“I think this is it,” Freddy whispered, pointing at the fencepost.
Gabriel held the lamp close to the whitewashed wood. Seconds later, a blue cross flared into sight. His muscles tautening, he said in a low voice, “Excellent work. I’m proud of you, son.”
Freddy’s smile was wobbly. “Are we going to get Thea now, Papa?”
Gabriel eyed the brick building beyond the fence. A number of such small country manors were spaced along the banks of the canal. This one was partially hidden by trees, the crumbling stone a spectral silver in the full moon. No lights shone from the windows, and the property had an eerie, abandoned feel. A place where ghosts lurked. Behind the house, water flowed as dark and steady as a vein.
“She’s in the basement?” he said.
“Yes, Papa. To the right side of the house. I got out through the venting hole, but I don’t think you’ll fit through,” Freddy said in a worried voice.
“I’ll figure it out.” He turned to the others. “Strathaven, take care of Freddy, will you?”
The duke nodded gravely. “He’ll be safe with me.”
“Ready, Marius?” Gabriel said.
His comrade nodded, pistol in hand. “Let’s finish this once and for all.”
“Papa, you’ll be careful won’t you?” Freddy said with a quiver.
He cupped his son’s cheek. “Always. Now be a good lad and keep watch with His Grace. We’ll be back in no time.”
He jerked his chin at Marius, and the two of them set off. They crossed over the fence, approaching the house by the field rather than the pebbled drive. They moved stealthily, in the old, coordinated pattern, covering one another as they neared the house. They paused behind a hedgerow. Through the leaves, Gabriel had a view of the right side of the manor and saw the bushes Freddy had described. The hole must be behind them.
He made the gestures.I’m going in. You cover.
In answer, Marius nodded and cocked his pistol.
Gabriel rounded the hedge and sprinted toward the side of the house. He made it to the bushes and crouched, parting the brush. The hole was there, just as Freddy had said.
His blades drawn, he called softly, “Thea?”
Silence. His heart raged.If anything’s happened to her…
A rustling. Chains clanking. Seconds later, he heard her tremulous reply.
“Gabriel?”
Relief shot through him. “By the window, love.”
Her face surfaced from the darkness, her eyes wide. “Gabriel, you must run. He’s back—”
He heard a thunderous crash. Thea whipped around, screaming, yanked from sight an instant later. In her place, metal glinted, and Gabriel threw himself to the side just as a blast came from the hole, the shot tearing through the bushes. He rolled to a crouch, pressed against the wall of the house, knives ready; he couldn’t let them fly for fear of hitting Thea. He heard scrambling from within, Thea crying,Let me go, the sounds of her being dragged from the room.
“Marius, take the front. No one gets out,” Gabriel shouted. “He has Thea!”
Marius was already clearing the hedgerow toward the front entrance.
Gabriel raced to the rear of the house. The windows were shuttered, preventing him from seeing inside. Dead brush surrounded the courtyard, trunks piled upon the graveled path that led to a small dock some fifty yards away. A barge bobbed on the dark waves. Cicero’s escape route.
Over my dead body.
He heard sudden blasts of gunfire from the front. Marius at work.
The rear door opened, two cutthroats charging out, their guns blazing. Gabriel ducked the fire, rolling smoothly behind the trunks. In the instant his enemies took to reload, he aimed, releasing his blades simultaneously. The men fell to the gravel. Gabriel paused to yank his weapons from their unmoving bodies before continuing on.
He crept through the open door, his senses on high alert. A room of empty shelves. No movement here. Footsteps overhead. The floor above. His blood pumping hot and fast, he headed out of the room toward the sounds.
