To Win his Wayward Wife AZ w cover

by Rose Gordon

  At one time she might have wished for one more meeting with him. Just to confirm if his intentions were honorable as Brooke claimed or dishonorable as Robbie had. Robbie’s argument seemed stronger at the time. No man in his right mind would tell the sister to the young lady he was trying to seduce anything that might jeopardize his plans. But, on the other hand, Brooke had always been a fairly good judge of character and Robbie was, well, Robbie.

  She shook her head again. It really didn’t matter. She didn’t plan to see the man again and if she did, she wouldn’t ask. She didn’t care to know anymore. She’d moved on. And to be quite honest, she was glad she had. Benjamin was a good husband and she knew if she were to ever be reckless enough to give her heart away again, she could trust him with it. He wouldn’t do her wrong.

  “You look rather serious,” Benjamin said, pulling her out of her thoughts.

  “Just woolgathering,” she said with a stilted smile.

  He rolled onto his side. “No regrets I hope.”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “No regrets.”

  He smiled. “Care to tell me what you were thinking of?”

  “Just that you look familiar,” she said with a shrug.

  His eyes sharpened their gaze. “Yes?”

  She waved her hand dismissively. “Yes,” she said laughingly. “But it’s because you’re my husband,” she added flippantly. “I’ve seen you every single day for several weeks now. If you didn’t look familiar we’d have a problem.”

  “Yes, we would,” he added quietly. “And what does the duchess plan to do today?”

  She laid her head on his chest and kissed his sternum. “The usual, I suppose,” she said, letting her fingers slide down his abdomen. “Eat. Sew. Scowl at Jamison. Walk around the house to try and lose Jamison. Eat again. Read a book. Try to bribe Jamison. Stare at an empty wall. Eat dinner with you. Put on a peepshow for Jamison while I bathe. Put on my nightrail. Have a stare down with Jamison until you arrive.”

  He chuckled. “It sounds like you have a busy day,” he acknowledged. “Perhaps I can arrange a little less Jamison and a little more Benjamin. Would that be acceptable?”

  She nodded. “I’d like that.”

  “I’d prefer to keep you in bed all day,” he said, running his fingers through her hair. “However, I have an errand I’m probably already late for. How about if you put in your quality time with Jamison this morning and we’ll spend the afternoon together?”

  “I like the sound of that,” she said.

  “Me, too,” he said, kissing her head. “I’ll talk to Jamison before I leave. Perhaps while you’re bathing and dressing he can stand outside the door as long as Lottie is in the room with you and you don’t take too long.”

  “I can accept that.”

  “Good. But you’re not getting rid of me that easily. I’ll not be leaving the room when you dress or bathe,” he said with a wolfish grin.

  “I wouldn’t want you to,” she said, her hand moving dangerously close to his waist.

  He grabbed her hand and groaned. “I want to. Trust me, I do. But I really must go,” he said raggedly. “This afternoon. I promise.”

  She nodded and watched him as he got up and dressed. His body looked like it had been carved from marble with rounded muscles and chiseled edges. He was magnificent, and all hers. He’d told her so last night and she quite believed him. She’d never be able to share him with another. Never.

  After he’d given her a goodbye kiss and departed, she dressed quickly and barely got the door open when she nearly collided with Jamison.

  “Hullo, shadow,” she said playfully. She may not have liked the man at first, and still didn’t like him following her about; however, now that Benjamin had promised to talk to him about boundaries, she supposed it wouldn’t hurt to be a bit nicer to him. He was just doing the job he’d been given. He couldn’t help it if said job involved following her like a lost puppy.

  “Yer Grace,” he replied.

  “Have you seen His Grace this morning?” she asked, praying he’d say yes.

  Jamison nodded. “Yes,” he said, the tips of his ears turning a pale shade of pink. “Ta keep me peepers ta meself.”

  “Good,” she said pertly. “See that you do.”

  “Aye, Yer Grace,” he said, looking perfectly chastised.

  Madison smiled and waved her hand around the sitting room. “Please, make yourself at home. I’m going to write a letter or two then I’ll be ready to spend the morning with you.”

  She went to the cherry secretary that sat by the window. The writing surface was on hinges and under the board was a little compartment that held a stack of vellum an inch thick, half a dozen quills and four pots of ink that were black, green, blue and red. She reached under the stack of blank paper and pulled out the corner of the page on the bottom. It was the note she’d written her first day here. She pulled the offending paper out and laid the paper on the desk, letting her eyes do a quick scan.

  Dear Andrew,

  Please come quick. I’ve been abducted! Again! The first time he took me to some remote coastal place that I was never able to learn the name of. He said we were more than fifty miles from the nearest town! Or so he claimed. For all I know we could have been on the outskirts of London.

  Oh, and while we were there, Robbie shot Benjamin! It was a dreadful mess and I had to sew him up. Then, his arm got infected and I had to send Billings, his coachman, out to fetch a doctor. And then, just as soon as the doctor treated him, a bullet flew in the window, barely missing our heads and whizzing straight into a piece of furniture. Of course that only led to Benjamin’s predatory behavior of locking me into a dark closet and going in search of Robbie with the biggest gun I’ve ever seen.

  And if all that is not bad enough, he came back in, yanked open the closet, slung me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and hauled me barefoot from the house and all the way to Glenbrook. Once here, he continued his madman methods and has hired Goliath to follow me around. The man follows me everywhere.

  I don’t know how much more I can bear. Please come quick before he locks me into his dungeon!

  Yours,

  Madison

  She shook her head. She almost couldn’t believe she’d actually written it. But she did remember writing it. It was only a few short days ago. She’d been so upset by the events of the day what with Jamison becoming her watchdog and Benjamin’s easy dismissal of her arguments. Angry and highly irritated, she’d sat and penned the exaggerated note, knowing she’d never send it. But even knowing she’d never send it, she felt better after she’d written it. Sometimes it just felt good to vent. Even if the truth was embellished a bit.

  A noise from across the room caught her attention and she whipped her head around to see Jamison talking to someone at the door.

  “Beggin’ yer pardon, Yer Grace,” Jamison called with an uneasy look. “Yer ta be me shadow tis morning. Tere’s a pr’lem tat I need ta hep wit.”

  “All right,” she said, opening the top of her secretary and haphazardly shoving the missive inside. She’d prefer to stay in her room and use Jamison’s errand as an excuse to be alone, but knew Benjamin would not be happy if Jamison left her alone or if something bad happened at the estate because she didn’t cooperate with Jamison and go with him to take care of whatever problem he needed to attend.

  Madison walked down the stairs with Jamison and out toward the stables. Outside the stables they could hear some of the grooms yelling and physically fighting. Madison frowned. Why was Jamison being called out to deal with the squabbles of the grooms? He was the head footman. Shouldn’t it be the job of the head groom to deal with this?

  Inside the stables, she saw Billings standing off by the far wall. He was too old to be involved if he wanted to be, she thought as she murmured to Jamison she was going to go stand by Billings while he settled the fight.

  “What’s going on?” she asked Billings as she approached.

  The old m
an shrugged. “They was fightin’ ‘fore I gots here. I sent fer Jamison cuz I canna fine Leer.” He ran a hand through his hair and watched the fight with wide eyes.

  Madison hadn’t taken her eyes off the fight, either. Even with Jamison present and trying to break up the fight, they boys were being just as aggressive, if not more so.

  “Pr’aps we oughtta step out,” Billings suggested when a stool came flying in their direction.

  Madison nodded. She didn’t want to walk up to Jamison to tell him she was leaving. He appeared a smart man. He’d figure out she went outside where it was safer. “All right,” she said sweetly and followed him out.

  ***

  Benjamin rode his mount at breakneck speed to the village where he was meeting several members of his staff, the village constable and a Bow Street Runner. He’d had enough of this business regarding Robbie and was ready to be done with it and move on with his life with Madison.

  Before leaving the inn he and Madison had stayed in on the way to Glenbrook, he’d sent a message to London requesting Finch, the Runner he liked to use, to meet him at Glenbrook. Finch arrived one day after Benjamin and immediately started to do a discreet investigation of Benjamin’s staff.

  Unfortunately, he’d been unsuccessful in figuring anything out. Of course his staff knew nothing. To start with, only a handful of them had gone with him to Rockhurst and Plymouth. Of those who went with him, none of them were in any condition to have gone trolling around either property in order to have happened upon anything of interest.

  Benjamin ran a hand through his hair. “I guess we’ll just have to wait for him to strike again,” he mumbled.

  “Aye,” Leer, the head groom, said. “I’ve asked me boys to let me know if they see anyone they shouldn’t be seein’.”

  “Good,” Benjamin said approvingly. He’d asked that the grooms be on alert, but not informed. He wanted nothing to tip off Robbie or his mysterious accomplice.

  Finch put his tankard down. “Do you still suspect an accomplice?”

  Benjamin nodded. “It makes sense, too. The accomplice has to be the brains of the operation. Though not too brainy if he leaves his own footprints,” he added ruefully. “But yes, there has to be another man involved. Not only is Swift not smart enough to think of a way to hide his tracks on his own, there’s no way he’d be able to gather the necessary information on his own.”

  “What do you mean?” Hunter, his estate manager, asked with a curious look.

  Benjamin brushed the imaginary crumbs off the table before looking back up to Hunter. “What I mean is, Swift cannot do everything himself. He couldn’t have camped in the woods outside Rockhurst just waiting to see my carriage roll by—even at midnight. Nor, could he have had access to Townson’s servants, or mine.”

  “What are you suggesting?” the constable asked, knitting his brows.

  Benjamin’s hand came up to rub his jaw. “I’m not sure exactly. But he more I think on it, the more convinced I am that he has to have had an inside source.”

  “An inside source?” Leer asked.

  Benjamin nodded. “Madison left her maid in London. I brought a coachman, two footmen and one groom with us to Rockhurst and Plymouth. As much as I hate to think ill of my own staff, I wonder if one of them might be working for him.”

  “Any motives?” Finch asked, a cool, disinterested look on his face.

  “No,” Benjamin said, shaking his head. “That’s why I have such a hard time believing it myself. But it’s the only thing that makes sense.”

  “How so?” the constable asked before throwing back the rest of his tankard.

  “That’s the only way Swift would know to go to Plymouth. Finding out we went to Rockhurst couldn’t have been too difficult. All he’d have had to do was bribe one of my London servants, or even Townson’s. But for him to know about Plymouth,” he shook his head, “no one, save the few of my servants who went with me, even knows I own an estate close to there.”

  “All right,” Finch said thoughtfully. “What do you know about these four servants, besides the basic facts? Families? Debts? Grudges”

  “Williams is the groom. He’s only seventeen or so, far too young to have a family of his own. He’s been in my employ since he was fourteen. I’ve never heard a complaint about him. Have you?” he asked, looking directly to Leer.

  Leer shook his head. “Nay. E’s a good boy. Does wot I says.”

  “Stone and Massey are the only footmen I brought along. Stone’s getting on in years. I offered him a pension last year around Christmas. He refused and claimed he’d die in my employ. Therefore, if money is what Swift is offering, I doubt Stone sees that as much motivation. Massey, on the other hand, has a need for money. He’s younger, early twenties perhaps, and he sends money back to his family. But he’s got a terrible limp that makes him walk at a snail’s pace and can hardly speak more than two words without stuttering.”

  Finch frowned and nodded. “And the coachman?”

  “He’s ancient,” Benjamin said dismissively, twisting his lips. “He was my grandfather’s coachman if that tells you anything. With the exception of one incident I’ve never had any type of problem from him.”

  “What was the incident?” Finch asked curiously.

  Benjamin shrugged. “Last year he used my carriage to help my sister-in-law flee her new and highly infuriated husband, leaving me stranded with said husband. But I don’t think money was the motive in that circumstance. When he finally remembered to come back for me, I asked him for the money he’d gotten from her and he pulled out all his pockets, revealing not as much as a halfpenny rested in his coffers.”

  “Williams or Massey seem the most likely suspects, then,” Hunter mused, mindlessly spinning his tankard around.

  The constable put his hat back on his head. “Perhaps we should go have a talk with the boys.”

  “What are you up to?” Benjamin asked, eyes narrowing. Not that he had anything against the man or anything, but sometimes Benjamin got the impression the constable liked to rule his jurisdiction with an iron fist and would go to any lengths to make sure everyone knew his power.

  “Nothing,” he said with a shrug. “We’ll just see what he has to say.”

  Benjamin scowled. Perhaps it would have been better to get the constable involved after the incident.

  After paying their tab, the five men hopped on their mounts and rode in silence back to Glenbrook.

  “Massey’s an inside footman,” Benjamin said tersely. “After we hand our mounts to the groom, I’ll go get him.”

  “Aight,” the constable agreed with an easy smile.

  Approaching the stables, a ruckus caught the notice of the group. “Wot the devil is goin’ on in there?” Leer asked, jumping from his mount.

  The other four looked at each other in curious silence before jumping off their own mounts and running into the stables.

  Unblinkingly, Benjamin watched as every groom he employed was engaged in a fight. His eyes roamed over the image of punching and hitting and saw right in the middle was Jamison. Jamison! What was he doing here? He tore his eyes away from the fight and scanned the walls, looking for Madison. He didn’t see her and his heart started to race. Where was she? He scanned the walls again, dread, unease, and undeniable fear settling in his chest when he still didn’t see her.

  Leaving it up to the others to stop the fight, he ran from the stables and circled the exterior, looking for Madison. Surely she wouldn’t have strayed far. He understood she probably hadn’t wished to stay in the stable with the fight, but knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t have wandered off.

  He caught sight of Billings milling around outside the dairy barn, probably not wanting to get involved in a juvenile fight he’d never stand a chance at emerging alive from. “Have you seen Her Grace?” he asked casually. No need to let onto the private terror coursing through him.

  “Nay,” Billings said, shaking his gray head.

  “All right.”

>   He turned to leave and go search somewhere else when suddenly the sound of a bullet rent the air followed a split-second later by a high pitched, ear piercing, heart stopping, bloodcurdling scream.

  Chapter 28

  Madison shook out her green muslin skirt as soon as she stepped out of the stable. With all the fighting going on in there, hay had been flying everywhere and straw had come to settle all over her dress.

  “Glad to be away from that,” she said with a sigh.

  “Aye,” Billings agreed. He sagged up against the side of the stables. “Ye ever seen a dairy?”

  Madison followed his gaze the building a hundred yards away. “Is that the dairy?”

  “Aye,” he said, shaking his head. “Wanna see it?”

  “No,” Madison said truthfully. “I shouldn’t have left the stables. I don’t think I should go into the dairy.”

  “Come,” Billings encouraged, grabbing her arm.

  “No, thank you,” Madison said politely, trying to pull her arm free. “Let go, please. You’re hurting me.”

  “Ten be a good gel an’ come ‘long,” he said with an unusual smile.

  Madison tried to pull her arm free, but his grip only tightened. “Help!” she screamed.

  He laughed. “E won’t hear ye in tere.” He started pulling her in the direction of the dairy and she dug her heels in to offer as much resistance as she could. For being an old man he was awfully strong.

  He wretched the door open to the dairy and flung her inside before slamming the door shut and locking her inside.

  She looked around the dimly lit dairy. There were no cows in their stalls. Buckets and stools lined the aisle between stalls. The stench was enough to make one struggle to keep their stomach contents down. Why had he tossed her in there?

  “Hello, Madison,” said a familiar voice behind her that told her why she’d been locked in there.