The Rogue (43 page)

The
endless ride went on. Jane wept tears of helpless pain and panic as
her air thickened and her body throbbed.

The
little man had betrayed her after all. She wasn't going to see Ethan.
She wasn't ever going to escape this trunk. She was very much afraid
she was going to die.

Ethan
.
The blackness threatened to take away every thought but that one. She
wanted to live, she wanted to be with Ethan and have dark-eyed
children and spoil them rotten and…

Unconsciousness
rendered what mercy it could as the darkness took her mind.

Augusta
dangled from Ethan's hands, her feet kicking fretfully in the air. "I
changed my mind," she hissed at him. "I want to go back
up!"

Ethan
gazed coldly down at Jane's cousin. "You go down slowly, or you
go down quickly. It's all the same to me."

"Augusta!"
Serena's hiss came from below where she waited in the shadows with
the rest of her sisters. "Augusta, just shut it and climb down,
or I'll tell Mama that it was you who borrowed her best bonnet and
ruined it!"

The
fact that such a trivial threat worked would have amazed Ethan at any
other time, but now all he wanted was to get Jane's beloved cousins
to safety so that he could go beat her location out of her traitorous
uncle before the man was hanged for treason.

The
fact that he and Serena had convinced the other girls that Ethan
still worked for Lord Maywell caused him not the slightest moment of
guilt. It was just as Jane had said. Maywell had made his choices.
All he could do was to try to protect the girls from physical harm.
Their reputations had been lost the day Maywell had made up his mind.

Augusta
finally wrapped her feet around the column and slid down it into the
waiting arms of Kurt. One look into the face of the giant shut her up
quite nicely. Once on the ground, she ran timidly into the embrace of
her sisters. Stubbs rushed the girls away down the street, wrappers
and shawls fluttering. They looked a bit like geese hurrying before
the goose boy.

Ethan
quickly made his way back along the ledge— the journey now
grown rather boring with practice—and took up his position in
the room, with his pistol raised and his ear to the door.

Below
him, he knew the Liars would be entering silently through any window
or door that would yield to their craft.

Kurt's
men would be heading for the attic servants' quarters in order to
immobilize the most dangerous of the burly footmen. Collis would be
securing belowstairs, disabling any guards or early-rising servants
from rushing to his lordship's defense.

Where
Dalton would go, Ethan cared not at all. Ethan himself only had one
goal.

Maywell's
study, where his every instinct told him Maywell would be waiting for
him.

With
utter disregard for the thuds and howls that echoed through the
house, Ethan beat a path down the stairs to the main floor. He
surprised one frantic footman who was running clad half in livery and
half in nightclothes. He swung his pistol up in a panic at the sight
of Ethan.

Ethan
didn't bother to stop and discuss the matter. He raised his own
pistol swiftly to clip the other man in the lower leg and ran on.

Dalton
appeared at his side, his goal apparently the same. "Nice shot,"
the spymaster said as they rounded the corner. "I thought you
didn't know how to handle a pistol."

"I
said I hated them," Ethan shot back. "I never said I didn't
know how to use one." He ran ahead, but not before he heard
Dalton make a sound of amused surprise.

The
other Liars had made their way quickly through the house. Collis and
Kurt joined Ethan and Dalton just as they neared Maywell's study.
They all halted just outside the door and listened.

Dalton
stepped aside and motioned Ethan forward. Another time, Ethan might
have made an acid comment about providing human cover for the others,
but tonight he merely stepped up and gave the sturdy door a mighty
kick. With the full force of the Liar's Club behind him, he charged
into the room to face down Lord Maywell.

The
sight that greeted them stopped all the men in their tracks. Lady
Maywell sat in a chair before the fire, all grace and serene bearing,
with a pistol firmly held in her hands aiming right at Ethan's brain.

Stretched
before her on the rug, his own brain bleeding sluggishly into the
carpet, lay Lord Maywell, traitor, schemer, and soon-to-be corpse, by
the look of him.

Lady
Maywell didn't seem very upset about her husband. She only gazed
calmly at the mass of armed intruders with her grip on the pistol
quite still and unshaken.

Ignoring
the pallid form on the floor, Ethan stepped forward. If ever he
needed his infamous charm, it was now. Maywell had little life left
in him and Ethan had the sinking feeling that there was no one else
who knew where Jane was.

"My
lady," he said soothingly as he approached. "My lady, may I
have the pistol, please?"

Lady
Maywell turned her gaze down to her hands as if she hadn't really
been aware of what she held. She tilted her head slowly, then opened
her hands to let the pistol fall to the floor.

Ethan
didn't think he was the only one to tense in preparation for the
firearm's accidental discharge, but the pistol only thudded
harmlessly onto the carpet.

"I
believe that was already fired," Lady Maywell said distantly.

"Er,
yes," Ethan murmured. "My lady, may I?" He indicated
the man on the floor.

For
the first time, Lady Maywell gave her attention to her husband. "He's
dying." Abruptly her foot flew out to deliver a sharp kick to
Maywell's lax arm. "Stupid, selfish
man
."
She looked up at Ethan as if he were the only other person in the
room. "You know what he was up to. His blasted games! Cards and
conspiracy, that was all he cared about! He was on his way to ruining
us all, robbing my daughters of their future!"

Ethan
exchanged a glance with Dalton. After all their investigation, had
the Chimera been taken out of the game by his own wife?

Ethan
moved to kneel at Maywell's side. The man's face was ashen, his skin
purpling grotesquely around the bullet hole in his temple. Yet, still
he breathed.

Nothing
could rouse him, however. Kurt examined him, lifting his eyelids to
inspect his pupils, which were large and mismatched. The giant looked
up at the spymaster and shook his head definitively.

The
air seemed to leave Ethan's lungs. He turned urgently to Lady
Maywell, who had watched this activity dispassionately. "Where
is the small man?"

She
blinked vaguely at him. "Who?"

Barely
resisting the urge to shake the woman, despite his sympathy for her,
Ethan gritted his teeth. "His man of business, his partner in
treason, the small man with the round face?"

Lady
Maywell blinked. "Oh, yes. I recall him now. Isn't that odd? I
know he came here often, but he always seemed so forgettable—"

Ethan
was in agony. "My lady?"

She
stopped to consider, then shook her head. "I don't think I've
seen him tonight. Harold came home quite late."

"Lady
Maywell,
where
is Jane
?"

She
blinked, startled. "Don't you know? Harold said he was going to
fetch her back, that you'd taken her from Bedlam without his
permission—not that I blame you, for I regretted that as soon
as Harold sent her off with you— but you should have had more
care for her reputation—"

Ethan
turned away, sickening despair clenching at his gut. Jane gone, God
only knew where, and the only one who knew lay silent and dying at
his feet.

Hopeless
fear seized Ethan. He was too late, he had lost her, by God, he'd
killed her as surely as if he'd raised the pistol himself!

He
turned to Dalton, his eyes wild with dread. "Etheridge?"
Please, let the spymaster have some sort of plan. Ethan would sell
himself, his soul, his everything to the Liars if only Dalton could
find Jane.

Dalton
Montmorency, Lord Etheridge and spymaster, took Ethan by both
shoulders and gave him a shake. "Not yet," he said, gazing
into Ethan's desperate eyes with quicksilver intensity. "It
isn't over yet."

Ethan
took a breath, strengthened by the understanding in Dalton's eyes.
Dalton loved his lady, possibly every bit as much as Ethan loved
Jane.

He
sent a searching look toward Collis, who nodded once, sharply.
"There's still time."

Collis
understood. Collis had Rose. Bolstered by the knowledge that these
two men—all these men—would not stop, would never stop,
until Jane was found, Ethan caged his rampant terror at Jane's fate
and put it aside, deep within him. He could still feel it gnashing at
his heart, but he forced his mind to calm until he could gaze back at
the Liars with nearly the same control he saw in their eyes.

Time
to go to work, he saw around him. Time for the job now, time for the
fear later, if ever.

He
nodded once. "Right. What now?"

"Let
me through, ye big buggers!" Feebles's breathless protests
reached them first, before the smaller man pushed the larger Liars
aside to reach Ethan and Dalton.

He
halted before them, gasping. "Lady Jane—I found her in the
park—"

Hot
jets of joy shot through Ethan. "Where is she?"

Feebles
shook his head. "I had her in a cart—got her to the club
but then I lost her. The bastards took her right out from under my
bloomin' nose—the cart went east, the milk driver on the street
saw that much—"

Dalton
stepped up. "When?"

"Not
an hour past, milord."

Dalton
nodded briskly at the men. "Get the horses. We'll cover the city
east of the club. Someone had to have seen something."

Feebles
nodded eagerly. "The pony, milord—'e 'ad a black spot on
his arse, looked the very image of the Prince Regent, like an 'ead on
a coin."

Dalton
blinked, then shrugged. "All right, lads, there you have it. A
pony with the Prince on his arse. What are you waiting for? Mount up
!"

Collis
held out a hand to indicate Lady Maywell. "What about her
ladyship?"

Dalton
rubbed his chin, considering. "Would you call that murder or
patriotism?"

Ethan
burned to ride after Jane. "The law isn't our problem, is it?"

Dalton
slid him an indecipherable look. "Not strictly, no."

Ethan
opened his hands. "My lady, did you shoot your husband?"

Lady
Maywell gazed back at him calmly. "No. I found him thus."

Ethan
turned back to Dalton. "There you have it. His lordship was shot
by an intruder. Since his traitorous activities will end with his
death, I see no reason for the Liars to have further involvement in
her ladyship's affairs. Let her call the magistrate and let us get
our sorry selves out of here!"

Dalton
regarded him sourly. "Is there anything else?"

"Oh,
yes." Ethan turned to Collis. "Get her ladyship's daughters
back in the house, will you?"

For
the first time, Lady Maywell showed some animation. She turned on
Collis, mother tiger to the fore. "My girls? What do you mean?
Where have you taken my girls?"

Ethan
left Collis behind to explain, running from the house with Dalton
fast on his heels.

It
wasn't over yet. Jane was locked in a trunk somewhere in the city,
east of the Liar's Club, being pulled along by a royally blemished
pony.

Once,
Ethan would have found all this darkly amusing. Right now, he felt
only driving urgency. There would be no laughter left in him if he
didn't find Jane.

«
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Jane
woke to find a strange, small man briskly slapping at her cheeks. She
flinched away, then blinked suspiciously at the man leaning over her.