“My sweetheart was supposed to meet me. We were going to Scotland to be married. Gretna Green. But she did not meet me as arranged. I looked for her, fearing there’d been an accident. But there was no sign of one. I did find tracks though, and it led me to that blackguard out there and the other one.”
“His brother,” Gemma supplied.
Harper nodded. “I don’t know why they took her. She had been on her way to Duke Hamilton to tell him of her plans. That she had fallen in love and her father did not approve. I told her not to. Told her it would be pointless. But, she was sure that Hamilton would see her side of it. She hoped he would square things with her father.”
Gemma put aside the pitchfork and sat heavily on a hay bale. She was now realizing who this man was, more importantly, who his sweetheart was.
“Emily Carlisle. Your fiancée is Emily Carlisle!” she exclaimed.
“You know her then?” Harper said, cautiously sitting next to Gemma, a few bales apart, as though not wanting to frighten her.
“I’ve never met her. But she has been the focus of much discussion and worry. My…friend is the Duke of Hamilton, Nathan Ramsay. He was to be ward to Emily, owing to his long friendship with her father, Walter. I…”
She stopped, wondering how this man would react if she told him that she had impersonated Emily. He was watching her, listening earnestly, nodding as she explained. Taking a deep breath, she decided to embrace her instincts and tell him all of it. His eyes widened slightly as she described her arrival at Hutton Castle and being mistaken for Emily. Then narrowed at her account of her cousins' search for her, and what she believed they would do to her eventually.
“Bastards!” he snarled and actually spat on the floor, “pardon my French, miss. They must have taken Emily on the road and then found out how important she was to your Duke. I’ll kill the pair of them.”
Gemma put out a hand to catch his arm as he rose. He stopped, looking down at her with flashing eyes and a chest heaving with anger.
“Not until we have Emily safely out of their grasp. They know where she is. Elliot suggested that Eugene is bringing her here. I don’t know what they have planned for me. But, if they intended to use Emily as leverage, it would be to persuade Nathan to hand me over.”
“And they don’t need to do that now that they have you. So, there’s nothing to stop them from killing Emily,” Harper said darkly.
Gemma was glad that they were on the same side. The look on the young man’s face and the tone of his voice suggested any who crossed him would not fare well.
“Are you armed?” Gemma asked.
“No, lass. It’s not easy for someone without a title to walk around the streets carrying a sword or pistol. That’s reserved for the gentry.”
“If Elliot comes back, he will kill you. I have no doubt of that,” Gemma said. “I think we must get away from him.”
“Not until I know where Emily is,” Harper said stubbornly.
“As you said, if they have me then there is no need for them to keep Emily. They will not simply let her go to speak of what happened. I believe they are seeking to gain control of a great fortune that belonged to my father. There is a lot of money at stake for them.”
Harper pulled free of her arm, looking angry.
“For money? They kidnap two women and threaten murder and it’s all for money?”
“But if I escape, then they need to keep Emily alive as leverage. They will go back to Nathan and try to apply pressure on him using the threat to her life,” Gemma said plaintively.
She desperately wanted to get through to this earnest young man, fearing that he would try and fight with Elliot and end up shot dead. He seemed angry enough to try it, even unarmed as he was. But, Harper took a deep breath and nodded curtly.
“You’re right, lass. I need to think with my head for once. Not my fists. That’s something Emily told me often.”
“She sounds like she has a good head on her shoulders then,” Gemma said.
Harper snorted. “Don’t know where I’d be without her. She helped me to secure employment, managing the workers at a mill just outside Whitby. But when she told her father about me, he swore that he wouldn’t let her marry a working man, even one who had an officer’s commission during the war.”
Gemma stood. “You’ll see her again, I promise. When Nathan knows what’s been going on, he’ll put a stop to it. I have faith in him.”
Harper nodded. “Very well then, lass. I’ll put my trust in you. You talk like Emily, all reason and logic. So, let’s go before that rogue comes back to gloat some more, or worse. I have a horse if you don’t mind riding two to a saddle.”
He opened the door a crack and looked around. Then he widened it and gestured for Gemma to follow him. Beyond was a farmyard, surrounded on three sides by dilapidated buildings. A larger cottage stood on the far side of a field which had been left to go fallow. Smoke rose from the chimney. Gemma saw the carriage that had carried her left in the yard and a horse in the field, munching on the grass. Harper led her around the barn which had been her prison to another horse, tethered to a tree branch on the far side, beyond a ramshackle stone wall.
A shout came from the cottage as he was untying it. Then a shot. Gemma ducked but Harper grunted.
“Bloody fool. Can’t hit anything at this range. Not with a pistol.”
