in time to give me the family tree and the letter explaining what it all meant. Her father wanted to do away with his rival, Ricardo Giovanni. It seems he thought Ricardo was too ruthless and without compassion for his people. He thought he could avoid bloodshed if he was able to convince me not to marry the woman it says I will. If I don’t have the children in the family tree, then the family tree would not exist and therefore neither would Ricardo. And the King would no longer have him as an enemy.”
“Wait a moment, Rupert. Did you say that Harriet was sent back in time? That’s preposterous!” Philip seemed to be a few steps behind in the conversation and looked at Rupert in confusion.
“I’m afraid he’s right, Philip, but I’ll explain it all to you later,” Harriet said, still pressing her gun into the back of Charlie’s head. She knew Philip wouldn’t be able to believe them yet. A person’s mind isn’t able to grasp the concept of time-travel quickly and she really would have to explain it to him later…in great detail. She briefly glanced at Rupert and asked him the question she was desperate to know the answer to.. “Who is the woman you’re destined to marry?”
“Destined? I’m not destined to marry anyone. Who I chose to marry is for me to decide, not some piece of paper sent from the future.”
“Yes, but who is named on the paper, Rupert?” She asked again.
“Veronica Falheart.”
“What?” Philip’s gun wavered at his former mistress’s name, but Rupert kept his gun trained on Peter, giving him no chance to escape. “You can’t marry her.”
“Why not? What’s wrong with her?”
“A duke can’t marry a fallen woman, Rupert. You know that as much as anyone.”
“I get to decide who I marry!”
“Boys,” Harriet tried to get their attention. “Could we discuss this later, perhaps when we aren’t pointing guns around the room?”
They grunted their consent and waited in silence for the footmen to arrive. In the end, Grayson sent four and between them all, they managed to tie Peter and Charlie up so tightly they weren’t able to move even their fingers. As an added precaution, Harriet took the necklaces from their necks. She looked at the pendants on the end of the chains. They were similar to hers; the only difference being that where theirs were flat discs, hers had been a locket.
She sat in the sofa at the far side of the room, as far away from Peter and Charlie as she could get. She ran her fingers over the etched silver, the pendants still warm from the men�
�s heat.
Philip came and sat next to her. The solidness of his body next to hers gave her strength.
“I know who I am,” she said, not looking at him.
“So do I.”
She looked up in surprise. “You do?”
“Yes, I heard Peter call you Princess.”
“Oh. I um, well I’m not a princess, not a real one anyway. It is just a name my father called me.” She looked back down at the jewellery in her hands. How could she explain it to him? “Rupert explained some of it tonight.”
“What he said made no sense. Time-travel? Reverse family trees? It sounds like a tall tale to me.” His hair was standing on end from the amount of times he had run his hand through it tonight.
She turned to face him and grasped his hands. She wanted to touch him, know he was here, solid beside her. She felt as though everything was about to come to an end and she wanted to hang on to him as tightly as possible. “Rupert was right. Those men and I did travel back through time. I know it doesn’t make any sense, believe me, I thought it was all just a ‘tall tale’ too when I first heard it. But I’ve done it. I remember now.” She looked down at their hands locked together. “My dad asked me to come and deliver a package to a Rupert Caine two years before his marriage and birth of his first son. I didn’t ask Dad what was in the packet. In hindsight, I should have. But I would do anything for my father, anything.” Her voice caught in her throat. She couldn’t believe the man she grew up thinking was invincible was no longer alive. Tears she had forced back earlier overflowed now. Drops soon fell onto her lap.
Philip untangled his hands from hers and drew her against his shoulder, letting her drain her grief. He kissed the top of her head and made soothing noises in his throat. This he could understand. Grief he was familiar with and something he was able to comfort.
Damsel in Distress? Page 15