“Do you have someone who can guard this room?”
“Patrick—”
“I do,” the man said, cutting Sophie off.
“Excellent, see he is armed, and I will pay him upon my return.”
“I’ll see to it at once, my lord.”
“Where was this place you were taken to?” Patrick said after the man had left.
“You can’t?—”
“Sophie, we are finishing this tonight. Tell me the directions.”
“We never deviated from the road you found us on,” Amelia said.
“Barton,” Sophie said reluctantly. “The name on the sign at the end of the driveway said Barton.”
“If you will bathe next door, Amelia, and then sleep in here with Sophie,” Patrick said.
“Of course.” She shot Sophie a look and then left. Stephen followed, muttering something about checking on the horses.
“I don’t want you to go after Jack Spode,” Sophie said when they were alone.
Patrick dropped down before her, his hand cupping her face while he studied every inch.
“We will not live with those men out there somewhere, wondering if and when they will strike again. I want you safe, my love. Surely you understand I must do this to achieve that.”
She nodded, and he watched the first tear fall. His brave girl had been to hell and back tonight, and finally she was done. Her barriers were down, and she had no strength left.
“If Jack Spode is as badly wounded as you say he was, then that is one man less we will have to deal with. But I must get to Dutton before he flees, as surely he will if he knows you and Amelia have escaped.”
“Promise you will come back to me,” she whispered, pressing her lips to his. “I don’t want to live without you.”
“You won’t have to.”
Their lips clung together in a long kiss, and then he rose and left the room.
CHAPTER 47
Fueled with rage, Patrick galloped beside Stephen down the dark road.
“There,” he said as he saw the sign. Slowing, he moved closer and saw the wordBarton.
Turning into the drive, they walked up it. Taking the right-hand fork before they reached the stone house, they found the stables.
Silently, both men dismounted and tethered their horses. Moving into the stables, Patrick heard voices.
“The women have gone, and Turner and Neville said they weren’t hanging around now that he’s badly injured. The nob says he’ll pay us to find the girls, but I say we get out of here, too, because Spode won’t make it is my guess.”
“We ain’t been paid yet.”
Patrick walked into the room with his pistol. “Get on your knees.”
They made quick work of tying the men up and gagging them. After checking the stables for more men, they moved to the house through the trees.
The front door stood open, and a carriage was outside.
