Son of a Duke (26 page)

But the landing was soft because he landed on Nathan, who grunted with the impact.
 

Samuel stood up quickly, apologizing.
 
"I am so sorry, Nathan.
 
Are you all right?"

But Nathan did not look all right.
 
He had his eyes shut as black patches were forming all over his face.
 
Blood was dried in a pool by his nose and mouth.
 
Samuel got on his knees.
 

"Nathan, can you hear me?
 
Nathan, are you all right?
 
Nathan, are you alive?"
 

Someone else answered with a moan.
 
Samuel looked over to see the Earl of Stryden in pretty much the same shape.
 
He moved over to him.
 

"Mister...My l-" Samuel stopped, realizing he did not know the gentleman's proper name.
 
"Alec, are you all right?"
 

There was no response this time.
 

Samuel was scared.
 
A sudden burst of noise from above had him cowering back toward Nathan.
 
He watched the man's chest rise and fall, became mesmerized by its movement.
 
Nathan's eyes never opened.
 
Samuel lay down next to him, curling into his warmth.
 

And then Samuel did something he had never done.
 

He cried.
 

~

"They should have been back by now."
 

Richard was talking to the empty fireplace again in the drawing room of Stryden Place.
 
He could not remember what he had eaten for supper or what had been supper.
 
He only recalled that his sons had left five hours before and should have returned three hours ago.
 

"They should have been back by now," he repeated going to sit in one of the chairs by the sofa only to get up and pace a few moments later.
 

Jane sat on the sofa, one arm around Sarah and the other around Nora.
 
Both women looked like they could break at the softest of breezes.
 

Richard walked to the window.
 

They should have been back by now.
 
This was the only thought moving through his mind at that moment.
   

He went out into the hall to the front door.
 
He stood on the front stoop listening to the sounds of the night.
 
The air was cold, and he could see his breath.
 
There was scant traffic on the street at this hour.
 
Members of the ton would already be at the evening's festivities they had planned to attend and would not yet be returning home.
 
No one had yet to return to Stryden Place.
 

He went back to the drawing room, shutting the door harder than he had to, and rang for Reynolds.
 
The butler appeared before the last peal died.
 

"Your grace?"

"Have my horse fetched," Richard said.
 
He turned to the women.
 
"I am going for help, and then I am going after them.
 
No one is to leave this house, is that understood?"
 

The direction was only aimed at one lady, and that one lady knew it.
 
Jane nodded in acknowledgement.
 

"Good," he said and strode out of the library to get his coat and hat.
 

The streets were nearly silent as he rode across town into the heart of Bloomsbury.
 
The man he sought was of such a reputation as to be useful in going to such a gaming hell as the Four of Clubs.
 
Upon reaching Amesbury Boarding House where the man in question rented a suite of bachelor's quarters, Richard tied up his horse and made his way inside the building.
 

Mr. Matthew Thatcher answered his knock in bare feet and no collar.
 
Seeing as how it was ten o'clock on a Tuesday night, Richard did not scold him for the impropriety.
 
He was also generous enough to give him a little leeway when it came to polite society as Mr. Thatcher was newly arrived from America.
 
Some things had to be forgiven.
 

"Sorry to bother you, Thatcher, but I have a problem," he said by way of introduction, pausing far enough inside the door to allow Matthew to close it for propriety's sake.
 
Thatcher often had the look of a supremely bored hound about his face, and tonight was no exception.
 

"Do I have time to get my boots on?" he asked.
 

Richard nodded.
 
"It is rather a complicated tale.
 
I think it best if we got on our way, and I shall explain then."
 

"Whatever suits you," Thatcher said, already grabbing up coat and hat to follow Richard back into the night.
 

Richard explained the situation to Matthew Thatcher along the way, giving only enough detail to complete the job at hand.
 
Thatcher only sometimes worked for the War Office, and Richard was reluctant to provide too much information should Thatcher inadvertently become a liability.

The Four of Clubs looked as awful as Richard thought it would look.
 
He was suddenly even more glad with his choice to fetch Matthew Thatcher than ever.
 
Thatcher was a private investigator of sorts by trade, and Richard knew he could trust him.
 

"Any plan, your grace?" Thatcher asked.
 

"Walk in, guns blazing.
 
Is that not how you Americans do it?" Richard asked in reply.
 

"Yeah, that is usually how it goes.
 
Should I have brought a gun?"
 

"Probably."

"Well, perhaps next time."
 

Thatcher slid down from his horse.
 
He dropped the reins in the street and looked back at Richard.
 

"Stay," he said and walked away toward The Four of Clubs.
 

Richard did not know if Thatcher meant that last command for him or the horse.
 
Regardless, he dismounted, hailing a passing hack as he did so.
 
He tied his horse to the back of the carriage and waited.
 
He stomped his feet in the cold and blew on his hand.
 
Thatcher's horse repeated the gesture behind him.
 
Richard raised an eyebrow at the animal.

Thatcher had been gone for nearly seven minutes.
 
Richard had watched two questionable pairs of gentleman exit the gaming hell and three pairs enter.
 
The establishment seemed to be doing a fair amount of business that evening.
 
Richard waited, hoping his sons would be the next pair of questionable gentlemen to come through the door.

And then they were.
 

Richard went forward, approaching Nathan first as he carried a bundle in his arms.
 
He was not surprised to find that it was Samuel, huddled into Alec's fine coat.
 
He carried the boy to the hack and set him inside.
 

"I will take you home now," Richard said, before getting out of the carriage.
 
He faintly heard Samuel repeat the word "home."
 

Nathan and Alec crawled into the hack but not before Richard noted their various cuts and bruises.
 
What they had encountered inside the gaming hell was surely not at all what they had expected.
 

Richard turned to shake Thatcher's hand.
 

"I owe you now, Matthew."
 

"Put it on my tab," Thatcher said, then mounted his horse and disappeared into the blackness.
 

Richard got into the hack with his boys.
 

~

Nora had endured eighteen hours of mind numbing, fist clenching, body ripping labor to bring Samuel into the world.
 

That pain came nowhere near to what she was feeling now.
 

And if that pain did not end soon, she was going to die from it.
 

No one spoke.
 
Sarah was near to ripping apart the needlepoint cushion on the sofa.
 
Jane had her head thrown back on the chair, her eyes closed.
 
Nora stared out the window, but the darkness only cast her own reflection back until a hackney blotted it out as it pulled up to the curb in front of the house.
 

Nora ran from the drawing room.
 
She pulled up her skirts far beyond propriety and ran.
 
She was out the front door and down the stoop just as Nathan was coming out of the hack, her son in his arms.
 
She only took a moment to notice the terrible condition he was in before she threw herself at both of them, wrapping them with the force of the pain she had been experiencing only moments earlier.
 
Nathan awkwardly put one arm around her, holding onto Samuel with the other, and squeezed them all until breath became something to fight for.
 

"Do not ever scare me like that again," Nora said.
 

Nathan squeezed harder.
 

Alec had seen Nora fly down the stairs.
 
Had seen the length of stocking exposed from the height to which she had hiked her skirts to get that momentum.
 
Had seen the emotion that she now used to embrace the two people who meant so much to her.
 
He felt worse than ever, and it was not because of the damage to his body.
 

He stepped down from the carriage and started to the door.
 
And Sarah crashed into him.
 
He reeled, catching his balance at the last moment.
 
Sarah crushed him, and he had never felt anything so wonderful.
 
But then she pushed away and started yelling at him.
 

"You scared me, Alec Black, and I will not stand for it."
 

She pulled back her fist and swung at him.
 
She was crying though, and her tears blinded her aim.
 
Alec thanked God himself because he had been on the receiving end of one of Sarah's blows more than once.
 
Now he grabbed the wobbling fist and drew his wife back against him, letting her head fall to his shoulder as she cried.
 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"Did you really throw my son out a second story window into a pile of garbage?"
 

Nathan dropped the soap as he jumped in the bathtub.
 
He swung his head around as his hands scrambled to cover the essential parts.
 

"Nora!
 
For God's sake, woman."
 
He slipped as far down into the tub as he could get.
 

"Do not get modest on me now, Nathan Black," she said, taking a step further into the room but remaining at a proper distance.
 
"I asked you a question.
 
Samuel tells me you threw him out of a window.
 
Into garbage," she said the last bit with far more emphasis.

Richard and Jane had insisted that Nora and Samuel stay at their residence in Mayfair and even though it had been nearly midnight, they had made the journey across the park with an utterly exhausted Samuel and an equally as emotional Nora.
 
Nathan had not bothered to mention that he felt like the pavement itself, trodded on by millions without so much as a care.
 
Upon arriving at the Lofton home, Jane had immediately ordered a bath for Samuel, and for Nathan, although this was an after thought, and had promptly led Nora and Samuel away.
 
Richard had demanded a debriefing in the library, which Nathan reluctantly gave, his mind wandering to the bath he knew was waiting above stairs.
 

And Nora and Samuel.

He wondered if the boy was all right.
 
He had been quiet for the entire ride back to Stryden Place, saying little more since reuniting with his mother.
 
Nathan was fairly certain the boy had not been abused in anyway nor had he been threatened.
 
But Nathan still understood that kidnapping was a trauma within itself.
 
It would probably take a bit of time for the boy to come fully around.

But why that led to Nora entering his chambers without so much as a by your leave, he could not fathom.

"Yes, I did throw him out of a window, and I do believe there was a pile of garbage beneath said window.
 
Is that all, madam?"

Nora frowned.
 

"Do not dismiss me so easily, Nathan.
 
Samuel is calling the entire night quite an adventure, but I do not see how a kidnapping can be deemed an adventure.
 
What else did you do to my son that he is not telling me?"
 

Now Nathan did smile even though it was clear that Nora was concerned.
 

"He is calling it an adventure?
 
I feel it necessary to warn you that he may be excellent spy material."

Nora frowned harder.
 

"Do not tease me, Nathan.
 
Was Samuel all right when you found him?"

Nathan tried pressing his legs tighter together as water sloshed around him in the tub.

"He seemed quite all right.
 
And Alec found him initially.
 
Alec said he seemed quite aware for a nine year old, but that he seemed fine despite what was happening to him."