What A Gentleman Wants (35 page)

David exhaled slowly through his nostrils. “See Her Grace safely home,” he snapped. “After all I’ve gone through to spare your wretched neck, it is the least you can do.”

“Er… Right, then.” Marcus forced a bitter smile and made a show of offering Hannah his arm. No more maintaining appearances, it was time to beat a strategic retreat. The instant her fingers touched his sleeve, he scooped his hat off the floor and slapped it on his head before strolling toward the door. “Stand aside,” he said to the man there, who curled his lip but did step aside. Sweeping the door open, Marcus managed to exchange one last fleeting glance with David. His brother stood tall and proud, unafraid to all appearances, except for his eyes.
I’ll be back
, he silently told his brother.
Hurry
, said David’s eyes. Marcus pulled the door closed, and hurried Hannah down the dock.

Hannah somehow managed to walk back to the carriage in an almost normal manner, even though she was trembling horribly. She could hear and feel Marcus close beside her, his hand closed tighdy over hers. She hadn’t thought past anything but getting him safely out of that terrible shack, where he was tied to a chair, ruffled and scuffed—but now it was David in danger, and she didn’t see how they could rescue him.

“What were you thinking?” she burst out the second they were alone in the carriage. “Marcus, you might have—”

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly. When he lifted his head, she could only look at him through misty eyes. “I could never have survived it,” she said brokenly. “If they had killed you.”

His smile was tender. “I never intended to die, my dear.”

“But why?” She clutched at his arms. “Why did you go?”

He put a finger on her lips. “To save Molly? I couldn’t not go.”

Tears spilled out of her eyes, and she gave a shaky laugh. “Molly is safe at home. Lily hid her—Lily was working for Bentley Reece. But even if she had been missing…”

“Safe at home?” he echoed, startled. “Thank God; that will make things easier.” He frowned slightly. Hannah gripped him harder.

“How could you do that, without telling me?”

His gaze focused on her once more. “I didn’t want to worry you any more. I thought Molly had been kidnapped. There was no time to be lost.”

“But… but…” Hannah covered her face with her hands, too distraught to make sense. “But why must
you
go?” He said nothing until she uncovered her eyes.

“I know,” he began haltingly, not quite meeting her eyes, “I am not an easy man to love.” He paused. “I am stiff and cold and proud, as people believe me to be.”

“No!” she protested.

He glanced up at her. “To most I am. I always believed I was. A duke does not trifle with emotions.” Another fleeting frown. “But you have shown me what it is to feel so strongly… For you, I would do anything. To get Molly safely back to you, to keep her from harm, I would do anything. After what you have given me…”

“But I have nothing to give you,” said Hannah tearfully.

His smile was crooked, almost hesitant. “Your heart?”

Her laugh caught in her throat, and came out half sob. “How could you not know you already have it?”

He hauled her across the seat into his arms, holding her tightly. “No one has ever given me her heart before,” he whispered.

“No one!” She touched his face. “Any woman in London—”

He turned his head, pressing his lips to her palm. “That,” he said with a wry, rueful look, “is not the same kind of love.” He hesitated. “They wanted to be a duchess, not my wife.”

“I told you there was a difference,” she reminded him with a spark of humor. He looked back at her with an expression of such unguarded emotion, she almost burst into tears. Instead she kissed him again.

“What will we do about David?” she asked a moment later, feeling strangely calmer and clear-headed. Hannah lifted her head from his shoulder. They already beat him. They tried to kill him—“

Marcus set her back on the opposite seat. “They threatened to kill him,” he corrected. “There is a great difference. If they had wanted to kill him, why not do so when they had the chance? No, they didn’t want him dead, not yet. They wanted something else from him, and I believe I don’t presume too far to say it was money. Bentley’s playing a deeper game, but Rourke and his lot want money, which they stood a much better chance of getting from a David very much alive.”

“Oh, thank heavens,” she sighed, closing her eyes in relief. “I was so afraid for him—”

“You were right,” Marcus interrupted grimly. “It was a foolish idea. David should not have done it.” He opened a door hidden in the carved mahogany paneling, and took out a pair of pistols. Hannah’s eyes popped wide open in renewed alarm.

“But you said they would want him alive!”

“Yes, at first” He took out powder and began loading the pistols. “But the one they really want is the duke of Exeter.” He sat forward, his dark eyes deadly serious. Hannah gripped her hands together, utterly terrified again. “Don’t you see why they let us walk out so easily? They think they’ve got him, and had no need for a good-for-nothing wastrel and a woman. Once they realize we tricked them, David will be in grave danger.”

“Perhaps they won’t realize,” Hannah began. Marcus shook his head.

“Bentley will. He knows us well enough to catch on eventually.”

“Of course.” She shuddered. “I should have never let him go!”

“Well.” He gave a small shrug. “It can’t be undone, so we must use everything it’s gained us.” He tucked the pistols into the pockets of his coat, then opened another panel and took out a wicked knife, which he slid into his boot. Then he swept back the curtain at the window and peered out. “This should be far enough.” He turned back to her. “I need you to find a man named Timms. I’ll give Harris the direction. Tell him—”

“Where are you going?” she cried.

“David,” he said simply.

“You can’t go back there alone!” she said, her face ashen. “Summon the Runners, or the watch at least! Let me come with you!”

“I can’t help my brother if I must worry about you,” he said, cutting short her protest. “Hannah, they want to kill him. If they discover he’s David instead of the duke of Exeter…” She closed her mouth at his expression, desperate to protest but unable to do it. “I need you to go to Mr. Timms and tell him where Rourke and Bentley are. Tell him to bring as many men as he can summon in an instant, and bring them all back here. There is only so much I can do by myself.”

Hannah nodded, her heart tight with fear. He gave her a smile meant to be encouraging, cupping her cheek in one hand. “I love you,” he said, surprising her before he pressed a quick, hard kiss on her mouth.

“I love you, too,” she said, but he was gone, slipping out of the carriage as it rolled along. She heard a rumble of voices outside for a moment, then the driver snapped the whip and the carriage sped up a little. Hannah scrambled to the window and tore open the curtain, but saw nothing in the dense fog. Marcus was gone.

That was good, she told herself nervously, refusing to let herself think about that last rushed exchange. If she couldn’t see him, no one else could, eidier. How far had they come from the dock? She hadn’t the faintest idea. She thought of the two pistols—two shots—and the knife. Against five armed men, who could hold David hostage.

She lunged onto the forward seat and hammered on the front of the carriage. “Hurry!” No response. “Faster!” she screamed, and this time the driver must have heard her, for the carriage lurched forward, clattering over the bumpy streets at a fearful pace. Hannah was thrown back into the rear seat, where she wrapped her arms around herself and tried not to shake.

When the carriage halted, she flung open the door and jumped down. Ignoring the driver’s startled protest, she hiked up her skirts and ran up the steps, pounding on the door until a footman jerked it open.

“Where is Mr. Timms?” she demanded, barging past him.

“I say, madam,” said the disconcerted servant. “He is not receiving visitors.”

“He’ll receive me.” She gave him a push in the direction of the stairs. “Tell him the duchess of Exeter needs his assistance at once.”

The title confused the footman; he paused, looking at her as if wondering whether she were actually a duchess, or a duchess’s servant “Go!” Hannah shrieked.

“May I help you?” inquired an icy voice. Hannah whirled around to see the butler, looking as though he would like to throw her back out into the street.

“I must see Mr. Timms at once,” she said over the murmurs of the footman. “It’s a matter of life and death!”

The buder hesitated, “
Your
Grace?” he asked carefully.

“Yes!” She could scream from impatience, they were being so slow. “Will you fetch Mr. Timms, or must I run through the house and find him myself?”

The buder pursed his lips as though he would still like to throw her out, but he bowed very briefly. “I shall tell him, madam. Smith will see you into the drawing room to wait.” He vanished, diankfully walking quickly. The footman, Smith, approached her again, a little more deferentially.

“This way, Your Grace,” he said. Hannah glared at him.

“I shall wait here.”

He blinked. “May I take your cloak?”

“No!”

The young man swallowed. If she hadn’t been so afraid, Hannah would have apologized for being such a shrew; as it was, all she could think of was how long it was taking. Mr. Timms would still have to summon his men, then there was the journey back to the docks. She wrung her shaking hands, pacing the hall in a fever pitch of anxiety. What was Marcus doing now? Where was he? And David—was he still alive, still unhurt? It seemed a decade at least since Marcus had jumped out of the carriage and disappeared into the fog.

“Your Grace.” She spun around to see a tall, barrel-chested man with a dinner napkin still tucked into his waistcoat striding toward her. His round, genial face was creased with wary concern. “My butler said you were here on an urgent matter.”

“Yes. You must come at once—bring soldiers or the watch—Marcus and David have found them—the men you are seeking,” she said in a rush. “It is beyond urgent, it’s life and death. They have them—David, I mean—and Marcus has gone to rescue him but there are at least five men, armed…”

“I see.” Blessedly, Mr. Timms made enough sense of it to understand. He pulled off the napkin and thrust it into the footman’s hands. “Where are they?” he demanded of Hannah.

“At the docks. Harris will know exactly where.”

Timms wheeled around to his servant. “Ask Her Grace’s coachman the direction,” he snapped. “Find Stafford’s man at Bow Street and bring a dozen men, more if you can get them, and meet us there at once. Run, man!” The footman nodded once before flinging open the door and taking off. Timms was already beckoning to the butler. “What happened?”

Hannah pressed a hand to her forehead, trying to force her thoughts into order. “David returned—he’d been beaten, and was ill. Then tonight my daughter went missing. But she wasn’t, the maid who had pretended to kidnap her only hid her. Marcus thought she was gone, though, and went to ransom her back, and then David and I went to help him, only David merely traded places with Marcus. They’ve still got him and Marcus has gone back to help him. Please, Mr. Timms, we must
hurry
!”

Mr. Timms looked utterly flummoxed by this, but nodded as his butler rushed up with a polished wooden box, a coat, and a hat. “Right.” He pulled on the coat, slapped the hat on his head, and took the box before waving her out the door ahead of him. Hannah clambered into the carriage as he had a quick word with Harris, then they were off, Timms slamming the door shut behind him.

He unlatched the wooden box, revealing two pistols.

He took one out and began loading it. “Now,” he said, fixing a keen gaze on her, “tell me again everything that’s happened, and what you know of his grace’s investigations.”

Hannah told him what she knew and what they suspected. The carriage careened along at an impressive rate, and more than once she had to pause in her story to grab on to the seat as they took corners practically on two wheels. By the end, Timms was frowning as he checked his loaded pistols.

“Bentley Reece, eh? I never should have suspected.”

Hannah lifted one hand. “No one did. Rosalind told me he was a dandy, a charming and amusing flirt. Even Marcus dismissed him as a frippery.”

Timms grunted. “The cleverest disguise: a useless man.”

The carriage was slowing down. Before it even halted, Hannah had the door open and leaped down, looking around in confusion. This wasn’t where she and Marcus had left David.

Timms jumped down beside her, shoving his pistols into the pockets of his greatcoat. “Now, Your Grace, I must ask you to wait in the carriage.”

“No.” She tugged up the hood of her cloak. “I shall be silent, I shall obey your orders, but I am not waiting in the carriage. This isn’t the right place at all.”

He heaved a sigh, but said nothing more of her waiting behind, possibly because at that moment a man slipped out of the shadows and murmured something to him. Timms nodded once, then took Hannah’s arm.

“We’ll walk the rest of the way,” he said quietly. “With no idea of who might be there or how many men may be about, it’s best to surprise them.” Hannah nodded. Timms lifted one hand and gave a little wave. She became aware of more shadowy figures, gliding quietly through the fog. Keeping a firm grip on her arm, Timms began walking. Hannah obediently hustled along, her heart about to expire from pounding so hard. Let us be in time, she prayed as they hurried along.

Marcus made it back to the crumbling dock without trouble. The fog enabled him to slide right past the lone sentry at the end of the lane, even though he hated to leave the man behind him. He couldn’t risk giving an alarm before he’d even seen if David were still alive. Moving slowly and deliberately, he crept past the warehouses to the house.

It was a rickety old structure, apparendy on the verge of collapse. One man leaned against the doorway, and even through the fog Marcus could see the gleam of a pistol barrel. He watched for several minutes, until another man emerged from the shadows. The first stepped closer, and they talked for some time until Marcus became convinced they were the only two men outside.