His sister didn’t hesitate, just gathered the still sobbing Samantha up in her arms and left.
“Will you answer my question?” Warwick tightened his grip on the man’s hair.
“Rot in hell.”
“Very well.” Warwick rose and placed one boot on his fingers. The howl of pain echoed around the room. “Give me his name.” He bent to put his face inches from the man, which increased his weight.
“D-don’t have a name! Never gave it!”
Warwick eased his foot up as he looked at the others in the room. Large men, taking up all the space.
“Did he help you kidnap Lady Samantha?”
Warwick put all his weight on those fingers when the man didn’t answer.
“No! A-a friend.”
“Who paid you to do this?” He didn’t answer fast enough, so Warwick applied pressure again. “Description, now.”
“Dark haired, average height,” he cried.
“Anything distinguishing about him?”
“No!”
“He’s telling the truth,” Dev said.
“I know.” Warwick released him and cursed loudly.
“What the hell is going on? It has to be the same people who made the earlier attempt, surely?” Cam said.
“I don’t know, but there won’t be a third,” Warwick growled.
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
Warwick had found himself in the carriage with Dev, Wolf, and Cam after they left that room, having extracted everything they could from the man. Ash had gone to get a Bow Street Runner to take him away. His friend had unfortunately escaped.
“We are going to meet in James’s study,” Dev said. “This cannot be allowed to continue.”
“Agreed, but what I want to know is why Samantha, Dorrie, and Somer were there in that area. My understanding was they were taking tea with Ellen Nightingale,” Cam said.
“I have no idea, but we will get answers,” Dev said, looking every inch the lord he was.
“Wolf and I saw Nathan Deville today,” Warwick said, remembering then what they’d been told earlier. “He informed me he was at a tavern at midnight two nights past. He said a lady bumped into him, and her voice had sounded familiar to him. He’d not seen her clearly, as she wore a cloak, hood up. But his belief was it could have been Samantha.”
“What?” Dev looked shocked, as did Cam. “What possible reason could she have to be there?”
“We don’t know, and it may not have been her, but Nathan was disturbed enough to speak of it,” Wolf said.
“And now I will tell you that the same night I was returning home late to my lodging—”
“Which you should not be living in,” Dev muttered.
“And saw a woman wearing a cloak whose voice I thought was Samantha,” Warwick continued, ignoring his brother. “She was climbing into a hackney I had just stepped from. I yelled for her to stop, but she thrust money at the driver, and then spoke in an Irish accent which had me doubting it was her. The hackney then left before I could see her face.
“I don’t understand why she would be there or where Nathan saw her?” Dev said.
When the carriage stopped, they were still grappling with why Samantha would be out at night alone.
