Hugh handed him the coins and held up one more. “Is the gentleman staying here too? Did you see him or the woman?”
The proprietor shook his head. “Didn’t say where they was.” He took the coin with a nod and turned back to remove tankards from the shelf. “That’s all I can tell you. Try the inn.”
Hugh nodded. “Thanks.”
He went back out to Luke. “We’ve had a bit of luck. Looks like we might have found Rattray’s coachman and groom. They’re at the tavern and plan to put up there for the night. Leaving first thing in the morning to collect their client and his lady, so says the tavern owner. Rattray must have Lucy at the inn.” He jumped in and drove the horses down the street. “I’ll go and deal with Rattray while you drive around to the stables.”
He was close to finding Lucy. He could feel it in his bones. But had Rattray ravished her?Lucy!He recoiled in horror. Why else would he go to all this trouble to snatch her away? And against her will. She’d told Hugh she didn’t like him. Was the man madly in love with her? Men did stupid things for love, but Rattray didn’t seem the type. Did he believe those irritating rumors about Lucy being an heiress? He should have acted to quash them before they’d spread. If Rattray had hurt one hair on Lucy’s head, he would be swiftly dispatched from this world.
Hugh held out a coin as he questioned the innkeeper. But the man shook his untidy head of black hair. “Not staying here, they’re not, milord.”
Deeply disappointed, Hugh booked a room. As he and Luke went into the dining room, Hugh told his friend of his revised plan. “Rattray and Lucy must be staying somewhere in the area. We can grab a few hours’ sleep and be up before cock’s crow to follow their coach.”
Luke yawned. “Sleep sounds irresistibly attractive.”
In the inn bedchamber he shared with Luke, Hugh lay down and set his internal clock, something he’d mastered during his years in the army, to wake before dawn. And sure enough, he opened his eyes well before a glow lit the horizon.
He shook Luke’s shoulder. “I’m awake,” Luke said, and he leapt up from the bed.
“We’ll put the horses in the traces and bring it around. Then have some coffee at the tavern while we wait for these men.”
When their carriage was brought round, the tavern had opened its doors, and the enticing smells of frying bacon and coffee wafted out.
In the dining room, a large, gray-haired man with a rugged face and a lean, younger man with a weak one, sat eating eggs.
Hugh and Luke drank coffee and ate some toast, then paid and went out to wait in the phaeton, a little way down the street
Not long afterward, the men’s shabby coach rattled around the corner from the rear of the stables and took off down the street.
Hugh urged the horses into a trot, and they followed the coach at a discreet distance.
The coachman turned off onto a rutted track and the badly sprung vehicle careened down it. Hugh still followed at a distance. He pulled the horses up before the bend, and he and Luke continued on foot.
The track ended at a rudimentary timber hunting lodge, with the coach waiting outside, the door to the hut open.
Rattray could be seen ordering Lucy to move. She looked scared and exhausted and was dragging her feet.
“Remember when you said I should tackle the servants and you would get Rattray?” Hugh whispered.
“Yes.”
“Forget it. I’ll go in and deal with Rattray,” he said grimly. “The coachman and the groom might choose not to get involved.”
Luke took out his pistol. “I’ll have a pleasant chat with them.”
Hugh intended to give Luke a few minutes to make sure they didn’t kick up a fuss, but the rogues jumped up onto the box and turned the coach around, rattling away down the track.
“I’ll make sure they leave,” Luke yelled, bolting down the track in pursuit.
Rattray appeared at the door. “What in hell?”
“Good morning, Rattray,” Hugh said, brandishing his pistol. “Shall we talk inside?”
“Why the devil are you here, Dorchester? This isn’t your affair.”
“Abducting a lady? I think you’ll find it is.”
“You are interfering in an elopement.”
