No Choice but Seduction (14 page)

“Of course I did.”

“Then you should have thought to look here sooner. He saw me being dragged outside. He didn’t tell you?”

“
He
probably would have, but
he
wasn’t there by the time I discovered you weren’t in the room. His wife had taken over at the desk and she claimed she hadn’t seen you.”

“Well, I wasn’t even in Northampton. That blasted American who came to rescue Judith was determined to take me back to London to answer to the Malorys, and he carted me off to do just that! If I hadn’t climbed out a window to escape him—”

Grace shot off the bed and said stiffly, “Now I know you’re spinning one of your tales. All things considered, the truth would be appreciated—
right now
!”

Katey didn’t take offense. Grace was understandably upset. They’d done nothing wrong, yet they were both sitting in jail right now. And Katey
had
spun one too many tales in her life, giving Grace good reason to doubt her.

Katey sighed. “That was the truth. The man got it set in his mind that I was guilty, so it didn’t matter what I told him to the contrary. But at least I got away from
him
. And Mr. Calderson assured me that I won’t have to wait it out here. He’s checking with his sister to see if she’ll put me up. He sounded confident that she would.”

“Behind lock and key, I suppose?”

“Well—probably. But at least we’ll be in a more comfortable room than a jail cell.”

It wasn’t a horrible jail cell, actually. With fresh air coming in through a barred window, it didn’t stink. It even had a boarded floor. Vermin moved in the cracks, which was why Katey was keeping her feet up on the cot, but still, it was better than a dirt floor.

“What American was involved?” Grace asked as she moved to sit next to Katey again. “I was told the child was on her way back to London with a member of her family and her family’s English.”

“No, I think you were sleeping in the coach when Judith mentioned she has American relatives, too, and this was one of them. You even know him. You’re the one who warned me on
The Oceanus
to be cautious around him when you sensed that he was overly taken with me.”

“Anderson?” Grace said incredulously. “The owner of that ship? But he
was
taken with you. I’ve never seen a man so interested in a woman that it was obvious he was having carnal thoughts about her. He’s the very last man who would doubt you, so why did he?”

“I suppose it’s how it looked, me keeping the girl in a locked room in the same town where her abductors had been holding her.”

“But surely she would have pointed out that she’d already been rescued—by us.”

“I’m sure she would have, but another relative quickly took her away without asking her what had happened. Boyd was left behind with me and jumped to the wrong conclusion.”

“Didn’t you explain?”

“Of course I did, but he had it set in his mind that I was a criminal, so he refused to listen to anything I said.”

“But he liked you!”

“That might have been part of the problem.”

“That his rationalities are reversed?” Grace shot back. “Of course! Hug your enemies, toss your friends in jail. Makes perfect sense!”

Grace’s sarcasm was back. Katey tsked and said, “No, I think it was just that he felt he was
too
biased in my favor. He mumbled something about letting the authorities figure it out, implying that he couldn’t trust his own instincts where I was concerned.”

He’d said something else, but she wasn’t going to repeat that to her maid, when it caused a pleasant fluttering inside her just remembering it.
I can’t think straight when you’re within touching distance, when the only thing on my mind is carrying you to the nearest bed, so I don’t dare just take you at your word, Katey Tyler. I’m sorry
.

“How nice for him,” Grace said, “but I don’t see
him
sitting here in jail keeping you company while we wait on clearance from some English lords, who, by the way, don’t look favorably upon Americans and will probably not rush to clear up this injustice.”

Grace had had a run-in with a nobleman on one of their first few days in London. The man had pushed her aside when she’d been getting into a hack that she’d hailed, had stolen it out from under her, more or less, then said something condescending about her waiting on her betters. Grace had disdained the gentry ever since, despite that being the only bad incident she’d encountered with the upper classes—until now.

Katey felt compelled to point out, “We’ve met some very friendly people on this trip so far, both in England and in Scotland.”

“None of which were lords.”

“True, but you can’t toss them all in one basket just because one was rude to you, especially when most everyone else has been kind and helpful. Even Mr. Calderson, our jailor, apologized to me three times for not being able to let me go.”

“You made your point,” Grace grumbled, then sighed. “I hope they’re at least out looking for that crazy Scotswoman. I’d hate to think that the rescuers are in jail while she’s still running around free.”

“Oh, she’s here with us. No one told you? Or maybe I should say, she made sure
we
were here with
her
!”

Katey explained what had happened when she got back to town and ran into Maisie Cameron, ending with “I’d no sooner told Mr. Calderson about the whole adventure when Mrs. Cameron pointed a finger at me, called me a liar, and said it was all my idea. She wanted to be in jail to escape her husband, but she was still angry enough at me for ruining her plans to want a little revenge, too.”

Grace lifted a tawny brow. “Why am I
not
surprised? I knew that woman wasn’t right in the head.”

Katey nodded. “A candidate for Bedlam was how Mr. Calderson put it. But I don’t blame her for the predicament we’re in. It’s Boyd Anderson’s fault that we’re not going to be sleeping in a lovely hotel in London tonight. He might as well have put me here himself. He ruined a perfectly nice adventure with his ridiculous assumptions.”

“I hate to mention it, but this
isn’t
an adventure anymore. This is a tragedy.”

“It’s nothing of the sort. It’s just turned into an inconvenience and a small delay, is all.”

“A gross miscarriage of justice,” Grace insisted.

That was harder to disagree with, but Katey replied, “It’s quite annoying, and I’m as angry as you are—”

“You could have fooled me.”

“—
but
Mr. Calderson assured me it doesn’t take that long to reach London on horseback, and he immediately sent a man off to the Malory household to get this cleared up. We might even be released later tonight.”

They both knew that wasn’t going to happen. It was already dark. Even if the man reached London tonight, it was highly unlikely that he’d turn right around to return to Northampton. It was nothing to him, after all, if a couple of Americans rotted in jail overnight.

Mr. Calderson did move them to his sister’s house, but that didn’t stop Grace from complaining, especially when their room turned out to be even smaller than the jail cell! One of them grumbling and fussing was more than enough, so Katey tried to control her own anger. She wasn’t used to feeling angry. She was much more used to cheering up other people and entertaining them, so she shared a greatly embellished version of her “hanging Boyd Anderson” story with Grace that evening to pass the time. And listening to it definitely cheered Grace up. She was even laughing before Katey was finished.

But when they finally gave up waiting to be released that night and extinguished the lamp to get some sleep, all those strange emotions that had disturbed Katey earlier in the day caught up to her and kept her eyes open, staring at the dark ceiling.

Anger, hurt…
how
could Boyd Anderson treat her like a common criminal? He knew her! They weren’t strangers. She’d crossed an ocean with him. He thought she was a married woman with two children—well, no, he’d decided now that she must have stolen those children, too. But that had been a guess on his part, based on his contention that she had abducted Judith!

She imagined how awful he was going to feel when he learned the truth, but that didn’t help to soothe her hurt feelings. The trouble was, she hated him for the high-handed way he’d treated her today, but she didn’t
want
to hate him, and the contrary emotions were causing a pain in her chest and tears to come to her eyes. And she hated him for making her feel so confused.

She got back to hanging him in her mind and opened the trapdoor this time…then cried herself to sleep.

Chapter Fifteen

K
ATEY DISCOVERED
that buying a comfortable English coach—at least a new one—as Judith Malory had suggested, wasn’t something that could be accomplished in a day. The man at the first coach yard she’d visited had said three weeks. The second coach builder had said he could have one made for her in a month. He had a waiting list!

It was bad enough that all the passenger ships departing for the Continent in the next few days had filled their lists already. The best Katey could do was to buy passage for two on a ship that sailed next week. She was still smarting over that, so she wasn’t about to delay leaving London even longer for a coach. This was all Boyd Anderson’s fault. Mr. Calderson hadn’t released them until yesterday afternoon, apologizing profusely when the man he’d sent to London returned and said the Malorys had indeed corroborated Katey’s version of events.

On the way back to their London hotel, Katey told Grace, “I think we’ll just revert to our original idea and buy a coach
after
we get to France.”

“You don’t think we’ll run into the same problem there?” Grace asked.

“Yes, but at least we can begin touring the country while we wait.”

Grace nodded. “Then what’s next on the agenda here before we leave? A new wardrobe? Hiring a coachman for a coach you don’t own yet?”

Katey raised a brow at her maid’s sarcastic tone. Her own mood was taking a downward swing. She hated being dependent on other people’s schedules. She wanted to leave England now, not next week. She’d wanted to buy a coach today, too, not next month. She’d even briefly thought of buying her own ship so she wouldn’t have to deal with someone else’s schedule anymore and could just stick to her own. But she could just imagine how long
it
would take to build a ship!

She’d only been half-serious yesterday when she’d told Grace they wouldn’t be leaving for six more days and had ended with “I should just buy a ship so we don’t run into delays like this again.”

Grace had rolled her eyes at her and replied, “Buying a coach is a good idea, buying a ship isn’t. We aren’t sailing around the world. We only need a ship to get to the next continent.”

“And then the one after that.”

“Yes, but how many months later will that be?” Grace had asked. “You said it yourself, that crossing Europe by land is going to take a
long
time. Besides, there aren’t that many continents for us to visit—are there?”