“Shealbhúgo tapa!”Georgie called.
Immediately Murphy sat back, the man’s leg firmly in his mouth. The intruder wasn’t going anywhere. He was too busy screaming and trying to ward off Hattie’s final blows, his arms over his head. From the direction of the stables Georgie could hear reinforcements trundling her way.
She could barely breathe by the time she reached the little group. Her first priority was to grab hold of Lully and make sure she was safe. She did it as soon as she re-sheathed her knife.
“He tried to nab her!” Hattie cried, giving the man’s other leg a kick for good measure as Georgie clutched her little girl to her. “Right out of my hand!”
Murphy growled and shook that leg, sending up another whimper of pain from the man. Georgie could almost feel sorry for him. She saw that blood stained his leg.
“I kicked him too, Mama!” Lully announced, trying to pull from her mother’s arms to deliver another blow.
Georgie held on, just in case. “I believe Murphy has this well in hand, my heart. Stay here with Hattie, please. I must speak to the man.”
She had only taken two steps when the rest of her staff arrived, yelling and threatening and bristling with various weapons. Georgie held them all off.
“Thank you so much,” she said, handing Lully into Hattie’s care. “If you’ll wait a minute until I can find out what is going on.”
But when she turned the kidnapper over, it was to receive another unpleasant surprise.
“Jem? Jem Collins?!”
The young son of her parents’ head groom tried to move but subsided quickly with Murphy’s renewed growl. “Miss,” the boy pleaded. “My leg. I fear it’s broke.”
“Éasca as,” she murmured. “Do not move, Jem, or it will go worse for you.”
Murphy gave her a doleful look but sat back, the leg freed.
“Balach cróga,”she murmured the praise with a smile, ruffling the dog’s head. Then she simply pointed to Lully and the dog walked over to stand right by her.
“Now then, Jem Collins,” Georgie said, hands on hips. “What is this about?”
By now the boy was weeping outright. If she remembered, he was all of about eighteen, a good worker and as upright as an oak. She simply couldn’t understand.
“He told me…he…said that me dad would be...turned out without...reference...” He hiccupped and swiped his face with his sleeve.
“Sit up, Jem,” she said.
He did, his face down, his shoulders still shaking with suppressed sobs. Georgie could feel Adam coming to a halt behind her. She almost expected him to try to take over, but he didn’t.
“Who told you that?” she asked Jem.
Jem gave her a terrified look but couldn’t hold her gaze. The minute he looked away, she knew. She thought she might be sick. The Marquess of Wyndham had told him that. Her father.
“But that’s absurd,” she protested. “Why would my father kidnap my child, when he would just be bringing her back to the Abbey when Jack and Olivia are there?”
She was met with another stricken silence. Georgie couldn’t breathe. She simply could not…
“You were working with someone else?” Adam asked behind her.
Jem nodded. “Carriage up by the lane. They’re to wait for me.”
Georgie didn’t move. “I see.”
She felt Adam shift, as if working up to another question. Casting a quick warning look over her shoulder, she saw him nod to her, acknowledging her authority. It was all she could do to maintain her composure. Forcing herself to calm so she didn’t further frighten Lully, she crouched before her daughter.
“Well, Sprite,” she said. “You have had an adventure. I need you to do me a big favor now. Will you take Miss Hattie up to the nursery? She has had a severe fright, you know. She thought she had lost you. You were both very brave. I imagine this man will never think to tackle two such heroines again. But Miss Hattie needs a cup of tea. I need to see to Jem here, and then I will be up, all right?”
“And Murphy? He was ‘mazing!”
