Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“I still do not see how returning to London in this hastily repaired carriage, when it is without the original driver and groom, can be of any assistance in persuading my sister’s kidnappers to return her to me,” Mr. Masterson complained, not for the first time, as he sat beside Nicholas in the old-fashioned carriage. Ipswich and Broom sat opposite them.
It had been a busy morning, rescuing the vehicle from where it had tumbled down the embankment and recovering the two bodies. They had brought the carriage back to be repaired. The two bodies had been left with the local vicar, along with money for the men’s funeral.
As soon as the conveyance was again roadworthy, the four gentlemen—Broom and Ipswich having insisted on accompanying them—had set out for London to carry out the plan they had hastily cobbled together whilst they were waiting for those repairs to be done.
“Whoever is behind your sister’s kidnapping and the attempted abduction of Wolfingham will be sure to have some of their people watching your home as they wait for their men to return with their prisoner,” the Earl of Ipswich explained.
“And when they see that their men have not returned at all? Added to which, to all intents and purposes, I have obviously returned to London, and they do not have the Earl of Wolfingham as their prisoner.” Masterson gave a fierce shake of his head.
“Once they realize all that, they will immediately decide to do away with my sister.” His voice broke over the last few words of that sentence.
“They will not,” the marquis assured.
“How can you possibly be sure?” The younger man voiced his frustration with the calmness of the other three gentlemen in the carriage.
“Because, as you have just pointed out so succinctly, they do not yet have me,” Nicholas went straight to the crux of the matter.
The lawyer still looked agitated. “How does that help my sister’s intolerable situation?”
Nicholas was starting to lose patience with the younger man.
He completely understood Masterson’s continued concern for his sister.
But the other man needed to look beyond his own agitation and accept that neither Nicholas nor Ipswich nor Broom would allow any harm to come to that young lady if it was within their power to prevent it. And they believed it was.
Masterson might be too distressed to see the full picture as yet, but the truth of the matter was the lawyer currently had the advantage over his sister’s kidnappers.
In as much as although the driver and groom might have disappeared, Nicholas was still very much alive and would be staying at Masterson’s home with him.
In the meantime, Ipswich and Broom would be organizing the other members of Prinny’s private army into becoming part of the trap they had agreed would be set for the kidnappers.
Quite when they would choose to walk into their trap, Nicholas could not be sure.
But he knew that eventually, if they wanted him badly enough, they would have to. And when they did, the members of Prinny’s private army would be waiting for them.
* * *
“This has taken far longer than I had hoped it would.” Julia spoke softly, so as not to disturb her mother and aunt.
The two older ladies sat on the opposite side of the carriage, having been lulled to sleep by its gentle rocking some time ago.
“Two days! Two whole days,” Julia repeated fiercely. “That is how long it has taken our mothers to issue the instructions to the servants to pack up or dispose of our grandmother’s furniture and other belongings, before allowing us to follow our fathers into London.”
“As I was present, I am well aware of how long it has taken.” Amanda also kept her voice low, but there was a smile in her tone. “We cannot know if anything significant has happened in those same days.”
“Exactly! And it will be a total of three days by the time we get there, and anything could have happened in that time. Those men almost killed Nicholas when they abducted him.” She shuddered at the memory.
“Instead, they ended up killing themselves. And I do not believe they meant to kill him—”
“But they almost did so anyway!” Julia found it hard to quell her frustration with this torturous delay in the four women’s departure for London.
Not just because she was concerned for the well-being of all concerned, but because she also wished to see and speak with Nicholas again, to apologize for her part in their last disastrous conversation.
She had been wrong to be so accusatory toward him. She knew that now. Not only because she might have been wrong in those accusations, but because she had not given Nicholas the opportunity to defend himself.
Yes, she would always love and mourn the abrupt end to Freddie’s young life.
But she did not believe he would have wished her to speak to his beloved brother as she had three days ago.
Indeed, knowing that she and Nicholas had been Freddie’s two favorite people, she believed he was probably smiling down on them at the thought of them being together.
If, that is, Nicholas still wished to conform to the wishes of his father and her grandfather for the two of them to marry.
If she could persuade Nicholas to accept her apology.
If was the question.
“Do not fret so, darling.” Amanda reached out to link her gloved fingers with Julia’s.
“I do not believe Wolfingham would have allowed any sort of intimacy to happen between you if he did not intend to go through with your marriage. Be at ease,” she assured when Julia shot the two older women across the carriage a worried glance.
“I am sure they are fully asleep and not listening to what we are saying.”
Julia sighed in relief. “But perhaps do not talk of that…interlude again in my mother’s presence, even if she appears to be asleep.”
She had been convinced when she was a child that her mother knew what Julia had said or done even whilst the countess was sleeping.
It was only once she was older that Julia had realized her nanny or one of the maids, when questioned, had told her mother of the events she had not actually witnessed.
Julia was aware of that now, but it did not stop her from remaining cautious in her mother’s presence, whether the other woman was awake or asleep.
“I must be allowed to say this,” Amanda murmured.
“After your conversation that night with Wolfingham, you now know that, rather than being a consummate rake, he is a man of courage and daring who merely uses that persona to hide his work for the Crown. I cannot believe that such a man would allow himself to be deterred from continuing your betrothal because of a single negative conversation.”
“I hope you are right,” Julia said achingly. “I would hate it if he was forced to marry me as a result of my parents learning we shared a bed that night. It would be disastrous for the success of any future relationship between us.”
Amanda squeezed her hand. “No one shall ever hear of it from me.”
“Nor me,” Julia vowed.
Which was not to say that she did not know she had an uphill task in front of her, simply being able to speak with Nicholas again, let alone convince him she had not meant any of the things she said to him before he left for London.
“Have you thought any more about Freddie’s sudden desire to join the military?” she prompted curiously.
“I have…”
“Well?”
Amanda looked at her with sympathetic eyes. “Is it possible…Do you think that Freddie might have gone into the army because he wished to impress you rather than his brother?”
“Me?” Julia was taken aback. “Why, when he was already one of my closest friends, would Freddie wish to impress me?”
“Oh, my dear.” Amanda reached out and clasped her hand. “Freddie was in love with you.”
“He most certainly was not,” Julia scoffed.
“Of course he was,” Amanda chided gently. “He adored you.”
“I adored him too.”
“Not in the way Freddie adored you,” her cousin said softly.
“He always worshipped the ground you walked on. He was so devoted to you that he never balked once at whatever wild adventure you wished to go on next. It is no good protesting, darling,” Amanda insisted firmly when Julia would have spoken.
“Freddie was in love with you. I believe he might have joined the army to appear heroic. As a way of finally making you see him as more than your childhood friend.”
Could Amanda possibly be right in this supposition?
If so, it cast Julia as the villain in their complicated story and not Nicholas.
And she was guilty of seriously misjudging Nicholas.
* * *
After three days of residing, day and night, in Giles Masterson’s family home, Nicholas inwardly admitted he was growing weary of waiting for these so-called kidnappers to contact the lawyer in regard to the exchange of Nicholas for Susan Masterson.
Because Nicholas felt sure the kidnappers would have been watching the house, upon their arrival three days ago, when Giles Masterson had made a show of pushing a bound and gagged Nicholas into the house.
The binding had been removed from about his wrists and the gag taken from his mouth once they were safely inside, away from prying eyes.
These three days of waiting showed the kidnappers to be extremely cautious. Possibly because they still had no idea what had happened to the driver and groom of their carriage.
The other members of Prinny’s private army still had no confirmation as to who was behind the kidnapping and attempted abduction, or the reason for either.
Nicholas was inclined to think this latest attempt to abduct him was linked to the two previous failed ones during the week before he rode to Surrey to attend Lady Roxburgh’s funeral.
But he had no proof of that being the case.
Masterson’s parents, devastated by their daughter’s kidnapping, had reacted in vastly different ways to the situation.
His mother kept to her rooms, having informed her son she would only venture forth again once her beloved daughter was returned to her.