Unmasking the Spy

by Janet Kent

  “London! How do you know?”

  “How wouldn’t I know? He rode off in his carriage. The carriage required horses. The horses came from our stables. Our stables employ all manner of souls, many of whom are not above speaking with one of the ladies of the house, especially when she flashes a half-crown. If you were wondering, he’s expected back in the next day or two.”

  Alicia snapped her teeth together with a loud click. Insufferable, perhaps. Impertinent, without a doubt. But Mavis was nothing if not resourceful, despite her saucier qualities. “Thank you. I was wondering.”

  With a false, over-bright smile, Mavis slipped past Alicia to head up the stairs to her room.

  “Wait,” Alicia called. “Did you say Beatrix and Carlotta have been gone for three hours?”

  “Nearly. It’s almost eleven now, and they left at half past eight, right after breakfast.”

  “They went on a picnic?”

  “How do I know? They’re both a little off.”

  “What’s so crazy about going for a picnic?”

  “In our garden?”

  “They’ve been in the garden for three hours?”

  Mavis shrugged. “That’s where they said they were headed. Me, I could walk around it twenty times in half an hour, and that’s nineteen too many. Glad they didn’t ask me along.” She started up the stairs again.

  Alicia took the first step to follow her when a footman materialized at her side, again bearing the unmistakable calling card of her cousin Louis. The disgusting thing even smelled like him.

  She turned and stalked back to the front door, where once again Heatherley’s impassive butler trapped him outside the house. When Louis caught sight of her, he started bouncing on his toes, flailing his arms around and jabbering so quickly in his thin, shrill voice that she couldn’t make out a word of what he was saying. Sensing her approach, the butler turned and cast her a long-suffering look. Alicia decided to take pity on him.

  “Go on,” she said with a smile and a gentle pat on his arm. “I can handle him.”

  He looked at Louis doubtfully, but at Alicia’s insistent gesture, he made a quick bow and exited the room with alacrity.

  “Now.” Alicia turned to her cousin and crossed her arms over her chest. “What on earth is the matter with you?”

  “You’ve got to come quickly!” he said, grabbing her by the upper arm.

  Alicia twisted out of his grasp. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  “But it’s Beatrix!” he cried. “She’s hurt! She needs you!”

  “What? Where is she?”

  “She came up to my coach when I arrived. She wanted to wish me well. Something happened – I don’t know! She fell! She’s hurt!”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Louis! Why didn’t you tell the butler?” Alicia demanded, pushing past him and marching toward his coach.

  “I don’t know… I wasn’t thinking. I was worried. I knew you’d know what to do.”

  Alicia gave him a sidelong glance as she rounded the back of the coach. Louis did look agitated. His face was pastier than usual and bathed in an unhealthy sheen of sweat. She opened her mouth to ask if he were quite all right himself, when he reached in his waistcoat and withdrew a pistol, gripping it by the barrel.

  Before she could move out of the way or make a single sound, the butt of the gun whistled as it arced toward her head.

  She crumpled as the world went black.

  ###

  When Ian pulled into Heatherley, exhausted and sore, his butler ran to meet him for perhaps the first time in his life.

  Ian leapt to the ground to greet him, but any forthcoming salutations were preempted by the butler’s frantic, “She’s gone.”

  His skin erupted in tiny droplets of icy sweat.

  “Where? When?”

  “An hour ago. I’m so sorry. She told me to leave. It’s no excuse, but she insisted – I knew she’d never let him in, but I never dreamed she’d leave with him–”

  “Larouche?”

  “Yes.”

  Shit. “Any idea where they went?”

  His butler hung his head.

  Damn, damn, and triple damn. He didn’t know if he’d be better off tearing down the street in chase of him, despite not knowing which direction he’d gone, or if he should go inside and see if they contacted him, or had left a note. Listening to his butler’s recitation of Larouche’s many refused visits, Ian doubted his wife had gone anywhere with him on her own volition.

  Frustrated, Ian kicked one of his wheels, coughing as he sent up a cloud of dust. He scowled at his butler, scowled at Heatherley, scowled at his horses, and scowled down the road. It was empty, save for some rocks, a wild cat, and a grubby boy scrambling barefoot along the side. Larouche could’ve done anything, taken Alicia anywhere.

  Ian grimaced. What was he going to do? How could he get her back?

  With a wave of his arm, he shooed his butler back into the house and leaned against his coach, one foot propped on the folding step. Why couldn’t he have gotten here a little bit sooner? Been a little bit smarter? Lord knew, Larouche couldn’t outwit a rubber ball. He should’ve seen this coming.

  “Mister?”

  Ian glanced at the dirty little urchin at his feet. “Yes?”

  “I got a note for you. The man said as you’d give me a shilling for it.”

  “Did he, now?” Ian lowered his foot to the ground and fished a shilling from his pocket. “Here you go. May I have the note?”

  The boy shoved a wilted piece of paper at his chest, snatched the coin from his hand, and ran off down the road, oblivious to the many rocks under his bare feet.

  Ian unwrapped the paper and stared at the words enclosed.

  “I’ve got all three,” read the note. “Come alone to the cabin if you want to see them again. If you want them back alive, bring as much as they’re worth to you – at least eight thousand quid. I’ll give you three hours to draw the money.” On the reverse was a hand-drawn map, indicating an abandoned cottage in the woods about a half hour’s ride from Heatherley.

  Larouche was crazy if he thought Ian had eight thousand pounds to give away. But if he didn’t expect Ian’s arrival for a few more hours, perhaps he could enact a surprise attack and rescue Alicia before he even figured out what happened.

  Wait. He hadn’t said he’d abducted Alicia alone. Ian unfolded the note again to re-read the first line. All three. All three what?

  Ian stalked to the house and threw open the door, finding the butler trembling just within.

  “Where is everybody?”

  “Er–”

  “Excepting my wife. Where’s everyone else?”

  “Miss Poppy and Miss Julia are in the yellow salon, awaiting your return. Miss Mavis is in the library. Miss Carlotta and Miss Kinsey – that’s Mrs. Morrissey’s great-aunt – are out on a constitutional.”

  “Are they?” Ian asked, struggling to remain calm. “When did they leave?”

  “About eight thirty this morning, sir.”

  “And where did they go?”

  “The garden.”

  “And what time is it now?”

  “Er… not quite noon, sir.”

  “They’ve been walking in the garden for three and a half hours? Bring them to me. Now!”

  The butler jumped and scurried from the room, alarm showing in every crease of his face. When he returned several long minutes later with several footmen but no Carlotta and no Beatrix, Ian handed over the ransom note and stalked from the house without waiting for a single word of excuses.

  If Larouche thought he could play games with the Morrissey family and live, Ian itched to prove just how wrong he was.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Alicia awoke with a splitting headache and her wrists roped together in her lap. The coach seemed magnetized to the deepest ruts in the road and every bounce jarred her throbbing forehead worse than the last.

  “Damn you, Louis!” she snarled, struggling on the seat next to him.<
br />
  “Now, now. That’s hardly ladylike.”

  “You said Aunt Beatrix was in trouble!”

  Louis cackled and urged his horses faster. “Your whole family is in trouble.”

  “Who do you mean? Ian?”

  “Your father, stupid.”

  Alicia stopped struggling. “What’s wrong with Papa?”

  “He’s going to die.”

  “What! What’s wrong with him? What do you mean?”

  “I mean he’s going to swing.”

  “Oh, quit bamming me. He hasn’t done anything wrong.”

  Louis smirked at her. “Stealing jewels isn’t wrong?”

  “He didn’t steal any jewels!”

  “Of course he did.”

  “How would you know?”

  “It was my idea, of course.”

  Alicia narrowed her eyes. “But why would he ally himself with you?”

  “He claimed he needed to refill the family coffers.”

  “But why would he ally himself with you?”

  “Because I know his worst secrets.”

  “Papa has no secrets!”

  “How do you know, cousin?” Louis asked in a singsong voice.

  “Because there’s nothing to know!”

  “How innocent you are. He has plenty to hide.”

  “Like what?”

  “Your mother, for one.”

  “He’s not hiding her. She’s dead.”

  “Not her body, you ninny. Her death.”

  Alicia took a quick, hitching breath. “Her death was an accident. I saw it myself.”

  “But who caused the accident, cousin?”

  “Nobody! But if anyone were that cruel, it would be someone like you.”

  “Ah, so you’re not as stupid as you seem. And on whose orders would someone like me do something like that?”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “He saw her with the solicitor, not that anybody knew that’s what he was at the time. He just appeared – a handsome stranger in your father’s house. Chadwick thought she seemed a little too… solicitous.”

  Alicia strained against the rope. “You’re a liar.”

  “He saw the man prepare to leave and took his chance. He asked me to loosen the wheel a bit so the carriage would be forced to stop a short distance away. He planned to hide down the road and wait. When the carriage stopped, out of sight from Chadwick House, he planned to do a little talking with his fists.”

  “No.”

  “I didn’t know he was broke at the time. I’d been in a bit of a bind with some unsavory moneylenders myself, due to some games that hadn’t gone my way. I figured Chadwick would be happy to erase my debts if I helped, so I was glad to loosen the wheel.”

  “You’re despicable.”

  “My surprise when your mother climbed in behind the solicitor was no doubt as great as your father’s – although he didn’t learn she was inside until the carriage overturned. He ran to help, but it was too late.”

  “Then it was an accident! A horrible, stupid accident that I cannot forgive your part in, but neither of you is a killer. And if you turn this carriage around right now, nobody need know you planned to be an abductor on top of your other sins.”

  “And extortionist.”

  “Fine,” Alicia agreed with a patronizing scowl. “Abductor and extortionist.”

  “I don’t care if they do know, cousin. Do you think I’d go to such lengths if I were staying in England? I let my staff go when I came to drop off Beatrix. I’m escaping to the continent as soon as Morrissey brings me the blunt. I’m in too much trouble with my unpayable vowels and the games aren’t going well enough to fix it. The next thing they’ll break will be worse than my legs.”

  Alicia gasped. “You mean… your legs…”

  “Yes. That was a warning. A warning I plan to heed very well. I just need Morrissey to pony up.”

  “Why not just ask Papa for the money like you planned?”

  “I did, of course.” Louis tossed his head. “But in case he swung for the jewel thefts, I didn’t want suspicion to fall on me as well, due to him dumping large sums of money on me for no apparent reason. That’s where you came in.”

  “Me?”

  “He was to give me half the money I needed in your dowry and the rest as a wedding gift.”

  “You owe sixteen thousand pounds?”

  “He told you?”

  “No. Never mind. But if you’re leaving the country, why would you care a button about suspicion?”

  “I don’t anymore, of course. But now he won’t pay me a penny, even though by now I’m sure they’re onto him,” Louis said with a sniff.

  “Who’s onto him? Why?” The ropes chafed her wrists as Alicia struggled to free herself.

  “I suppose a certain anonymous note may have been sent…”

  “You bastard. I’m glad he won’t help you.”

  “I bet you are. That’s your fault, too.”

  “What! How?”

  “Now that you’re safely married and out of the city, he plans to face his accusers head on. He hadn’t wanted to risk the future of his precious daughter or the safety of your half-wit aunt. I should’ve loosened her wheels like I did for your mother. And you’re no better. Now you’re married and Chadwick actually likes Morrissey. And since you and the old stick are both provided for, he’s lost all his good sense.”

  “The worst judgment Papa ever showed was trusting scum like you.”

  “Shut up!”

  His fist came flying at her face so fast she could do nothing more than grimace before his knuckles slammed into her cheekbone and blackness descended once more.

  ###

  The drumming in her head escalated. Alicia cracked open one eye. Light blinded her and she snapped her eyelid back shut, grimacing. Even if she discounted half of what Louis said – and with the incessant throbbing in her forehead, she probably only remembered half of what he said – her world had tilted once again.

  Papa had partnered with Louis in a jewelry-stealing spree and planned to use her as a cat’s paw to settle gambling debts? The very thought made the pounding in her skull increase its frantic beat. However, right or wrong, Papa had wanted to marry her off in order to shield her from scandal. By allowing her the two weeks’ delay, he’d put himself in jeopardy for her happiness.

  He loved her after all. How could she be angry with that?

  Well, she could be a trifle miffed that he hadn’t mentioned the situation to her. The men in her life seemed to be unable or unwilling to part with the truth. First “Rogue”, then her father. And Louis… to think they’d been cozened by Louis!

  She slit open her eyelids for a second time and waited for the pain of sudden light to abate. When her vision cleared, her eyes flew open wide and her heart stuttered against her ribs. Carlotta and Beatrix stared back at her, mouths gagged, arms roped in their laps, and their legs tied to their chairs.

  “What–” Alicia began and winced when the movement caused her bruised cheek to burn with pain. Her hands flew to her mouth still bound at the wrists, but she hadn’t been gagged or tied to her chair. Louis must not have expected her to wake up any time soon. And on that note, where was he?

  Alicia glanced around. They were in some sort of anteroom turned sitting room, in what appeared to be a cottage.

  To her back was a row of windows. To her left stood a large wooden door, also flanked by windows. Through the dirty glass, she could just make out Louis, mincing around his carriage and fiddling with some sort of spyglass. To her right were two open doors. She couldn’t quite see into the far one, but the doorway closest to her led to some type of bedchamber. And directly in front of her were Beatrix and Carlotta, the latter of which hopped up and down until her chair teetered on edge.

  Alicia staggered to her feet and lumbered over. She hooked her pinkies under the handkerchief gagging her aunt and tugged it down to her neck.

  Beatrix heaved a huge sigh of relief. “Thank you,
dear. We’ve been stuck here with the little bastard all morning.”

  Carlotta bounced around in her seat. Alicia reached over and pushed the handkerchief out of her mouth as well.

  “We did it!” Carlotta cried gaily. “I’ve been compromised!”

  “Trust me,” Alicia replied, “you do not want to be compromised by Louis.”

  “Oh,” Carlotta sighed, crushed. “It seemed like such an adventure.”

  “It’s an adventure, all right. My cousin is crazy. We’ve got to get out of here.”

  “Every generation has its scandals, Carlotta,” intoned Beatrix in her quavery voice. “When it’s your turn, don’t let us down.”

  Carlotta nodded and then cast a critical eye across Alicia. “You’re covered in blood!”

  “I am?” Alicia touched her face and her hands came away red and sticky. She dropped to her knees and laid her wrists across Carlotta’s lap. “Untie me.”

  Exclaiming at the bloodstains Alicia smeared on her skirt, Carlotta struggled with the rope and managed to free Alicia’s wrists, exposing the bruised skin beneath.

  “Thank you.” Alicia rotated her wrists to loosen the kinks and set about untying Carlotta’s legs. She had just loosened the second rope when the door flew open, banging against the inner wall.

  “So!” shrilled Louis, waving his pistol at them and kicking the door shut behind him. “You plan to take me off guard, do you? Too late! Too late! Morrissey is en route. He’s no more than twenty minutes away. Soon, I will have my money. You! Girl! Come stand over here. I’ll let you know when to open the door.”

  Carlotta shook loose the last loops of rope from her legs and made her way to the door. “It would be easier if my wrists were unbound… sir.”

  “Too bad! You’ll find a way. And you! Stand behind your aunt. Stay where I can see you. See? Even though we’re not wed, I still control you!”

  Alicia grimaced at Louis’ loud cackle but stumbled behind Beatrix, curving her bruised hands on the back of the chair. “Control of women and money to waste, that’s all you want, Louis. Your only passion is for power.”

  Louis tossed his head. “Better a passion for power than being brainless bawd like you and the old slattern. It’s a good thing her baby didn’t live – can you imagine what kind of crazy child that one would spawn? I’ve had half a mind to kill her for years.”