Chapter Ten
Flaherty nodded to the footman standing guard. “If ye need me, I’ll be in the outbuilding near me quarters.”
“Flaherty, wait!”
He glanced over his shoulder. “Mrs. Green, is there a problem?”
“Not at all,” she assured him. “I wanted to let you know that Pippa has finally closed her eyes and is resting. Mrs. Chauncey and I will be taking turns sitting with her.”
“Ye’re a treasure, Mrs. Green, watching out for the lass for me—and keeping me cousins and meself in scones.”
The cook smiled. “It is my pleasure.”
While helping to hold the lass still for the physician, Flaherty had felt a burning anger tearing through him.
He needed to make the footman pay for daring to harm Pippa.
Now that the lass’s wound had been cared for, he could concentrate on beating the answers out of him to confirm that Millie’s brother-in-law had paid the man to kidnap her babe—and in the process use whatever force was necessary.
Curtis would pay for stabbing the woman Flaherty loved.
“Bloody hell… How much time have I wasted while me blasted pride kept me from realizing what me heart was trying to tell me?”
He couldn’t wait to get his hands on the man who thought to steal a babe—for coin!
The bloody bugger was fond of using a knife.
Flaherty decided if the man wouldn’t answer his questions, then he would threaten to use a knife on him—stripping off patches of the man’s hide until he told them everything he needed to know.
He strode toward the outbuilding but stopped when he spotted O’Malley coming out of the stables. Before Flaherty could ask who was guarding the prisoner, O’Malley asked, “How is Pippa feeling?”
Flaherty answered honestly, “I thought ’twould be a blessing that she was unconscious while Higgins was sewing the wound closed…”
O’Malley grimaced and stated the obvious: “She woke up before he was finished.”
“That she did. It gutted me that she was in pain.” Flaherty scanned the area between the stables and the outbuilding. “Why aren’t ye guarding the prisoner?”
Garahan shouted his name, and Flaherty turned to see his cousin striding purposefully toward him from the front of the manor house.
Flaherty could not believe neither of his cousins were standing guard over the scoundrel.
That was when he knew something had occurred while he was with the lass.
He needed to question the man—nay, needed to beat on the man while he questioned him about who’d paid him to abduct Millie’s babe.
“Unless ye want me to bash yer heads together, one of ye best tell me what in the bloody hell ye’re thinking trusting the guarding of the prisoner to one of the men we trained. They weren’t hired for that type of work!”
“I’ll have yer word that ye’ll not punch first and listen second,” O’Malley said.
Flaherty raked a hand through his hair and gave it a hard tug. “I promise.”
“The constable arrived. He and Summerfield are speaking to the prisoner.”
“’Tis our job, not the baron’s, to question the man,” Flaherty grumbled. He pushed past Garahan and stalked toward the outbuilding.
“The baron feels responsible,” O’Malley told him, matching Flaherty’s stride. “He agreed to hire Curtis when the squire’s household servants were let go pending the outcome of the trial.”
“He doesn’t look like a man I’d want spending time inside with my wife,” Flaherty grumbled.
“His lordship said he feels responsible for Millie’s babe nearly being kidnapped,” Garahan added, catching up to his cousins.
“His lordship hired the footman based on what me wife had to say, and because Percy and Phineas mentioned he treated them well, too. And before ye ask, aye, without allowing any of us the opportunity to meet the man and question him.”
“Bloody hell,” Flaherty grumbled. “Curtis didn’t need to sneak past us into the house because he was already working here!”
“All the new footmen are trained by Timmons,” O’Malley reminded him.
“What of it?” Flaherty asked.
“When I saw Curtis near the servants’ staircase earlier, I didn’t ask where he was headed. The man had been hired by his lordship, and had already been under Timmons’s close scrutiny for the first few weeks he worked here. We’ve never had an issue before.”
Flaherty wanted to shake O’Malley, but would do so after the matter of the fraudulent footman was resolved. “Well, we bloody hell have one now!” Flaherty growled. “The woman I love is lying inside, suffering in pain from being stabbed and having her wound sewn back together!”
The door to the outbuilding opened, and Summerfield walked toward them.
“Summerfield Chase has been in an uproar since you arrived with Pippa, Millie, and her babe. And with Percy and Phineas spying on Curtis after they overheard him boasting of coming into coin for a small job that no one need find out about.”
“How would Millie, Pippa and myself—or the rest of ye—not notice that Millie’s babe was kidnapped?”
“Not what I meant,” the baron replied. “Curtis planned to be long gone before anyone knew he was the one who absconded with Millie’s babe.”
“Well, Percy and Phineas noticed,” Garahan said.
Flaherty grunted. “That they did. I’ll be forever grateful to them—as will Millie and Pippa.”
“I sent for the constable,” the baron said. “He will escort the prisoner to the village.” When Flaherty remained silent, the baron continued, “This was my doing…my fault. I handled the matter.”
“Like ye handled the matter when Lady Phoebe told ye her plan to let herself be kidnapped in order to lure that bastard Stillman out of hiding?” Flaherty asked.
At the baron’s incredulous expression, Garahan spoke up.
“It may sound like a strike at yer pride, yer lordship, but ’tisn’t.
Flaherty’s brother Seamus, and me brother James, told the tale of what lead to the abduction of her ladyship, and the capture of Stillman’s thugs.
They were impressed that ye managed to climb on the back of yer horse at all, given yer head wound at the time. ”
Summerfield inclined his head and rasped, “I would give my life for Phoebe’s. What worries me is that she has proven more than once that she is all too willing to do the same.”
“Ye’re a fortunate man, yer lordship,” Flaherty said. He wasn’t certain he should ask the question burning in his brain.
His facial expression must not have been as neutral as he thought, because Summerfield said, “Whatever is on your mind, Flaherty, just ask.”
“’Tis plain to the lot of us—and our brothers who were assigned to protect Lady Phoebe at the time—that ye have a deep and abiding love for one another.”
“Aye, we do,” the baron replied.
“When did you know for certain that her ladyship had captured yer heart?”
Summerfield chuckled to himself. “I mistakenly used the word obey in the same sentence as the words cease prattling.”
Flaherty’s eyes widened. O’Malley coughed to cover his laughter, while Garahan snorted and said, “Faith, but ye’re a lucky man, yer lordship.”
“And well I know it,” the baron said in a perfect imitation of their Irish brogue.
Flaherty grinned. “And she forgave you right away?”
“Hardly,” Summerfield replied. “It was my insistence on riding with the duke’s men to rescue her, and apologizing with the offer to strike the word obey from my vocabulary, that earned her forgiveness.”
“It was that simple?” Flaherty did not think that would be the case with the lass.
“Nay, but we bumbled along until we came to an agreement. We agreed that in the future, we would have a conversation before either one of us left in a huff, or put ourselves in a dangerous situation without first discussing it with one another.”
Flaherty’s shoulders slumped. “Do ye think there’s hope for me?”
The baron placed a hand on his shoulder. “Where love exists, there is always hope. Talk to her. Apologize. Beg her pardon.”
“And if that doesn’t work?” Flaherty asked.
The baron grinned. “Haul her into your arms and kiss the daylights out of her.”
Flaherty may not have liked the idea of apologizing at first, but agreed the last bit of advice was something he could embrace wholeheartedly.
“Take half an hour and go seek her out now. Garahan and O’Malley will find someone to cover the rest of your shift.”
“Thank ye, yer lordship.”
*
“Lass?”
“Mmm?”
“Ye need to wake up and drink more of the herbal.”
Pippa opened her eyes and stared at the worry on the handsome visage before her. When had she started thinking of him as handsome instead of an irritation? “Did you forget something and have to come back so soon?”
“I’d never forget anything concerning yerself, lass. Did ye sleep well?”
Momentarily confused, she murmured, “I wasn’t sleeping.”
“I see. I suppose it was someone else in the room snoring when I arrived.”
The throbbing in her shoulder intensified, but instead of moaning, she snapped at Flaherty, “I do not and have never snored!”
“Do ye have a sister ye shared a bed with?”
Confused, she frowned at him. “No. Did you forget that I told you I have four older brothers?”
He stared at her for a few moments as if weighing his words. “Why were they not able to come to the aid of Millie and her babe?”
Pippa sighed. “Three of my brothers are serving the Crown—one in the Royal Marines, one in the navy…the other in a capacity he is not at liberty to divulge. My eldest brother is studying estate matters, working closely with my father’s estate manager.”
“While yer father is in London.”
The discussion was taxing, draining what little energy she had left. “Yes. He and Lord Haybrook travel together whenever Parliament is in session.”
“Then how do ye know ye don’t snore?”
He was back to that question? Lord, his smile irritated her. “I just know.”
He chuckled. “I love yer fiery attitude, lass. We’ll be a good match, make a good life, and babes between us.”