The Dare-Devil Duke

by Barbara Cartland

  Moreover, apart from anything else, they could make Kasia’s life unbearable.

  At the same time, he had not been with her for a week without realising how innocent and unspoiled she was.

  He was quite sure she had no idea how the Beauties of the Beau Monde like Lady Julie, behaved.

  Or the depths of depravity to which they were prepared to sink when they desired a man.

  “What am I to do?” he asked himself. “What the devil can I do?”

  It was a question that seemed to have been ringing in his ears now for a very long time.

  He had realised he was falling in love almost as soon as he had set eyes on that fascinating, heart-shaped little face, with its two large eyes.

  Eyes which told him she had the innocence of a child, as well as a star-like glitter which he found irresistible.

  He knew too that he had never before met a woman he found so interesting.

  She was intelligent and, what was extraordinary, so well read and well educated.

  Only someone who was exceptionally clever, he thought, could have understood the problem of Simon and settled it in her own way.

  The change in the boy was astounding.

  He knew that his relatives, when they saw him again, would find it incredible.

  How could he be the same child they had sent away, one after another, because he was so unruly that they could not control him.

  The Duke had to admit that it was not he who had performed this miracle, but Simon’s Governess.

  “Governess! Governess!”

  The word seemed to repeat itself over and over again in his brain.

  She was someone he had hired, someone he was paying for her service.

  How could he marry her?

  Yet he knew he could not offer to pay her for something very different.

  If he suggested it, he knew she would be shocked and frightened.

  How could he do that to someone he loved?

  Someone who had begun to haunt him so that he could not sleep at night, but lay awake wanting her.

  “I love her!” he admitted again. “God, what am I to do about it?”

  He heard someone coming into the drawing room and turned round eagerly.

  But it was only Dawson the butler coming back.

  “I’m afraid, your Grace, it’s bad news!” he said.

  “Bad news?” the Duke repeated.

  “The horse Miss Watson was riding has come back to th’ stables without its rider, and there’s no sign of Dragonfly!”

  “There must have been an accident!” the Duke exclaimed. “Has anyone any idea of where they went?”

  Dawson shook his head.

  “No, your Grace. They just set off in th’ usual way after luncheon, riding through th’ paddocks.”

  “I will go in search of them,” the Duke said.

  It seemed strange that Miss Watson, when she rode so well, should have been thrown.

  But that is what he thought must have happened because the horse had returned alone, and Simon must have stayed with her.

  Perhaps she had broken a leg or something worse.

  The Duke felt as if a knife was turning in his heart.

  He walked towards the door intending to go to the stables, but Dawson stopped him.

  “There’s a letter just arrived for your Grace,” he said. “The man who handed it in at th’ Service Entrance said ’twas very urgent.”

  The Duke was about to say that he would see to it when he returned.

  Then it struck him that perhaps, if it was very urgent, it concerned Miss Watson and Simon.

  Without speaking he put out his hand and Dawson placed the letter in it.

  The Duke opened it, then stiffened into immobility.

  Then he read,

  “Your Grace,

  Simon and I have been taken prisoner by some men who demand a ransom of £2,000 in cash. They want you To put the money in The broken door of The Old Mill. Then fly a white flag from the mast at The Top of The Castle to show it is there.

  If the money is not forthcoming, they have threatened that you will see neither of us again. They told me to ask you to PAY UP at once. Yours regretfully,

  Kasia Watson.”

  The Duke read through twice what Kasia had written.

  Then he went into action.

  *

  It gradually grew darker in the room at the top of the watch tower.

  Simon moved so that he was sitting close to Kasia, and rested his head against her shoulder.

  “I am hungry,” he said.

  “I know you must be,” Kasia replied, “and I can only hope that your uncle will not be too long about paying these horrible men, or saving us.”

  “Do you think he will understand what you have tried to tell him?” Simon asked.

  “I had to do it very, very carefully,” Kasia explained, “but I thought if he read it he would think it strange that I had crossed the small ‘t’s at the top in the way you would cross a capital ‘T’.”

  Simon did not say anything and she went on,

  “Then when I wrote that the men had said he must pay up, I wrote those two words very large, and underlined them.”

  “Then do you think he will understand that we are up in the watch tower?” Simon asked as if he was working it out for himself.

  “I am praying he will,” Kasia said, “and that is what you must do too.”

  “He will not hear us praying,” Simon argued.

  “In India,” Kasia said, “the Indians believe in the Power of Thought.”

  She smiled at him and then went on,

  “I have read in books that a man will know that his father has died three-hundred miles away from where he is without there having been any communication, except that he knows in his mind it is true.”

  “Then we must send a message to Uncle Darcy’s mind,” Simon said.

  “That is what I am trying to do,” Kasia answered, “and you must help me.”

  “How?” Simon asked.

  “Think of your uncle, try to see him standing in the drawing room or in his study, and keep saying ‘watch tower, watch tower’ in your heart.”

  “I will try,” Simon said. “I will try very, very hard. I do not like being here.”

  “Neither do I,” Kasia answered, and she pulled Simon a little closer to her.

  Later, when she realised he had fallen asleep, she took off her riding-jacket and made him a pillow for his head.

  As she moved him down onto it he did not open his eyes, but murmured sleepily,

  “Watch – tower – watch – tower – ”

  It was what she kept saying herself.

  The tower had become hot and stuffy and she walked across to the window and opened it as wide as it would go.

  The stars were coming out overhead.

  The moon which had been behind the clouds was now creeping up the sky.

  It was casting a silvery light all over the land.

  The shadows were long and dark, and Kasia thought how uninhabited and barren it looked.

  It was a clever place to hide because there was no reason for anyone to come past the watch tower.

  The fields all around it had not been ploughed or seeded.

  She had a terrifying feeling that the Duke would not understand what she had written.

  Also, in the interests of other people, he would not give in to kidnappers.

  If they succeeded in obtaining money from him, as soon as it was spent, they would kidnap another child.

  She felt herself trembling at the thought that if she and Simon were not rescued, they would be left to starve.

  Or perhaps those evil men downstairs would kill them before they went in search of other prey.

  “Oh – God – please – God – let him – understand!”

  Because she could not bear to go on looking at the empty fields, she went back to sit down beside Simon.

  He had been very brave, she thought, where most children
might have screamed and cried, or clung to her.

  “He will be very brave when he grows up,” she told herself, “just like his uncle.”

  Even to think of the Duke was to conjure up a picture of him riding on his black stallion. Sitting at the top of the dining table.

  Standing in front of the fireplace as he laughed at something that had been said.

  “He is so handsome and so clever,” she told herself, and her heart turned a somersault.

  She felt as if she reached out to him with both her hands.

  She remembered how their eyes had met this morning when he told her there was something he wanted to talk to her about.

  She wondered what he wanted to tell her.

  She was half afraid he was going to say that he had to return to London, and she must cope with Simon alone.

  She added something else to her prayer.

  “Let him stay – please, God – let him – stay and help him to – find us – soon.”

  She prayed with such fervency that she put her fingers up to her eyes as if it helped her to concentrate.

  Then she was aware of a sound.

  It was as if something was scratching and she thought with a sudden terror that it was rats.

  She had always been frightened of rats.

  She realised they would doubtless infest the empty tower which no one ever visited.

  The sound grew louder, and she thought there must be a large number of them.

  Stories she had heard of them biting babies in their cots and attacking grown-ups flashed through her mind.

  She thought wildly that if she screamed the men downstairs would come and save her and Simon.

  She took her fingers from her eyes and was about to get to her feet.

  Then she was aware that the moonlight which was pouring through the window was suddenly obscured.

  For a moment she could not think what was happening.

  There was a movement and a leg came through the open window which she sensed, rather than saw.

  It was followed by a man’s body and it was then she sprang to her feet.

  It was the Duke.

  She knew instinctively that it was the Duke without seeing his face.

  She flung herself against him as his feet touched the floor.

  As she did so his arms went round her.

  She was about to speak and cry out for joy.

  Then his lips found hers.

  He was holding her against him and it was impossible to breathe.

  She only knew a rapture that shot through her like lightning with sensations she had never experienced before.

  The Duke kissed her fiercely, demandingly, then raised his head and whispered,

  “Do not make a sound! How many men are there?”

  “F – four,” Kasia murmured, “and they are – armed.”

  “They have not hurt you?”

  “No, no, we are all right, and Simon is asleep.”

  The Duke moved a little further into the room, still without taking his arms from Kasia.

  In the moonlight coming through the window he could see Simon lying on the floor.

  It was then, when Kasia would have spoken again that the Duke whispered,

  “Wake Simon, and get behind the door.”

  She wanted to ask him questions, but he had turned away from her.

  Drawing a pistol from his pocket, he fired it out of the window.

  The noise of the explosion woke Simon and as Kasia pulled him to his feet, he exclaimed,

  “Uncle Darcy! I knew you would come!”

  The Duke did not reply and Kasia, knowing she must obey him, pulled Simon towards the door.

  “Open it,” the Duke said quietly.

  She did so and pulled it back so that she and Simon were out of sight behind it.

  It was then they heard shots coming from below.

  Kasia knew that the Duke’s men, who had come with him, were firing at Bill and his accomplices.

  Now someone was coming up the stairs, the boards creaking beneath his feet.

  It was, as Kasia soon saw, Bill who burst into the room, holding a pistol in his hand.

  It was pointing at the spot where Kasia and Simon had been sitting before the Duke told them to move.

  As he took a step forward the Duke fired, the bullet hitting him in the right arm.

  The pistol fell on the floor with a clatter.

  “Ye’ve killed me! Ye’ve killed me!” Bill screamed.

  “You are alive, unfortunately,” the Duke answered. “Go downstairs and join your villainous gang.”

  Bill, clutching his injured arm, turned round.

  He knew it was no use arguing against the voice of authority.

  The Duke picked up the pistol the man had dropped.

  The shooting below had stopped and he said to Kasia,

  “Stay here until I call you, but I think now we will all be able to go home.”

  “That was a good shot, Uncle Darcy!” Simon said admiringly. “Can I have the pistol?”

  The Duke looked to see if there were any more bullets, removed those that remained, and handed it to Simon.

  “Guard Kasia,” he said.

  Then he was following Bill down the stairs.

  Kasia feeling as if her legs would no longer carry her sat down on the floor.

  The Duke saved them!

  She might have known he would.

  At the same time, the relief was so intense as to be almost overwhelming.

  Her prayers had reached him and he had understood.

  He had come, as she had hoped and trusted he would.

  “I love – him! I – love him!” she told herself.

  She felt as if the sun was lighting their prison in a blaze of glory.

  It must only have been a few minutes before they heard the Duke call out,

  “Come down! It is all over.”

  The sound of his voice was like a clarion call.

  Kasia got to her feet and picking up her jacket put it on.

  She saw as she did so that Simon was already running down the stairs, even though it was difficult to see his way in the darkness.

  She wanted to warn him to be cautious.

  But the only thing that mattered was that the Duke was waiting for them at the bottom.

  Simon was already beside the Duke, holding his pistol.

  As Kasia reached the last steps, the Duke put out his hand to help her down them.

  At the touch of his fingers she felt herself quiver.

  As she looked up at him she thought in the moonlight no man could look more handsome.

  He might have been the Archangel Michael come down from Heaven to save them.

  “It is all over,” the Duke said, “but I am afraid you will have to ride home. There is no way we can get a carriage up here.”

  They went outside as he spoke.

  Kasia saw two grooms leading two horses which she knew were intended for Simon and herself.

  The Duke’s horse was led by a young man whom she saw was armed.

  Walking away from them were the four kidnappers escorted by five of the Duke’s men.

  It was light enough for Kasia to recognise that Bates was one of them.

  The four other men she guessed had been with the Duke in the Army.

  Without being told, she was certain he had picked the men who were good shots.

  They would also carry out his orders to the letter. The kidnappers had therefore surrendered rather than be killed.

  She was aware that Bill with his wounded arm was being assisted across the field.

  The Duke did not say anything.

  He merely lifted Simon onto one of the horses, then turned towards Kasia.

  She looked up at him and knew that he was thinking of how he had kissed her.

  She wanted, as she had never wanted anything in her whole life, for him to kiss her again.

  Just for a moment they looked at each other. Then the Duke lifted her onto
the saddle.

  As he did so there was a sudden tumbling noise which made him look over his shoulder.

  Sharply, in the voice of an Officer giving orders, he said,

  “Quick! Quick! Move away! Hurry!”

  As he spoke he took hold of the reins of Kasia’s horse and started to run into the open field.

  After a moment’s pause Simon followed, so did the grooms and the one leading the Duke’s stallion. The Duke stopped about thirty yards from the watch tower.

  He drew Kasia’s horse to a standstill.

  She looked back and realised that the noise which had startled him had grown louder.

  She saw that the watchtower was leaning over sideways.

  She drew in her breath.

  Then suddenly with a tremendous crash the whole top of the building in which she and Simon had been imprisoned, fell to the ground.

  A cloud of dust rose and as it subsided they would see that only half of the watchtower remained.

  It was then Kasia was aware that she was holding tightly to the Duke’s hand.

  In an inarticulate voice she managed to say,

  “That – that was – where you – climbed up! It – it could have – killed – you!”

  “And you too, my precious,” the Duke answered. Hearing the endearment, her eyes turned from the watchtower to him.

  She felt as if he took her in his arms and the world seemed to stand still.

  Then he said abruptly, as if it was an effort to speak,

  “Now we can go home in peace.”

  He walked towards his stallion and mounted it.

  “Join the others, John,” he said to the groom. “We do not want any of those rogues escaping at the last minute.”

  “Oi’ll make sure o’ that, yer Grace!” John said.

  He rode off quickly to where the other men had stopped a little distance from them.

  They were staring at the fallen watchtower as if they could not believe their eyes.

  As John joined them they turned round.

  Apparently on the orders of those guarding them, they started to walk slowly over the rough ground.

  Bill was still groaning and clutching his injured arm.

  The Duke moved ahead and Simon, who was beside Kasia, said excitedly,

  “I have never ridden at night before. It was very, very clever of you, Uncle Darcy, to come and rescue us. Miss Watson and I were trying to tell you where we were.”

  “The Power of Thought!” Kasia said quickly so that the Duke would understand.