Shifting his attention to Charlotte, he admonished, “Be here when I get back.”
She smiled at his fatherly order. “Is it all right if I join you at the park?” Her question was directed not at Col, but the small girl leaning close to her at the table, quivering with excitement.
“Can she, Papa? Can she?”
Col looked at George. “What do you think? Can you handle three women on a walk in the park?”
“If I can handle a sixty-five-gun ship with more than a hundred navy swabs, three women should be no problem at all.”
* * *
Charlotte fearedher heart might crack if the happiness of that day overflowed and had nowhere to go. Dee clung to her hand while George and Madame Louvelle walked a few paces behind. She’d been surprised after Col’s references to his landlady that the woman was actually a beautiful older woman and she had a first name, Eugenie. When Dee suddenly began talking to Eugenie in French, Charlotte’s mouth flew open in surprise.
Eugenie smiled and said, “That one needs watching. She can do anything, memorize anything like a little parrot.”
She noticed Col’s valet seemed focused on the older woman’s chatter while he held her arm securely in one of his, but the odd walking cane he carried he held close to his body with the other arm. He had a slight limp which he explained came from an accident aboard ship many years ago when one of the cannons broke loose from the chains securing it, rolled across the deck, and pinned his leg against another of the heavy guns the ship carried.
Dee’s constant questions were not as challenging as she’d feared once she got used to the child’s curiosity about literally everything around her. Col was never anything but calm around Dee, answering each question as truthfully as possible and never once seeming annoyed with his daughter.
She hoped she could do as well.
Charlotte and Eugenie held Dee’s hands and kept her between them. George stayed close ahead of them, surveying other walkers in the park. He looked back to check on them from time to time while swinging his cane. Charlotte had just begun to relax and enjoy the mild, sun-dappled day when suddenly, two men slammed into them from behind. Before she and Eugenie could regain their footing, they’d taken Dee.
With a look at Eugenie, she broke into a run, following George who was in hot pursuit of the two men. Dee was not making it easy, either, kicking, biting and screaming as they raced with her across the park green.
One of the men had let go of the little girl when George caught up to him and began using his cane like a sword to bash him from all directions. Charlotte and Col’s French landlady held up their skirts in the wild chase that ensued. Eugenie was faster and jumped onto the back of the man clutching Dee.
When Dee wrenched away and ran toward Charlotte, she picked up the first branch she could find on the ground and slammed the wood over and over at the man’s head until Eugenie jumped down from his back and pulled a dagger from within one of her boots. When she slashed at his face, he staggered away with blood running down his forehead and screaming such horrible threats that Charlotte was tempted to cover Dee’s ears.
The first man being thrashed by George shouted to the other and the two of them left the park on a run.
Dee’s eyes were wide with excitement and fear. “My Papa is going to find those awful men and make them wish they’d never done that,” she whispered to Charlotte when she knelt down to make sure the child hadn’t suffered any injuries. Charlotte opened her arms wide, and Dee collapsed inside with tears running down her cheeks. As she cradled the child in her arms, she vowed that whoever those animals were, she’d personally ensure Captain Eleanor Goodrum would make them pay for terrifying Col’s child.
16
Col sat in Captain El’s office with Charlotte by his side. “We need your help,” he said simply. “I’ll do anything to protect Dee.”
El tipped her head and gave him a long look. “You are in no position to beg favors, since you still haven’t delivered what I demanded for introducing you to my chess mistress.” She pointed to Charlotte, who sat pale and wide-eyed in the aftermath of nearly losing Col’s daughter to the vicious hectors in the park.
“What did you promise her in return for meeting me?” Charlotte demanded, suddenly agitated.
El answered for him. “He promised to deliver your former handler and torturer for punishment.”
Charlotte turned to Col and with a shaky voice said, “The two of you had no right planning revenge on my behalf behind my back.” She hung her head for a moment. “That monster is my problem. If revenge is to be taken, it should be mine, not yours…or yours.” She pointed to both El and Col in turn, and then remained silent.
“Someone is trying to hurt my daughter. I have my suspicions, but I can’t be sure who is at the bottom of trying to take her from the park this afternoon. Until I can discover who is responsible, I need to put Dee somewhere safe, out of harm’s way.”
“And what do you want from me?” El held out her hands. I am the last person who should be responsible for a child. Wait,” El snapped at them. “If she’s in so much danger, why have you left her alone to come here?”
Charlotte’s face flushed a deep crimson and she spoke so low, El asked her to repeat herself. “I said she’s with Obadiah and the other guards. I…I didn’t think you’d mind, just for a few minutes, until we can make a plan to keep her safe.”
El broke out into a throaty laugh. “And Obadiah agreed to watch over a babe? Just like that?”
She motioned to the two guards at her door. “Have him bring her in. I have to meet this child.”
The minute Obadiah poked his head around the door to explain, Dee rushed in on her own. “Are you the pirate queen George told me about? Have you ever wheel-hauled anyone? George says they do that all the time in the Royal Navy.”
El calmly looked down at Dee and gave Col and Charlotte a wicked smile before she proceeded to tick off answers to Dee’s endless questions. “Yes, I suppose I am a pirate, but I’ve never been the queen of anything. I’ve never had to ‘wheel-haul’ anyone, but I’ve strongly considered ‘keel-hauling’ a few naughty sailors in my time.”
