by Jaimey Grant
“Drat. Nothing. Wait here. I will search around the back and see if he is hiding out there.”
Levi watched the duke slink away into the darker shadows near the house. He abruptly disappeared.
As they waited, watching, Levi pondered his marital dilemma. While he knew that he would forgive Aurora for her lies, he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to trust her again. And what sort of marriage could they have without trust? He was a firm believer that trust was more important than love. Trust enabled a person to be comfortable, to be happy, to be content with another person. Trust that they would not hurt you, trust that they would not betray you, trust that they would not lie.
He couldn’t trust her. And now her lies had caused her daughter to be kidnapped. If she had only told him about Rhiannon, he would have stopped Forester before he’d ever had the chance to harm the child. Now it was too late. She was in the hands of a possible madman, mad for money, and he had no idea where she might be. He prayed Derringer knew what he was doing and wasn’t about to get Rhiannon killed.
The duke appeared suddenly from the opposite side of the house with the largest man Levi had ever seen firmly in tow. The giant seemed hesitant but willing to follow Derringer. Levi waited for them warily.
“This is Tiny,” Derringer said by way of introduction as soon as they were close enough. The four men moved deeper into the shadows.
“Tiny is going to watch for anything suspicious on his end of Town.”
“Where does he live?” asked Levi, eying the fairly young, very large man with some misgivings.
“I live in Cheapside. For now,” remarked the giant with a grin. His voice was high and light and very surprising in so large a man.
Levi shot him a stunned look. The man’s accent hinted at an education, possibly an extensive one. “Who are you?”
Tiny bowed quite as nicely as if he were any Society nob. “My name is Josiah Wilton. Everyone calls me Tiny Boy. I work at whatever job pays well enough. Hello again, Bruiser.”
Bruiser grunted in reply to this greeting.
“Bruiser here is still perturbed about that thrashing you gave him not too long ago,” remarked Derringer with a malicious grin.
Bruiser grunted again but still said nothing.
“So all you have done, Hart,” commented Levi thoughtfully, “is hire a couple of street ruffians to watch?” He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Perhaps a little disappointed. He had been so sure they would find Rhiannon immediately and return her to safety.
Derringer gave him an exasperated look. “No, lackwit. John will find Forester, discover if he has any accomplices. Tiny here will determine if we need help, should do as Forester asks, or if we can retrieve your daughter right from under her captors’ noses.”
This time it was Levi who grunted. Then he fixed the duke with a gimlet stare and warned, “If she gets hurt, your grace, I’ll kill you.”
*
Chapter Seventeen
Aurora was going mad. She was sure of it. They had been gone most of the night, doing God only knew what, while she sat at home worrying and wishing she could have gone with them. Men were so very vexing sometimes.
She had invited the Prestwiches and Northwickes to stay the night and she was relieved that they had accepted. Verena stayed up with her waiting for word from the men. It was the longest night of her life and she prayed for it to end so she would know that her daughter was safe.
Pacing by Verena yet again, Aurora twisted her hands together, turning her ring around and around on her finger. She looked up when the other woman addressed her.
“Rory dear, please stop pacing. It is giving me the headache,” she complained with a gentle laugh.
Aurora smiled and made herself sit down next to her friend. They still waited in the drawing room. And waited. And waited.
“I cannot take this any longer!” exclaimed Aurora passionately. “They have been gone this age and not a word have we had. What if something dire has befallen them?”
“I doubt anything dire would dare to threaten the Duke of Derringer,” replied Verena with rare cynicism.
This made Aurora smile. “It would indeed be odd were that to happen. But I just feel so very helpless, waiting here, doing nothing while some…madman has my little girl!”
Aurora surprised herself by bursting into tears yet again that night and Verena tried to soothe her as best she could. A commotion in the hall outside had Aurora springing from her seat and rushing out the door, her tears miraculously drying as she went. Verena followed close behind.
“Did you find her?” called the countess. “Did you find her?”
Levi caught his wife around the waist. “No, Rory, we did not find her.”
She pulled furiously away from him and glared at both of the gentlemen as they removed their outerwear. “Then where the devil have you been?” she demanded.
“Laying the groundwork,” commented Derringer.
Aurora studied them. They were dressed in black, normal for the duke but unusual for the earl. And their clothing was old and tattered. “Groundwork for what? Playing at highwaymen?” she inquired, scorn dripping from every word.
Levi took his wife’s arm and propelled her towards the drawing room. “It would be best if we continued this discussion out of the servants’ hearing, love,” he whispered harshly against her ear.
At the moment, she didn’t care who overheard them but she nodded anyway and allowed him to steer her back up to the drawing room. He pushed her down into a chair and stood across the room in front of the fireplace. Derringer seated his tall frame in a chair near Aurora and smiled at her mockingly. She glared back.
She looked around and realized that Verena was not with them. “Where is Doll?” she asked, her pale brows drawn down into a V.
“I’m here,” the other woman replied a trifle breathlessly. “Con asked me to wake him as soon as you arrived. He would have stayed up and waited but he was so very tired that we insisted he go to bed.” She blushed slightly but sat down on the sofa, her hands folded primly in her lap.
Northwicke smirked and went to stand near the window overlooking the street below. His entrance was quickly followed by that of Prestwich and his wife. Bri sat down next to Verena while Adam joined Levi by the empty grate.
“We are all here now,” snapped Aurora. “Where is my daughter?”
“We don’t know,” replied the duke. “Yet.”
“And how, your grace, do you suppose you will find out when you are here, doing nothing?”
Derringer’s black eyes flashed, but whether it was amusement or annoyance was anybody’s guess.
“Why do you not just pay the blasted ransom and get her back? Why play around endangering her life?” demanded Aurora, her voice rising with each word uttered.
Before Derringer could give her the setdown he was obviously aching to give her, Levi stepped between the combatants. “Do you really want to pay Forester, Rory? Think about it. Blackmailers never quit. He will demand more and more money until he finally tells the world of your behavior anyway. He has to be stopped, silenced for good.”
Aurora closed her mouth and glared at her husband. He was right and she hated him for it. She was tempted to tell him so. But nothing could really be resolved between them until Rhiannon was safe at home and spewing anxiety-driven nonsense would only make things that much harder to fix. So she kept her mouth shut and listened to the gentlemen as they discussed the matter at hand.
“What exactly have you done?” inquired Adam with a quirk of one black brow.
“Hired some street ruffians to kill Forester,” replied Derringer with a mocking look sent Aurora’s way.
“No you didn’t,” claimed Levi, a half-exasperated, half-amused expression crossing his features. “You hired two lowlifes to watch him.”
“I wonder if Tiny would let you live if he heard you call him a lowlife?” mused the duke.
“Who is Tiny?” inserted Northwicke, turning from the window and s
tudying the room’s occupants casually.
“Josiah Wilton,” answered Levi.
Aurora started. “Did you say Josiah Wilton?” she asked, a confused frown marring her smooth forehead.
Derringer’s black eyes swiveled to meet her shocked stare. “Ah, yes. You would know young Josiah, would you not, Miss Aurora Glendenning of the Staffordshire Glendennings. He was not told your family name since it quite slipped my mind that you were probably acquainted.” He paused, a look of devilish amusement stamped across his harsh features. “So what is Tiny to you, Lady Greville? Friend or foe?”
Aurora wondered if she should lie then castigated herself for even entertaining the thought. Her penchant for lies had gotten her into this mess and she knew if she didn’t stop there would be no chance for her and the man she loved. So she worked up her anger at the duke instead.
“You are aptly named, my Lord Heartless,” she hissed furiously. He favored her with a mocking bow from his seat. “The truth is, he was neither,” she told him. “Merely a neighbor.”
“The truth, Aurora? Are you sure? Do you even know what truth is? How many other children do you have secreted away somewhere?”
Aurora locked gazes with Lord Derringer, determined not to look away, determined not to let him see her pain at his nasty words. Everyone else seemed to watch the battle of wills but no one stepped in.
“That is enough, Derringer,” said Lord Connor, finally. All eyes turned in surprise to the normally quiet man. His face was deadly calm and his voice matched his expression.
The duke gave the other man an assessing look before clamping his mouth shut.
Tears started to Aurora’s eyes before she could stop them, her frustration and anger far more than any normal person could endure. No mother should have to know how it felt when a child was taken. No mother should have to endure such hell. And because of her own stupidity, Aurora was facing the possibility of life alone.
Her husband couldn’t even bring himself to defend her when maligned by his friend. It was left to someone who little knew her.
It took everything left in her to prevent the overflow.
Her husband crouched down before her. He took her hand, a faint smile of reassurance on his lips. “Don’t cry, Rory. He would be delighted to see it.”
“How can you abide that man?” she demanded, furiously blinking back her tears. She was relieved at what appeared to be genuine concern in her husband’s dark brown eyes. “He has not one redeeming quality. I doubt not his own mother would avoid him, were she still living.”
Levi’s smile disappeared. “Don’t ever mention his mama to him, Aurora. That subject is best left closed. And he is a very good friend if not a very pleasant person. Try to understand, Rory. He is not a happy man. He has no reason to be. And he will find Rhiannon and restore her to you unharmed. I promise.”
~~~~~~
It was hours later, about mid-afternoon, when the butler informed his lordship that there were two unsavory persons asking for him.
“Where have you put them?” asked Levi as he hastily tied his cravat into something resembling a careless knot. He shrugged into his coat, and followed the butler out.
“They are waiting in the kitchen, my lord.”
Levi flew ahead of the servant and was presently in the warm kitchen facing Tiny Boy and a small wizened little man that he had not met and could only assume was the other man Derringer hired.
“Follow me, gentlemen,” Levi told them diffidently. He paused on his way out of the kitchen. “Do either of you want refreshment?”
The old man grinned while Tiny just gazed at him impassively. Levi ordered a tea tray sent to the study at the back of the ground floor of the Mayfair townhouse. He supposed Tiny was the sort to always be hungry and the old man looked as if he’d not eaten in days.
After the wide-eyed maid left and the men were ensconced in comfortable leather armchairs, Levi asked, “Who are you?”
The old man grinned. “Big John’s me moniker, at yer service, lor’ship.” He sketched a mocking bow in Levi’s direction from the depths of his chair.
Levi laughed. He couldn’t help it. “You are Big John and you are Tiny Boy?” He erupted into hearty guffaws, clutching his sides. He finally sobered and wiped his streaming eyes. “Lord, I am sorry. I was not laughing at either of you. But it felt good to laugh about something. Where the devil did you get your names? Never mind. That is not important. Where is my daughter?”
This seemed to be Big John’s cue. He erupted into speech, punctuated by the smacking of his lips, some of his words so broad even Tiny seemed to have some trouble understanding him. Levi was nearly clueless as to what he was being told.
He turned to Tiny when John ceased to speak. “Translation?”
The large man smiled. “Big John found this Forester fellow residing in Cheapside. Quite convenient to my way of thinking. It seems he’s been visiting with a close neighbor of his, a couple by the name of Miller. Do you know them?”
“No. Who are they?”
Tiny shrugged. “John did not say. He’ll know soon enough.”
Big John nodded, his gape-toothed grin wide and comical but somehow reassuring. Several biscuits and cakes disappeared into that wide maw then, giving the earl a slightly queasy feeling in his stomach.
He returned his attention to the giant. “Continue.”
“Apparently, the neighbor the other side, a widow named Mrs. Smythe, heard some strange noises. She said it sounded like a child crying for its mama but she was almost positive that the Millers did not have a child with them when they moved in.”
“She was sure it was a child crying and not some animal?”
“Aye, she was positive,” Tiny assured him. “She says she’s raised fifteen of her own and would know a child’s cry over an animal’s anywhere. Her youngest boy, a fifteen-year-old lad, confirmed her story. He’s heard it, too.”
Levi scowled menacingly. “If that monster has hurt her, I’ll kill him.”
“That don’t mean he be ‘urtin’ ‘er, ye know,” commented Big John around a mouthful of cucumber sandwich. “Scart,” he explained succinctly.
Since this had not occurred to Levi, the idea that Rhiannon was just scared had him feeling immensely relieved. Until he thought about what that poor child had been put through. He felt an unreasoning surge of anger toward his bride. Had she confided in him, he might have been able to protect the child. He at least could have put Desmond Forester out of their misery.
Tamping this anger down lest he go in search of his wife and thrash her soundly, Levi asked, “So now what?”
Tiny answered, “I have two men watching the residences, my lord. I will watch myself tonight. He will not escape unscathed, I assure you.”
“How did you find all this out so quickly?”
“Followed the blighter,” responded Tiny. “He has a habit of appearing suspicious, you know. It was too easy. He’s dangerous.”
“Why do you say that? I mean, other than for obvious reasons?”
The door to the study opened suddenly to admit the Duke of Derringer. “Because a lunatic who is careless is far more unpredictable and therefore, far more dangerous,” the duke told him simply. “He might kill the girl if he thinks he is about to be thwarted.” He sat down behind the huge desk, leaning his elbows on the desktop and sitting forward, smiling at the other men. There was nothing pleasant about his smile, as usual. “Hello, John, Tiny. You have told him everything, I assume?”
“Nearly, Heartless, nearly,” replied Tiny. Levi wondered if these two gentlemen even knew Derringer’s rank. He had only ever heard them call him Heartless.
“What else is there?” inquired Levi.
“All the details,” Tiny said cryptically.
~~~~~~
Apparently, the duke already knew every last detail, having discussed it all with his hired men before sending them to Levi’s. He watched Tiny inform the earl of everything, right down to the color of the child’s
clothing nearly every minute of the day, the look on her face when she saw Forester, the look on her face when she was with the Millers, and the little doll she carried with her constantly.
“You did not tell me before that you ever saw the girl,” pointed out Levi a trifle shortly.
“I was getting to it,” Tiny told him with infinite patience.
Levi glanced at the duke. “Am I to suppose that, judging by Rhiannon’s reaction to Forester, she does not like him?” The duke nodded. “But she seems to trust, or at least know, the Millers.”
“Call your wife in, Vi,” commanded Derringer.
Levi raised his brows at this request, not trusting his friend’s frighteningly gentle tone. “Do you have bad news for her? Perhaps I should hear it first.”
“Call your wife in, Vi.”
The earl rang for the butler.
“The two of you may leave,” continued the duke, casting meaningful glances at his hired men.
With a smooth bow from Tiny and a mocking salute from John, they exited the room. The butler entered as they left and bowed before the earl and the duke.
“You rang, my lord, your grace?”
“Fetch Lady Greville, please, Parsons. That will be all.”
The butler bowed again at Levi’s carefully uttered command and left.
“Why do you want Aurora here?” asked Levi, turning to study his friend, determined to know at least something before his wife arrived.
“She needs to know that the Millers have her.”
“Why?”
“That is something you’ll have to ask her, Vi.”
The duke’s tone suggested that he would reveal nothing about it, so Levi clamped his mouth shut. Derringer’s face revealed nothing, making Levi all the more suspicious. Just how the devil did Derringer manage to know everything about everybody? It was…unnerving.
His eyes narrowed. “What kind of secrets are you keeping about me?”
The duke’s grin flashed impishly. “That’s for me to know and you to find out, my dear friend,” he told him.