When they pulled to a halt, Reginald barely managed to lower the step before she jumped down to the road. “If he’s not inside, we’ll need to go to Ludwig Bros. Shipping,” she instructed. “Do you know where that is?”
Her coachman shook his head and looked back questioningly toward the two manservants. Of course, why would two footmen who’d spent most of their time working in Mayfair know where a shipping company’s offices might be?
It wasn’t fair but she couldn’t keep her irritation out of her voice.
“See what you can find out. I’ll be out in a moment.” Hearing the construction inside, she was hopeful she would find Ollie safely chatting with one of the workmen. “Someone around here must know where it is!”
The door swung open easily this time, and she noticed that the lock had been repaired. As she entered, the noise grew much louder.
One of the workers approached her almost instantly. “I’m sorry, ma’am, you can’t come in here. A lady like yourself oughtn’t be down here anyway.”
“I’m Lady Lydia Cockfield, and I am one of the directors of this project.” She really did not have time for this. “But I’mlooking for a young boy, about so high, dark hair and violet eyes. Have you seen him?”
He turned away from her without answering. “Hey, Nick! Any violet-eyed urchins around here today?” He half-laughed until the other man pointed toward one of the backdoors.
“Went outside!”
“Thank you,” Lydia called.
“Lady, you really don’t want to be walking around out there. Why don’t you go to Lord Tempest’s office?”
“I’ll only be a moment.” Lydia pushed her way past the man acting as a guard, despite his protests behind her. “Ollie?” she shouted over the din just in case he was hiding inside somewhere.
When she arrived at the door that led outside, she was pleased to find it already open. Some of the debris left over from the days when the warehouse had been in operation had been removed, but an indescribable stench remained.
“Ollie!”
She tiptoed over a few puddles, skirting around mounds of rubbish, and had almost given up when she caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye.
“Ollie!” She increased her pace, grimacing when her foot landed in some of the foul-smelling water.
When she rounded the corner, the sight that met her eyes sucked the breath out of her. Robbed of his jacket, Ollie was hunched over, clutching his stomach and moaning while a larger boy had hold of the back of his shirt.
Lydia approached and Ollie glanced up, face bloodied, with pleading eyes. “Go back!” he shouted.
But of course, she couldn’t leave him like this! “What on earth is going on here?”
“Go on!” Panic entered his eyes.
What had they done to him?
“Leave him alone!” she ordered, rushing forward.
“I wouldn’t if I was you.” Steel-like arms caught her from behind before she’d taken more than a few steps. “This ‘er? This the lady tha’ was wif Tempest?”
The other boy—the one who, with the same violet eyes, couldn’t be anyone other than Ollie’s brother—jerked at Ollie and glanced up.
“It ain’t her!” Ollie answered.
“Shut up, ya little liar,” Buck snarled at Ollie before glancing back to whoever had a hold of Lydia. “Yeah, but why would we wanna mess wif ‘er?”
“Help m-mph!“ Lydia barely managed to shout before the villain holding her captive smothered her mouth with his foul-smelling hand. In response, she squirmed and fought with all her might to twist away. When she tried to bite him, he pinched her lips together with his fingers. He seemed rather experienced at this sort of thing.
“Hold still, ya bloomin’ wench.” His arm tightened, almost vicelike. Fighting like this wasn’t going to do her any good, and what little she’d done already had left her struggling to draw air in through her nose.
“If this ‘ere is Tempest’s woman, Farley might find her useful in gettin' back at ‘im.”
“She ain’t though.” Ollie jerked out of Buck’s hold. “She’s jus’ one o’ the birds buildin’ the orphanage. She ain’t gonna be no use to Farley. He’ll just be mad at ya for messing with one o’ the nobs.”
