“It makes me sad, is all. I never had a chance to thank him forsaving my life. Or his friend. Who knows where they sailed to? Donovan never said—”
“Nor will he,” Linette gently interrupted her. “We must go, truly. Donovan and Corie might be home now, and I doubt Squire Tanner would appreciate us being here. This is his land, his cottage. I can’t believe you used a rock to break the lock on the door. We’ll have to pay for it, you know.”
Estelle gave a smallshrug. “I wanted to see the inside again…needed to see it. Prince Valentin must be in terrible danger. Why else would Donovan insist we never speak of him again…like he’d never helped me and Luther. Like he didn’t even exist. It’s all so strange, Linette.”
She nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly with her sister, but growing more impatient with each passing moment. She slid her arm through Estelle’sto draw her up from the stool. “Please, sweet, we must go—”
“Did you hear that, Linette?” Estelle broke in, jumping up to fly to the window overlooking the bluff. “Horses! I can’t see them from here. Do you think Prince Valentin might have returned?”
Linette didn’t answer her sister’s fanciful query, feeling like her heart had lodged in her throat.
It couldn’t be Adam from the sound of at leastfour horses neighing and snorting not far from the front door of the cottage. Oh, Lord, and they had broken into the place, too! How would that look? What were they to do?
Yet she’d no sooner moved to the door when it burst open, three rough-looking men she’d never seen before crowding into the place…followed by Squire Tanner, his ponderous weight preventing him from moving as swiftly. He lookedfrom Estelle to Linette, clearly stunned to see them.
“Miss Easton?”
“I…I can explain, Squire, truly,” Linette began, but got no further when one of the men lunged at her to grab her arm.
“Looking for someone, mademoiselle?”
A Frenchman, she thought with rising panic, his swarthy face so close to hers that his fetid breath made her flinch. He only laughed and squeezed her arm cruelly as sheshook her head.
“No, we were curious about the cottage, is all—”
“I say, sir, I’ve no idea why the young ladies are here, but unhand her at once!” Squire Tanner blurted with outrage. “You asked to see the place that I leased to your friends, but if you look around, as you said you wanted to do, they’ve left nothing behind—”
“Silence, you bloated fool!”
Linette gasped as Squire Tanner was struckso violently from behind by one of the other men that he crumpled to the floor in an unconscious heap. Meanwhile, the third intruder went to grab Estelle, who stood with her back pressed to the window, clearly terrified.
“No, leave her be!” Linette cried out, only to find herself thrust down upon the stool even as Estelle burst into tears.
“I’d wager that you have a fine tale to tell me,” gratedher captor in his heavily accented English, still painfully gripping Linette’s arm. “Like the squire said, we’re looking for our friends. We’ve gone from port to port along the English coast for nearly a month, doing our best to find the two, but never a clue until now. It’s no surprise to me that such lovely chits as yourselves would have been charmed by the prince. He’s a handsome devil, isn’the?”
“I—I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Linette glanced at her sister, shaking her head slightly to try and warn Estelle from saying a word. “Let us go at once! The rest of our party is surely looking for us—oh!”
Her captor had yanked her up from the stool, his expression so ominous that Linette’s knees went weak from fear.
“Is that your sister, mademoiselle? Must be, she favorsyou so. If you don’t tell me what you know, I’ll give my man license to have a bit of fun with her right there on that four-poster. Now talk!”
***
Adam pulled up on the reins and stopped Samson behind the carriage, a pair of footmen stepping forward to help the duke and duchess disembark.
The last thing he wanted was to be there, and as soon as he let them know he’d seen Linette and Estelleout on the heath during his ride, he’d make his excuses and go. He didn’t think Estelle shouldn’t be riding yet, just not too much, too soon. He would have told them at the crossroad if the coach hadn’t rumbled into motion, leaving him to reluctantly follow behind—
“Ais, Yer Grace, I thought you’d never arrive home! ‘Ee told me to come straightaway if I had news for ‘ee, an’ I did!”
Adam dismountedfrom his horse as a white-bearded gentleman looking every bit a Cornish sea captain rushed out the front door toward Donovan.
“I rode here to tell ‘ee I overheard a couple of my patrons saying they’d seen Squire Tanner escorting three strangers out of the village. A crude-looking lot, from the sound of it. Must have come in on a ship earlier today. Another patron piped up that he’d seen the threeasking questions along the docks about the men they were looking for, one older with dark hair an’ the younger, fair. They must have come upon the squire whiling away the afternoon at his favorite tavern. It’s the ones ‘ee feared might show up, isn’t it, Yer Grace?”
Grim-faced, Donovan nodded. “Go on, Oliver, anything else?”
“The squire was telling them the two had leased a cottage from him,and then left without a trace two weeks past. But they wanted to see the place anyway. Ais, they might be there now!”
“The cottage overlooking the beach,” Adam said with a sudden sense of unease, drawing closer. He knew from treating Estelle about the young man who had saved her and that she believed him in danger, though Donovan had sworn him to silence. “Only a short ride from the heath—”
“What is it, Whitaker?” Donovan demanded, though the moment he’d said it, he seemed to guess Adam’s answer from the alarm in his eyes. So had Corie, who stood beside her husband and clutched his arm tightly.
“I met Her Grace’s sisters not far from there. They’d gone for a ride together.”
“Oh, God, no.” Corie’s face stricken, she glanced from Adam to Donovan. “Do you think they went to the cottage?”
“Get my horse, now!” Donovan roared to the footmen, who hastened away to do his bidding. Then he gestured for Adam to follow him into the house. “I’ve weapons enough for both of us in the library. Do you have qualms about using a pistol, Dr. Whitaker?”
“None,” Adam answered grimly. He strode after Donovan, cursing himself for the wounded pride that had made him ride away from Linette and Estelleinstead of accompanying them safely home.
God help him, if any harm should come to them…
