The Temptation of a Gentleman

by Jenna Petersen

  Noah rose to his feet. His hands trembled at his sides and his head throbbed. He had no idea if Marion had left his sister’s house of her own accord or not, but he did know she was in great danger. Her father would surely hear she wasn’t under his protection anymore and make chase. If the beating Hawthorne had given Marion was any indication, the consequences for Marion and her mother could be devastating.

  “Thank you for telling me, Charlotte.” He smiled down at her. “I know this couldn’t have been easy for you.”

  She stood, too and returned his smile. “Noah.”

  It was the first time she’d ever said his Christian name and Noah leaned back in surprise.

  “Find her and be happy.”

  “Thank you.” He turned to his sister. “Audrey, contact Golding and start a search for Marion.”

  “Where are you going?” Audrey and Griffin followed him into the hallway.

  “To find her. But if her father has her I may need help.” He nodded to his sister.

  “Then take Griffin. I can handle Golding and you may need another set of hands if you encounter trouble.” She turned to her husband. “Be careful.”

  Noah turned away as the two shared a heated kiss. The last thing he needed was a reminder of what he could lose if he couldn’t find Marion, or if he found her too late.

  “Foster!” Griffin called out as he released his wife. “Foster, have the carriage brought around for my wife and bring me my pistol.”

  ***

  The Great Northern road out of London seemed to wind through city streets and bustling roads forever, even though Noah and Griffin rode horses which were easy to maneuver around carriages and crowds. Noah could only pray he’d chosen correctly and would stumble across Marion and her mother before something happened to them.

  What had made Marion run? It was the one thing he still couldn’t answer. Could her father have found her and threatened her? Her note had left him no clues, no secret message between the lines. He had to believe she’d indeed intended to leave him of her own free will.

  But why? Why had she left the very day he was to declare his feelings for her? She’d seemed happy enough in the Berenger house, and had even kissed him goodnight after the ball. Were those the actions of a woman preparing to flee?

  Something else had to have happened between the time they’d separated after the ball and that morning when she left. As soon as he found her, he would discover what that something was.

  “What’s that up ahead?”

  Griffin’s question startled Noah from his thoughts, and he cursed himself for letting his mind wander.

  “Where?”

  He scanned the area around them. They had finally departed the last of the city and were now in the outskirts where there were few people. There was a tree beside the road, an old oak with a trunk as thick around as two or three large men standing side by side. At first Noah saw nothing out of the ordinary, but then he noticed a man’s foot sticking out from behind the tree as if he’d passed out.

  “There, a man…”

  “I see him.” Noah guided his horse around the tree, then skidded Phantom to a hard halt and hopped off the creature. He grimaced when the men trying to help parted and he saw who it was lying on the ground: Ingrid Hawthorne’s driver, and he had a large gash across his forehead. His arms were tied behind his back and he was unconscious.

  “Wake up.” Noah shook the man. Even though he was injured, and normally Noah would have let him wake on his own accord, this time he couldn’t. “You, wake up.”

  The man’s eyes slowly fluttered open, and with Noah’s help he struggled to a sitting position that allowed Griffin to untie his hands. “Oh, my head.”

  “What happened?” Noah asked through clenched teeth.

  “Lord Woodbury.” The young man’s eyes cleared with recognition. “Oh, I’m glad to see you, sir.”

  “What happened to Miss Marion and her mother?” he repeated, unwilling to participate in any pleasantries.

  “Two men, sir. They stopped us as we passed by. One was Mr. Hawthorne and the other a burly chap I didn’t catch the name of.” The young man rubbed his wrists where he’d been tied. “I tried to stop them, but they cracked me over the head and that’s all I remember.”

  “When?” Griffin asked as Noah bounded to his feet and ran a hand through his hair.

  “I’m not sure how long I was out, sir.” The boy checked the sun through the shade of the tree. “An hour, perhaps two?”

  Noah cursed. A two-hour lead could put the three of them anywhere. “Did Hawthorne say anything about where he was taking them?”

  “I’m sorry, sir.” The boy got to his feet, but immediately teetered to the side. He barely caught himself on the tree trunk with one arm and looked very green.

  “Griffin, take the boy back into the city. Make sure he’s treated for his injury and get word to Golding about which road to follow.”

  He swung up on Phantom in one smooth motion and turned him back down the road.

  “And where will you go?” Griffin asked.

  He shrugged. “To find Marion. We can’t leave the driver here, and he’ll only slow us down if he rides with you in his condition. If you hurry, you’ll catch my trail in a few hours.”

  Griffin opened his mouth as if to protest, but then took one more glance at the boy who was now vomiting on the other side of the tree. He looked at Noah with a grim nod.

  “Be careful. Hawthorne is a desperate man. I’ll send the cavalry as soon as I can get word to Audrey.”

  Noah lifted his hand to wave as he galloped off down the road. His heart throbbed and his mind raced. Marion was in terrible danger. If he couldn’t find her soon, he had no idea what her so-called father would do. Or where he would take her. With a shiver at the thought, Noah dug his heels hard into Phantom and doubled his time toward the woman he loved.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Marion glared at her father, but her angry stare only served to amuse him. It had been almost two hours since he had abducted the three women and Walter had the upper hand in every way. Noah would have a difficult time tracking them, if he came at all. Despite her bluff, Marion knew he might read her letter, be relieved she’d set him free, and never come.

  She choked back a sob at the thought and looked out the window. She was trying desperately to identify the scenery around them just in case she could manage an escape. Of course her father, no, the man she’d always thought was her father, had never taken her out much. She couldn’t have said where they were even if she had a map and compass to aid her.

  Even if she could figure it out, he never took his eyes off her and her mother. The women hadn’t had the opportunity to speak at all, let alone plot an escape. She’d have to depend on herself to save them all.

  “I need to relieve myself,” she said loudly, crossing her arms and glaring at her father as if daring him to refuse her.

  “You’ll have to wait. We aren’t stopping for at least a few more hours. We need to get distance between London and us in case that driver of Ingrid’s wakes up.”

  Walter sneered at her mother and she mother shivered and looked away.

  Marion tried to block an image of the strapping young man who’d been their driver unconscious at the side of the road. “Fine. I’ll just have to do it right here then. It will punish you as much as it does me.”

  Walter glared at her for a moment. She could see he was weighing whether or not he wanted to take the chance she was lying. Finally, he reached back and thumped on the wall three times. The carriage began a slow stop. A surge of triumph made Marion smile to herself. Once she was out of the vehicle, she was halfway to freedom.

  “If you’re lying to me.” Walter leaned closer and put his face in hers. “If you try anything, your mother will suffer for it.”

  Marion glanced from her father to her mother for a moment. She was inclined to believe him. Although he’d beaten her weeks ago, Marion didn’t believe he’d kill her. After al
l, he had raised her even though she wasn’t his own flesh and blood. But he hated her mother, had hated her for years. If he had the opportunity to harm Ingrid, Marion had no doubt he’d take it.

  Still, she and her mother were in just as much danger if they didn’t fight. It was a risk they’d have to take.

  The carriage door opened and the three women filed out. For the first time, Marion caught a glimpse of her father’s accomplice. He was a burly man, but he didn’t look too bright to her. Her mother and Sally might be able to take care of him if they worked together.

  She saddled up to her mother while her father spoke to the man for a moment. “When I go to the bushes, have Sally distract the other man, then you hit him over the head with…” She looked around her. “With that big stick over there. Hit him as hard as you can. If he falls but tries to get back up, hit him again.”

  Her mother’s eyes grew wide and for a moment Marion feared she’d refuse. But then a steel came into the gentle brown and she nodded. “I’ll pretend he’s your father.”

  Marion laughed despite herself and moved back away.

  “Are you going to go then?” Her father asked, motioning for her to lead. “I’ll follow at a respectable distance to be certain you don’t try anything tricky.”

  Marion winked at her mother, then strode by her father with her head held high and headed toward some brush far in the distance. She wanted to be sure her father had to run a long way if he decided to go back to help his cohort.

  She bustled about behind the bushes so he’d think she was taking care of her needs, all the while listening in the distance for some indication that Sally and her mother had done their part. She peeked around the hedges just in time to see the driver hit the ground. Unfortunately, her father saw the same thing at the same moment.

  He started to stride back toward the carriage. “Hey!”

  Marion ran out from behind the bushes and threw herself across her father’s back while she wrapped her arms around his thick neck.

  “Let go of me!” he bellowed as he began to twist and try to get hold of her. She kicked him in the back of his knee and he howled in pain, but responded by hitting her across the side of her head. She winced. Thank goodness he hadn’t had a clear shot.

  “You let us go and I’ll let you go,” she yelled back at him as she continued to hit and kick at him. She sighed with relief as Sally and her mother ran up to aid her. The relief was short-lived, though, as her father flipped her over his shoulder and to the ground. The air left her lungs and she gasped for air.

  “You’re going to be sorry you did that, girlie.” He grabbed her hair and yanked her to her feet.

  Marion grasped at her roots as the sting rushed through her scalp, but was surprised that suddenly he released her. When she turned, it was to see her mother sitting on her former husband’s chest, pummeling him with her small fists.

  “You may have gotten away with that with me, but not with my daughter,” her mother screamed as she continued to beat at Walter Hawthorne.

  He was too stunned to fight back for a moment, but when one of her mother’s fists came in contact with his bulbous nose, it snapped him from his shock and he cried out.

  Marion flung herself across his body so he couldn’t swing at her or her mother and barked up at Sally, “Get some rope and help me tie him up.”

  Sally stared at the two women in shock, but then nodded mutely and ran over to the carriage.

  “This is it, Walter.” Beneath her, the man she’d known as her father struggled and let loose with a long string of curses that burned her ears. “You don’t own me and you don’t own her.” Marion met her mother’s eyes and the two women smiled. “And you never will.”

  ***

  Noah pushed his horse faster than the poor beast had ever run. But Phantom seemed to sense his master’s urgency and continue on without so much as a whimper. It had been at least an hour he’d been riding and trying to track the carriage in the muddy roadway. An impossible task considering the road was moderately traveled. His frustration had grown until it reached a fever pitch.

  He looked up from his quick glance at tracks and maneuvered Phantom around a bend. There, not one hundred yards ahead of him, was the carriage he’d been so desperately looking for.

  “Marion!” he called out as he forced his horse even harder.

  A woman ran to the side of the road at his call and to his relief he saw it was his fiancée. She appeared uninjured from the rapidly shrinking distance.

  “Noah!” she cried out in relief.

  He pulled the horse up short and swung off to catch her in his arms. Damning propriety, he brought his mouth down on hers and kissed her as hard and as deeply as he could. He felt her body relax against him almost instantly as she returned his kiss with the sweet fervor of a person who’d been through hell and now found themselves home.

  Finally, he reluctantly pulled away and gave her the gentlest of shakes. “What did you think you were doing sneaking away like that?”

  Marion paled as she regained her composure. She pulled from his embrace and nodded her head in the direction of the carriage. Near the wheel, two squirming men were tied. One was Walter Hawthorne.

  “You son of a bitch!” Noah crossed the distance between them in a heartbeat. “I ought to kill you right here for kidnapping her. Your own daughter, man!”

  Marion grabbed his arm to keep him from swinging against the defenseless man. “I need to tell you the truth. He didn’t kidnap me. Well he did, but not until after I’d left you.” She paused and turned her head away. “And he isn’t my father.”

  Noah flinched. The pain in Marion’s eyes and the guilt in Ingrid’s told him what she said was all too true. It made him ache to see her in such agony.

  “What?”

  She sighed. “It’s a long story. It seems everyone in my life has lied to me, including Sally.”

  Noah wheeled back. “I don’t understand.”

  “Georgina Ross killed herself,” she said with a sigh. “Sally knew all along, but used my fears to endear herself to me in the hopes I would help her escape Lucas’s employ.”

  Noah stared at Marion with a shocked expression. She couldn’t help a wry smile. “You told me making friends with the servants could help us. It’s just too bad we didn’t resolve this sooner so we could have avoided this mess. Your plans wouldn’t have been ruined if she had.”

  She let him digest her last comment. It was a low blow, but seeing him again, feeling him kiss her when she knew she was nothing but an inconvenience to him, hurt her. And in her hurt, she lashed out.

  “What do you mean, my plans?” he asked with a shake of his head. “I don’t understand.”

  “I know you don’t understand.” She turned on her heel and walked toward her father. “No one understands and everyone is sorry. Well…”

  She was about to go on a tirade, but to her surprise, her father caught her wrist with his suddenly untied hand. He dragged her across his chest as he slowly rose to his feet. The cold bite of steel touched her throat. She realized in horror that he was armed. She was a fool! She hadn’t even thought to check him for a knife or pistol.

  “Hawthorne,” Noah yelled. She saw the wary fury in his eyes as he analyzed the situation they now found themselves in.

  “You’re going to let me go or I’ll kill her and I promise it will hurt.” Her father backed toward the carriage horse. “Ingrid, come untie this stallion.”

  Marion’s mother looked to Noah with wide, questioning eyes. They grew even wider when he nodded. She scurried forward and began to clumsily unhitch the animal.

  Noah looked at Marion with an unwavering, soothing stare. “You can go, Hawthorne. Leave the girl.”

  Her father laughed. “I don’t trust you, Noah Jordan. I’ll take her down the road with me a few miles and leave her for you to find. But don’t you try anything or what you discover won’t be worth having. I can see you’ve gone daft for the girl, so I trust you wouldn’t want h
er injured.”

  A muscle in Noah’s jaw twitched, but it was the only outward indication he gave of his fury. Marion was amazed at his self-control. Her heart was beating like butterflies wings and she trembled in her father’s tight grip. She looked to the man she loved with pleading eyes.

  “Put that knife down.”

  A new voice came from the road and Marion looked to see Griffin with his gun trained on her father. Her heart leapt. As much as she despised the man right now, she didn’t want him shot. Or for her to be in the crossfire.

  “Put that away,” Hawthorne warned as he dragged Marion closer to him. He shook the knife and she felt it dig into her flesh. “Put it away.”

  She looked again at Noah and saw something in his eyes. Walter was distracted and he was moving ever closer to the older man.

  Swallowing back her fear, Marion moved her arm forward and brought her elbow back into her captor’s chest with all the force in her body. Noah let out a guttural cry as Walter briefly loosened his hold on Marion and put an elbow into his temple. The man dropped immediately.

  “Tie him up again.” Noah panted as Griffin lowered his pistol. He turned to Marion. “The first thing I teach you when we get married is how to tie better knots.”

  Marion almost laughed at his quip but couldn’t. Not when he’d mentioned the wedding that would never happen. “I’m not marrying you.”

  Noah’s eyes widened. “You think not? I just chased you from London!”

  “Don’t make jokes.” She turned and was dismayed to see both her mother and Sally watching the pair with interest. “Are you both unhurt?”

  Noah watched as Marion crossed over to embrace her mother and say a few words to Sally. She’d been through an ordeal. A terrible one considering she’d apparently found out that Walter Hawthorne wasn’t truly her father and that Sally had lied to her. But if she thought she could avoid his questions and his love, she was dead wrong.