“I don’t know,” Reeves said. “You don’t think he’ll shoot her right away if he sees I have you with me instead of Emma?”
“I don’t know that I’d worry about that. He didn’t put anything in his note about coming alone, after all,” Norman said. “He said you were to come, and he said you were to bring Emma. He said twenty-four hours. Those were the demands. Nothing more. I could even drive the carriage. Then he wouldn’t realize you’d brought an extra person. He would simply believe you had come yourself, as he asked and had needed a driver to bring you.”
Reeves hesitated. Hewasgoing to need a driver, with his usual man being out of commission. “Very well,” he said. “You can come along, and you can drive the carriage. That way, if anything should happen to me, you’ll be able to get Bridget out.”
“Is something bad going to happen?” Emma’s voice quavered.
Reeves spun around. He hadn’t realized she was still following them. “Emma, you shouldn’t be here. Go up to your room.”
“Is the bad man going to hurt you because you didn’t do what he said?” Emma wanted to know. “Because if he is, Papa, then youhaveto bring me with you. I can’t lose my father. I would have to go live at the orphanage.”
“Of course you wouldn’t,” Reeves said. “Aunt Agnes is still here. She would look after you. And Uncle Gareth would help as well.”
“Papa!” Emma sounded downright distraught.
“You need to listen to her,” Norman said. “She’s talking sense, Reeves.”
“Don’t you start. I’ve already made my decision.”
“And I’m telling you it’s a bad decision.”
“Norman, I’m not going to bring my daughter into danger! I’m certainly not going to surrender her to whoever this person is. I can’t believe we’re even talking about this.”
“I’m not suggesting you hand her over,” Norman said. “Of course, I’m not suggesting that, Reeves. But you need to think about what you’re doing before you make a decision. Has it occurred to you that this might be a ploy to get you out of the house? We already know that whoever kidnapped Emma is willing to break in here to try to get her back. With you gone, they might do so again. They know you’re the only thing that stopped them from laying hands on her last time. What would stop them this time? You can’t leave her here and assume that’s going to be safe, because it might not be.”
“Of course it’s safe. We have guards. We have staff. There are plenty of people here to protect Emma, even when I am gone. Don’t suggest that I’d leave her unguarded.”
“Papa,” Emma whispered, tugging his hand.
Reeves could have struck Norman in the face for saying that in front of Emma. “You’re frightening her.”
“I’m not trying to frighten her. I’m trying to wakeyouup. You need to think seriously about how you’re going to handle this, Reeves. You need to make a plan.”
“I don’t have time for this!”
“You have plenty of time for this,” Norman said sharply. “You were given twenty-four hours. Think about that for a moment. You don’t need twenty-four hours to get to Featherstone. In fair weather, you could make that journey in eight hours. The snow will make it take longer, but not that much longer. You have time tothinkbefore you jump in a carriage and set off.”
“The longer I wait, the greater the risk to Bridget,” Reeves said. “She’s alone right now with whoever this person is.”
“And he’s said he won’t hurt her for twenty-four hours!”
“No,” Reeves barked. “That isn’t what he said, Norman. He said he wouldn’tkillher for twenty-four hours. This is the same man who kidnapped Emma. Do you think she was unharmed by that, coming home covered in bruises the way she did? I wouldn’t leave anyone I loved in the clutches of that man.”
Norman darted a glance at him at the sound of the wordlove, but he didn’t say anything, and Reeves was grateful. He didn’t want to have to answer the question he was sure his friend would ask. He was nowhere near ready to try to explain his feelings for Bridget, and even if he had been, now certainly wasn’t the time for it.
“I don’t think he’ll do anything to her,” Norman said quietly.
“You can’t possibly know that.”
“No, I can’t, but I can make a reasonable guess at it. Think about it. Whatever he has against you is aboutyou, not about Bridget. He has no reason to harm her. He’s only taken her as a bargaining chip to use against you.”
“And do you think he had something against Emma?” Reeves demanded. “If his problem is with me, and he’s taking my loved ones away to punish me, why did he harm her? Unless he’s just the sort of man who lashes out against people for no real reason at all, because it gives him pleasure to hurt people.”
“And we can’t know,” Norman agreed. “But what we can do is put together a strong plan, so that when we come face-to-face with him, we’ll know what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it. And I say a part of that plan ought to include Emma.” He held up a hand. “Of course, I’m not suggesting you turn her over. I would never come to you with such an idea. I’m saying we bring her along and let the kidnapperthinkwe’re willing to play along with his schemes. If he thinks he’s defeated you, he’ll drop his guard, and then we’ll be able to get the better of him.”
“I don’t like this,” Reeves growled.
“I don’t expect you to. This man is threatening your family. Your loved ones,” Norman said gently. “And whoever he is, he seems to be doing it all out of a desire to cause harm to you personally.Of course, you’re ill at ease about it. But once we’ve confronted him, we’ll put a stop to all this. It will all be behind us.”
