Unmasking the Duke, page 3
And then what? she wondered, feeling sick to her stomach. You’ll let him go to inform on you? Neither Pete nor Dan were men of violence, but she could not say the same for the other ruffians. And her cousins might just be afraid enough of Uncle Bill to be persuaded to turn a blind eye.
Oh, God, how did I let him get into this…?
“In any case, you’ve no business here,” Dan said severely. Since he had been brought up with her, he was always more likely to order her around like a brother. “You shouldn’t even be out of the house.”
“How could I help hearing this racket?” she retorted.
“Well, you’re here now, so fetch some rope and tie him up while we get this done.”
Are you insane? We can’t go around tying up guests! Certainly not gentlemen guests… On the other hand, if she tied him up, it might stop the others from hurting him as a warning, or even killing him.
Without a word, she stalked to the shelf to find the various lengths of rope used for hauling and other purposes. By the time she marched back to the prisoner, who was watching her from heavy-lidded eyes without noticeable anger, he was being held at pistol point by only one stranger while everyone else, including Dan and Pete, finished unloading the carts.
The smuggler might give her the pistol if she asked. She could then tell Johnny to run. Only how long would it take one of the men to wrestle the weapon from her again? Of course, they should not be risking a firearms explosion with a ball in full swing, but then, they shouldn’t be taking delivery of smuggled goods at such a time either.
“Put your hands behind your back,” she told Johnny without looking at him. She moved behind him, which was easier, except that he didn’t do as he was told. She had a feeling he was smiling at the man with the pistol, who promptly cocked it.
“Watch what you’re doing with that thing,” Kitty snapped as she snatched one of Johnny’s hands, and looped the rope around his wrist several times. She gathered the other and did the same, pulling the knot tight enough to be difficult but not cut into his wrists unless he strained.
Then she stood deliberately between Johnny and the pistol. “Sit down, if you please.”
When he did not at once comply, she raised her eyes to his face, wondering desperately how to make him do it before the man behind her just shot him, or at least hit him with the pistol butt.
For some reason, in the midst of this disaster, it broke her heart that his once open, sunny gaze was now unreadable as it met hers. She opened her mouth to plead, but then, to her amazement, he lowered himself wordlessly to the straw-strewn floor, his back against the wall.
She knelt and bound his feet together without looking up.
By the time she had finished, the man with the pistol had vanished.
“Et tu, Brute,” Johnny murmured.
“I haven’t betrayed you yet,” she muttered. “But don’t tempt me. What the devil are you doing here?”
“I just followed my nose.”
She met his gaze. “I don’t mean the barn, although surely no one’s stupid enough to have deliberately walked into this without a reason. I mean Maida Gardens.”
She might have surprised him, for something glinted in his eyes, then changed into almost appreciative amusement. “There is more to you than mere beauty, is there not?”
“Oh, there’s more to everyone,” she said pointedly. “Why did you really come here, alone, poking around, asking about the Renwicks, following the carts? Truthfully.”
His lips curved slightly. “Truthfully? I was thinking of investing in your uncle’s hotel.”
She closed her eyes. From the high point of the waltz and the kiss—don’t think about the kiss, don’t dare!—the evening was plunging ever deeper into disaster. Uncle Bill desperately needed further investment to build the rest of his hotel, and there was no way he would get it from this wealthy gentleman, not after he had stumbled onto a delivery of smuggled goods and was offered violence and imprisonment by the Renwicks and their associates. And if he told his friends…
“Another reason to shoot me,” Johnny murmured, just as if he was following her train of thought.
“I’ll shoot you later,” she said, rising abruptly to her feet. “Don’t make me gag you first.”
One of the unloaded carts was pulling out of the barn. Kitty crossed behind it toward the shelves, and while money was changing from Dan’s hands to the chief smuggler’s, she picked up the sheathed knife used for cutting rope and hid it beneath her domino cloak.
“Pete, make sure they get off without trouble,” Dan said as the strangers leapt onto the remaining two carts. “I’d better go and see all’s well with Rob at the pavilion. You,” he barked, spinning to point at Johnny. “Stay there. Watch him till I come back, Kitty.”
Kitty nodded, and while she observed the carts leaving, followed by Pete and Dan, she walked slowly back toward Johnny, unsheathing the wicked-looking knife as soon as Dan was out of sight.
She turned her attention to Johnny, who sat very still, gazing steadily at the knife. Only when she knelt in front of him did he shift his eyes to her face. She sliced through the bonds at his ankles, then moved to do the same at his wrists, being careful not to cut his skin.
Then she rose and hurried to the back of the barn, unbolting the small, half-hidden door. She turned impatiently to find him on his feet but unmoving.
“Hurry up,” she commanded. “They’ll be back any moment. Jump the fence behind and follow the path.”
He strode toward her, then, frowning. “You will be in trouble for this.”
“Oh, we’re all in trouble for this,” she assured him. “Less if you can bring yourself to be silent, but you owe us nothing.”
His frown deepened. He stood irresolutely, gazing down at her. “Come with me,” he said abruptly.
She blinked, astonished and not a little shocked until she realized he really thought she would be in danger. She laughed. “That really is beyond flirting. Don’t be silly. No one will hurt me. Go.”
A smile flickered. Unexpectedly, he brushed his knuckles across her cheek and slipped out the door, which she bolted behind him. Then she sheathed the knife, put it back on the shelf, and walked out of the barn. She even closed the main doors before walking down the path back to the cottage.
Chapter Three
John Winter, the fourth Duke of Dearham, strolled into his solicitor’s office and smiled amiably at the clerk, who sprang to his feet.
“Good morning, Mr. Andrews. Is he in?”
“Yes, Your Grace. Allow me to just…” Andrews shot across the floor to the inner office, hoping for once to beat the duke, but His Grace, as usual, merely strolled past him.
“Morning, Dunne. Got a moment?”
Ludovic Dunne, who, these days, probably wouldn’t have troubled to hide it if he were annoyed, smiled sardonically and rose, indicating the other chair. “Thank you, Andrews,” he said resignedly, and the clerk effaced himself.
Johnny didn’t shake hands since he had seen Dunne only yesterday. Instead, he lounged into the offered chair, laid his hat across the papers on the desk, and said, “I went to Maida last night.”
Dunne’s dark eyebrows, a distinctive contrast to his silvery fair hair, rose. “I told you she is never there in the evenings. Renwick takes too good care of her.”
“She was there. She sneaks and mingles in disguise.”
“So you met her? Did you tell her?”
“Lord, no.” Johnny gazed thoughtfully at his gloves, then allowed himself a rueful smile. “She is rather delightful, but I have to say, I see no family resemblance. Which may be as well, for I’m not sure I care to deal with her family.”
“Then you don’t wish to pursue it?”
Johnny, who had no objections whatever to pursuing Kitty, murmured, “I didn’t say that. Tell me more about Renwick.”
“He’s an old villain, though his income is largely legal these days. I still wouldn’t play cards with him.”
Johnny smiled involuntarily. “I wouldn’t play cards with Kitty either. I once saw her plant an ace in a man’s sleeve so fast I thought I’d imagined it.”
“I thought you’d never met her.”
“So did I until last night. I’d forgotten. Anyway, I have my doubts about the legality of Renwick’s current business dealings. He was quite clearly receiving stolen or smuggled goods last night.”
“So, whatever the truth of Kitty’s birth, you wouldn’t invest in his hotel?”
“Certainly not without letting you and your brother loose on his books.”
Dunne sat back, watching him. “What have you really come to ask me?”
Johnny sat up. “Come to Maida with me this afternoon.”
“Why?”
“I’d appreciate the introduction. Renwick will have no reason to trust me after last night.”
Dunne sighed. “What happened?”
“I walked in on their delivery. Renwick wasn’t there, but I suspect two of his sons were.”
One of the things Johnny liked about the lawyer who had become his friend was that he rarely had to explain the obvious. Or even the slightly obfuscated.
“Then I should go, and you should stay well away until Renwick is made aware—”
“I can’t,” Johnny interrupted. He smiled apologetically. “I need to be sure the girl is well. She let me go.”
“Ah.” Dunne fixed him with his over-perceptive stare. “Renwick wouldn’t hurt a hair on her head.”
“Would his sons?” Johnny interrupted.
“I don’t know the sons, but I can’t imagine them putting themselves in the way of Renwick’s wrath. Let me go and find out for you.”
“No.”
Dunne blinked.
Johnny stood up. “Come on. I’ll treat you to lunch at my club first.”
*
“And you’ve no idea who he is?” Vera said, sounding almost as intrigued as Kitty.
“I know he’s a gentleman and a friend of the Earl of Wenning. Beyond that, no.” Kitty had spent the morning with her friend, who lived with her parents in a rather pleasant set of rooms in Seven Dials. The area was poor and rough, but Vera’s folks lived well and honestly, thanks to her father’s building works. He had repaired this building outside and in, and since Kitty’s childhood, had expanded his own dwelling into two other rooms. In fact, he part-owned the whole building now.
“Goodness,” Vera said, gratifyingly impressed. “Don’t you move in exalted circles these days!”
Kitty laughed. “Well, I get to glance into them every so often. Like when Lord Wenning lived in our barn, or the odd party of nobs deigns to visit the Gardens to see how the lower orders enjoy themselves.”
“Is that why your Johnny was there?”
Kitty frowned. “He said he was there because he’d thought of investing in the new hotel.”
“But you don’t believe him?”
“Why would a man like that flirt with me to find out about my uncle’s business?”
“If he kissed you, he did rather more than flirt,” Vera said flatly.
Kitty flushed. “So, I have even less reason to trust him.”
“Maybe,” Vera agreed. “Or maybe he just liked you, quite apart from his business interests.”
Kitty regarded her friend, who was raven-haired, curvaceous, and rather spectacularly beautiful, with all the self-confident poise such looks could bring. “He could have any woman he wants. Why would he look at me?”
“He would look,” Vera said, with the certainty of a friend. “But unless he’s an idiot, he wouldn’t touch Bill Renwick’s niece. Of course, being a nob, he probably doesn’t know much about Bill Renwick. Anyway, did Dan know you let him go?”
“The ropes were cut, so yes. He tried to tell me off until I demanded what he’d planned to do with his prisoner and if he imagined he could hide it from Uncle Bill along with the fact he’d received the smuggled goods too early in the evening. I also told him he was an idiot for attacking Johnny in the first place, and what he should have done was just say it was a late delivery and leave it at that. Now Johnny knows they were up to no good.”
“Will he tell?”
“I’m sure Uncle Bill can talk himself out of any trouble.”
“You don’t sound very pleased about it,” Vera remarked.
“Oh, I’m pleased about that.”
“But you’d like to see this Johnny again. Gentlemen aren’t for the likes of us, Kitty. Not unless you’re prepared to do it all without the wedding ring, and there’s no security in that. Besides, there’s your uncle and your cousins.”
“Vera!” Kitty protested. “I’m not planning on marriage or anything else! Unlike you.”
Vera smiled, her eyes softening. “Was Luke at the building site when you left?”
“Yes. We waved to each other.”
Kitty liked Luke. He was clever, amiable, and hard-working and not remotely the sort of young man anyone expected Vera to set her heart on. For she was beautiful and charming enough to win anyone, including the wealthiest of established tradesmen, merchants, or bankers. Instead, she had fallen for the young architect who worked for her father and refused to be budged by her parents’ disapproval of the match.
“What will you do if your parents keep refusing to let you marry Luke?” Kitty asked.
“Marry him anyway. I’m one and twenty. I don’t need their permission.”
“But you do need Luke’s job,” Kitty reminded her.
Vera smiled mischievously. “And Dad needs Luke. Luke’s the one more likely to end that association when he’s offered a better-paid position elsewhere. He’ll come round, trust me. It’s not even as if they don’t like Luke. They just think I should marry someone richer.”
“I would be surprised if Luke didn’t get rich,” Kitty mused.
“There, you do think beyond the moment,” Vera said with a grin, just as the door to the parlor opened and her brother Toby came in with Kitty’s cousin Rob.
“Ready to go, Kit?” Rob said. “I’ve got everything loaded, so we’d better not leave it for long.”
“Stay if you like,” Toby offered, his gaze too warm as it rested it on Kitty. “I’ll drive you back out to Maida later.”
“Thanks, Toby, but I have things to do,” Kitty said hurriedly, for Toby’s new attitude to her made her distinctly uncomfortable.
She jumped up, seizing her hat and cloak, hugged Vera, and ran after Rob, praying Toby wouldn’t follow to hand her up to the cart. The last time he had done so, he’d contrived to brush against her and held her hand too long in his clammy fingers.
As it happened, both Vera and Toby came down to wave them off, but by then, Kitty had jumped up beside Rob, unaided, and there was nothing to do but call goodbye and wave.
It took the usual age to crawl through central London, even using back roads, but eventually, past Hyde Park, Rob relaxed enough to talk.
“You avoid Toby these days.”
“He makes me uncomfortable,” Kitty confessed.
“Because he admires you?”
“Because he seems to. He never says anything but—”
“Would you like him to?” Rob asked bluntly.
“No! Absolutely not. I’m avoiding him until he grows out of it.”
Rob was silent a few moments. “You could do worse, Kitty. You’re one and twenty, and Toby will inherit his dad’s building works.”
“I’m afraid it wouldn’t matter if he inherited the crown,” Kitty said frankly. “He and I would not suit.”
“You could give him a chance.”
She glanced at Rob. “Did he ask you to speak to me?”
“Yes,” Rob admitted. “He’s an old friend, Kit.”
She thought about that. “I preferred him when we were children. Now he leers, and I’m not convinced he doesn’t leer at every female under thirty.”
“He’s not considering marriage to the others.”
“I doubt he’s considering marriage to me either. He might be considering marriage to Bill Renwick’s niece, but—”
“Dad’s not so flush as all that. The Gardens cost an arm and a leg to maintain, and this hotel is not cheap to build, though it may make our fortune later.”
Kitty considered. “I don’t think it’s just the money with Toby. I think he likes Uncle’s…power. You don’t really want me to marry him, do you?”
“No, you’d shab off to the city with him,” Rob teased, “and work would double for Dan and me. Talking of Dan, what the devil was he about last night?”
Kitty groaned. “You don’t want to know. Does Uncle?”
“I don’t fancy Dan’s chances of keeping it from him. Dan is an idiot. He just wanted the delivery done early so that he could take that new waitress home instead. I suppose I’ll have to keep a closer eye on him,” he added gloomily.
The idea didn’t enter Rob’s head any more than it entered Kitty’s, just to dump the problem with Uncle Bill. They had always covered for each other without involving higher authorities. Although, as Rob pointed out, there was rarely any point, for Bill Renwick generally found out in any case.
So, she wasn’t terribly surprised when, with the cart halted at the cottage back door, Uncle Bill wandered out to greet them. He was wearing his hat, so, clearly, he was headed for the Gardens, no doubt on his “rounds.”
“Did you get everything?”
“We think so,” Rob said laconically.
Uncle Bill nodded. “Good. Walk with me, Kitty.”
Kitty, who’d just jumped down, exchanged rueful looks with Rob and trotted along beside her uncle.
“You were out of the house last night.”
She sighed. Found out at last. “I was. Sorry.”
“Why?”
“Honestly? I was bored and lonely, and I could hear the music. I wanted to dance.”
Uncle Bill cast her a not unkind glance. “You don’t get much fun here, do you? I keep you too close because I know how bad a place the world can be. And God knows we get all sorts here in the evenings. Hmm…how would it be if we got up a party with Vera and her mother, and you can actually go safely to one of the balls?”
Kitty realized her jaw was dropping and hastily closed her mouth and swallowed. “You’d let me do that?”
