A Promise of More (36 page)

“If I go back to the house, Coldhurst will kill me,” Dunmire said, his voice rising in desperation.

Arend pushed the tip of his sword deeper into his neck. “And you think I won’t? Do you really think Sebastian cares how you die? He cares only that you do. I’d be doing him a favor.”

Dunmire looked at him over his shoulder and the look of triumph was not what Arend expected to see. “If you kill me, you’ll never learn where Christina has taken her.”

Arend came alert then. “Taken who?” At Dunmire’s laugh, Arend drew back
with his hand gripped around his sword hilt, and smashed his fist into Dunmire’s face. “Taken who?”

Dunmire crumpled to the ground. As Arend bent over him once more, he raised his hands to protect himself. “Beatrice. Christina has taken Beatrice.”

His chest heaving, Arend stepped back, wielding his sword in both hands now. “Get up, you miserable excuse for a man,” he growled. “If you’re lying, I’ll make you a eunuch myself.”

Dunmire had only just got to his feet when Sebastian appeared through the trees. The minute he saw Dunmire, he grimaced with ugly fury and charged like a rampaging bull, tackling Dunmire to the ground, punching him as if he would like to beat him to death.

It took all of Arend’s strength to pull him off Dunmire. “We need him alive, Sebastian.”

Sebastian stood back, wiping the blood off his knuckles. “He touched her. I’ll kill him.”

Arend smiled. “You can kill him once we have the information we need. He thinks he has leverage over us. He says Christina has taken Beatrice.”

Sebastian swung to look at the man who lay a bloodied mess at his feet. Confusion warred within him. Beatrice had been fine when he’d left her. “Oh God. I left her alone. I thought she’d be safe now that we had Dunmire in our sights.”

Before he’d finished talking, Sebastian was running like the wind back toward where he’d left Beatrice unprotected. “Bring him,” he called over his shoulder.

Chapter Nineteen

After a good half an hour of searching Lady Christina’s house, it was obvious there was no one there but a few servants, who knew nothing. As Sebastian came out onto the top-floor landing, Arend and Maitland joined him, with Dunmire secured between them. They took the sniveling pig into Lady Christina’s study and threw him into the nearest chair.

Arend was at his most intimidating. He pulled out his dagger and leaned over Dunmire as he sat cowering in the chair.

“Now you are going to tell us what Christina has done with Beatrice, and how you know about her plans. We know you are H.B.”

Dunmire’s gaze flew to Sebastian. His face paled and his lips began to tremble. “I want your word as a gentleman that you’ll not kill me. I’ll leave England and never return.”

Sebastian tried to get to him but Arend stood in his way. “Why would we let you go free? We can’t trust you.” Arend placed the knife against his cheek and pressed the point in until a drop of blood showed. “We know it was you that shot Doogie, and you tried to kill Sebastian a few days ago. Coward.”

Arend continued, “We have it on good authority that you are the man who paid Clarice to entice Sebastian to her bed, and I’m assuming you sent a note to Doogie, getting him to walk in on them.”

Dunmire held up his hands and said, “I’m dead if I tell you anything.” He looked at the faces of the men around him. “I’m dead anyway.”

“Correct.” Sebastian pushed Arend out of the way, grabbing Dunmire around the throat. “But I don’t care about anything except where Christina has taken Beatrice.”

Maitland drew Sebastian back. “Let Arend work on him.”

Arend started to cut Dunmire’s cheek and he gave a cry of pain.

“I want your word first,” he said. “Only then will I tell you.”

Sebastian made another move to grab Dunmire around the throat, but Hadley and Maitland held him back.

Through gritted teeth, Sebastian said, the words pulled from him, “I give you my word I will not kill you. I’ll let you leave England, but if you ever set foot on English soil again, I will kill you.”

“Christina wants her out of the way,” Dunmire said. “She definitely wants her dead.” He looked at Sebastian with a raised eyebrow and added, “Can’t you guess why?”

Sebastian’s world went dark. Anger surged and he knew he had to hit something or he would explode. “Where is Christina?”

Dunmire shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. This wasn’t the plan. She promised me Beatrice wouldn’t be hurt. All she was supposed to do was deliver Beatrice to me, and we would disappear on the next ship bound for the Americas. We were going to make it look as if Beatrice had drowned in the Thames so that you would think she was dead. Then I’m assuming Christina was hoping she would become your wife. I think she has something over you, because I don’t know how she would make that come about otherwise.”

Sebastian’s jaw was taut. “So this has nothing to do with whoever tried to set me up for Doogie’s death?”

Dunmire nodded. “This was purely about Beatrice and you. I have no idea who set you up to duel Doogie. I can’t help you with that.” He hung his head. “I only wanted her, it’s always been about her. She was to be mine. I loved her.”

Sebastian shoved Arend out of the way and leaned over Dunmire, his hands on either side of the chair. “Liar. This isn’t about love. You don’t love Beatrice. If you loved Beatrice, you would want her to be happy. You would never do anything that would cause her any pain.”

And as if lightning had struck him, Sebastian suddenly realized that Beatrice was right. His parents hadn’t loved each other. If they had loved each other, they would not have set about driving each other insane. Each would not have done anything that would hurt the other person, because it would cause them too much pain. If he thought Beatrice wanted to be with Dunmire, he would let her go in a flash. But she didn’t. She was his and he was never going to let her go.

Sebastian was living his worst nightmare. His heart dropped from his chest as he pictured what could be happening to Beatrice. He stood rooted to the spot as if his boots were filled with sand.

“You must know where Christina has taken her.” Sebastian said to Dunmire.
“If you don’t tell me, and tell me now, I can’t vouch for what Arend will do to you.”

“You promised.” Dunmire’s eyes pleaded, but Sebastian hardened his heart.

“I promised, but Arend didn’t.”

“The original plan was to take her down to the docks. I would take her on a ship leaving for the Americas, while Christina would leave clothes and other personal belongings near the water’s edge to make it look as if she had drowned. If I know anything about Christina, she is probably sticking as close to the plan as possible. I would suspect she is taking Beatrice down to the docks to drown her in the Thames.”

Maitland stepped forward. “Logically, the only place Christina can take her is to where your ship, the
Seductress
, is berthed, Sebastian. Why else would Beatrice be down near the docks? There would be too many questions asked unless it looked as if she were going onto your ship.”

Sebastian had already started walking toward the door. “Come on, there is no time to waste. Let’s bring Dunmire with us. He could be of further use. If we can’t get Beatrice safely away from Christina, then we can send Dunmire in.”

Arend didn’t step back from Dunmire. He just kept looking at him. “We need Dunmire. He’s H.B. This is the first lead we’ve had and I’m not about to let him slip through our noose. I’ll keep him here, with me, safe.”

Sebastian could have hit his friend. “He will come with us,” he said, steel and menace evident in his words. “I will do nothing that puts Beatrice in further danger.”

Maitland came to his rescue. “He is right, Arend. At this stage Beatrice needs Dunmire more. Don’t worry, there is no way he is going to escape us.”

Arend cursed but said nothing further. He tied a rope around Dunmire’s neck and led him from the house.

During the carriage ride down to the docks, Sebastian asked Dunmire, “Why? Why did you set me up?”

“I was blackmailed.”

“What was it they could blackmail you with?” Hadley asked.

But Sebastian knew. It had been Lizzy. “How our past sins come back to haunt us. It was Lizzy, wasn’t it?”

Dunmire’s eyes opened wide. “How did you know?”

“Beatrice.”

“I knew that Lizzy had told her what I did. That is why she refused me,” Dunmire said between clenched teeth. “For some reason the blackmailer knew what I had done to Lizzy and threatened to tell everyone. If Beatrice came forward too, society would believe the tale.”

Hadley looked between them in confusion. “Who on earth is Lizzy?”

Sebastian didn’t take his eyes off Dunmire. “She is—was—a friend of Beatrice’s. Lizandra Weatherby. Dunmire raped her in Lord Skye’s garden one night and got her with child. She died shortly after childbirth and Beatrice has been looking after her son ever since.”

The men looked at each other in shock. “You are a bigger bastard than I ever thought,” was Arend’s only response.

“I didn’t just do it because of the blackmail. I did it because I knew there was a chance you’d kill Doogie, and with Doogie out of the way, I thought Beatrice would have no option but to marry me. I knew the family’s financial situation. But it didn’t work. She was clever. You bloody got in the way.”

Sebastian gave a tight smile. “You underestimated her. Beatrice is an amazing woman. She is very intelligent, and even though she thought I’d killed Doogie, she still saw me as a better option than you. What does that tell you about what she thinks of you, Dunmire? She would never have married you.”

Sebastian sat back on the squab with fists clenched, praying that he’d get to Beatrice before Christina killed her. His wife
was
an extraordinary woman. She had helped out her best friend and not abandoned her in the face of society’s scorn. She had taken on Lizzy’s son when her own family had no money to even keep themselves, and she’d worked out a way to ensure she didn’t marry a rapist. He prayed that he would not be too late and that he’d have a chance to tell her how much he admired her and what she meant to him.

Chapter Twenty

Beatrice heard the rumble of the carriage wheels over stone as she began to come to. She kept her eyes closed, wanting to sense where she was and who might be with her before she let anyone know she was awake. She was obviously being taken somewhere, but she didn’t know by whom. All she could remember was someone coming up behind her in the bedroom and then blackness.

She quickly realized the carriage was a private, well-appointed one. It wasn’t a plain old hackney. Its seats were comfortable; it had a clean, well-kept smell, with a hint of lavender in the air, indicating it was likely a woman’s carriage.

Her mind immediately went to Christina. She had money and influence, and was a snake.

She didn’t know how long she had been unconscious, so she had no idea of the time. She didn’t want to open her eyes to see whether it was still dark in case it alerted her abductor to the fact she was conscious.

After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only five or ten minutes later, the carriage came to a halt and she knew where she was.

She could hear the seagulls, she smelled the water, and she could hear the creaks and groans of the ships tied up at the dock. Her body went ice cold. Was she going to be sent away? If she left England on a ship, how would Sebastian ever find her? For the first time in her life, she felt real fear.

The carriage driver called down through the hatch, “My lady, we are here.”

Beatrice tried to ensure her body didn’t move in shock. Her hunch was correct. She knew who “my lady” was, because there was only one person it could be, Lady Christina Rossiter.

What on earth was she up to?

Luckily, Christina still thought she was unconscious, Beatrice realized, for the woman opened the carriage door and stepped down, calling up to the driver, “We need to get one of the men to help us move her. She is too heavy for you to carry alone.”

Beatrice tentatively tried to move her legs and found she wasn’t bound. Their
mistake. They had relied on the fact that she would be comatose; they had obviously got the dose wrong. She saw the opportunity and she took it. She kicked open the door on the other side of the carriage, exited through it, and took off at a run. She had to find cover and quickly, for a man would be able to outrun her. Up ahead to the left were lots of crates and boxes and items standing ready to be loaded onto ships. She headed for them. Hopefully, in the darkness, she might be able to lose them, and she prayed and hoped that Sebastian knew she had been taken.

She could hear the driver coming after her, searching desperately through the dark dock for her. She moved further in among the crates, trying to find a space where she could squeeze herself, a hiding space where he wouldn’t think to look for her.

The driver searched and searched but couldn’t find her. She could hear Christina yelling and getting angrier as time went on. It seemed like an eternity before she heard another carriage arrive and Christina call for her driver.