Alex's look of disbelief directed at the viscount merely produced a sheepish shrug. “She would not be denied the opportunity of looking for her missing friend. I did not wish to waste my time arguing with her when I could be helping you with the search.”
“I do not think a search will produce anything but causing a commotion. If at all possible we shall have to try to retrieve Rose without anyone amongst the ton finding out that she has gone missing. I am quite certain that they have left the premises, so we shall have to formulate a plan to figure out where they might have taken her. And why.” Alex looked at Lady Elizabeth, feeling sorry for his next words. “I am so sorry to have to tell you this, my lady, but you will not be able to accompany us. You will have the difficult task of getting through the rest of your night pretending as though nothing is amiss. I will try my best to keep you informed as soon as we know anything, but it most likely will not be before tomorrow. Do you think you can manage that? We might need to call on you soon in order to preserve Rose's reputation.”
“I will keep myself in readiness, Your Grace. Do not trouble yourself about me. I am not in any danger, except that of boredom. I do believe I shall soon find my mother and plead a headache, as there is no way I will be able to enjoy the rest of the ball. But you two hurry along and do whatever needs to be done.” Alex was about to dismiss her from his mind as he had so many things to do, but then Elizabeth continued with another thought. “Your Grace, did I do the right thing in telling you instead of her parents? Do you not think we should tell them? Now that you are chasing after her, should I find Lady Smythe and let her know what is going on?”
Alex hesitated. He knew Rose had planned on telling her father about Sir Broderick, but he was unsure if she had managed to keep his name out of the situation. The fact that she had been at the ball this evening proved she had not been banished as she had feared. But did that also mean she had not had a chance to tell her father anything?
“Clearly Lady Smythe has to be told something, or else she will cause a scene when she cannot find her daughter,” Wesley pointed out reasonably.
Alex laughed. “Lady Smythe does not cause scenes. It is her abiding motto. But you are quite correct. She must be told something. I would prefer to deal with Lord Smythe myself. Do either of you know if he is here this evening?”
“I did not see him, Your Grace,” Elizabeth replied, while Wesley merely shrugged and shook his head.
“All right. I will collect my servants and try to glean as much information as possible. The good news is I had already set someone to the task of watching Broderick, so hopefully we will know something very soon. I will go and try to speak to Lord Smythe, if you two could try to get Lady Smythe out of here without her raising a hue and a cry over her daughter.”
Wesley cast a skeptical glance at his friend. “Are you quite certain you are up to the task of facing Lord Smythe on your own?”
“There is very little other choice, my friend, but thank you for your concern,” Alex grinned at the viscount. “I actually am of the opinion that the two of you have the harder task. At least in the privacy of his own home the baron can react however he sees fit.”
“Thank you, Your Grace, for your help in this matter. I will speak with Lady Smythe, and then perhaps Lord Dunbar can escort her home. I will collect my own mama and wait at our home for any news. I dearly wish that I could be helping in some way.”
Before he left, Alex squeezed the young woman's hand comfortingly. “Do not mistake the matter, my lady, you have been a great deal of help. If not for you, we would not even realize that anything was amiss until it was much later. Now we might be able to get this all straightened out before daybreak.”
Chapter Eighteen
Rose still had her teeth clenched together to control the chatter they wished to make. She could see very little through the carriage's dirty windows. Being unfamiliar with the part of town they were driving through anyway, she would not have been able to figure out where they were, even if she could see well. She tried again to reason with her captor.
“Where are you taking me, my lord?”
“Somewhere where you won't be causing me any more grief,” came the flat reply.
“Are you planning on killing me?” she asked with as firm a voice as she could muster.
“You really aren't the usual sort of Miss, are you?” Broderick stated, with a glimmer of respect showing in his tone. “Any young lady I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with would be screaming blue murder by this point, or else prostrate in a dead faint.”
“Have you had much experience in abducting young ladies in the past, my lord?” Rose asked tartly.
This brought an amused twist to his lips. “Not overmuch experience, Miss, but I do find your sort to usually be much less in control of their wits than you.”
Broderick finally looked straight at her which caused a sense of foreboding to descend upon Rose. She tried valiantly to ignore it.
“How did you find out about my plans for the Duke of Wrentham?” he asked almost pleasantly.
She didn't see any point in avoiding the truth. “I overheard you speaking to Lord Austen at the Countess of Yorkleigh's musicale. It was during the intermission. The two of you were sitting a couple of rows behind me. You obviously did not notice me, or else you thought I was too far away to hear you. In fact, I did not hear most of what you were saying as I was distracted by watching everyone milling about, but when you mentioned Wrentham's name my ears perked up.”
“And so then you had to run out and tell him about it, didn't you?” Broderick sneered.
Rose shrugged, refusing to be cowed by the likes of him. “It seemed like the best course of action at the time.”
“What did you hope to gain by telling His Grace?”
“I hoped to save him from your clutches,” Rose brazenly replied.
“But instead it is you who is in my clutches,” Broderick taunted.
Again Rose shrugged, although this time it was a bit forced. “I am most certain my father will save me.”
“Your father will not even know of your disappearance for a few more hours yet, and then when he does there will be the note you are going to write to explain it all away.”
“What do you hope to gain by all of this?” Rose inquired, ignoring his reference to any note writing. At the back of her mind, she was busily trying to compose a note that would send a message to her father without alerting Broderick to her plans.
“I guess there's no harm in telling you. If I can keep your father distracted and you out of the way, I plan to get the Prince to sign over to me control of the lands he is about to regain during the negotiations in Paris.”
“But why would he sign them over to you? Are you even acquainted with His Majesty?” Rose was puzzled over the knight's ambitions.
“Of course I am acquainted with Prinny. And he is going to sign them over to me because I have been working studiously at convincing him that I would be the best man for the job. I would have had the duke's influence to seal the deal if not for your interference, but if your father isn't around to sway him otherwise, I should still be able to make it all come about.”
“So then you are going to kill me, aren't you?” Rose concluded.
“What makes you say that?”
Rose could see that her outward calm was disconcerting to her captor. It gave her a strange sense of satisfaction, but she could not keep the tremble completely out of her chin as she answered the creepy man. “I cannot imagine you wish to go to the trouble of keeping me locked up for the rest of my days, but if you let me go you cannot be certain that I will not broadcast your dastardly deeds to everyone who will listen.”
Broderick looked steadily at his captive, surprise flickering in his wicked eyes. “You don't seem overly troubled by the prospect.”
“I refuse to entertain you with my hand wringing,” she replied frostily, as she also thought to herself, and I refuse to beg you to do otherwise. Turning her h
ead toward the window, Rose set herself to the task of ignoring the despicable man. She wished fervently that she could tell where they were going.
As the carriage began to slow, she was unsure if she was happy or not that her wish was about to be granted. Not that she had any idea where they were, but she was about to find out what type of destination they had been bound for. She had lost track of time so she was unsure how far they had traveled, but as she took a deep breath the scent of brackish water led her to believe they were near the River.
“Are you taking me out of the country?” she gasped with fear.
Broderick's diabolically amused grin did not reassure Rose but he finally responded directly to her question. “I have no current plans of taking you, or having you taken, out of the country. I am quite sure you can be convinced to behave properly so that we shan't have to go to such extremes as that, nor of killing you as you previously suggested. I have a lovely little place near here that will do quite nicely for keeping you out of the way for the time being.”
As the carriage came to a stop, Rose gathered her wits thinking she might be able to make a break for it somehow. She had no idea of where she was nor of how she could find her way home, but for a moment she thought anything would be preferable to being in Broderick's clutches.
Her intentions must have been written upon her features as evidenced by the knight's next words. “Do not do anything so foolish as to try to get away, my dear. I know you do not relish my company, but I can assure you that you will be far safer with me than you will be wandering about the stews on your own at this time of the night. Or at any time, for that matter. This neighborhood is not accustomed to the presence of one such as you, and I will not vouch for your safety if you venture abroad.”
Rose gulped down the knot of fear his words had brought to her throat. She was well aware that he was trying to terrify her, but she also knew quite well that there was truth in his words. Although she was supposed to be a sheltered society debutante, as a diplomat's daughter she was privy to some of the tales of the darker sides of city life. She was not safe whichever way she turned. Resolving to do her best to stay alive and whole until morning, when it would be safer to endeavor to escape, she forced herself to look steadily at her captor.
“So what now, my lord?”
Broderick stared back at her coldly, clearly displeased with her lack of obvious fear. Rose remembered Lady Yorkleigh's veiled warnings about the knight's rumored entertainments and felt a shiver of dread drift down her spine. Valiantly suppressing her fears, Rose lifted her chin proudly and returned Broderick's cold stare.
“Now, Miss Smythe, you are going to get down from this carriage, slow and steady like, and then you are going to follow my friend, Squint, into that building just yonder. You aren't going to do anything so foolish as to try to run and you certainly aren't going to draw any attention to the presence of such a pretty young thing being in the vicinity by screaming.”
Rose could feel her blood turn to ice in her veins at his words, but she did not give in to the fear coursing through her. As the door opened she could see the henchman with the disfiguring scar next to his eye, unsurprised that the despicable knight would refer to the disfigurement in the man's nickname. Ignoring his offered hand, Rose gathered her skirts and stepped delicately down. She was followed by Broderick's voice.
“I will be right behind you, Miss, and will not hesitate to give chase or use force if you do not behave yourself.”
Rose kept her chin firm and steadily ignored the hateful man, hurrying to follow Squint through the gloom of the dockyards to a dilapidated building. Fearing it might fall down around her, Rose kept darting her eyes around looking for different ways to escape. It was little more than an overgrown shed, from what she could see in the dim light cast by the shuttered lantern the knight's partner was carrying. Rose was certain she would be able to break free so long as she was left alone come daylight. She comforted herself with that thought as Broderick drew near.
Grabbing her arm and tugging her to a chair near the corner of the room, Sir Broderick pushed her down and pulled her arms behind to tie them. Rose began to struggle in fear at being thus confined. He struck her with a stunning blow.
Blinking the black spots from her eyes, Rose managed to retain her consciousness, but had not been able to contain the squeal of pain the back of his hand had inflicted upon her cheekbone. As her vision cleared she could see him grinning at her. Rose scowled. “You are despicable. Do you really think to get away with this?” she demanded, not bothering with polite address.
“I absolutely do. Now that you are all trussed up, I can be on my way. See that you behave yourself or Squint here will be happy to crack you for your troubles.”
Rose eyed them both with distaste as she pulled on the ropes Broderick had deftly tightened around her wrists while she had been briefly stunned by his blow. She struggled against the despair rising in her chest at the thought that her own rescue depended upon her wits and resources. The two men walked away, leaving her in the dark. Rose strained against the ropes at the same time as she frantically listened to the silence, wondering if anyone would return to watch over her or what might be hiding in the dark near her. She did not think she would be able to tolerate with equanimity the presence of any rodents at the moment. Hopefully they were otherwise occupied she thought, nearing hysteria.
Before long, she was regretting her wish for light as Squint returned with his lantern and his eerie presence. She had not yet heard him speak. Rose wondered if she should plead with him for her release, calculating how much she should offer to pay him for safely returning her to her home. Her frantic thoughts were soon put to an end as her rough looking captor spoke for the first time.
“Don't be bothering to have yerself any ideas, Miss, I ain't listening to you. Jest sit yourself in your chair and wait until his lordship comes back and tells us what we're doing next.”
Rose did not bother offering a reply, sitting in stony silence. She hoped the night would pass quickly.
****
Alex stood on the street at the bottom of the stairs which led to the Smythe residence. It was taking him an inordinate amount of time to gather his gumption to go and knock on the door. He did not even know for sure if Lord Smythe was at home, but the duke was dreading the upcoming conversation. Chastising himself for being such a lily-livered ninny, he forced himself to climb the stairs and knock on the door.
The well-trained butler did not reveal his shock at discovering the Duke of Wrentham on the doorstep, merely ushering him into the receiving room with the promise of returning shortly with the information if milord was at home to company.
Alex cooled his heels in the elegantly appointed room, gazing about at the ivory wall hangings, wondering if Rose enjoyed this room. He rather thought she might hate it. Ivory did not seem to be the type of color his Rose would enjoy overmuch. He was interrupted in his mental ramblings by the arrival of the diplomat baron himself.
Not bothering with the formality of the butler's presence, Lord Smythe barged in. “You have a rather high level of audacity coming here like this, Wrentham,” he almost snarled. “To what do I owe the displeasure?”
Alex almost smiled at the older man's choice of words, but managed to contain his ill-timed amusement. “Please accept my sincere apologies, my lord. I am well aware that I am not a welcomed guest in your home and I do not bring glad tidings. I will not waste your time with social niceties, as you do not wish to suffer my presence for any longer than necessary.”
His words seemed to pacify the irate baron. He seemed a little less growly as he asked Alex to sit down. “You might as well have a seat if you have something you need to say. It cannot be anything good if it has made you come here. Do you need a glass of something before you get to the details?”
Alex could not contain his smile at his host's words. “That would be very much appreciated, my lord, thank you very much.”
Lord Smythe made short work o
f pouring them each a glass of brandy. He seated himself across from the duke and took a big gulp of the strong spirits. After releasing his breath, he prompted the young man before him. “Well, you had best get on with it. It isn't going to get any easier the longer you put off telling me whatever was so urgent as to bring you to my door.”
“No, you are quite correct, my lord, and time is of the essence.” He took a quick sip from his glass and another deep breath before he finally launched into his tale. “I have reason to believe Sir Jason Broderick has abducted your daughter from the Rotherham Ball.”
Lord Smythe nearly blew brandy through his nostrils as he exhaled in his shock over Wrentham's words. After a chocking cough he demanded, “What are you yammering about, Wrentham? What possible reason could Broderick have for abducting my Rosamund and what would cause you to come to such a daft conclusion?”
“Did Rose tell you about Broderick and his schemes?”
“I cannot say why you think this is any of your business, you rapscallion, but yes, just today Rose told me what she had overheard at the Yorkleigh musicale.”
“Well, it would seem Broderick has become aware of her interference in his affairs and he has decided to make off with her.”
“What has led you to this conclusion? I am quite certain you are being ridiculously foolish, Your Grace. The girl is probably right this moment dancing a hole in her slippers at the ball she was to attend this evening.” He glanced at the clock on the mantle. “At this late hour, she should actually be winding her way home at some point soon.”
“Her friend, Lady Elizabeth, saw her speaking with Broderick at the ball. Since then she cannot be found. The only logical conclusion is that he has taken her.”
“But why on earth would he take her? It doesn't make a stitch of sense.” Alex could see that Lord Smythe could not conceive of anyone threatening his darling daughter. His instinctive fear for her safety was clouding his usual formidable logic.
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