“It’s a map to his treasure stores, apparently.”
“A treasure map? Well, that’s exciting,” Lady Waverly said.
“Don’t be a ninny, dear. It’s the reason Vivian has been kidnapped,” Lady Garrison said sharply to her sister.
“Captain Jamieson was here?” his mother asked.
“Yes, he apparently has been confined in a French prison these past six months. When he got out, he came straight to England to find Vivian. The butler at Dunmore House told him you all were here.”
“Can’t believe he’d set foot on English soil again,” muttered Lady Garrison.
“But who is this Dubois? Another spy?” Caroline asked.
Gabrielle finally seemed to snap out of her daze. “He is an evil man. He killed my whole family.”
Everyone gasped at Gabrielle’s statement. The shocking statement caused his stomach to roil. The poor girl. “How old were you?”
“I was seventeen. Dubois wanted the portion of my father’s lands set aside for my dowry. He offered marriage to me, but I refused. He was so much older than I. My father turned him away, but Dubois caught me alone in the stable one day and tried to rape me, saying once he ruined me my father would have to agree to the marriage because no one else would want me. Luckily, my father and older brother came in and found him trying to get under my skirts. They beat him senseless and tossed him off the property.
“But several weeks later Dubois came back with his crewmen and set the house on fire in the middle of the night while everyone slept. I had stayed with my grandmother at her cottage on the bayou that night. We could see the fire through the trees from her back porch. We went running toward the house. But it was engulfed in flames when we arrived. Dubois and his men sat on horseback, just watching the flames. My grandmother dragged me all the way back to her house.”
“Oh, my dear, what a horrifying ordeal.” His mother came to sit next to her.
“Don’t you see? I know how evil Dubois is. They must get to Vivi before he gets her aboard his ship.” Gabrielle burst into fresh tears and buried her face against Andrew’s shirtfront.
“Jack will find her—don’t doubt he will do whatever it takes to get her back,” Andrew assured Gabrielle, holding her while her shoulders shook with quiet sobs.
****
Vivian woke to find herself in almost total darkness. Her eyes finally focused on the soft glow from dying embers in the fireplace. She listened for voices, but instead heard a low rumble of snoring through the door. It must be late. She raised her head a little, testing for the sharp pain she’d felt earlier. The pain had lessened from piercing to a dull thud.
Very carefully, she tried to sit up, no easy task with her hands tied at the wrists. She rolled onto her hands and knees, head swimming. Vivian closed her eyes briefly against the sensation. When she opened them again, her vision slowly cleared. Then she maneuvered so she sat upright. Along one wall a window displayed a full moon shining in the sky.
Thanks to the moonlight filtering in, she could see well enough to begin loosening the knots tying her ankles together. Fifteen frustrating minutes later, she had untied the knot and unwound the rope. Rubbing her chafed ankles in relief, she next tried to wiggle her hands against the ropes at her wrists. They were bound too tightly. She ended up rubbing her skin so raw it began to bleed. Damn it to hell.
She glanced at the window again, and made her way to it slowly. Her head spun, but she must find some clue to her location.
Looking out into the night, she could see a stable yard below. It seemed as though they were in some rooms above the stables. She held her breath and pushed cautiously against the window. It swung open silently. She peered over the sill. It was too far down to climb out. Damn. If she yelled for help, she would wake her captors. Wait, if Jack were searching for her, surely they were going to stop at all the travel inns and ask if anyone had seen her. She needed to leave him a sign so he would know she was here. Her spirits buoyed momentarily, but then plummeted. How would he even know what road they were on? She crumpled to the floor, her head aching.
Well, it was the only plan she had at this point—she couldn’t give up. She viciously ripped at the purple silk overskirt of her gown, tearing a broad swath of fabric from the hem. Pushing past the pain throbbing in her head, she stood back up, and hung the section of skirt out the window. Catching just a few inches of fabric on the sill, she pulled the window shut to hold it in place. There, that should grab someone’s attention by morning. She hoped. Vivian leaned against the wall, then slid to the floor. Closing her eyes, she prayed Jack was searching for her.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Jack searched at every inn along the road to Portsmouth. They had been traveling for hours when they reached a small town near Guilford. They rode up to the Deerbought Arms around one in the morning, the stable yard silent but for the lonely hoot of a barn owl. A sleepy stable hand came stumbling out at the sound of horse hooves. Jack dismounted his intention to go inside the inn to ask the proprietor a few questions, when Morgan stopped him with a hand on his arm. His friend pointed at a window above the stable.
“Jack, look up there. What’s that bit of purple?” Jack turned to look up at the stable, and sure enough, they spied a strip of purple fabric hanging out a window. Vivian! It had to be her, clever girl. All the men dismounted and silently moved across the yard into the stables.
“Boy, who else is in the stable tonight?” Jamieson asked the stable hand in a low voice.
“Just me and the horses tonight, sir. Everyone else has gone home.”
“What’s upstairs? Above the stalls.”
“Just some empty rooms, used to be quarters for the stable master. But he up and got married and now he lives in a little house down the lane with his missus.”
Jamieson and Jack exchanged a look—this was it. It was the perfect place to hide her. Jack stalked silently up the stairs. At the top, there was a short hallway with one door. He pulled out his weapon, as did Winters and Jamieson. Morgan never used a gun if he could help it, his brawn usually enough to subdue just about anyone. He rolled his shoulders back, and with two running steps, he broke down the door.
Inside, two men jumped up from the floor where they had been sleeping. With a roar, one man ran at Morgan like a raging bull. But Morgan leaned down and easily flipped the man right over one shoulder. The man landed with a thud on his back, and Morgan used a foot to put pressure on his throat. “Don’t even think of moving.”
