Sarah Elliott

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Sarah Elliott Page 11

by The Rake's Proposal


  “Are you trying to flatter me?”

  “Flattery is the last thing you need. And third,” she barreled on, knowing that he would protest her third argument, “I am distracting.”

  “Irritatingly so, but what is your point?” he asked suspiciously.

  She flushed. “I am, as you noted yourself, in a state of partial dishabille.”

  Ben’s eyes raked down her scantily clad form, wishing that she wasn’t right. No man could think straight looking at her like that. There seemed to be no help for it—the only way he’d manage to beat all three of them was if she did some serious distracting.

  “They don’t know that I’m conscious,” he offered.

  Kate nodded, silently thankful that he hadn’t fought her plan.

  He continued. “I want you to rap on the roof—beg them to stop. Say you have ample money to pay them.”

  “But I don’t…and what if they won’t stop?”

  Ben was worried about this possibility as well but ignored his fears. “It’s the best we can do, unless we want to wait for them to stop of their own accord. Personally, I think we’d better risk it. There’s a good chance that they’ll stop for you anyway. They’re sloppy, and as you noticed they’re not very bright. Besides, they’ll also want to hear you beg—that type gets pleasure out of defeating those who are weaker than they are. When they stop and open the door…” He paused, looking critically over her body. “Come here.”

  Kate rose and sat next to him on his seat. She sucked in her breath as he swiftly yanked the tie from her robe, and sat numbly as he started to tear the hem of her gown, ripping it until it reached midthigh. Ben put the end of the fabric in his teeth and tore it off. He put the tie and the long strip of fabric in his pocket.

  “I might need these,” he explained, and then sat back, examining her all over again. “Much better.”

  She was too shocked to respond.

  He squeezed her hand. “We’ll be fine. Just stay calm. When they open the door, look as enticing as possible. If you get the opportunity, I want you to get out of the carriage. Pretend that you’re trying to escape, if you have to—anything that will draw their attention away from me. I won’t let them hurt you. All right?”

  Kate took a deep breath and nodded. “I’m ready.”

  “Go ahead and give the roof a good rap. And put your gag back in, or they’ll wonder how you got it out.”

  “But they didn’t tie my hands. I could’ve taken it off myself. I didn’t really need you to remove it.”

  “Oh, never mind. Do what you like,” Ben grumbled, then lay back down on the seat, assuming the position that George had deposited him in.

  She reached up and rapped on the roof. The carriage didn’t stop, didn’t slow. There was no response. She rapped again, harder this time, and then began pounding on the roof with all her strength. She had to make them listen to her.

  Her effort got results. The carriage slowed and came to a halt.

  “What’s the bleedin’ racket for?” Billy shouted from up front.

  Kate faltered for a moment, but Ben squeezed her hand again. Reassured, she continued. “I want to speak to you. I have something to offer you.”

  “I’m sure ye ’ave plenty to offer!” Billy answered with a lecherous cackle. “But it ain’t my place to accept it.”

  “I will pay you! Money is what you want, isn’t it?” she shouted, bluffing in panic as she felt the carriage lurch into motion. But those were the magic words. The carriage halted.

  There was the sound of a brief consultation above, followed by the sound of several footsteps—one pair? two pairs? three?—climbing down. The carriage door was yanked open. All three men—luckily or not, Kate wasn’t sure—stood waiting…and gaping.

  She felt her face heat, and looked down at herself self-consciously. Dear heavens. With nothing to tie it closed, her robe parted, revealing her thin, silk gown that stopped in tattered fringes above her dirty knees.

  Look enticing, she reminded herself, wondering how that was possible, and not realizing that she wouldn’t even have to try.

  She smiled. “Thank you, gentlemen, for stopping. I only wanted the chance to speak a moment…you see, I have a proposition to make you. I hope you don’t mind that I took the liberty of removing my gag.” She threw that last sentence in for Ben’s benefit.

  John, George and Billy simply stared, slack-jawed and tongue-tied.

  She continued. “You see, I am quite wealthy—surely you know that, or I can’t imagine why you’d go to these lengths. I will pay you to let me go.”

  Scrawny, nervous Billy was the first to speak. “Why, that’s mighty gen’rous of ye, m’lady, but we’re already gettin’ paid fer this.” Billy glanced into the carriage where Ben feigned unconsciousness. “’Sides, both ye seen our faces…prob’ly even know our names. Can’t take any chances, now, can we? But maybe ye want to step outside an’ try an’ convince us?”

  That was about the last thing that Kate wanted to do, but she still eagerly complied, thankful that they were making her job easy. She silently prayed that Ben’s plan, whatever it was, worked.

  She stepped from the carriage, but didn’t get very far before Billy grabbed her tightly around her wrist. “Not so fast, there, gel. George, ye stay ’ere an’ keep an eye on the bloke. Me an’ John are gonna go ’ave a discussion wi’ th’ lass.”

  “Why th’ bloody ’ell do I have to stay ’ere? Make John stay,” George said angrily. “It ain’t bloody fair—”

  “’Cause yer the only one who can take care o’ ’im if ’e wakes up,” John answered, glaring at the possibility that he would be the one to stay behind. Then without further ado, he scooped up Kate one more time. “Lead th’ way, Billy.”

  She immediately began to struggle. There was no way in hell that they were dragging her into the woods to do God only knew what with her person. She punched John in the back, and in the neck. She grabbed hold of one of his ears and pulled without mercy.

  He screamed, loud and high-pitched like a woman, and chaos ensued. All eyes turned to Kate and the commotion she was causing, and as Ben burst out of the carriage, George didn’t even see him coming. Ben struck the large man in the face, sending him reeling. John dropped Kate flat on her bottom, and she quickly scuttled across the ground, trying to get out of the way. Ben simply stepped over her, grabbing John by the neck and squeezing until he fell to his knees. Ben grabbed John by the hair, and in one swift motion connected his knee to the tall man’s face.

  Billy had already begun a hasty retreat to the woods, and Ben started after him. Before he left, however, he tossed something down into Kate’s lap.

  “Tie them up before they regain consciousness,” was all he said before vanishing into the woods.

  She looked down into her lap and recognized the sash to her robe and the missing half of her nightgown. She wasted no time picking them up and getting to work, wanting to have both men taken care of before they became dangerous again.

  Ben returned as she was fastening John’s ankles; George was already trussed up and propped against a tree. Kate saw no sign of Billy, but noticed that Ben carried a small bundle with him.

  “Ready to go, then?” he asked calmly, helping her up from the ground.

  She nodded. “Did Billy get away?”

  “No. I left him in the woods. I sacrificed my cravat to tie him to a tree. Don’t want him running off before he’s found.” Ben touched his throat as she said this, and Kate noticed that, indeed, his cravat was missing. “We’ll have to notify the authorities once we reach safety.”

  Kate nodded. Notifying the authorities would mean making explanations that she wasn’t quite ready for, but she couldn’t worry about that now. “What is the bundle?”

  “It’s for you, m’dear. Billy kindly offered to lend you a few articles of clothing, seeing as it’s his fault that you’re currently without. Generous of him, don’t you think?”

  “You left him—” Kate paused here to lower
her voice “—unclothed?” The mental image produced by such a prospect pleased her tremendously.

  Ben noted the devilish gleam in her eye and grinned. “Your mind is in the gutter yet again, love. Billy wasn’t that generous. He requested I leave him his drawers, and as I suspected you wouldn’t want them anyway, I agreed.”

  “That’s charitable of you,” Kate said, taking the clothes from Ben and quickly donning them behind the carriage. When she returned, he was already in the driver’s seat, waiting to go.

  “I’m ready,” she said, looking up at Ben and shielding her eyes from the bright morning sun. She was surprised when he held down his hand, but took it. He pulled her up onto the front of the carriage, onto the seat next to him.

  “I’d rather not let you out of my sight for a while, if you don’t mind,” he explained. “And I have a few questions for you as well.”

  She had been expecting at least a few questions, so she didn’t worry overmuch. Instead, she settled back against the seat as they started off, relieved to be safe for the moment. Her tiredness, which she’d ignored through the entire ordeal, hit her now, full-force.

  With a relieved sigh, she said, “Back to Peshley at last. If we’re quick about it, no one will even notice we were missing!”

  “We’re not going back to Peshley, Kate.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Kate hadn’t been expecting that response. “What do you mean we’re not going back to Peshley? Where are we going?”

  “I have a house out this way…it’s my father’s house, actually—remember when I told you about it?”

  She shook her head, still confused.

  He carried on. “I don’t think it would be safe to head back to the Bannisters’. It might mean putting you in danger again, and perhaps Charlotte’s family as well. I don’t know who those men were, Kate, but they won’t think to look for you at my father’s. The house isn’t far from here, and I’ll send your brother a note as soon as we reach it, letting him know where we are.”

  “But it will take hours for a note to reach him! Everyone will be so worried. Rob and Charlotte hardly need this sort of disruption now.”

  “There’s no choice, Kate. Perhaps you’ll be able to return later this evening, but not just yet. We should at least try and locate some more respectable clothes for you before you return—showing up looking like a cutpurse won’t help matters a’tall. I’m sure I can find you something slightly more appropriate at my house. I’ve a sister about your size.”

  She looked down at her clothes and nodded in reluctant agreement, knowing that her brother would have a fit when he realized that both she and Ben were missing. But at the same time she was strangely relieved by the thought of going to Ben’s house rather than returning to Peshley. She didn’t have time to dwell on this odd realization, however, before the interrogation began.

  “It seems rather odd, Kate, that in the short time that I’ve known you, you’ve been abducted twice. Please don’t try to tell me that it’s a coincidence.”

  “My life isn’t always this exciting…you just have a talent for showing up at all the right times—”

  “Kate—remember what I said in the carriage? About how I thought you had more ideas about what was going on than I did?”

  She swallowed hard, knowing that she could stall no longer. When Ben was determined there wasn’t much she could do to prevent him from getting an answer.

  “Yes…”

  “Clearly there is something going on here that you’re not being honest about. Don’t insult my intelligence—just tell me the truth.”

  “I will, though you may have a hard time believing it.”

  “Proceed.”

  Kate took a steadying breath. The truth was that she didn’t really know for sure what the truth was. All she had were suspicions.

  “Well…my family, as you know, owns a shipyard.”

  Ben nodded. “Alfred and Sons. My shipping firm recently purchased several of the company’s ships. Whoever is in charge of design has a rare talent.”

  “Yes, well, my grandfather founded the company, and my father followed right along in his footsteps.”

  “Robert had told me all this. I’ve never understood, though, where the name comes from. Who was Alfred?”

  “He was my grandfather’s Pekinese.”

  Ben blinked. “What?”

  “You see, he didn’t want our name to be sullied by any connections to trade—he was the first Sutcliff to have a title and we were as poor as church mice when he started. That’s the reason he took on the business in the first place. And why is that so funny?” she asked, noting the faint tics at the corners of his mouth with annoyance.

  “I’m sorry,” he apologized, still smiling. “But if ‘Alfred’ was the dog, ‘Sons’ isn’t accurate either, is it? Especially since Robbie has little to do with the company.”

  “Funny thing, isn’t it? My grandfather was a bit of an eccentric.”

  “It does sound rather arbitrary.”

  “Oh, no…I didn’t mean that he was eccentric in that way. You see, ‘sons’ refers to me.”

  “I know for a fact that you are not ‘sons.’”

  Kate smiled with forced patience. “Not literally, no. My father was ‘sons’ before me. He taught me everything he knew about the business, and when he became ill, I ran it for him.”

  “You?”

  His disbelief annoyed her. “Shocking, isn’t it? And it’s because of precisely that reaction that I have concealed my involvement. During my father’s illness, and since his death, our clerk, Andrew Hilton, has presided over all meetings, signed all papers, given every appearance of running the business, although I have been the one with the final say in all decisions.”

  “I trust your brother knows about this arrangement?”

  “Of course. It’s stated in my father’s will. I own the company and am the sole beneficiary of its profits.”

  “I see. And how, exactly, does this relate to last evening’s events, or to when you were abducted the first time?”

  Kate paused for a moment to deliberate, and then spoke. “I’m not even certain that it does. But soon after my father’s death, Andrew Hilton began to, well…court me, I suppose. Except I didn’t want him to—”

  “Didn’t want him to? What do you mean?”

  “I mean I didn’t want to marry him, but he kept trying to persuade me…I tried to ignore him at first, but he only became more and more insistent. And then he began to threaten that he’d expose me if I didn’t agree. I…I feel so stupid. We should have known that he was dishonorable, but he concealed it so well until my father died.”

  “So you think he wants to gain control of the company by marrying you.”

  “Yes. If I were exposed, my company would be ruined and as for my family name…don’t you see?”

  “And presumably he followed you to London and has been behind these attacks.”

  “I’m almost certain. It’s the only possible answer, even though it doesn’t entirely make sense.”

  “Why?”

  “Even though Hilton has been a scoundrel, I’ve known him for most of my life. I don’t really think he’d actually try to hurt me, no matter how much he wanted the company.”

  “Well, he never did hurt you. You may have been scared but no one ever harmed you physically. Maybe that was his plan.”

  She looked Ben straight in the eye. “I suppose. I’m sure you can understand now why I had to do something about it.”

  He nodded tentatively, but then asked, “When you say that you decided to do something, what exactly do you have planned?”

  Kate huffed, as if there were only one rational course to take. “I wouldn’t have this problem if I were married, would I? That is why I came to London, remember?”

  “You intend to escape these threats through marriage? A husband will protect you?”

  “Bother that. I don’t want a husband for protection. I want a husband so I can protect my compan
y. It’s the only way. Don’t you see?”

  Ben nodded again, pretending to see when he actually didn’t see at all. It made no sense. What husband would let her carry on such business? Would she really marry someone without love? Even as these thoughts began moving about his brain, he snuffed them. Nearly everyone married without love—most were lucky to marry with a modicum of affection. It was the way of the world, and there were more pressing concerns than whether she married for love or not.

  In truth, he was quite astounded by Kate’s admission. Alfred and Sons was one of the largest and most successful ship designing firms in England, and it was run by…her? He was having a difficult time taking it all seriously. Not that he doubted her intelligence—she was one of the most intelligent people he knew. It was just that he’d been in so many laughably bizarre situations with her…instantly Ben was visited by the image of Kate seated behind a desk, sporting a man’s suit and cravat and smoking a cheroot. The image was absurd, and he felt a smirk itching uncooperatively about his lips. He tried his damnedest to suppress it but failed.

  Her eyes glowed with fury. “So you think it’s funny, do you? You only prove my point…the thought that a mere woman might be able to run a business is laughable. I daresay you wouldn’t have done business with Alfred and Sons if you’d known it was run by a woman.”

  He didn’t answer right away, mulling over the question. “I’m not sure if I would or not…but knowing now that it’s run by a woman—even a hothead like you—wouldn’t deter me in the future. It’s a fine company, Kate. I’m impressed.”

  “I hope someday you sink,” she grumbled, averting her eyes. Ben seemed sincere, and she wasn’t sure how to take his compliment gracefully. She felt thrilled to her toes that he would praise her—she’d dreaded telling him the truth, afraid he would despise her for being involved in such unfeminine pursuits. But she couldn’t help but feel like he was mocking her slightly, treating her as a novelty.

 

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