Celeste Bradley - [Royal Four 02]

by Surrender to a Wicked Spy

  Oh, Abbie, you title-hungry little fool. Olivia had the terrible feeling that Abbie now knew precisely how foolish she’d been.

  Then Wallingford’s gaze dropped to the form at her feet. “Is that Walt?”

  The Chimera nodded. “It is indeed. It seemed our Sumner had a mind of his own, more’s the pity. A small mind, it’s true, but an independent one for all that.”

  Behind the three men, Olivia saw the fallen Sumner stir. She quickly looked away, hope blooming within her. Heaven bless men with hard heads!

  Olivia saw Sumner’s hand moving slowly toward his pistol on the floor. She nudged Walter with her toe, twice. Ready, steady. He grunted faintly so she knew he remembered the old signal.

  Sumner leaped to his feet behind Wallingford and coshed the man on the head with the pistol. Then he reached into his pocket and tossed something small and glimmering at Olivia. She caught it even as the Chimera was turning to point his pistol at Sumner. The key.

  She dropped it next to Walter’s hand, then flung herself on the Chimera’s back. She wasn’t accustomed to fighting, so she used her weight to bear him to the floor. She took an elbow to her belly and fell from his back to the floor, breathless. The Chimera’s pistol went spinning into the darkness.

  Walter was up, standing unchained before her. “Up the mill axle!”

  Together they scrambled up the rod that ran vertically from the wheel gears to the millstone. It was dark and they were both injured, but the way was familiar from years of play. Once there, Walter’s strength failed and he collapsed.

  Above, Olivia made her way around the catwalk to the giant lever that engaged the water wheel gears.

  She closed her eyes and prayed, hoping that the neglected waterwheel still had enough teeth to move the millstone. Then she threw the lever to engage the waterwheel and sent the mill into loud, creaking operation.

  Under the cover of this distraction, she aided Walter to his feet and helped him hide in the stone grain reservoir above. As she pulled the trap closed, she kept it open a tiny slit to watch for pursuit. Please, let the noise have concealed their passage!

  The small man appeared at the top of the still slowly rotating millstone machinery. He looked very, very angry.

  34

  Galahad’s pounding hooves ate up the miles now that he wasn’t being held back by the smaller mounts. In only a few hours, Dane found himself on the road to Cheltenham. He ought to catch up to the caravan just as they made it to the manor, in another hour or so—

  He rounded a turn and pulled Galahad to a dustraising stop. Olivia’s caravan was heading right toward him. They pulled to a hurried stop as well.

  “What is the meaning of this?” he bellowed.

  The entire coterie stared at him, blank terror on their faces. Dane felt something black and frightening skitter up his spine. He trotted Galahad to the foremost, luxurious carriage and peered inside.

  It was empty.

  He twisted to look up at Errol. “Where is her ladyship?” His voice was flat and lethal. If they had let her come to harm—

  “We don’t know, my lord. She was napping in her carriage over the rest time, or so we thought, so we didn’t wake her when we started off again.” Errol shook his head. “It wasn’t until an hour later that I lifted the trap to check on her. I should have known there was no one aboard. She don’t weigh much, but the carriage ought to have felt lighter.”

  Not with all her baggage above. And knowing Errol, he’d kept the bouncing to a minimum, making the lightness very hard to detect.

  “Where was the rest time?”

  “Well …” Errol looked about at the others. “We think right about here, my lord, just the far side of this curve.”

  Dane swung down from Galahad without another word. Now that he was looking, he saw clearly where the convoy had parked. The heaviest wagon with the wider wheels. The servants’ carriage with the less expensive wheels. Finally, Olivia’s luxurious coach and four, parked alongside the wooded side.

  He found where she’d slid slightly leaving the carriage. Her wound must have been bothering her. She’d moved deeper into the wood. Why?

  She couldn’t use the chamber pot in the carriage, he realized. Too confined and awkward for her just now.

  So she’d taken herself off for a little walk in the wood. If he wasn’t feeling so panicked, he’d smile.

  Then he found true reason to panic. A man’s boot prints and signs of a struggle. Great rents in the soft earth where she’d been dragged.

  He must have given up and carried her, for there were only the boot prints after that, leading to a path that ran alongside the road and hoofprints, one of which had a cracked shoe.

  Something bright lay in the dirt. He knelt to pick up a broken Chinese comb he recognized all too well. Olivia’s hair couldn’t hold on to a thing.

  His fist tightened around the fragment of cloisonné. This path was doubtless used for no good, hidden from the road as it was. Used by smugglers and thieves, no doubt. Dane called for Galahad to be brought.

  Dane mounted, following the distinctive hoofprints. He wouldn’t think about anything but following the trail.

  He couldn’t bear to.

  He hadn’t been following the trail for long, but it felt like hours, panicked hours, leaning far over to make out the marks in the growing dimness.

  He heard the sound of rushing water ahead of him. A river. He hoped he wouldn’t lose the tracks in the water—

  A woman’s scream rose above the river’s murmur. Olivia. Dane bent low over Galahad’s neck and kicked the stallion into a gallop.

  Olivia stood, frozen with fear, unable to scream again. The Chimera had a pistol pressed to Walter’s temple. The mill creaked and shivered around them. High as they were, she could feel the entire structure sway as the power of the millwheel ripped the rotten planks asunder.

  “We must get down,” she cried out to the cold little man. “We’re all going to die!”

  “No,” he said patiently, loudly enough to be heard over the shrieking of snapping wood. “You’re going to die. I’m going to win.”

  “Win what?” she cried desperately. “Why are you doing this?”

  “Because I want to know,” he answered reasonably. “I have a theory and I want it proven.” He ground the barrel of the pistol into Walter’s temple. Even more frightening, Walter didn’t respond at all. The Chimera went on. “I want to know if your husband is part of a secret society.”

  “I don’t know!” Olivia couldn’t bear it. Walter was dying and no one was coming and she was very much afraid she was going to tell the malevolent little bastard everything he wanted to know and he was going to kill them anyway!

  The mill was beginning to crumble around them from the stress of the malfunctioning waterwheel. As if in answer to her prayers, a great timber fell on the little man, knocking him away from Walter. His dapper-clad legs were the only part of him she could see, protruding out from under part of an old hand-hewn rafter.

  Olivia dived to her knees and wrapped her arms about her brother. “Walter?” she shouted over the madness. “Walter, we must get out! You must help me!”

  Walter stirred and blinked up at her. He smiled. “You got him, Livvie.”

  Then the roof fell in on them all.

  From atop Galahad, Dane watched in horror as the rickety mill began to collapse in on itself and Olivia. He knew she was in there, for he’d heard her cry out for her dead brother.

  Dane leaped from his horse and charged into the building, dodging falling timbers and stones while bellowing her name. He saw Wallingford dead, his skull burst by a falling stone.

  He heard a wordless muffled cry coming from beneath a pile of debris. She was buried beneath what seemed to be half the roof. There was no time to go for help. The rest of the mill could come down on them at any moment.

  He was the only one who could save her. He put his shoulder to the largest portion and felt it give only slightly. Dear God, even his extreme
brawn was not going to be enough. For the first time in his life, he wished he were even larger than he was. He’d become a giant and run off to live in a cave if only he could be strong enough to dig her from this rubble!

  He strained mightily, giving a wordless roar as he put his heart into it. She would not die here!

  The buckled piece of roof slid aside. He felt the lower floor sway beneath them. He hadn’t much time.

  The rest were large but not so stubborn. At last, he lifted the final plank away from her. She had her arms wrapped around a thin man with sandy hair.

  It seemed Walter wasn’t dead. Yet. Dane knelt beside Olivia, brushing the hair out of her eyes. “My lady, you must awake.”

  She finally drew in a great breath, then coughed. “It hurts … .”

  He cupped her face, making her look at him. “You likely have some broken ribs, my love.” Please, let that be all. “Can you stand?”

  She did with some help, staggering as the mill shuddered violently beneath them. “The mill! Dane, you must help Walter—”

  Dane already had the fellow flung over his shoulder. He held out his hand to her and led her to the broken edge of the floor. “I don’t think we can get out by going down!” he shouted as the groaning mill protested louder. “We’ll have to jump in the river!”

  “Not here!” She gestured to the waterwheel. “We’re too close—”

  Something hit Dane from behind, knocking him and his unconscious burden off the broken wall and into the river below.

  “Dane!”

  35

  Olivia watched in horror as the two men she loved most in the world fell into the suction of the waterwheel. She fell to her knees, unaware of her own danger, unable to tear her eyes off the disaster below her.

  Dane surfaced first and whipped his long hair away from his face. He looked around wildly. Olivia saw his lips move. He was calling for her brother.

  Her heart swelled with love and fear for him. Then she saw Walter bob briefly to the surface, his arm reaching, trying to swim, even weak as he was. Dane struck out strongly toward him, reached him, and began towing him away from the base of the wheel.

  Suddenly something pulled Dane down, ducking him violently from beneath. Another head emerged from the water behind Dane.

  It was only then that Olivia realized what had caused Dane and Walter to fall. The Chimera was in the water with them!

  Dane let go of Walter rather than pull him under as well. Walter tried to swim back to help him, but Dane shoved him away, then turned to dive beneath the surface looking for the Chimera, who had slid beneath the surface again like a crocodile.

  Walter began to drift. It looked as though he was losing consciousness again!

  The mill swayed beneath Olivia as she knelt on all fours. She cast one last look at Walter, then began to crawl toward the safer side, away from the great wheel.

  Once there, she stood shakily, then reached behind her to undo her gown. It wrenched her sore ribs hornbly and her hands were clumsy, but she got enough undone to rip the gown over her head. She let it flutter to the river below.

  Then she jumped.

  Under the water, Dane’s battle against the elusive Chimera wasn’t going as well as he’d hoped. He didn’t only want to stop the bastard from drowning him; he wanted to catch the Chimera. Failing that, Dane would truly like to kill him.

  Alas, Dane’s superior size and strength were not doing well by him in the churning water. The smaller man was faster and Dane’s strength did little in this world where he could gain no purchase.

  After a few moments, he was stunned to find that he was fighting for his life. The fight was also moving too close to the mill wheel.

  At last, he had his hands wrapped about the bastard’s throat. Dane’s own sight began to dim suddenly. He needed air immediately, but not until he’d rid the world of the bloody damned ubiquitous Chimera.

  Struggling against his own lungs’ demands, Dane pressed the Chimera back, back—

  Dane felt an enormous tug against his grip and immediately let the man go. Go to his death beneath the broken, howling waterwheel.

  Dane struggled for the surface, toward air and life and Olivia. Then the wheel snagged his trousers and pulled him under and away.

  Olivia dragged Walter up the gravelly embankment downstream of the mill. “Walter,” she gasped. “Breathe, Walter!”

  “Yes, Mummy,” he groaned. He rolled onto his side and spit up water in a heaving retch. Then he rolled onto his back. “Is the Dane all right?”

  Olivia was watching the water. “I don’t see him.” Her fear was quiet and complete.

  “Well, go get him,” Walter said, waving his arm. “You can do it, Liwie. You’re the most amazing woman I know.”

  Olivia pushed him back down. “Stay here. If you see that nasty little man—”

  Walter nodded. “I’ll play dead. It’s what I do best these days.”

  Olivia left him to run upstream. Without giving it a thought, she took a deep breath and dived beneath the millwheel.

  The water was murky and cloudy with disturbed earth. She cautiously grabbed the side of the wheel and let it carry her deeper. There was a trick to riding the wheel. If she could avoid getting caught in the graveyard of dead limbs and rubble that had been swept and entangled beneath the wheel over the decades, the wheel would carry her right out again. It was something she and Walter had learned when they were too naive to realize their danger.

  There wasn’t enough light coming from the dusky sky above. She wasn’t going to be able to find Dane—

  She saw his white shirt ballooning below her in the water. He was caught, tangled in the black grasping branches of a sunken limb.

  She left him there and let go of the wheel to rise back up to the surface. It hurt her to leave him, but she needed more air if she was going to free him.

  Her head broke the surface. She gave Walter a reassuring wave, then filled her lungs deeply again and again. It made the air last longer; she wasn’t sure why.

  Then she dived, straight down, following her memory and her heart. She saw Dane’s shirt again in the bluing light and swam strongly toward him. She felt the pull of the wheel’s turning, but she didn’t care how close she had to go. Dane was almost within reach.

  His long hair floated around his head, wrapping silky strands about her fingers when she reached for him. She followed his body down, sliding her hands over him, searching for where he was caught.

  He burst into wild struggles, roused by her touch. His eyes were wide with alarm as he tried to push her back toward the surface.

  She fought his hands away and caught his face between her palms. She glared at him through the murky water and their twining, floating hair.

  He blinked, then raised both his hands. I surrender.

  Bringing her mouth down to his, she pressed her lips tightly to his—and breathed half her air into his mouth. Then he took her shoulders in his hands and pushed her away.

  She hovered, keeping her position with her arms and legs, until she saw him free his snagged trousers. Then she shot upward to the sapphire-tinted surface to await him there.

  He was right behind her, rising from the deep like a rather soggy Viking god. She let herself drift downstream as she panted for breath, smiling as he shook his head like a dog, flinging back the wet hair over his eyes.

  He took her into his arms, right there in the middle of the millstream, and kissed her deeply. When he released her she frowned at him.

  “There’s a great deal I need to tell you,” she began. “It was that Chimera fellow all along. I never knew—”

  He pulled her close and kissed her again. Olivia was barely aware when they floated right past Walter where he lay on the bank. Dane began to steer them both toward the bank. “You’re cold. I can tell by your lips.”

  “But I must tell you—”

  He towed her with him. “No, you mustn’t. I don’t believe you had a thing to do with anything.”


  She let him pull her, surprise nearly overwhelming the delight. “You don’t? Why not?”

  He stood in water that was still too deep for her. Careful of her sore ribs, he lifted her and walked toward the bank. “I knew you could save me,” he said. “Just like I know that you love me and that you would never, ever betray me.”

  “How can you know that?” she asked, not quite believing his change of heart. “How can anyone truly know that?”

  Dane simply grinned at her as he carried her easily from the river.

  “There’s this little thing called ‘faith.’”

  Epilogue

  Olivia and Dane cuddled before the fire in the now nearly deserted Kirkall Hall. All the guests were gone except for the Prince Regent, who was passing his time with the Duchess of Halswick.

  Olivia lay her head on Dane’s chest. “You know, I’m still worried that the Chimera’s body wasn’t found.”

  Dane stroked one hand down her hair. “Don’t worry, my lady. If he is still alive, there are people in place who will take care of him.”

  She tilted her head to look up at him. “More of your ‘friends,’ my love?”

  Dane smiled. “I’m a very popular fellow.”

  Olivia lay her head back onto his chest. “Sumner walked today. Petty is ecstatic.”

  Dane grunted. “That’s good news. I thought I was going to have to carry the bloke about the house forever.”

  “Thank you for having the Prince Regent pardon him.”

  Dane nodded. “You’re welcome. As long as he stays in our employ, he will be safe. If he ever leaves us, I won’t be able to help him.”

  Olivia nodded. “If he leaves us after what he’s done, I’ll hunt him down myself.”

  Dane chuckled. “Bloodthirsty wench.”

  There came a knock on the door of the bedchamber. Dane grudgingly allowed Olivia to leave his lap to answer it.