Chapter Thirteen #2
"How could we have lost him? This is because you distracted me."
George's arm shot out. He caught the sleeve of a fine pelisse and pulled Miss Bella Bennet sharply into the alley. Her maid came with her, stumbling against Bella's back before recovering herself with remarkable speed.
Despite her previous complaints about having her throat cut, Clara immediately bared her teeth at him. "Now you'll be takin' your hands off my mistress, Captain Harwood, or you'll be regrettin' it."
"Be quiet," George hissed. "For the love of God, both of you, be quiet."
Bella stared up at him, her eyes enormous in the moonlight.
"It is the middle of the night, and I have information suggesting that a dangerous gang is operating in this area. What in the devil are you doing here, woman?"
Her expression changed at once. "How would you know that a dangerous gang was operating in this area unless you were part of the same dangerous gang?"
George stared at her and tried fruitlessly to gather the last shreds of his patience. "I work with the Customs service, you vexatious woman."
Bella’s mouth dropped open, but at least she remained silent.
"This is an operation I have been working on for months.
I need to observe Sly Trevethan engaged in the act of smuggling, because the man is an absolute menace to this town and yet nobody has managed to witness him doing anything untoward.
" He stopped himself and blew out a frustrated breath.
"Why in God's name am I explaining myself to you? You need to return home immediately."
She looked up at him with wide eyes, plainly shaken by his words and, to her credit, apparently recognising that she had made a grievous error. "I am sorry, sir. I should not have judged you so harshly with so little information. I only wished to know."
"What did you wish to know? What exactly did you imagine you might achieve by following me through Falmouth in the middle of the night?"
Her mouth tightened. "If I discovered that you were not a good sort of man, I could put my aunt and the other women in the area on notice, I suppose."
There was, he had to admit, the smallest kernel of goodness in that, although it had been wrapped in so many layers of foolishness that he was reluctant to tell her so. "You must return home. Now."
Bella nodded. A small, submissive nod that was so unlike her usual demeanour that he felt suddenly guilty for speaking so harshly. George looked from her to Clara and swore softly beneath his breath. Of course he could not simply send two women wandering back through Falmouth alone at this hour.
"Come. I will accompany you."
"But your business?"
"Will have to wait for another night."
Bella's face fell. "I did not mean to inconvenience you. I only..." She pressed her lips together. "And now I feel such a fool."
Good, he wanted to say. You are a bloody little fool. But her eyes had gone glassy, and he found that he could not bear to see her so unhappy.
A slow clap sounded from the mouth of the alley. George went still and shoved the women behind him.
"Well now," said a man's voice from the darkness. "Ain't this an interestin' conversation to stumble upon?"
A broad figure stepped into the moonlight, followed by another man almost as large. "Work for the Customs, do you, Captain?" The first man's smile showed several missing teeth. "That's a right useful piece of information. Sly'll be very interested in that."
George turned his head by the smallest degree. "Run," he said quietly.
Bella caught at the back of his coat. "Captain..." she breathed.
"Both of you. Run as fast as you can."
"No need for that carry on now is there…" The second man had moved around the entrance to the alley, neatly blocking their way back towards the street. His gaze slid over Bella in a manner that made George feel sick to his stomach.
"Fine pretty little piece, ain't she?"
"And the other one ain't bad neither. I ‘ave always had a fondness for redheads. My old ma were a redhead."
Clara made a disgusted noise. "You come one step nearer and I'll kick you somewhere you'll not soon forget, you dirty cove."
The first man laughed. "Got a mouth on her, right enough."
George shifted his weight, measuring the distance between himself and the two men.
He could take one. Possibly both, given enough room.
But not with Bella and Clara trapped behind him and no certainty that more men were not waiting nearby.
He lowered his voice. "When I move, Clara, take Miss Bennet and run. "
"I can hear you," Bella whispered indignantly.
"Then for once in your life, do exactly as you are told."
The first man took another step forwards, and George moved before he had time to think better of it, driving his fist hard into the man's jaw and catching the second across the ribs with his elbow in almost the same movement.
He barked at Clara to run, and to her credit she did not hesitate.
She seized Bella's hand and dragged her towards the street, skirts gathered in her fist as they made for the mouth of the alley.
For one glorious second George thought they might actually make it, but then a third man stepped from the darkness and Bella stopped abruptly, jerking Clara back so that she cried out and nearly collided with her.
The newcomer caught Bella around the waist before she could turn, and her scream went through George like a blade.
He lunged towards her, only for the first man to recover enough to seize him from behind.
George threw his head backwards, heard a grunt of pain and twisted himself free just as Clara launched herself at the man holding Bella.
She did not fight like any lady's maid George had ever encountered.
Her knee came up hard and vicious, and the man folded with a strangled noise, releasing Bella at once.
George shouted at Clara to run again, but one look towards the far end of the alley told him the position had worsened.
Another man had appeared there, broad-shouldered and blocking the only easy escape, which made four of them now.
Four bloody men against the three of them, and George knew at once that they could not get away cleanly.
Clara seemed to understand the same thing.
She looked at Bella, then at George, and he told her to go.
She ducked beneath the arm of the man still bent over in pain, gathered her skirts almost to her knees and tore away into the darkness of the town.
One of the men swore and made to follow, but George caught him by the collar and hauled him backwards.
That brief distraction cost him. Something hard struck the side of his head, sending pain bursting through his skull and forcing him down onto one knee.
Through the black spots filling his vision he heard Bella call his name, and when he managed to look up he saw her rushing towards him.
A hand closed around her arm before she could reach him.
George forced himself upright, blinking until the alley steadied around him. "Do not touch her," he growled.
The man holding Bella laughed and tightened his grip. "Not worth spending the energy on a slip of a girl, Captain. Even a fancy one like this bit o’ muslin."
"She is nobody to you," George said, fixing Bella with a look that he hoped conveyed one very simple instruction. Do not speak. For once in your life, do not speak. Her nostrils flared in immediate offence, which was not encouraging.
The first man wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand and glanced between them. "Who is she, then?"
"No one."
Bella's head snapped towards George. "Excuse me?"
He nearly groaned. "Miss Bennet, I strongly advise you to allow me to do the talking."
"I am hardly no one."
"For the love of God."
"And my name is not Bennet."
George's head turned sharply towards her. "I beg your pardon?"
He closed his eyes for one brief, despairing moment while the man holding her gave an interested laugh. "That so, miss?"
Bella lifted her chin. Even dishevelled, with her hair half falling down and her fine cream gown streaked with dirt beneath her pelisse, she somehow managed to look down her nose at a man who towered above her.
"My name is Arabella Darcy of Pemberley, daughter of Fitzwilliam Darcy and great-niece to the Earl of Matlock.
Unhand us both at once, unless you wish to face the consequences. "
George opened his eyes and looked at her in disbelief. "Oh good Lord in heaven, woman. You have an uncanny knack for saying exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time."
The men looked at one another, and this time even Bella seemed to realise that she had said something she ought not to have said.
George could almost see the calculation taking shape between them as they pieced together the potential value of their prize.
Bella swallowed, the colour beginning to leave her face, and for the first time since she had opened her mouth George thought she might finally understand the danger she had created.
The first man's smile returned, but the crude amusement had gone from it. "Well now," he said. "Seems we ain't caught ourselves some wandering little doxy after all."
George started to move forward, but the man nearest Bella drew a knife and he stopped at once.
The first fellow's smile widened as he looked between Bella and George.
"A Darcy of Pemberley, with the Earl of Matlock for a great-uncle.
" He gave a soft whistle. "Sly is goin’ to be very interested in you. "