‘What if I was? I ain’t anymore, and I’m as good as you are now.’ She sat a little straighter. ‘Better.’
‘Indeed you are, Sally,’ Ariana pointed out bluntly. ‘You are locked in a cellar with us, on the point of being sold into prostitution.’
‘He won’t do that to me.’ Sally flapped a hand. ‘I know too much about what he gets up to.’
‘Then you are surplus to requirements,’ Ariana said starkly.
Sally blinked. ‘I’m what?’
‘He has no further need for you,’ Lucy clarified.
‘He’d have a riot on his hands if anything happened to me,’ Sally replied with more confidence than she probably felt. She was slow to understand but there was a street cunning about her, a determination to get ahead in any way that she could, that Lucy couldn’t help but admire. ‘He took me on and he treated the elders in this village—me Pa among them—decent, like. They came to some sort of agreement, I think. None of them hold much stock with your precious duke, so…’
Lucy smiled, thinking how easy it would have been for a man with Basingstoke’s authority and charm to manipulate such a vulnerable and ambitious young woman. ‘It was an easy victory for him,’ she said softly. ‘He used you to get what he wanted, which was the freedom to do whatever he likes in this village, with no questions asked. He sensed the resentment against the duke and used it to his advantage.’
Sally shrugged. ‘Dunno nothing about that.’
Ariana paced around the dank cellar. There were no windows and nothing to defend themselves with, Lucy noticed glumly as she followed in her friend’s wake, ignoring the possibility of rats as she delved into every dim corner, her progress hampered by the lack of light and her swollen ankle.
There was a connecting door that wasn’t locked. Ariana pushed it open and the girls were rewarded with a glimpse of daylight and the feel of gentle rain falling on their faces. They glanced up to see an opening above their heads, covered by iron bars. The gaps between them were far too narrow for them to be able to squeeze through, Lucy noticed, and her brief moment of optimism faded.
‘Is this on the same side of the house as the path we were just brought along?’ Ariana asked.
‘I think so,’ Lucy whispered back. ‘Why? Does that help?’
‘Not sure.’ Ariana sank down cautiously onto a pile of sacking. Lucy joined her there, leaving Sally in the other room to mull over her own situation. ‘It makes no sense that Basingstoke would take the risk of kidnapping us, now of all times.’
‘You got the better of him once and he isn’t a man who likes to be gainsaid. Besides, it’s obvious that whenever he looks at you rationality deserts him. And if they move us tonight the villagers will deny that we were ever here and he will get away with it.’ Lucy fell momentarily quiet as a possibility occurred to her. ‘Find me something to stand on.’
‘Why? Those bars will not…’
Lucy and Ariana between them dragged an empty crate beneath the grating. Sally, if she heard them, didn’t bother to come and investigate, presumably because she knew there was no way out, no matter what they did. Lucy removed her hat, stepped awkwardly up onto the crate, barely aware of the protest from her ankle, and wrapped the plume around the grating like a flag of surrender.
‘Good thinking,’ Ariana said.
The crate cracked beneath Lucy’s weight. She lost her balance, and only Ariana’s steadying hand on her arm prevented her from taking a tumble.
‘Careful!’
‘No harm done.’ Lucy sat down again, exhausted and in considerable pain.
‘This cellar is all but invisible from the front of the house, but if Raph and Amos use the same path as we did they can’t fail to see that feather.’
‘It seemed worth a try,’ Lucy replied, not asking Ariana why she was so sure that Lord Amos would be the one to come after her. ‘At least it makes me feel as though we are fighting back.’ She paused. ‘What do we do now?’
‘Keep that precious pin out of sight.’ Ariana replied. Lucy dutifully secured it into the folds of her habit. ‘Now we make use of this broken crate.’
As quietly as they could to avoid arousing Sally’s suspicions, the girls pulled the crate apart, not caring about the damage it did to their soft hands. Ariana winced when a splinter slid beneath a fingernail. Lucy pulled it out and Ariana sucked the wounded digit into her mouth.
‘Most of the wood is rotten,’ Ariana whispered as she returned to their task, disappointment in her tone. ‘But there is one hefty crossbeam at the bottom here that held it together.’ The girls used their combined strength to pull the rotted wood from the sturdier plank and Ariana slapped it against her palm. It didn’t fragment. ‘Hopefully there will be an opportunity…’
She stopped speaking and glanced at Lucy when they heard a commotion outside. The possibility of rescue being at hand faded when Lucy recognised Lord Basingstoke’s strident voice.
‘Ladies, welcome,’ he said. ‘I am the Duke of Winchester, and it is a pleasure to welcome you to England.’
‘What the devil…’ Lucy and Ariana ran to the trapdoor and pressed their ears against it. Sally merely grinned.
‘Clever, ain’t he?’ she asked, pride in her tone.
‘By pretending to be the duke? No one will believe it for a moment,’ Lucy said with authority. Basingstoke was speaking again and both girls listened intently. ‘I apologise for these temporary cramped conditions, but word has got out among the local populace that you have been offered plum positions in my household which they think should have gone to them. They are an ignorant and suspicious lot, and they are afraid of foreigners.’
Lucy could hear one girl translating for the others. She spoke Spanish and one of the Spanish girls then translated in another language Lucy couldn’t identify for the benefit of the others.
‘I want to avoid a riot, so must ask you to conceal yourselves in here for now,’ Basingstoke said, his voice oozing charm and apology. The girls, Lucy feared, would be taken in by him, which would probably hamper any attempts on Ariana’s part to escape. ‘You will be supplied with food and an opportunity to rest from your journey. And then this evening you will be moved to more comfortable lodgings.’
‘Do they believe him?’ Lucy asked as five bedraggled and weary-looking girls made their way down the steps.
‘Did one of them get away?’ they heard Basingstoke ask, as though she had been allowed to escape on purpose. Lucy was more confused than ever.
‘She did. Right in the middle of Winchester. I’m a man of my word. Now, what is it that you wanted me to see?’
Ariana froze momentarily, and Lucy knew without having to ask that it was Cutler’s voice that had temporarily transfixed her. A voice that she had no doubt been hearing in her nightmares since enduring the crossing from Spain in his cramped boat eighteen months previously.
‘Get down there and see for yourself.’ There was satisfaction in Basingstoke’s tone.
‘Get ready.’ Ariana snapped out of her stupor and held out her hand. Lucy wordlessly handed her the hatpin and stood to one side with the length of timber in her hand. The new girls were huddled together, clearly terrified, as they watched this latest development. Ariana uttered a few crisp words in Spanish. Lucy felt considerable relief when one of the new girls nodded in response. These new arrivals were aware, or already suspected, that they had been duped.
‘What the devil…’
Cutler’s eyes adjusted to the gloom and fell upon Ariana. ‘Well, well, what have we here? You can run but you can’t hide, pretty girl,’ he said, his evil grin a chilling sight. ‘You cost me a small fortune. I lost money on that shipment as a consequence of your actions, and I reckon you owe me.’
‘Then I shall be more than happy to pay.’
‘Eh?’ Cutler blinked, taken completely unawares by Ariana’s apparent capitulation.
She stepped towards him and Lucy saw shock and then lust flit through his expression.
‘Don’t
imagine you can use that delectable body of yours to get yourself out of this,’ he warned.
Basingstoke, Townsend and whoever else was with them had remained outside the cellar, presumably because they assumed Cutler could handle himself against a few harmless women who would be too terrified to do anything other than cower. He really hadn’t learned anything, Lucy thought, as the desire for revenge nudged away the residue of her fear.
Ariana moved so fast that everything seemed to happen in a flash. She smiled at Cutler as she deposited her knee in his groin with considerable force and simultaneously rammed the long hatpin as hard as she could into his eye. He howled like a wounded animal, clutching his face with both hands as blood spurted through his fingers. Even so, Lucy was taking no chances. She stepped up behind him and struck him as hard as she could over the back of the head with the timber. He fell to the ground and a sickening sound of bone crunching against the stone floor echoed through the cellar.
Ariana glanced dispassionately at Cutler, gave Lucy a nod of approval but didn’t stop moving. Both girls were aware that they had seconds before Townsend came to find out what the noise was all about. Ariana pulled the pin out of Cutler’s face, leaving blood trailing from his eye socket. She had probably blinded him in that eye, and Lucy decided it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving victim. Blood poured from the side of his head too, but they hadn’t killed him since he’d already regained consciousness and was groaning.
‘What the…’
‘Shut up!’
Ariana kicked his belly, then searched him and found a pistol tucked into his coat pocket. It was a small pistol, designed for a lady to conceal in her muff, but such pistols were often carried by men nowadays, Lucy knew, for added protection.
‘Is it loaded?’ Lucy asked.
Ariana nodded, not taking her eye off the trapdoor. ‘The safety’s on so it must be. Cutler is in a dangerous business. He wouldn’t travel without a loaded weapon about his person.’
Ariana held the gun in both hands, steady as a rock. Her expression was one of fierce determination. She didn’t hesitate to discharge the weapon when Basingstoke’s head appeared through the trapdoor, demanding to know what was going on. They heard a startled cry, an oath and then a loud thump.
‘You hit him!’ Lucy felt euphoric.
‘And with great good fortune, I have killed him.’
She searched Cutler and found another small pistol and two lethal-looking knives about his person.
‘What now?’ Lucy asked.
‘We get out of here, of course.’ She glanced at Sally, who had yet to move a muscle. ‘Do I need to worry about you?’ she asked.
‘Nah. It was a pipedream anyway.’ She let out a long sigh. ‘I can see that now. The likes of me ain’t meant to be ladies. I knew that the moment I saw the way he looked at you. He ain’t never looked at me like that. He was using me, just like you said.’
‘Good. Now you can get your revenge by helping us get out of here.’ Ariana spoke in rapid-fire Spanish to the girl who appeared to be the leader of the new group. The rest of them had stopped whimpering and now looked both scared and optimistic.
‘They weren’t deceived. They knew why they were brought here,’ Ariana said. ‘Pull off his boots and coat, girls,’ she added to them, again in Spanish.
Fuelled by determination born of the desire to escape, the girls pulled a groggy and disorientated Cutler to his feet. One of them ripped her petticoats, relieved Cutler of his coat at Ariana’s suggestion, and bound his hands behind his back tight enough to restrict the circulation.
‘Drape yourselves in those blankets, ladies,’ Ariana said. ‘We have to go now. I will lead the way. He,’ she added, kicking Cutler, ‘is coming with us and walking barefoot in the way that Martina and I were obliged to when we escaped. Unfortunately, there isn’t any snow on the ground, like there was for us, but still…’
Ariana paused to draw breath, looking totally in control as she exacted her revenge in a detached manner that bore all the hallmarks of a born leader, inspiring confidence in the rest of them. ‘Take hold of his arms. Lucy, if he tries anything, stab him. I’ll go up the stairs first,’ she added, holding the second pistol in steady hands. ‘I don’t know how badly Basingstoke is harmed, or how many other men he has with him.’
The Spanish girl said something else. ‘There was only the captain and one other on the wagon that brought them here,’ Ariana translated. ‘Good, that just leaves Townsend and any other men that Basingstoke has here. There won’t be many. He doesn’t trust anyone, but let’s not wait to find out.’
Ariana didn’t translate, but the foreign girls appeared to understand the urgency all the same. It was obvious that they had a score to settle with Cutler too and were perfectly willing to follow Ariana’s lead.
‘They’ve left that trapdoor open in the confusion, but if Basingstoke’s still alive he’ll remind them soon enough,’ Ariana said. ‘We don’t have much time.’
Lucy was at Ariana’s shoulder as together they peered over the rim of the trapdoor. There was a trail of fresh blood seeping into the mud but no sign of life.
‘Come along, ladies.’ Ariana waved them forward.
Cutler groaned and complained as they made their way down the muddy track. Whenever he opened his mouth Lucy stabbed him in the back with the tip of the dagger she carried, and he quickly closed it again. Ariana remained alert, as did Lucy, expecting at any moment to be challenged, but they reached the main road without seeing a living soul.
Their bedraggled party walked into Beauworth, expecting resistance from hostile villagers whose loyalty had been purchased by Basingstoke.
‘If Sally reneges on her word the villagers will eat us alive,’ Lucy said to Ariana in an exaggerated whisper.
Ariana nodded abruptly as she glanced ahead. ‘I don’t think we need to worry about that,’ she replied as she looked towards the tavern.
Lucy sensed the tension draining out of her friend and understood why when she followed the direction of her gaze and gasped, never having seen a more welcome sight. An astounded party from Winchester Park were ranged outside the alehouse, gaping at them in disbelief.
‘We came to rescue you,’ Lord Amos said, smiling and frowning simultaneously. ‘But it’s apparent that our services are surplus to requirements.’
Chapter Eighteen
‘I still find what you achieved, unarmed and defenceless, difficult to comprehend,’ Raph said, shaking his head and looking upon his sister and Lucy with admiration.
‘Why?’ Ariana’s one word was full of challenge. ‘Because we are the weaker sex and cannot look out for ourselves? If that is what you think, then you have never been threatened with the prospect of rape and murder. It tends to concentrate the mind.’
‘It does.’ Lucy nodded in vigorous agreement.
‘Evidently.’
The image of his sister and Lucy leading their bedraggled party down the street, with Cutler tightly bound, barefoot and bleeding from a cut on his head as one eye dangled from its socket would live on in Raph’s memory forever. Ariana hadn’t said a word at the time, and neither had Lucy. Ariana simply handed Raph the pistol she carried and the girls had allowed themselves to be herded into a waiting carriage and driven back to the Park, escorted by Cal and two of the duke’s men.
Raph had stayed behind to help the duke quell any potential uprisings in the village and ensure that the other girls were taken to safety. He had yet to have a private conversation with his sister. Outwardly, both girls seemed euphoric and none the worse for their ordeal.
Raph knew from experience that the internal scars would take longer to heal, but Ariana would find them easier to overcome now that she had put Cutler and Basingstoke out of business permanently.
‘Ariana found the strength to overcome a man who had formed the bedrock of her nightmares all these years,’ the duchess said. ‘And I for one would not have doubted her abilities, had I been aware what she was getting hersel
f into,’ she added, sending the duke a censorious look.
‘They made the mistake of underestimating me for a second time,’ Ariana said calmly.
‘You took Cutler’s eye out,’ Lord Vincent said. ‘Good for you.’
‘I was actually aiming for his ear, but I wasn’t particular which part of his foul face I disfigured.’
The drawing room at the Park was crowded with those whom the affair concerned. Petra was there, holding Lucy’s hand. So too were Lord and Lady Vincent and Martina. Lucy and Ariana had bathed and taken the first steps to recover from their ordeal while the gentlemen had attended to the repercussions.
‘Remind me never to cross either of you,’ the duke said, making everyone smile.
‘We none of us know what we are capable of until we are boxed into a corner,’ Ariana replied. ‘I had demons to exorcise. Lucy did not, but she knew what she could expect if we didn’t escape, and was quite magnificent.’
Raph smiled at her, lost for words.
‘It explains why Basingstoke kept the operation going in this part of the world, Zach,’ Lord Vincent said. ‘According to Cutler, who can’t stop flapping his mouth in an effort to reduce his punishment, this was the last shipment Basingstoke had commissioned him to bring in. It had become too dangerous. Basingstoke had restored his fortune through a combination of smuggling, running illegal gaming clubs and, more lucratively, the sale of the girls into cathouses. That being the case, he wanted to start a rumour that you were behind the entire scheme. Cutler says he regularly flew into rages at the mere mention of your name.’
‘His grace’s name was repeatedly mentioned in front of the latest crop of girls,’ Lucy added. ‘They had been promised good positions here at Winchester Park. Then one of them was permitted to escape in Winchester. By that time, they knew they had not been brought to England for the stated purpose but the girl who escaped, the most outspoken of them apparently, could be depended upon to bandy the duke’s name about.’
‘Notices of the viewing, for want of a better word,’ Amos said, twisting his lips with distaste, ‘were found in Beauworth Hall, with a crude forgery of the ducal crest embossed on the paper.’
Beyond the Duke's Domain: Ducal Encounters Series 4 Book 4 Page 24