Page 69 of Dangerous Illusions (Dangerous #1)
Gideon had ordered Clemons to see that their horses were saddled, and to saddle one for himself as well, since the one he had ridden from Tuscombe Park was, as he diffidently informed them, “blown pretty well to bits.” Clemons and Ned Shalton were both waiting for them when they entered the stable yard.
Shalton spoke before Clemons could do so. “Saw them asaddling your horse, Major, and had my own turned out as well. Whatever the fracas be, sir, I’m your man.”
“Right you are,” Gideon said, noting the holster fastened to Shalton’s saddle. “You might prove useful, Ned.” He glanced at the darkening sky and hoped the threatening rain would hold off.
“Where the devil are these caves she writes of?” Penthorpe shouted as the four men rode out of the yard at a lope.
“St. Merryn Bay, more than fifteen miles from here as the crow flies.” He was riding Shadow, who was fresh and easily good for a fifteen-mile point, and he was not concerned for Penthorpe or Shalton, whose mettle he had challenged many times over the years.
Glancing at Clemons, he decided the groom would do well enough, too.
By the look of him, he would get to his mistress if he had to run to her on his own two legs.
Gideon realized he had reacted much as if he were riding into battle and wondered if he had good cause for the reaction.
The sky overhead and the distant murmur of thunder reminded him of Waterloo.
“Can’t blame the child for running off,” Penthorpe said the first time they slowed the horses to a walk to rest them, “but Lady Susan must be well nigh dead from worry about her. Daintry must not delay a minute taking her home, if she does find her.”
“It won’t be that easy,” Gideon said, casting a warning look at Clemons, and at the same time recognizing the concerns that had been pricking at the back of his mind.
“You saw what she wrote, that she fears to make matters worse if she simply takes the child home when she finds her. Seacourt is bound to be angry, no matter what excuse they can contrive for Melissa’s having left, and if worse comes to worst, and they encounter him before then, heaven knows what the man might do. ”
Penthorpe grunted. “He’s bound to cut up stiff, all right, and it stands to reason she must be afraid of him.
Just look what he did to her that night at the ball.
I always thought he was cut from the same bolt as your brother was, but I’ll say this for Jack.
He would never have bullied a defenseless female. ”
“Much obliged to you,” Gideon said. He increased their pace, and they rode in silence except for an occasional exchange regarding their route until they came to the top of the cliff, where Gideon called a halt in order to search the shingle below. There was no sign of life.
“I’d have expected her to be on the watch for us,” he muttered.
“And where are the horses?” Clemons said diffidently, “One o’ them caves is big enough for any number of horses, sir, and what with the sky looking like it’s going to spit any moment, chances are, they will have taken them inside.
Miss Charley’s riding Victor, and she wouldn’t want to leave him outside when it looks like thunder and lightning. ”
Gideon had hoped that the rain, having held off so far, would continue to do so until they found Daintry and the girls and got Melissa safely home again, but the thunder sounded nearer and the sky had darkened considerably. Looking at Clemons, he frowned and said, “Is Victor afraid of thunder?”
“Aye, sir. He near goes crazy.”
Briefly Gideon wondered if the only reason Daintry had sent for him was that she feared she would be unable to deal alone with two little girls and a terrified horse, but the thought was a fleeting one. Had that been her only reason, she would have taken men from her own stables with her.
Dismounting, he crouched down to examine the marks in the path leading down to the shingle, and when he straightened again, he was frowning thoughtfully. He turned back to the others.
In the cave, Daintry sat against one damp, chilly rock wall, holding hands with the little girls sitting on either side of her. The horses were bunched in an alcove nearby, and their captors—five in all—sat near the tiny fire, talking in low tones. She could tell there was dissension among them.
At first she had thought they must be smugglers, but when she had spoken that thought aloud, the leader of the men had laughed.
Tucking the pistol he carried into his wide leather belt, he said, “Glory be, mum, that ain’t our lay.
Honest men, we be, sure as check, but when the mines shut down, there warn’t nothing for it but for us to take our shillings where we finds ’em, and that’s the truth of it.
Which ain’t to say that none among us ain’t never run with the free traders.
Dewy there be an excellent spotsman, even a tubman from time to time when the dibs be out of tune, but don’t go pratin’ of such stuff,” he warned, encountering a fulminating look from his henchman. “He don’t like it known hereabouts.”
Daintry had followed his glance, and when the man by the fire realized she was looking at him, his expression changed to acute embarrassment and he looked quickly away, but not before she gasped with recognition.
“Dewy Warleggan!” Her temper flared. “How dare you take us prisoner like this? Just you wait until Feok learns what you’ve done! ”
Dewy muttered disgustedly, “I told you, Nicca. I—”
“No use pissin’ nettles, man,” the leader snapped, “and no more names! We was promised there’d be no scufflin’ over this business, and there won’t be.”
Charley said indignantly, “There will be big trouble when my papa and grandpapa find out what you did. They’ll cut out your liver and feed it to their dogs. Just you wait!”
“Won’t know nothing about it,” the man called Nicca growled.
“And just how do you mean to prevent that?” Daintry asked.
He put a finger to his lips. “No need tattlin’ before the nippers now, mum. What they don’t know won’t worrit ’em.”
“If you mean to say that we shan’t be able to tell anyone, I wish you will say so,” Daintry said, giving the little hands tucked in her own a hard squeeze.
A muffled sob from Melissa was the only response, but Daintry saw Dewy Warleggan exchange a silent look with the leader before he turned away to the fire.
Nicca said, “Come darkmans, it’ll all come clear, but there ain’t no need for weepin’, I give you my word.”
“What’s darkmans?” Charley demanded. She was peering into the alcove where the horses had been put, and Daintry realized they were stirring nervously. One of them gave a nervous whinny.
Dewy Warleggan muttered, “Nightfall, miss.”
“No more argle-bargle,” Nicca snapped, glancing at the alcove, where there were sounds of yet more fidgeting.
“Did you hear thunder?” Charley whispered.
Daintry shook her head. Nicca, evidently thinking she had been cowed by his rebuke, went to join the others by the fire, and for what seemed to be a very long time, they grumbled and muttered amongst one another.
Hoping that Dewy Warleggan and perhaps one other, a vocal man whose cant vocabulary made it impossible for her to understand him, might be pleading their cause, Daintry kept silent, moving only to ease stiffening muscles.
Neither she nor the girls had been tied, and she wondered if perhaps they would find a chance to escape before nightfall.
She could hear distant thunder now, and the horses moved restlessly.
Victor whinnied again, and she glanced at Charley, but instead of pleading instantly for someone to calm her horse, Charley just kept watch on the alcove.
“He will be all right,” Daintry whispered, wishing she could make herself relax.
It was a few moments before she realized that it was not just the present situation that was making her nervous but one from the past. The rolling thunder outside was having much the same effect on her that it had on Victor.
Finally, she could stand it no longer and said in a louder tone than she had meant to use, “Are you holding us for ransom?”
Her words startled more than one man by the fire, but no one spoke until Nicca said, “That’s as may be and no con—”
A tremendous crack of thunder echoed through the cave, and the horses seemed to go wild. Melissa’s scream was drowned by Victor’s as the huge gelding reared in terror, frightening the others. Crowded as they were into the alcove, it was a moment before Victor broke free and plunged toward the fire.
The men had leapt instantly to their feet, and several rushed to calm the frightened horses.
Nicca was closest to Victor and reached toward him to catch his bridle, but the huge gelding reared again and one hoof caught the man on the shoulder, spinning him and sending him crashing to the cave floor at Daintry’s feet, where he lay winded and gasping.
Quick as a flash Daintry snatched the pistol from his belt and said, “Move away with me, girls. Keep clear of Victor and watch those men with the horses.” Once she was far enough along the wall to be sure Nicca could not simply snatch the pistol back, she waited for his eyes to open before she said in a calm, clear voice, “Do not move or I will shoot you.”
The others had control of the horses now, including Victor, and her words echoed oddly through the cavern, causing the men to turn toward her as one. Dewy Warleggan took a step toward her.
“Stop where you are. If you think I won’t kill him, you are very much mistaken. In fact, you ought to put another log on that fire before it burns too low, for I would hate to shoot the wrong man merely because I cannot see the right one.”