At last, her client withdrew a document in triumph. “Here’s your map. It may not be perfectly to scale, but it’s as close as I can provide. Is there anything else you need?”
“Thank you.” Elizabeth folded the map carefully and tucked it into a hidden pocket Tommy had sewn into her skirt. “One last item. Have you a conveyance I can borrow?”
“Didn’t you come in a carriage?” Miss Oak asked with confusion. “You placed it in rented mews down the street.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “I was hoping to arrive at the castle in something a little less extravagant. I don’t want to tip my hand before I’ve had the opportunity to introduce myself.”
“Well,” Miss Oak said doubtfully, “I usually walk wherever I need to go, but we can borrow a simple pony cart, if that’s something you think you could use.”
“Oh, I can use it.” Elizabeth smiled her cobra smile.
A pony cart was perfect. The earl would never see her coming.
6
Another day, another batch of correspondence. Stephen opened the newest missive from Reddington with a sigh. Did sons of viscounts truly havenothingelse to do all day but scribble increasingly bloodthirsty threats to the earl next door?
Stephen skimmed the letter. Reddington was demanding immediate occupancy of Castle Harbrook grounds, so that he and his soldiers could practice their formations in time for a public spectacle next month on 18 June.
“‘Consider this your official warning,’” Stephen read aloud. “‘We’re watching you. If you fail to hand over that deed… Mr. Reddington shall assume control by force, even if it means laying siege on his own castle.’”
Oh, for the love of God. Stephen wouldn’t fall for that twaddle. No spoiled lordling was choleric enough to storm his own castle.
“‘We’re watching you,’” Stephen repeated in aristocratic accents. “Of all the idle, idiotic threats…”
Reddington’s country estate did adjoin the castle property, but a dense strip of woods stretched between them. Reddington could station a man at every window of his resplendent manor, and at best all he would see was three acres of trees.
Nonetheless, the ominous tone was unsettling enough that Stephen peeked through a window to make certain Richard Reddington was not watching him.
No one was there.
“Don’t let that man under your skin,” he chided himself.
To prove he had no fear of Reddington’s empty threats, Stephen donned a nice evening coat and a matching black top hat. After disabling most of the protective modifications he’d made to the castle’s entryway, Stephen picked his way carefully to the front door and strode out onto the grass.
Whoosh.
An arrow immediately shot forth from the shadowed thicket of trees, spearing straight through the front of his hat with enough force to part his hair down the middle and send the black felt top hat flying backward.
With a yelp, Stephen dashed back inside the castle and slammed the enormous wooden door, grateful it was as thick as the length of his forearm. Penetrating this entrance would require a battering ram, not a bow and arrow.
Nonetheless, it was several moments before his frantic heartbeat returned to normal. And his arrow-punctured hat would never be waterproof again.
He scooped up the fallen hat and ripped the arrow from the felt, ruining both objects in the process. Curse his misguided attempt to help his cousin! Gritting his teeth, Stephen reentered the main quarters of the castle and stalked down the corridor toward the stairs leading up to his spy turret.
The butler intercepted him before Stephen could ascend the first step. “Did you have a nice breath of fresh air, my lord?”
“Did youseewhat happened?” Stephen exploded in disbelief. “That madman nearly took off my head!” He held up the two broken halves of the arrow.
McCarthy plucked the wooden pieces from Stephen’s hand. “I’ll add it to the kindling, my lord.”
“We shouldn’t have to worry about…” Stephen’s chest tightenedwith anxiety. It was one thing forhimto be inconvenienced due to yet another of his cousin’s zany schemes. It was quite another for the innocent servants’ lives to be in danger, all because their absentee employer promised their home to a madman. “Don’t step outside. Tell the others. It isn’t safe.”
“The entryway hasn’t been safe since the moment you arrived. No one can leave until you disarm the cobweb of—”
“No, not my machines. Richard Reddingtonshotat me. He may do the same to others. Please don’t put yourself in harm’s way.”
“I just returned from out of doors an hour ago,” McCarthy pointed out. “I delivered your correspondence.”
