CHAPTER 30
Taking the lead, the Weasels picked a path through the swaying reeds. Once they had covered half the distance to the building, Raven turned and indicated that von Münch should follow him in cutting around to the left.
Once the two of them had disappeared in the marshland growth, Wrexford moved around to Charlotte’s side. Their hands clasped together, but only for a moment. He dared not risk any further distraction. “Let us give them a few minutes to get into place before continuing.”
“Is there any problem?” she asked as they waited. “We thought we heard a gunshot.”
“Our mild-manned librarian was simply proving his mettle,” he replied. “It appears your instincts were right.”
He checked the area before getting back to the task at hand.
“Tilden was called away yesterday afternoon—quite likely a ruse by Jarvis to confuse the chain of command at the King’s Dockyard.
However, he underestimated Midshipman Porter.
” A wry smile. “Who, by the by, is already a very fine naval officer.”
“So Horatio has led his men here—” she began.
“Not precisely,” answered the earl. “Horatio put his bosun in charge of the sailors who will guard the boathouse where the villains have moored the steam-powered prototype. He and I decided that as a further precaution, he would take command of the second prototype steamboat, which is kept in the laboratory boathouse, and lie in wait near the top of the river’s bend, just in case the villains manage to slip through our net. ”
Seeing Charlotte go white as a ghost, he hastily added, “But I don’t expect it will come to that.”
“Nor do I.” She raised a brow at Mac. “And you? You didn’t think we could handle this on our own?”
McClellan’s lips twitched. “I figured that someone ought to stay and tend to the dowager in case you two went haring off after the villains.” She turned to Wrexford with a challenging stare.
“Whatever negotiations you are planning to make, milord, I don’t imagine you are planning on letting them evade justice. ”
“Correct.” Though said softly, the word had the ring of steel.
The mist was beginning to blow off, but the hazy sun had yet to warm the salty chill from the air.
“Time to move,” he announced.
With Hawk showing them the way, they followed in single file and threaded through the shadows of a glade of scrubby trees to reach the side of the house.
“The anteroom opens into the main room through a doorway on the left,” whispered Hawk. “That’s where they are holding Aunt Alison.”
“Stay out here, lad, and keep watch. Trill like a sparrow if anyone approaches.” Wrexford pressed a finger to his lips, a signal for everyone to stay silent, and then motioned for Charlotte and the others to follow.
On reaching the outer door, he slowly eased the latch open. A furtive look inside showed the unlit anteroom was deserted and shrouded with shadows.
So far, their luck was holding.
Wrexford slipped inside and motioned for his companions to join him. A few terse gestures indicated how he wanted to array his forces. He and Sheffield would step out of the gloom together, with Charlotte and McClellan aligned behind them, guarding their flanks.
He could hear the buzz of voices from the main room.
An argument?
Discord among the miscreants would only work in his favor.
After another hand signal, indicating that he would reconnoiter on his own, Wrexford crept toward the far end of the anteroom and angled a look around the corner.
A flutter of white. With a trembling hand, Taviot blotted his forehead with a silk handkerchief.
“Why me?” he whined. “Why don’t you stay here while I and our men move the cases of money and letters of credit to the boat?
You’re better with a knife than I am.” Taviot glanced at Alison.
“Why not just be done with it? We don’t need a hostage anymore, and a blade to the throat will finally silence the infernal Dragon. ”
Alison replied with a word—in English—no highborn lady should know.
Jarvis laughed, a sound that made Wrexford’s skin crawl. But with the two ruffians standing next to several overstuffed leather satchels and Taviot positioned just behind the chair to which the dowager was tied, he dared not twitch a muscle.
“You really do have a filthy mouth, Lady Peake,” said the colonel. “Enjoy breathing fire while you can.” To Taviot, he continued, “It behooves us to keep her alive a little longer. Once we reach the Russian frigate, she will have served her purpose.”
Lady Kirkwall made a sound in her throat as she rose from the crate on which she was sitting. “For God’s sake—”
“My dear Elizabeth, surely by now, you know that I don’t believe in God,” said Jarvis, and added another laugh that resonated with pure evil.
“Aye, I know all too well that the only thing you worship is your own self-interest,” retorted Lady Kirkwall, her voice shaking.
“A little late to be getting a conscience, isn’t it?” sneered Jarvis. “You’re up to your lovely neck in all this.” He gave a lazy wave of his hand. “So sit down and stay quiet.”
Gritting her teeth, Taviot’s sister did as she was told.
“As for you, Taviot, the reason you must stay here and keep guard over the dowager is because I’m the one who knows how to fire up the steamboat and make it ready for our escape.
And I need our two men to get the boiler stoked.
So unless you are skilled in how the boat runs, shut your mouth and keep a close watch on the Dragon. ”
He angled a look out one of the small windows. “Stay alert. It’s getting light, and there’s a chance that officious little midshipman will take it upon himself to make an extra patrol of the isle.”
“You were careless to let him spot your skullduggery with the steam engine,” muttered Taviot.
Still, he grudgingly moved even closer to Alison’s chair.
A blade of sunlight flashed off steel as he raised his knife and waggled it near the dowager’s throat.
“Not another word or movement, you meddlesome bitch. I don’t know how they came to know of it, but your niece and her damnable husband have cost me a fortune with their probing into ancient history.
So if you give me the tiniest provocation—”
“Hold your nerve,” warned Jarvis. “Give us a half hour to make things ready, and then follow along with the three of them.”
It was only then that Wrexford saw Maitland sitting apart from the others, barely visible within the gloom of the storage alcove.
“I—I don’t want to go to Russia,” muttered the inventor.
“You would rather rot in Newgate Prison for the rest of your life?” asked Jarvis.
“We’ve left papers in Taviot’s townhouse that make you appear the ringleader of the consortium’s fraudulent scheme.
” A pause. “As well as the murderer of poor Neville Greeley, so that you could obtain the da Vinci manuscript and convince your investors that you had discovered some momentous mechanical secret that would change the world.”
“I knew nothing about your nefarious plan!”
“I doubt that the authorities will think that your protests ring true.”
Shoulders slumping, Maitland made no reply.
Jarvis looked around with a supremely smug smile. “Well, now that you all understand the situation clearly, let us prepare to take our leave of jolly old England. There are plenty of Russian pigeons waiting to be plucked.”
With that, Jarvis and his two cohorts hefted the satchels and headed for the rear exit, where a footpath led down to the river.
Wrexford had heard enough to formulate his next moves. He retreated to where Charlotte and the others were waiting.
“Jarvis and his two henchmen are heading to the boat, where I assume the sailors will apprehend him,” he whispered.
“We’ll move in shortly to negotiate with Taviot.
Hawk, go tell Raven and von Münch to be alert.
Taviot can’t be allowed to abscond with Alison—and I don’t care whether that means blowing his brains out. ”
The boy dashed away.
Wrexford silently counted off five minutes, then motioned for them to move.
* * *
Wrapping her fingers around the pocket pistol hidden in her tattered jacket, Charlotte took up her appointed position behind the earl and Sheffield. Every fiber of her being was crying for action, but she knew that one errant step could prove fatal.
Patience, she reminded herself. A quality that she usually possessed in spades. And yet it was her fault that Alison was in danger—be damned with Wrexford’s argument to the contrary—and until the dowager was safe . . .
Wrexford slowed and lightened his already soundless tread as he approached the doorway, snapping her attention back to the present moment.
A flicker of sunlight after the darkness made her blink, but in the next instant the main room came into focus.
Taviot had already grown restless with his guard duties.
Shuffling from foot to foot, he kept glancing at the passageway to the rear door.
“I don’t see why we can’t wait at the boathouse while they get the engine’s boiler heated up,” he groused.
“What if they are double-crossing us and mean to flee on their own?”
Lady Kirkwall heaved an exasperated sigh. “They aren’t. The same thought occurred to me, my dear brother. But it did so early enough for me to negotiate with Jarvis. He left Maitland here—and as he is the key reason Russia is willing to offer sanctuary, the colonel won’t leave without us.”
“Actually, none of you will be leaving unless you agree to free the dowager,” announced Wrexford as he and Sheffield suddenly moved out of the doorway, weapons at full cock.
Quick as a snake, Taviot reacted by cowering behind Alison’s chair and angling his blade a mere hairsbreadth from her neck. “Don’t move another step, or I swear I’ll slit her throat.”