Netherby Halls (27 page)

The time for explanations was lost, as Delia Standish
was shown in by the disapproving butler at that moment. She entered
with a flourish, swishing her dark cloak off her shoulders and
exposing her youthful body ensconced in a red gauzy gown that was
transparent in many areas.

The marquis was quick to recognize the gown that had
slipped from Dr. Bankes’s hold in the headmistress’s private
offices. He said softly, “How lovely, Miss …?”

“Delia, sweetings, just Delia,” she said as she
swayed invitingly towards him. She stopped when she spied Percy and
Mr. Dobbs and stared at moment. “Hold on now. I’ll take the two,
you and that pretty, yellow-haired one.” She jerked a look towards
the stout and unattractive man with the bowler hat. “But not
him.”

“Would you like a drink, Delia?” the marquis said,
ignoring her remark.

“Yes, yes, I would. I find it loosens me up a bit,”
said the girl.

“Then this is not the first time you have been sent
to visit a gentleman in his lodgings?”

“First time? Lord, no. They wouldn’t send someone who
wouldn’t know how to please you, my lord,” she said, going closer
to him.

“Was not Mr. Wheeler supposed to accompany you this
evening?” the marquis asked in a casual tone.

“Yes, but we had a bit of a problem,” Delia said and
sighed.

“A problem?”

“Yes, but don’t worry—she won’t be a problem for
long.”

“Who won’t be?” he pursued.

“Well, I suppose ’tis safe to tell you, since you and
I are going to be very close, very soon.”

“That’s right, and I do like to know who I am dealing
with and how safe they keep my private life.”

She waved this off confidently. “Just some teacher at
Netherby. Nosey thing, caught my roommate coming in the other night
from … a client.” She shook her head and sighed. “It is too
bad about her really, so young, and I rather liked her, in a
way …” She smiled saucily. “But talk is not what you want from
me … is it?” Her hand slid up his chest.

It was hard to believe the child was fifteen; she
behaved as though she were thirty. “No, but I have paid handsomely
for your time, and I do hope they have given you a fair share?”

“That is a joke. Between them and the doc, there is
scarcely anything left for me. But you could be kind to me, and
they need not know …” She batted her dark lashes.

“Mr. Dobbs?” The marquis looked at the stout
gentleman sitting stiffly to his right.

“I told you, I won’t do him.” Delia frowned over her
brandy and downed it.

“Mr. Dobbs is a Bow Street Runner and has come all
the way from London to end the little games your elders have
enlisted you to play at Netherby!” the marquis said, trying not to
grit his teeth.

The girl backed up, and he saw real fear in her eyes.
“Wait—no! You … you can’t take me to prison—I’ll die
there!”

“You won’t have to go to prison if you cooperate,”
said Mr. Dobbs. “Now sit, I’ll take a statement, and, young lady, I
want names, and I want to know how long this has been going
on.”

* * *

Sassy did not do what she was told. Her heart and
mind were in a jumble, and she immediately left through the other
door that led to the hall. She made her way to the back of the
house and out the back door.

She reached her cob horse, lowered the stirrup, and
hoisted herself up, all the while silent tears rushing down her
cheek.

She hurried off before she had adjusted her stirrup,
doing this as she walked her horse into the darkness. She rubbed
her ring and called on magic. She was a white witch, and it was
time she began to help herself, but before she could complete the
spell, a familiar voice rang out.

“Sassy? Sassy … is that you?”

Oh, she thought, closing her eyes. She had forgotten
to pull her hood over her head. The sky was alight with stars and a
nearly full moon, but still, how had he known her?

She turned to face the music, determined to use her
magic and make him forget. “Yes, James?”

He rode up to her, but he wasn’t alone. Miss
Sallstone’s husband was with him, and before she knew what he was
doing, he had her reins!

“Sorry, love, but you pose too much of a threat,”
James said softly.

She was too shocked to move for just one instant, but
only one instant. In the next she grabbed her horse’s mane. After
one hard yank, the cob pulled frantically away, tore loose from the
doctor’s hold, and bolted.

Sassy gathered the reins as they galloped through the
darkness, but no sooner did she get control than the horse nearly
stopped in his tracks and reared. In front of her was the Tangiers
man in the turban!

The man spread out his hands, but the cob was in a
full spook. It swerved to the right and then reared again, and
Sassy, who had lost her stirrups, went flying backwards. When she
landed, the wind knocked was out of her. Before she could regain
her position, he was on her, roughly shoving her over, to tie her
wrists at her back.

He pulled her up, and she saw a coach coming towards
them She screamed out, “Help!” She tried to touch her ring, but he
had her wrists crossed in such a way that she couldn’t quite
connect.

She would have to find a way to call on her magic
without her ring. Could she do it?

* * *

Once he was sure Mr. Dobbs had immediate matters in
hand, the marquis hurried to the door to the adjoining anteroom.
Sassy would have overheard what had just transpired, so now she
surely understood he was not hiring young girls to service him.

Percy was hot on his heels as he opened the door and
found her gone. He closed his eyes. “She doesn’t know. She must
have left as soon as I put her in here.”

“What is going on? Why was she here?”

“Come on, Percy. We haven’t time! Get your pistol,
for I do believe we shall have a few blackguards to confront!”

“Aye then, but I want an explanation. Why was Miss
Winthrop here? You didn’t force her, did you?”

“Don’t be a fool!” The marquis rushed out of the
anteroom and across the study, took his pistol from the cabinet and
stuffed it into his breeches, picked up his riding cloak, and
stopped before the Bow Street Runner. “You have things under
control here?”

“Yes, mean to take her to the guardian I set up at
the lodgings you prepared. Don’t want anything that may look
improper, so I’ll hand her over to Maude and then join you at the
ship, where we’ll round up the scoundrels behind all of this
ugliness.”

The marquis strode out with Percy looking grim at his
back, and he turned to throw him a solemn smile and announce, “You
were right, Percy—I am hopelessly besotted. She probably went back
to Netherby, so we’ll head straight for the school.”

They mounted up and hadn’t gone very far when they
came across a riderless horse calming himself by eating the grass
along the roadside.

The marquis stopped his gelding and took a moment to
think. “They have her, Percy—they have my Sassy!”

“Hell and fire, where would they take her?”

They regarded one another and said as one, “The
ship!”

* * *

Winded, but not unconscious, Sassy was shoved into
the coach opposite Bianca Sallstone and her husband, Tom
Wheeler.

“You don’t know what you are doing,” Sassy said.
“This will not go well for you. Too many mistakes to clean up.”

“Shut her up,” Bianca said angrily, and Tom Wheeler
took a filthy rag and shoved it in her mouth.

At her back, Sassy tried to loosen the ties at her
wrists and reach her ring. She had never really used strong magic
without it. Could she? Could she call on a spell without the aid of
her mother’s ring?

“She be a pretty mort,” said Bianca’s husband,
reaching for Sassy’s cloak and throwing it aside to view her
figure. “Aye, I could do with a piece of that.”

Oddly enough, Sassy was saved by Bianca, who slapped
his hand away. “Don’t you dare touch her. I hate her and don’t want
her scent all over you.” She turned to Sassy and hit her hard on
her shoulder, which sent her reeling to the narrow floor of the
coach.

Wheeler laughed and took a hold of her bodice to pick
her up. “Ye be on m’feet—don’t mind if ye be at m’feet but not on
’em, darling.”

She yanked away from his touch and felt something
sharp catch her ring finger just as he cursed and pulled her up to
throw her back on the seat. Her ring! Her ring had fallen to the
floor, and her blood was all over it from the nail catching her
finger.
No, oh no!

“What’s this?” Bianca bent and retrieved the gold
ring with the unusual stone in the center. “Ah … pretty.” She
gave Sassy a hard smile. “You won’t be needing it,” she said and
slipped it on her finger.

When Sassy glared at her, Bianca laughed. “We fetched
a pretty price for you, better than little Beth who got herself
with child.” Bianca shook her head. “Don’t have it all figured out
yet, do you?” She leaned into her. “Let me tell you where you are
going—Tangiers, my dear … to service the sheik who will pay
handsomely for you, and there you will remain until he tires of
you. He must be tired of Beth, because he sent us a request for
another pretty, and I thought you would be perfect for him.” Bianca
began to laugh as Sassy closed her eyes and tried to collect
herself for what she would have to do.

* * *

“Percy, go and find us some strong yeoman, and
hurry—we are going to need them,” said the marquis as he watched
Tom Wheeler and Bianca drag Sassy, gagged and tied, onto the plank
to the
Sea Winds.

Why isn’t she using her magic
, he asked
himself. Rage threatened to take over his mind, but he quelled it.
He needed to think clearly. He had to find a way to get to her.

Percy grumbled but hurried off to do just that,
telling the marquis he would bring a dozen of them and not to
worry.

The marquis surveyed the ship for a few minutes
before making his way on board, wondering if all the crew were
asleep. He knew they set sail at dawn. He stood for a moment,
uncertain which way to go. Then he turned and came face to face
with a boy who inquired suspiciously, “What be ye up to, mate?”

The marquis grinned at him and landed him a swift
right hook that sent him flying backwards and landing hard. He
stuffed his handkerchief in the now groggy seaman’s mouth. Then he
grabbed a coil of rope he found nearby and tethered him behind a
crate. He said to the frightened seaman, “There now, you can have
no doubt of my purpose. I am here for the girl that was just
brought on board. Which way did they take her? When I take the gag
out, you had best answer me, or you won’t like what I will do.”

When the boy nodded, the marquis took out the gag and
said grimly, “Which way?”

“Below deck,” the young seaman whimpered. “Go down
the companionway to the first cabin. It’s that fellow who calls
himself Abdul’s cabin.”

“Good lad,” the marquis said, patting his cheek. “I
will speak on your behalf when my friend arrives with the yeoman
and the magistrate.” So saying, the marquis stuffed the gag back in
the boy’s mouth and started for the companionway stairs.

There he found the local magistrate and two others,
who quickly told him that Mr. Dobbs had sent round a note
instructing them to hurry to the
Sea Winds
and make certain
she didn’t sail. They were then joined by Percy and five yeoman,
who had undoubtedly been promised hefty payments. They appeared
pleased at the adventure as they followed him onto the ship.

Percy silently directed two of the yeoman to pick up
whatever they could find as cudgels and to remain on top deck. The
other three followed him and the marquis down the narrow companion
stairway to the deck below.

* * *

Sassy had been pulled and shoved until she was
finally presented to the dark Moslem in his cabin. She eyed her
surroundings, hoping for a means of escape. The cabin contained a
cushioned bunk, a table and chairs, and one small porthole.

The turbaned man from Tangiers appeared consumed with
dark thoughts. And although those thoughts were unreadable, she
could tell by his aura that his ethics and priorities were very
different than her own. She would get no help from him. He removed
the gag from her mouth and lifted her chin. She kicked him in the
shins, and he yelped with pain and smacked her so hard she was sent
out of Tom Wheeler’s hold to land heavily on the floor.

She glared at them and suddenly noticed Bianca
scratching the finger that bore Sassy’s ring. She smiled and spoke
the ancient words that meant
return to me
. Sure enough, the
ring for all to witness flew across the room and found its home on
Sassy’s ring finger at her back, where her wrists were still
bound.

“What …? What was that?” Bianca exclaimed in a
frightened tone.

“It is a family heirloom,” Sassy said softly. “It
returned where it belonged.” She had in the meantime used a spell
to release the ties and held up her hands to display the ring on
her finger.

Sassy sensed that the turbaned man believed in
sorcery. She could see it from the way his eyes opened wide when he
stepped away from her.

Tom Wheeler laughed. “What parlor tricks are
these?”

“Oh, the same as this,” said Sassy, who held the rope
her wrists had been tied with. It vanished but was next seen tied
around Tom Wheeler’s wrists at his back.

He cried out, “Whot?”

Sassy turned and saw Bianca had her gun leveled. Tom
Wheeler shouted in a voice of panic, “Bianca, shoot the witch—shoot
her now!”

Bianca aimed and took her shot!

* * *

The marquis and his men were only halfway down the
stairs when they were attacked by a group of seamen.

The marquis saw that the magistrate and his two men
were holding their own on the main deck as he landed his attacker a
facer, and then another.