Chapter 32
“Think about this logically,” Norman cautioned as Reeves pulled on his cloak. “You can’t just charge in there. Whoever this fiend is, he’ll see at once that you don’t have Emma with you, and he’ll act. He might shoot Bridget the moment he sees you coming.”
“Well, what would you have me do?” Reeves demanded, throwing his hands up in frustration. “You can’t possibly be suggesting that I take her with me.”
“To begin with, I’m suggesting you take me with you.” Norman’s voice was calm and rational, and Reeves didn’t see how anyone could be so cool at a time like this. “You shouldn’t go on your own. You might need someone to help you, and you should let me come along and be that person.”
“I don’t know,” Reeves said. “You don’t think he’ll shoot her right away if he sees I have you with me instead of Emma?”
“I don’t know that I’d worry about that.
He didn’t put anything in his note about coming alone, after all,” Norman said.
“He said you were to come, and he said you were to bring Emma. He said twenty-four hours. Those were the demands. Nothing more. I could even drive the carriage. Then he wouldn’t realize you’d brought an extra person.
He would simply believe you had come yourself, as he asked and had needed a driver to bring you. ”
Reeves hesitated. He was going to need a driver, with his usual man being out of commission. “Very well,” he said. “You can come along, and you can drive the carriage. That way, if anything should happen to me, you’ll be able to get Bridget out.”
“Is something bad going to happen?” Emma’s voice quavered.
Reeves spun around. He hadn’t realized she was still following them. “Emma, you shouldn’t be here. Go up to your room.”
“Is the bad man going to hurt you because you didn’t do what he said?” Emma wanted to know. “Because if he is, Papa, then you have to bring me with you. I can’t lose my father. I would have to go live at the orphanage.”
“Of course you wouldn’t,” Reeves said. “Aunt Agnes is still here. She would look after you. And Uncle Gareth would help as well.”
“Papa!” Emma sounded downright distraught.
“You need to listen to her,” Norman said. “She’s talking sense, Reeves.”
“Don’t you start. I’ve already made my decision.”
“And I’m telling you it’s a bad decision.”
“Norman, I’m not going to bring my daughter into danger! I’m certainly not going to surrender her to whoever this person is. I can’t believe we’re even talking about this.”
“I’m not suggesting you hand her over,” Norman said.
“Of course, I’m not suggesting that, Reeves.
But you need to think about what you’re doing before you make a decision.
Has it occurred to you that this might be a ploy to get you out of the house?
We already know that whoever kidnapped Emma is willing to break in here to try to get her back.
With you gone, they might do so again. They know you’re the only thing that stopped them from laying hands on her last time.
What would stop them this time? You can’t leave her here and assume that’s going to be safe, because it might not be. ”
“Of course it’s safe. We have guards. We have staff. There are plenty of people here to protect Emma, even when I am gone. Don’t suggest that I’d leave her unguarded.”
“Papa,” Emma whispered, tugging his hand.
Reeves could have struck Norman in the face for saying that in front of Emma. “You’re frightening her.”
“I’m not trying to frighten her. I’m trying to wake you up. You need to think seriously about how you’re going to handle this, Reeves. You need to make a plan.”
“I don’t have time for this!”
“You have plenty of time for this,” Norman said sharply.
“You were given twenty-four hours. Think about that for a moment. You don’t need twenty-four hours to get to Featherstone.
In fair weather, you could make that journey in eight hours.
The snow will make it take longer, but not that much longer.
You have time to think before you jump in a carriage and set off. ”
“The longer I wait, the greater the risk to Bridget,” Reeves said. “She’s alone right now with whoever this person is.”
“And he’s said he won’t hurt her for twenty-four hours!”
“No,” Reeves barked. “That isn’t what he said, Norman. He said he wouldn’t kill her for twenty-four hours. This is the same man who kidnapped Emma. Do you think she was unharmed by that, coming home covered in bruises the way she did? I wouldn’t leave anyone I loved in the clutches of that man.”
Norman darted a glance at him at the sound of the word love, but he didn’t say anything, and Reeves was grateful.
He didn’t want to have to answer the question he was sure his friend would ask.
He was nowhere near ready to try to explain his feelings for Bridget, and even if he had been, now certainly wasn’t the time for it.
“I don’t think he’ll do anything to her,” Norman said quietly.
“You can’t possibly know that.”
“No, I can’t, but I can make a reasonable guess at it. Think about it. Whatever he has against you is about you, not about Bridget. He has no reason to harm her. He’s only taken her as a bargaining chip to use against you.”
“And do you think he had something against Emma?” Reeves demanded.
“If his problem is with me, and he’s taking my loved ones away to punish me, why did he harm her?
Unless he’s just the sort of man who lashes out against people for no real reason at all, because it gives him pleasure to hurt people. ”
“And we can’t know,” Norman agreed. “But what we can do is put together a strong plan, so that when we come face-to-face with him, we’ll know what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it.
And I say a part of that plan ought to include Emma.
” He held up a hand. “Of course, I’m not suggesting you turn her over.
I would never come to you with such an idea.
I’m saying we bring her along and let the kidnapper think we’re willing to play along with his schemes.
If he thinks he’s defeated you, he’ll drop his guard, and then we’ll be able to get the better of him. ”
“I don’t like this,” Reeves growled.
“I don’t expect you to. This man is threatening your family.
Your loved ones,” Norman said gently. “And whoever he is, he seems to be doing it all out of a desire to cause harm to you personally. Of course, you’re ill at ease about it.
But once we’ve confronted him, we’ll put a stop to all this. It will all be behind us.”
“And you really think it’s safest for Emma if she’s with us?”
“I really do,” Norman said. “How could you bear to leave her at home, Reeves? Just think about it. The time you would spend on the road, going to the inn, knowing that this man had made a play against you, and the whole while your daughter would be out of your sight… it would drive you mad. You wouldn’t be at your best when you reached Featherstone.
I’d be surprised if you were able to focus at all under those circumstances. ”
He had a point, Reeves was forced to concede. It would be hell to leave Emma at home during all this. He would be worrying about her safety every moment.
“Papa,” Emma said, her voice firmer than it had been yet. “You need to bring me with you.”
Reeves sighed. “Emma, I know you want to help, but…”
“I don’t just want to help,” Emma said. “I can help. Because I’m the one he took. Because I’m the only one who can tell you that the man you’re going to meet is Uncle Gareth!”
She gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth as if in shock that she’d said the words.
Reeves felt as if his heels had been bolted to the floor. For a moment, he couldn’t move.
Then he pivoted slowly, turning to face his daughter.
She was breathing heavily, staring up at him, tears beading in her eyes. And all he could think about was what Bridget had always said to him—that she would name the culprit, would tell him who had been responsible for the kidnapping, in her own time. All he had to do was be patient.
She was right. But who could have imagined that it would be at a time like this?
And who could have imagined that Gareth’s name would be the one to come out of her mouth?
Norman dropped to his knees in front of Emma. “Are you sure, Emma?” he asked. “It’s very important that we be sure about this. For your father’s safety, and for Bridget’s.”
Emma nodded. “I didn’t want to say because I know he’s Mama’s brother. He said he wants me with him because he loved Mama, and that she would have wanted the two of us to be together.”
“Your mother wanted you to be with me,” Reeves said firmly.
“And she would never have wanted you to be with anyone who would harm you, Emma. That was the last thing in the world she’d have wanted.
She loved you more than anything. Perhaps she didn’t realize the kind of man her brother was—I certainly didn’t.
But if she had, she would never have allowed him anywhere near you. And nor will I. Not ever again.”
He felt his hands curl into fists at his sides.
To think that it had been Gareth all along!
Gareth, who had offered to help him seek out the culprit.
That must have been a ploy to throw Reeves off.
The whole time, Gareth had been feigning concern for Emma, when in reality he had been the one who had hurt her.
He will suffer for this when I get my hands on him. I’m going to make him pay.
“Reeves,” Norman said firmly, getting to his feet. “This is good. We finally have an answer. We know who was responsible. Now we can approach this situation with a real plan. Now we know what we’re walking into.”
Reeves took a deep breath and nodded. Norman was right. As angry as he was, they had an advantage now that they hadn’t had before. “You were brave to tell us the truth, Emma,” he said. “Thank you for that.”
“I want you to take me along, since I did that,” Emma said. “I’ve earned the right to be a part of this, Papa.”
Maybe she had. Between her insistence and Norman’s, Reeves was beginning to have real doubts about his determination to leave Emma at home. But it still felt too dangerous to take her into this conflict.
Despite his doubts, he was going to have to make a choice.
“What are we going to do?” Norman asked. “You sound like you have a plan.”
“I have the start of one,” Reeves said. “But there’s one more person we’re going to need to help us through this if my idea is going to work.”