Page 37 of A Lesson in Propriety (Merriweather Academy for Young Ladies #1)
Thirty-Seven
After giving herself a bit of a shake, Drusilla stepped away from Rhenick and turned, discovering Annaliese standing a few feet away from her, a brow already arched in Drusilla’s direction.
“Not that I want to point out the obvious,” Annaliese began, “but this might not be the right moment for romantic shenanigans, since we do need to keep our wits about us as we’re about to undertake a rescue. I may be wrong, but I’m relatively sure none of us have ever undertaken such an attempt before, although...” She tilted her head. “I can’t say for certain Seraphina hasn’t.”
“I completely forgot your sister was in our near vicinity,” Rhenick muttered.
“I doubt you’ll be forgetting that again,” Drusilla muttered back as she fought a grin, losing the I will not grin battle when Annaliese marched up beside her, grabbed hold of her hand, and pulled her forward, quite as if she didn’t trust her older sister to behave herself.
Ten minutes later, and after having to fight her way through the tall grass that bordered the beach, along with a slew of mud that a recent storm had left behind, they finally made it to the cove. After taking a moment to glance around, Drusilla moved to crouch down in the tall grass next to Seraphina, who already had binoculars out and was scanning the area in front of them.
“There’s a man over by that shack, but as I don’t know what Sanford looks like, you’ll need to decide if that’s him,” Seraphina said, passing the binoculars to Drusilla.
In the span of time it took to direct the binoculars to a small shack where a woman, presumably Miss Sally, was serving up food to a man who was unquestionably Sanford Duncan, Drusilla’s sense of apprehension over the upcoming rescue attempt turned to downright temper.
That a man she’d once called Uncle had stolen Irma and was attempting to whisk her away, obviously with the intent of forcing her to marry him, was beyond unacceptable, and she vowed there and then that he would be stopped, no matter if Seth’s flamethrower needed to come out in order to achieve putting an end to Sanford’s malicious intentions once and for all.
“That’s Sanford all right,” she said as Rhenick crawled his way over to join her, pulling out his binoculars and scanning the area before he turned to Drusilla.
“If you didn’t notice, your mother’s sitting on a blanket with Sneaky Pete and another woman, although I can’t tell who that is because she’s facing away from me. Since Sanford appears to be ordering food, it seems your mother might very well have convinced them to drop anchor because she was in need of a snack.”
“May I take another look?” Seraphina asked, taking the binoculars from Drusilla and lifting them to her eyes. “I have to admit that Sanford doesn’t look anything like I expected. He certainly doesn’t appear mad, but more along the lines of a wealthy man of business.”
“I’m not certain Sanford is completely mad,” Drusilla admitted. “He had enough of his senses remaining to pull off an embezzlement scheme without a hitch, and one where he ended up with millions. I doubt a true madman would have been capable of that. With that said, though, he’s definitely suffering from some type of delusional malady, probably brought about after he realized his love for my mother was unrequited.”
“Delusional or not,” Annaliese said, “the very idea that Sanford set out years ago to gain Father’s friendship in order to remain close to Mother suggests he’d probably benefit from an extended stay in an asylum because that’s not what I’d consider rational behavior.”
“It sounds to me as if Sanford, at the very least, is destined for a long prison term since kidnapping is a felony,” Seth added. “But may I suggest we continue this conversation at a later date, as we have no idea how long everyone is going to be lingering on the beach?”
“I think we’re lingering because none of us are exactly accustomed to retrieving kidnapped mothers,” Annaliese admitted.
Seth returned his attention to the beach. “I readily admit that I have no experience with situations like this, as I spend a good majority of my time well removed from people in general.” He squinted at where Sanford was now rejoining Irma and nodded. “However, it seems to me as if our most likely chance of success, which I’m thinking is at twenty-five percent right now, would be to stage an ambush. We outnumber them, even though none of us are exactly trained up in ambushing techniques, unless...” He arched a brow Seraphina’s way.
“I have never ambushed anyone,” Seraphina said. “Although there was the time when my boarding school was set upon by a band of drunken men come to serenade us and I was given the responsibility of getting them to leave.”
“I doubt Sanford or Sneaky Pete have been indulging in spirits, so I’m not certain how helpful your experience will be, but...” Annaliese’s brows drew together as she turned to Seth. “Did I hear you correctly that you think we only have a twenty-five percent chance of success, which means we have a seventy-five percent chance of failure?”
Seth’s brows drew together, as well. “I see your point. Those aren’t very good odds, but I’m relatively sure those odds will increase if I bring out the flamethrower, and before you protest, know that no one is actually on your mother’s yacht, so I won’t be able to burn it down.” He gave his nose a rub. “I should probably disclose, though, that I’ve had a few issues with controlling the flames, but I’m fairly certain I’ve fixed that problem.”
“What’ll happen if you haven’t fixed it?” Drusilla forced herself to ask.
“Let’s just hope that it’s fixed, but if something should go amiss, we still have the element of surprise, so we’ll simply need to use that to our advantage.”
After disclosing that less-than-reassuring statement, Seth began crawling through the tall grass that separated them from the beach with Seraphina and Annaliese beside him, while Drusilla and Rhenick trailed behind.
Barely a minute passed before they reached sandy ground, Seth opening up his rucksack and immediately pulling out an odd-looking contraption that was comprised of a large canister and some type of metal tubing. He nodded to Rhenick. “I’m assuming you have a pistol.”
“Already in hand,” Rhenick said.
Seth nodded to the lake. “I don’t know if you saw this, but there’s another ship pulling into the cove, which means we’re running out of time.” He switched his attention to Drusilla. “What are the odds of you, Annaliese, and Seraphina agreeing to stay behind?”
“Less than the odds of us finding success with the use of your flamethrower,” she returned.
His lips quirked. “I’ll say one thing for sure—all of you are going to make some interesting proper decorum instructors because, from what I know about ladies, which isn’t all that much, the proper ones don’t tend to involve themselves with matters that might turn dangerous.”
Drusilla’s lips quirked in return. “We’re definitely not the type of ladies who are going to hide our heads in the sand while you and Rhenick go off to rescue my mother.”
Seth shot a look to Rhenick, who shrugged. “Don’t think I’m idiotic enough to try to change their decision, as I know full well how contrary determined ladies can be. However...” Rhenick turned to Drusilla. “Can we at least agree that it would be best if Seth and I went first, with the three of you following, as we are larger than you and will provide some cover if Sanford or Sneaky Pete decide to shoot at us?”
“I suppose that wouldn’t be too much to ask,” Drusilla said, which earned her a lovely smile from Rhenick before he checked the chamber of his pistol as Seraphina opened up the other rucksack, handed Annaliese a pistol, gave one to Drusilla, and kept her favorite, the blunderbuss, for herself.
A mere moment later, Drusilla found herself running across the sand in Rhenick’s wake, stumbling over a piece of driftwood right as shouts rang out and then the sound of a pistol being fired split the air.
That was all it took for Seth to stop in his tracks and aim the flamethrower in the direction of Sneaky Pete, who took one look at Seth’s invention and tossed his gun aside before he sprinted off toward the water right as a huge plume of fire burst out of the flamethrower.
It quickly became evident that Seth had not fixed the problem with his recent invention, as the flame sputtering out of the tube suddenly erupted into something far more than sputters, which resulted in Seth tossing the flamethrower aside as he yelled for everyone to take cover since there was no question that an explosion was imminent.