The Devil Earl (33 page)

While she spoke, Sebastian leapt out of bed and pulled on his breeches. He strode to the wardrobe, where he grabbed a pistol and one of the knives that had been confiscated from the smugglers.

“Mr. Darlington is among them,” Prudence commented as he tugged on his boots. “He locked me in the library.”

Sebastian’s head swiveled toward her, and for an instant he heard nothing but a roaring in his ears. Fright, he realized. He was scared stiff that something might have happened to her. His imagination ran not: Pru injured, raped… dead. The thought of life without her made him shake like a drunkard deprived of his ale. He stared at her, trying to move his lips, and some of what he felt must have shown in his eyes, for she stepped to his side.

“I am fine,” she said, taking his face in her hands gently. “He thought he was clever, trapping me in the room, but I came up the hidden steps. Shall I wake James?”

A long moment passed before Sebastian was able to form a reply. His horror, his anxiety, his
need,
were rushing through him so violently that he could not answer her. And they all resolved themselves into one simple truth:
He was in love with her.
The discovery shot through him like one of the bolts of lightning that flashed outside his window. He loved Prudence Lancaster!

Sebastian opened his mouth to tell her, but her question finally sank into his disordered brain, taking precedence over his riotous emotions. “No!” he snapped, grabbing her by the shoulders. “You will not wake James!
I
will wake James, and
you
will lock yourself in this room. I mean it, Pru! This is no Gothic adventure—these are real, dangerousmen. Promise me?”

Much to his surprise, she nodded in agreement, and Sebastian realized that he was reacting too strongly. Prudence was an intelligent woman; naturally, she knew the difference between fantasy and fact. Yes, well…when it counted, at least. Bidding her to secure the door behind him, he
slipped out and through the dark hallway toward one of the back stairways.

The state bedroom was on the first floor in the new wing, farthest from the kitchens, and Sebastian flitted through the darkness, alert for any sign of the intruders. Once he would not have included James in his plans, but his days of protecting his brother were over. James had a right to know what was happening, and Sebastian found himself eager for the able assistance the dandy-turned-pirate would provide.

Sebastian’s low knock produced an instant response, and after a brief consultation, James was donning his breeches and boots, along with a veritable arsenal of weapons that Sebastian could not believe had been secreted in the state bedroom. All was going swiftly and well until James wakened Phoebe in order to warn her to stay inside.

Prudence’s sister was distressed, to say the least. She fussed and wept and clung to her husband until Sebastian wanted to strangle her. He did not see how James could stand all that fluttering and carrying-on, but his brother seemed to revel in it. Perhaps James needs to be needed, Sebastian mused before he caught himself. By God, he was becoming positively philosophical!

Sebastian swore softly, but it went unheard beneath a deafening crash of thunder. Phoebe jumped, and James glanced at his brother with a slight smile. “They will not be able to take to the cove in this weather, that is for certain,” he said. Then he paused to frown. “Odd. It must have come up suddenly, for I swear it did not look like rain today.”

“Perhaps Wolfinger is displeased with the trespassers,” Sebastian said coolly. At his ominous words, Phoebe wailed softly, and even James looked ill at ease.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” James said, a little too briskly. “Lock the door behind me, and you shall be perfectly safe, my love.”

As if sensing that her husband had reached his limit, Phoebe fell back, biting her lip, and the brothers managed
to slip out into the darkness. Soon they were moving through the abbey like shadows, any sound that they made drowned out by the ferocious storm raging outside.

They found their prey, or at least one of them, in the dining room, loading a sack full of silver, and before Sebastian could move, James had a large knife at the fellow’s neck. Keeping watch at the doorway, Sebastian realized that James had learned more on his sea voyage than he ever had at Oxford.

Bending the man backward, James pressed the blade against his skin and growled into his ear. “How many are you?”

“Th-three,” the ruffian croaked, eyes bulging.

“Really? Are you sure there are no more?” James tightened his hold, pricking his adversary’s throat.

“P-positive. The chief and D-Darlington and me.”

“Darlington?” James lifted his head like a wolf to the scent. “What a pleasant surprise. I have longed to meet him again, now that I have the complete story of what he did to my wife!”

The poor smuggler quivered in James’s grip, and, taking pity on the man, Sebastian intervened. Grabbing a length of drapery cord, he tied up the fellow, thrust a gag into his mouth and shut him in a pantry for the time being.

When Sebastian looked up, James was already moving away impatiently. His features, caught in a flash of lightning, were fiercer, as if the fight were
personal
now.

“Don’t let your anger make you careless,” Sebastian warned. But James was already too far ahead to hear him, slipping from room to room with renewed intensity, and Sebastian had to hurry or fall behind. When they reached the great hall, James hesitated only briefly before throwing himself forward.

Sebastian, more cautious, remained in the shadowed doorway. In the darkness of the long room, he could see two figures grappling on the floor, illuminated by the slender
shaft from a shuttered lantern. Certain of his brother’s eventual victory, Sebastian slid in beside a tall cabinet to watch and wait.

The forms struggled and rolled around the floor, knocking over a chair and grunting as each tried to subdue the other. Aware that the noise might well bring the third intruder out, Sebastian drew a pistol. Although he was better known for his swordplay, he was not a bad shot, and that skill might be useful tonight.

“Ahhhh!” A low scream echoed off the abbey’s old walls just as lightning brightened the room, revealing that James had his man by the neck. When the blinding flash ebbed, Sebastian recognized Darlington, although the dandy’s normally suave features were twisted with pain. Sebastian silently sucked in a sharp breath as he noticed something else.

The great hall had been ravaged.

More than one chair was littering the floor, and the tables were bereft of anything of value. Although he would need a complete inventory to catalog the missing pieces, Sebastian knew that several items he had refused to sell dated back centuries. Of what remained, a large gilt-edged mirror was shattered and a full-length portrait of the Devil Earl had been slashed.

Sebastian felt his blood rise and heat. This went beyond the unlawful use of his property for storing petty goods. This was a violation of his home and his heritage. This was
personal.
As if Wolfinger agreed, thunder roared in reply, rattling the windows with unusual violence, and lightning came fast on its heels, casting its eerie glow upon James, who had Darlington in a death grip.

“I ought to kill you for what you did to my wife!” James growled, his pirate face implacable while Darlington quailed before him. Then the room went black again, and Sebastian blinked in an effort to adjust his eyes to the change.

“Put down your weapons and lie on the floor.” A new voice, low and confident, rang out in the stillness. Tensing, Sebastian searched the shadows, his gaze finally picking out a black shape that stepped from under one of the doubl arches at the end of the hall.

Damn! The bastard was too far away, and too dimly lit, for a clear shot. Not wanting to waste his precious ammunition, Sebastian waited, ready to spring out, should James be endangered.

One look at his brother told Sebastian he need not worry, for James had regained control of his temper. He held his knife firmly against Darlington’s neck, and his features were cold and controlled as he spoke. “Drop your pistol or I will kill your man here,” James said.

“Go ahead,” the leader taunted. “His usefulness is over. Then lay your knife on the floor slowly, or I shall put a bullet in you.”

“No!” Darlington cried. “You need me to take the goods to London!”

“Ha! I can find another greedy swell easily enough, Darlington,” the villain said. “You have become tiresome. I would shoot you myself, but I can’t spare a bullet.”

Darlington wailed, and Sebastian sensed that James was going to make a move. Before his brother could do something risky, Sebastian stepped out of the shadows. “It is you who must drop your weapon,” he warned, his tone ominous.

“I was wondering what happened to you,” James said dryly.

A deafening roll of thunder seemed to shake the very abbey, and Sebastian ignored his brother to focus all of his enmity on the intruder. “As I told your local rabble, trespassers are not welcome here,” Sebastian intoned, taking advantage of the storm’s fury. “Wolfinger frowns on wanton destruction of its possessions.”

As if the elements hastened to do his bidding, a brilliant bolt smote a nearby tree, and falling branches scratched against the windows like bony fingers. Although Darlington moaned in fright, the leader was not so easily intimidated. The lingering brightness showed him lifting his gun, and he discharged it in the ensuing darkness. Sebastian fired back, but both shots went wild, and the villain turned to flee.

Sebastian gave chase, as did James, who tossed Darlington against a wall before following his brother. As they ran, a sudden flash showed their prey disappearing under the eastern arch, rather than the one that led to the kitchens. Apparently, he had become confused by the abbey’s peculiar and sometimes dangerous intricacies.

Glancing swiftly at his brother, Sebastian caught only a glimpse of white teeth in a grin. Obviously, James was thinking the same thing…They paused only a moment under the curved stone before plunging into the blackness ahead. No lantern showed their way, but lightning abruptly revealed their man, scrambling to unbolt a heavy door. They stopped.

“Should we tell him?” James asked, his breath coming quickly from the chase.

“No,” Sebastian answered. And then the opportunity was gone. The creak of the ancient wood swinging open was followed swiftly by a sharp scream as the intruder stepped into nothingness and dropped through the driving rain to the rocks below.

“He never would have believed us, anyway,” James said, softly.

Sebastian nodded, more to himself than to his brother. “Only a local would understand the Devil Earl’s sense of humor.”

“A door that goes nowhere,” James said, moving to stand beside the gaping exit, where the wind lashed water onto the tiled floor. Pushing the heavy wood shut, he secured
the bolt. “The old bugger probably sent all his unwanted guests out that way.”

“No doubt,” mused Sebastian, but his reply was drowned out by the thunder, crashing in a furious crescendo that seemed to shake the very cliffs beneath them. And then, having spent itself, the storm died away, just as quickly as it had arisen, leaving but a few clouds to chase across the slender moon hanging over Wolfinger Abbey.

Prudence looked up from her late breakfast to see Sebastian and his brother filling the doorway. They had left early to deliver their new prisoners to the magistrate, but, from the grim cast of their features, Prudence deduced that they were not completely satisfied with the results of their meeting.

“It is disconcerting, to say the least,” Sebastian told his brother, with a wry glance in Prudence’s direction.

“What?” she asked.

“Oh, James, you are back!” Phoebe squealed, rising from the table to rush to her husband’s side.

Suppressing a smile at the grimace of distaste that darkened Sebastian’s face, Prudence motioned for him to take the seat beside her.

“Thank God you are not of such an effusive nature,” he whispered to her as he gracefully lowered his elegant frame into the nearest chair.

Prudence glanced across the room, to where Phoebe and James were clinging and staring soulfully into each other’s eyes, as if they had been parted for years and not just a few hours. “Oh, I don’t know,” Prudence replied, feeling a bit mischievous. “I can be effusive sometimes.”

Sebastian, who had been unfolding his napkin, halted in the act to eye her boldly. “Yes, well, there are times when your effusiveness is warranted…and appreciated,” he added, giving her a slow, wicked smile that promised untold delights.

She shivered.

“Cold, Pru, dear?” he asked softly, leaning forward to spear a piece of ham.

She laughed, but held back her reply, because Phoebe and James were joining them. “How did your meeting with the magistrate go?” she asked her brother-in-law.

“Damn it, Prudence, you were right all along!” James grumbled.

“That is what is so disconcerting,” Sebastian noted, as he added some eggs to his plate.

James grinned. “Sebastian claims you are always right.”

Phoebe pouted prettily. “I suppose she is, but that is neither here nor there. What of your errand?”

“As Prudence suspected, the local free-traders must be well-known to the magistrate, because somehow they managed a miraculous escape from his cellar,” James explained dryly.

“No!” Phoebe gasped.

“Yes, every bloody one of them,” James complained. “Which is why we have brought our new prisoners back here with us to await the excisemen.”

“Oh, no!” Phoebe cried. She looked pale and frightened at the prospect of the two men being harbored close by. “James, I refuse to stay anywhere near that dreadful Mr. Darlington.”

“Do not fret, love,” James said, laying a comforting hand over hers. “I’ve set a couple of my crew to watch him and the other fellow. There will be no more coincidental escapes, I assure you.”

“I don’t expect their cohorts to help them, either,” Sebastian said. “Since the leader, an evil fellow from Mullion, is dead and these two aren’t locals, either, they will find the group’s loyalty no longer extends to them. More than likely, the others will be relieved to see these two taken away.”