Feeling calmer, Cassie took in the room. It was large and reasonably well appointed. The largest piece of furniture was a bed, big enough for all of them to sleep upon. In addition to the settle, there were a couple of trunks which served as seats and a table. Neatly lined against the wall were three wicker baskets with fabrics, silks and other sewing accoutrements atop.
One tall window let in light, but it was barred, offering no doubt that this was a prison cell, too.
“You have been through an ordeal,” Lady de Wolfe said kindly.
“An ordeal, I suspect, no more harrowing than your own, my Lady.”
Eliza smiled and inclined her head slightly. “I was able to carry a little more authority because of my status. It’s served to protect us all to a small degree. But that is not to underestimate the danger we face. We are left in peace because it suits Janszoon, but that could change at any time.”
“Mistress Cassie, if you are able, you can dress in these,” said Marguerite, approaching with clothes over her arm. This maid was about Cassie’s own height and had dark hair and brown eyes. She appeared to be a little older than Odette, about twenty.
After a tentative start, Cassie rose on unsteady feet and accepted the clothes. They were a plain gown, likely one of Marguerite’s own.
“There is a washbowl for you behind the screen if you wish, Mistress,” added Marguerite.
Cassie took advantage of the offer, wanting a moment’s privacy. She examined her leg where she had been pulled out from under the cargo. It was bruised but there was no broken skin. There were more bruises on her arms, and her wrists had been rubbed raw. A tentative touch to the back of her head revealed a tender egg-shaped lump.
“Forgive me for continuing to talk while you dress, but as you are no doubt aware, we cannot know from one hour to the next when we might be burst in on,” said Lady Eliza.
“There are a couple of things you need to know from the outset. While you are here, you are under what little protection my status as a noblewoman offers. If you will not follow my instruction, then I cannot help you. Are you agreed?”
“I am yours to command, my Lady.”
“Good. I have persuaded Janszoon to send an emissary to my husband and begin negotiating a ransom. This is the only reason why my maids are still here. If not for that, I fear for my girls. The very idea of them up on the slave block turns my blood cold.”
“But surely you must also fear for yourself, my Lady,” Cassie called from behind the screen.
“I’m considered too old to be worth their while to ship as a slave. It is only my wealth that saved me from being killed or given to the men below.”
Cassie emerged from behind the screen.
“If I might be so bold, my Lady, it would seem that you have some stratagem?” She couldn’t help the hopeful note in her voice.
Lady Eliza shared a glance and a smile with her two maids who were now seated on the settle beside her with needlework on their laps.
“There is some reason to hope, but it is not without considerable risk,” Lady Eliza answered.
“Then I wish to play my part. Instruct me, my Lady. What would you have me do?”
“An extra set of hands would speed our task immeasurably. Do you sew?”
Chapter Twenty-One
To Cassie’s surprise, she wasn’t put immediately to the needle. Instead, Lady Eliza instructed her to sit by the makeshift writing desk by the window and sketch out what she remembered of her journey from Janszoon’s court to their chambers.
“Any detail you can remember would be of tremendous benefit – heights of the walls, lengths of passageways, the number and types of doors on your passing. In fact, anything you can remember from stepping foot on Lundy Island to now. Do not overlook a thing,” Lady Eliza instructed.
Cassie felt a tickle at the back of her head that had nothing to do with the lump she’d sustained. All of a sudden, she understood.
Lady Eliza was somehow in contact with her husband. They would be rescued!
Her thoughts must have been visible on her face because Lady Eliza touched a finger to her lips.
“I see you understand, but you must keep your thoughts to yourself in front of the guards,” she said. “We are allowed small liberties if Janszoon believes us to be obedient. Anything that gives Tobias an advantage when the time comes will aid us all.”
Cassie closed her eyes to concentrate. Now she wished she hadn’t been so caught up in her own fear and paid closer attention to her journey from the small beach up the cliff path, through the small village that served the castle where she was now held.
By the time she finished drawing to the best of her recollection, the light was nearly gone and the raucous sound of the seabirds which had kept them company for the day fell silent while they found their roost for the night. Carrying in on the evening air was the faint sound of the sea pounding on the rocks below.
Lady de Wolfe and her maids reacted moments before Cassie herself heard the sound of booted feet coming their way. Odette swept away the paper, hid it under a pile of fabric and hurried back to her seat by the time the door swung open.
Two men entered with trays of food. Their eyes swept across the room and, seeing nothing out of place, they left the food and departed.
When the echoes of footfalls disappeared, Lady de Wolfe sprang into action, as did her maids. Odette fell to her knees and reached under the settle. Cassie caught a glimpse of candles and tapers of different sizes.
“What can I do to help, my Lady?” Cassie asked.
“Help Marguerite put a blanket over the window and then another over the door,” she said taking one of the tapers and approaching the fire. “No one must see the light.”
Cassie did as she was bid. Within a few minutes, their chamber was lit once more.
“Show me your sketches and we shall see what it adds to ours. Odette and Marguerite, unpick the lining of my mantle, we shan’t get an opportunity better than this one.”
Amongst the embroidery fabric, Eliza pulled out a piece of fabric twenty-four inches square and held it up.
It took Cassie a moment to identify the odd geometric pattern of three large squares. The one on the bottom in black had lines moving out from it to form an arrowhead at one point.
Those were outer walls of the castle! The other squares were the other floors!
She could see that some of the other portions were partly filled in.
This was an interior plan!
Lady de Wolfe approached with Cassie’s sketch.
“It is pleasing how much this aligns with what we already know. You’ve given some further details on the great hall, and the floor below ours which we did not know. Excellent.”
Cassie found the fabric map in her hands.
“Quickly add those details here. And we will place our map into the lining of my cloak,” she said. “Any day now, Janszoon will receive my husband’s reply. Tobias will want proof that I am alive and this garment will furnish proof of it. And inside he will find our map.”
The needle shook in Cassie’s hand and it took her two tries before the silk slipped through the eye. Her hand trembled but it was not fear, but rather anticipation.
They would soon be free.
After two hours at the needle, Cassie completed her task. All that remained was to add her name under that of Lady de Wolfe and her maids.
Odette eagerly took the fabric. Both she and Marguerite set to work inserting it into the lining while Cassie massaged her aching fingers.
She suppressed a yawn.
Lady de Wolfe looked at her with sympathy. She took Cassie by the hand and led her to the large bed. Cassie climbed up, an act which seemed to sap the last of her energy. Her limbs were heavy.
“You’ve done well, Cassie,” Lady de Wolfe said softly, “you have been through an ordeal and earned your rest.”
She lay her head on the pillows without protest. Her last thought before she closed her eyes and sleep claimed her wa
s of Mathilda. Cassie prayed for comfort for her cousin who would be in torment when she learned of her beloved husband’s death.
That night, Cassie dreamed of Gabriel, his easy-going smile, the frown of concentration as he practiced reading. But most of all it was the lingering memory of the pleasure he brought her with his body. The night they shared before she left for Ireland was bittersweet.
Remembrance of his touch on her breast, between her legs, his lips on hers as he brought her pleasure came unbidden. She encouraged the recollection to flourish in her mind’s eye and savored it, this potent desire that left her wanting more of it, more of him.
More of life.
Gabriel woke with a start. There was a commotion downstairs. He shook his brothers awake and, armed with knives, they hurried below.
A man dressed head-to-toe in black stood before them. The cold wind from the open front door swirled his cloak around him.
He pulled the black fur-trimmed hood back. It was de Wolfe. The man who looked like the wild creature of his namesake.
“I’m glad to see someone in this house is still alert,” he said gruffly. “Shut the door. Rouse my sons. Get lamps going in the study.”
De Wolfe issued commands to no one in particular, so Gabriel pointed Raphael and Michael up the stairs while he closed and locked the door.
The lord said nothing else as he tromped upstairs. Gabriel followed behind.
In the study, Michael had already lit two lamps. Gabriel assisted with another two until the desk before them blazed with light. Raphael arrived a moment later with Walter and Hugh.
“Father!” said Walter, the eldest. “Hugh and I didn’t expect you home until the morrow.”
De Wolfe nodded his acknowledgement, but kept his concentration on opening the leather satchel in his hands. He pulled out a deep red cloak trimmed with dark brown fur. A lady’s mantle.
“Mother’s!” said Hugh.
The lord spread the mantle on the desk, lining side up. Gabriel offered de Wolfe a knife. The man drew the blade along the bottom seam and turned the garment inside out. Gabriel caught a flash of white and grabbed for it, but de Wolfe was quicker. He stared at it a moment and then grinned.
“It’s a message from Lady de Wolfe,” he said, but the smile faded a moment. “What on earth could she mean by Perspicacity?”
Gabriel surged forward until he could see the fabric for himself.
He recognized the shape of the letters before it resolved itself into a word he knew. More importantly, he recognized the hand.
“That’s Cassie! That’s her mark.”
Gabriel backed away from the desk as others moved closer for a look. If he were alone, he would sink to his knees in gratitude that his most fervent prayer had been answered. Raphael was the closest and the first to react. This brother clasped him on the shoulder in silent encouragement.
“Then our plans are to rescue four,” de Wolfe announced. “It complicates things a little but not overmuch.”
“We can do it,” said Gabriel. “There is no way in hell that we won’t.”
De Wolfe looked up.
“My relief in learning that your woman is alive is as sincere as yours, but we cannot give in to sentiment. There is still much to be done and thanks to the work of my good lady wife and her companions, we can begin finalizing our plans. Gather ’round.”
The six men gathered around the desk, only half-acknowledging a rather exhausted-looking Caine as he came in with a platter of bread and cheese. The butler coaxed some life from the fire that had reduced to dark red coals.
Gabriel examined the fabric in closer detail. The embroidered pattern of it seemed odd before he worked out that this was a plan of a castle.
The top left corner of the uppermost square appeared to depict a room. In it was the letter “X” embroidered in red. That’s where Cassie was, in a room at least fifty feet off the ground.
Before he could give it any more consideration, de Wolfe sliced away the map from the inside of the mantle and rolled it up.
“Mother will not be happy that you’ve destroyed her favorite cloak,” Walter said with a grin.
For the first time since he returned home, the tension left de Wolfe’s shoulders.
“I shall buy her another one – grander,” he said. “Now, back to your beds. Think on this and sleep on it. I want your best ideas on the morrow. I intend to send my answer back to Janszoon before the day is over and I want to have a plan to back it up.”
Sleep was the last thing on Gabriel’s mind. He started up at the ceiling and played with the silver cross around his neck.
He knew that prayers went up to God in Heaven but he wished that he could direct his thoughts to Cassie, instead.
Hold fast beloved, I am coming for you.
Sleep claimed him eventually with a half-formed plan emerging. It would require every single acrobatic trick he and his brothers knew, as well as some serious good fortune, but there was half a chance it could work.
If his plan came off, they could be in the castle and out with their captives before Janszoon and his men even knew they were there.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Marisco Castle
Lundy Island
The door to their chamber opened sooner than they had anticipated.
A man stood before two guards, a slim, elegant figure with pale hair receding. He was not dressed as a servant; his clothes of green satin seemed more befitting of a court official.
“Admiral Murat wishes you to attend him in the great hall, Lady de Wolfe,” the man announced.
Eliza rose to her feet and swept the mantle around her shoulders as confident as a queen.
Cassie and Lady de Wolfe’s two maids looked at each other silently and did not speak until the footsteps retreated once more.
Odette let out a long breath.
“We pray that Lord de Wolfe has replied favorably to the letter,” she said.
“Amen to that,” Marguerite agreed.
“We don’t know how long Janszoon will keep Lady de Wolfe,” Cassie observed. “I would feel better doing something useful; something to keep my mind occupied. Do you have any spare thread for sewing?”
Odette glanced sidelong at her friend before addressing Cassie. “We do, but before you start on your needlework, let us show you how we have been occupying our time in captivity.”
The young woman opened a trunk and pulled out a garment that looked like loose-fitting hose that tied around the waist and the ankles with drawstrings.
“We’ve each made one,” said Marguerite. “We can help you make another for yourself. Lady de Wolfe suggested them. If we need to run in a hurry, we won’t be hampered by skirts, but we must be cautious, we cannot give the guard an excuse to take away our sewing.”
Cassie nodded her understanding.
“If we might hope for good news, then we’d best all be ready.”
Within two hours, Lady de Wolfe returned with an opened letter in her hand.
Cassie and Marguerite glanced at one another and then back to Lady de Wolfe.
Odette had less patience, only lasting until the door was barred behind before she spoke.
“What word, my Lady?”
Lady de Wolfe sat on a chair by the window and unfolded the letter.
“Lord de Wolfe has agreed to any and all terms,” she said. “He has made a payment of good faith in gold, but requests three additional weeks to realize assets into coin to pay the rest of the ransom.”
Lady de Wolfe dropped her voice and the three younger women moved in closer to hear. “He is glad to hear that his lady wife and her three maids have been well treated thus far.”
Cassie felt her face grow hot. “If he mentions three maids, my Lady, that means your plan has worked that Lord de Wolfe has your mantle and is aware of me.”
Odette put her arm around Cassie’s shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze.
“Does he give any word about our release, my Lady?” Marguerite asked.
“Not in the letter as it stands,” she said. “But Tobias and I have known each other since we were children, ever since he fostered with our family. One summer, he taught me a code that he and my brother used to pass messages under the nose of their tutor. I hope he has remembered our old game.”
Lady de Wolfe placed the letter on the table. The upside-down view Cassie had of the missive revealed little to her, but Eliza turned over the final page of the letter and picked up a pencil of graphite wrapped in string.
She counted the letters along and made notes until she came to the end of the last page and then started over again.
After a third run through, she put the pencil down and looked up at all three women. Her face seemed aglow, like a woman in love.
“My Lady, are you well?” Cassie asked.
Lady de Wolfe smiled. “Yes. Very, very well.”
“There is a secret message from Lord de Wolfe. He commands us all to courage and be prepared to leave in ten nights hence.”
“Ten nights,” breathed Marguerite, “that means my Lord is planning on a rescue, not a ransom!”
“He wishes us to keep the shutters open in our chamber both day and night.”
Cassie felt Lady de Wolfe’s full attention on her.
“And he has a message for the newest member of our household – ‘expect a visit from an angel’.”
Cassie brought her hands to her lips to prevent an involuntary cry.
Gabriel!
Lady de Wolfe burst out laughing, a pleasant and joyful sound that helped break the tension in the room.
“Well! With a reaction like that, I imagine there is a story to tell – a handsome young lover, no doubt. Since my husband has given us a time to be ready, I would not like to disappoint him. Let’s prepare ourselves while Mistress Cassie tells us about her lover.”
“Three hundred yards of rope.”
Gabriel looked de Wolfe in the eyes and nodded once.
“Are you sure you don’t mean feet?” said Hugh.
De Wolfe placed a hand on his son’s shoulder to silence him. “Go on.”
The de Wolfe of Wharf Street Page 12