“He did.” Heywood rubbed his jaw. “I’m not worried about my sister, Gwyn—she and my brothers can hold their own against a regiment of Malets. But Douglas feared that you weren’t so well protected.”
Kitty was no longer paying attention to him. “Where are we going?”
When she leaned forward to gaze out the window, Cass did the same. She saw nothing but dustings of white over dark shapes of bushes and trees—no lights from the house, no flat contours of the lawn.
They were decidedly not making the circuit of the drive at Welbourne Place. What was more, the coach had picked up speed now that it had reached the main road.
Cass stared hard at Heywood. “What are you about, sir? We are leaving Welbourne Place entirely!”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Forgive me, ladies, but I felt it best to whisk Miss Nickman away from Lionel Malet as quickly as possible and by any means at hand. The man is dangerous.”
Kitty just sat there incredulous, but Cass couldn’t stay silent in the face of such blatant male arrogance. “You’reabductingus?Now?In the middle of a ball?”
“Not ‘abducting.’ Rescuing. Malet was planning to carry Kitty off to Gretna Green just as soon as he could get her into his waiting carriage. Tell me, Cass—under the circumstances, what wouldyouhave done?”
Chapter 3
Heywood figured he was about to get an earful, judging from how Cass was curling her hands into fists in her lap.
“I wouldn’t have abducted a couple of ladies, to be sure,” Cass bit out.
“I’m not abducting you!” he practically shouted. “I am intervening. Malet gave me no other choice. The conversation I overheard between him and his coachman made it clear that Malet planned on leaving with Kitty as soon as he found her inside and could lure her into his coach. Indeed, Malet’s plan was only foiled because I got my equipage into position sooner than he did.”
That seemed to stun both ladies into silence. The fact that Kitty in particular said nothing made Heywood even more cautious. Kitty might actually fancy herself in love with Malet. And though the woman might not know much about Malet’s true character, it had not escaped Heywood’s notice that she hadn’t sensed the man’s perfidy the way Cass seemed to have.
Then again, Kitty seemed nothing like Cass. Hard to believe they were cousins. In appearance, Kitty reminded Heywood of every debutante he’d ever met—cut from the same cloth as their mothers. With her honey hair and perfect posture, she had that porcelain-doll fragility that most men wanted . . . as if she might shatter if someone so much as touched her. In his youth, he’d been certain he wanted that sort of woman: the kind he could protect, the kind that made him feel like a man.
But years on the battlefield had taught him to appreciate a woman who could stand at his side and hold her own with the enemy, who had some flesh on her bones and some fire in her eyes. Like Cass, actually.
Except that Kitty had been the one who’d written the letters he had so enjoyed. That was the main reason he was interested in her. Besides, Cass had just made it clear she wasn’t an heiress. And he had to marry one if he was to stay in England and nurture the small, run-down estate Grandmother had bequeathed to Father and which he had left tohim.
Heywood was eager to give it all the work it needed. He was ready to leave the Hussars, to marry and start a family. Despite his success at soldiering, he didn’t actuallylikeit. The pain and death seemed endless—Britain had been fighting the French for as long as he’d been in the army, which was going on eleven years now.
Besides, it had been Father’s wish, not his, that he advance in the Hussars. Now that Father was gone . . . He shook off the pain of that.
Cass released a heavy breath. “So your plan was to abduct Kitty yourself in order to avoid having Mr. Malet abduct Kitty? And I’m merely along for the ride?”
When she put it like that, it did not sound like the best plan he had ever come up with. “Can we please stop calling it an abduction? It’s a rescue, anintervention. You were with her, so I had to take you both. Besides, I couldn’t travel with her alone without ruining her reputation. With two of you, the matter is less critical.”
“You think so, do you?” Cass said, clearly irate. “Once my aunt realizes we’re gone, she’ll enlist people to find us, which in itself will ruin us.”
“Yes, exactly!” Kitty cried. “I can’t be ruined . . . I justcan’tbe! What will Mama say? What will ourfriendssay?”
Great. Now Cass was stirring up her cousin’s ire. “Your mother won’t say anything to anyone until she knows for certain what happened. And I made sure Malet’s coachman knew my name, so she’ll hear the truth before anyone can alert the other guests.”
“And what truth is that?” Cass asked.
“That the two of you are with me. That Douglas sanctioned my intervention. That she has nothing to worry about. I’m sure she’ll recognize my name the moment the coachman tells her of it.”
Cass rolled her eyes. “Then what’s to keep Malet from riding after us once he realizes that you’re behind this so-called intervention?”
He ignored her obvious skepticism. “First of all, he won’t realize it right away. I gagged his coachman and tied him up. Then I found an unattended carriage near the end of the line and deposited the coachman inside. I figured the last to arrive at the ball would also be the last to leave.”
“How quick-thinking of you,” Cass said with an arch smile. “Clearly you have experience at kidnapping women.”
“Beginner’s luck.” He refused to correct her yet again on the subject of hisrescuingKitty. “My point is it could be hours before the coachman is found. By then we’ll be safe at Armitage Hall.”
Kitty sat up straight. “You’re not taking us to Gretna Green?”
