In half a dozen strides, Curston was on her, and he felled her to the ground with a single blow. After that, though she struggled and it took all three of them, they gagged her and tied her, hands, and feet, and slung her over one of the horses.
“I do not have to tie you, Miss Beryl, do I? You will walk along with us without trouble?” The tone of Curston’s question made it a threat, and Beryl shook her head and then nodded it, her eyes wide in her pale face.
There were too many of them and they were too strong, so Cilla walked when she was told to walk. Beryl kept babbling, “I didn’t know. Cilla and Livy, I didn’t know,” until Jasper threatened to gag her if she didn’t shut up.
“Don’t make out it is a tragedy, you stupid girl,” he said. “Curston and I are going to marry the sisters, and we’re better matches than girls like them could expect. We are doing them a favor. You’ll see.”
Cilla would not marry Jasper. No matter if he compromised her. No matter if he gagged her and dragged her before a bribed priest—for such matches were illegal and invalid, and she would escape him at the first opportunity and sue for an annulment.
There Livy’s fascination with the crimes of men against women was proving useful, for if she had not read out loud about such a case, Cilla would not have known that, if he forced marriage on her against her will, he would not be able to keep herorher dowry. Yes, the woman mentioned in the newspaper lost her reputation—which was so unfair, because it wasn’t her fault. Better that, though, than a lifetime with Jasper.
They had entered the woods and passed through them. On the other side was a bridle path where another man waited with a carriage.
This was it then. No last-minute rescue. They were being abducted.
*
Bane
Once more, thebrothers finished the distance from Marpleton to London in an astoundingly short time, stopping only to change horses and to swap drivers, and arriving in the mid-afternoon. The carriage dropped them at the front door of their lodging house, but before Bane could put the key in the door, he was interrupted.
“Is one of you gentlemen Mr. Sanderson?” The inquiry came from a small non-descript man who had been sitting on the steps, looking so inoffensive that both brothers had ignored him. Jumpy as they were, the act, if it had been one, was impressive.
“My brother and I are both Sandersons,” said Drake. “I’m Drake, and this is Bane.”
“Then my message is for you both, sirs,” said the man. “David Wakefield sent me.”
Wakefield. The investigator—orinquiry agent, as he called himself.
“Wakefield sent two of us to Brighton to keep an eye on Mr. Curston and Lord Marple, sir. I am sorry to say, sirs, that they evaded us yesterday evening. It took us a while to pick up their trail. They came back to London, and visited Lord Curston, Mr. Curston’s father. Lady Marple was also at Lord Curston’s house. Fortunately, Wakefield had an agent watching Lord Curston’s house, and he was able to report their arrival. It appears, sirs,that Lady Marple had spent the night and was preparing to leave for home when her son and Lord Curston’s son arrived.”
Bane raised an eyebrow. Someone—he forgot who—had suggested that Lord Curston and Lady Marple were more than friends. Apparently, it was true. “Are Marple and Curston still in London?” he asked.
“No, sir. That is why I am here. They rode out in the direction of Watford. As did Lady Marple, a few hours later, with Miss Wintergreen and Miss Lucilla Wintergreen.”
Bane turned away from the door, energy surging into his muscles as his every instinct ordered him to speed to wherever Livy might be.
“Mr. Wakefield has gone to report to Mr. Wintergreen,” the agent was saying. “He suggests we meet you there.”
They ran, stopping only when they were hailed by Wart, who offered them a lift in his curricle—“To wherever you need to be in such a hurry.”
They explained as he drove, keeping the horses at a trot and weaving expertly around any obstructing traffic. When he dropped them at Wintergreen’s door, he said, “I’ll be back shortly with horses for you.”
“Thank you,” Bane said, fervently, while Drake hammered on the Wintergreen door.
*
Drake
Mr. Wintergreen insistedon coming in his traveling carriage, but Drake and Bane soon outstripped him on the borrowed horses. Wart had come, too, and Garry, who had joined the expedition when he had arrived at Wart’s to pick up his wife from a visitto Jenna. At a mile-swallowing canter, they rode the distance to Watford in under an hour and a half.
Drake ignored the fear coursing through him, telling himself over and over that they would arrive to find that the girls were safely in Lady Marple’s care and that Curston and Marple had not been unable to reach them.
No such luck. They arrived to find Lord Curston handing Lady Marple into her traveling carriage. At a glance, Drake could see that Ruby Marple had been crying, and Pearl looked anguished. Of their sister Beryl, and of Cilla and Livy, there was no sign.
Bane wasted no time on courtesy. Dismounting, he demanded, “Where are the two Miss Wintergreens?”
“Gone,” Pearl answered on a wail. “Beryl, too. Mama will not say…”
