Page 46 of Hastings (Brothers in Arms #15)

CHAPTER 46

“T his fellow certainly got us, didn’t he?” Essie asked.

Hastings had been tracking his quarry for three days. It wasn’t that he was hard to find. He was ridiculously easy to find because he was a wealthy aristocrat holding an important position in the British government. What was hard was finding him alone; Hastings needed to wait for an opportunity to kill him when there would be no witnesses. That was the deal he and Sir Barnabas had struck. Sir Barnabas didn’t want this death to come back on him and his office. It had to look like an accident or a random crime. And so, Hastings waited.

He and Essie were currently waiting in a dram shop just across from their offices at the Home Office. They hadn’t been in to the office since their return. The man he was tracking also had an office in the same building, in the Colonial Office. No wonder Maddy had been so worried about being shipped off to Australia or Canada. He should have assured her that Sir Barnabas had more sense than to send her to any colony. Northern Ireland or Wales would have been more likely.

“I’m still kicking myself for not being more suspicious when little Peter said he didn’t know the man who sent the message about Tuck. Tuck’s lucky he just got a knock to the head,” Hastings groused.

“We’re all kicking ourselves,” Essie said. She glanced out the window and then took a sip of her ale. “We got too comfortable there, that’s the truth of it. Began to believe it was the perfect little village that it seemed. But evil will find you. It always does.”

“That is a very cynical attitude.” Hastings continued to watch the door of the building across the way. The shop was full of men who worked at the Home Office, so their presence didn’t seem out of place. It was close to where they needed to be, but not too close. They could remain inconspicuous here. He turned his attention to Essie for a brief moment. “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you for two days. You look like hell.”

“Had to go see my girl,” she mumbled, staring into her tankard. She took a long swallow. “Turns out she got engaged while I was gone.”

“She what?” Hastings asked, completely shocked. “Mary Peppers got engaged? But you two…”

“Yeah, I thought so, too,” Essie said with a sigh. She sat back and stared out the window. “She said she didn’t know if I was coming back, and she didn’t like having to sit there wondering if I was dead. Couldn’t abide the idea of a life like that. Also, she likes being respectable. Being a nanny for the Manderley’s gave her a taste for it. So, she’s marrying some fat farm agent from Islington, if you can believe it.”

“I don’t believe it. She’ll regret it one day.” Essie just hummed noncommittally. “You can go back to Miss Marleston now with a clear conscience.”

“She’s not for the likes of me and you know it,” Essie said tonelessly.

“So, we’ve both been tossed over,” Hastings said glumly, slouching against the bench as he watched the building. “Neither of us good enough, I suppose.”

“You didn’t get tossed over,” Essie reminded him. “You ran away before they told you what was going on. That’s different.”

“They’re getting married!” he practically yelled at her. They got stern looks from several gentlemen seated around them. “And they didn’t tell me. They had the chance. We sat around reading bloody Frankenstein’s story all night the other night. At any time they could have told me.”

“They’d both just been kidnapped, and she’d been shot,” Essie said. “It probably wasn’t uppermost in their minds.”

Hastings rejected her logic. “It would have been uppermost in mine if Maddy had agreed to marry me.” He finished his drink and waved the barmaid over for another.

“Well, as stupid as I think the arrangement will be—and it’s bloody stupid, somebody’s bound to get hurt, mark my words—I can’t imagine either one of them deliberately cutting you out.”

“I was just a placeholder,” he said morosely. “For Stephen, anyway, until Maddy came along.” At least he still had Bronny. The duke hadn’t asked for him back and he wasn’t going to get him if he did. That horse was the only thing he had left that he could call his own.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Essie agreed. “He’s that kind of selfish prick, he is. Only thinking with his dick and not caring if somebody gets hurt.”

Hastings swung back around with a frown to glare at her. “You know he isn’t like that.”

“Sure I do,” Essie agreed. “Just making sure you remembered he wasn’t like that.”

“Shut it,” Hastings told her. “It’s not your business.”

“I’m making it my business, against my better judgement, because I like Maddy. And the parson isn’t too bad as far as his sort goes. They’re not here to defend themselves, so I’m doing it for them.” She crossed her arms and glared back at him.

“Yes, and what about that?” he demanded. “They know by now I’m in London, but I don’t see them anywhere, do you?” He looked around and spread his arms wide to indicate the lack of a beautiful, backstabbing pretender or sanctimonious parson. He recognized the injustice of the descriptions as soon as he thought them, but he held tight to his righteous anger.

“Took me nigh on three hours to find you,” Essie told him. “And I know my business.”

“So does Maddy,” he said in a curt tone. That was another thing. Why hadn’t she told them the extent she’d been involved in the trade? She took out those men like a professional. He couldn’t have done better himself.

No wonder Sir Barnabas had taken her in and hidden her from view. Hastings knew damn well he’d had plans for her. He wouldn’t have let a find like her slip away. Bastard . He’d wanted to use her just like everyone else in her life had. Well, good for her for catching the parson. She was out of Sir Barnabas’s net now.

“Maddy worked the docks,” Essie scoffed. “She steered clear of these streets if she could.”

Hastings watched some familiar faces approach the shop and enter through the front door. When they appeared beside his table, he ignored them.

“I’m fine, thank you,” his former friend Simon Gantry said as if Hastings cared enough to ask. All of this was Simon’s fault for dumping him in Stephen’s garden. Simon pulled out a chair and sat down beside him. “We just came from the office. He’s still in there. Hasn’t left in two days. I saw his valet bring clean clothes for him this morning.”

“I think he knows his plan failed,” Simon’s partner and lover Robert Manderley said. He sat down in the other empty chair at their table. “He’s hiding in his offices because he knows no one will kill him in there.”

“I’ll kill him in there,” Hastings growled.

“Not without a very difficult and detailed plan,” Simon told him. “None of your rushing in guns firing.”

“I don’t rush in firing my gun anymore,” Hastings told him stiffly. “If I did, you’d be dead.”

“Lord, are we back to that?” Simon complained. He waved the barmaid over and ordered drinks for he and Robert. “How was I supposed to know Stephen would break your heart? He hasn’t got a deceitful bone in his body!”

His words made Hastings remember what a poor liar Stephen was. “Well, he certainly fooled me,” Hastings grumbled.

“I met the good parson when we stopped on our way to find Simon,” Manderley told him. “I agree with him. I think you’ve completely misconstrued the situation and you should give them the chance to explain.” He turned to Essie. “And how are you?” He sighed. “I know Mary Peppers’s engagement took you by surprise. We were surprised, as well. And now we have to find a new nanny.”

Essie shrugged. “I’m sure Very Tarrant will find you someone,” she said, referring to the wife of a former agent. “She’s got her fingers in more pies in this town than even Sir B. She’ll turn over another rock and there your nanny will be.”

“I’m not sure I want a nanny Very Tarrant finds under a rock,” Simon said dryly. “I was actually going to write to Stephen and see if he knew of anyone in Ashton on the Green who might like the position. A nice country girl is just the ticket.”

Essie frowned at him. “There was nothing wrong with Mary Peppers. You can’t blame her for wanting to better her place. She’s going to be the wife of a prosperous man. She won’t have to worry no more.”

Simon held his hands up in surrender. “You’re right, of course. Mary Peppers was a wonderful nanny. That’s why I’m so put out about losing her.”

“Why don’t you see if Mary Peppers and her farmer are interested in having you join their happy home?” Hastings asked snidely.

“Mary don’t want none of that,” Essie said. “She’s going to be respectable.”

Simon raised a sardonic brow at that. “And we are not, is that what you’re saying?”

“’Course you ain’t,” Essie said without rancor. “And you know it.”

“So what’s good for the gander is not good for the goose?” Hastings accused. “You expect me to go back and ask the same thing of Stephen and Maddy, but your Mary Peppers is too good for it? Or you are?”

“It isn’t the same and you know it,” Essie told him impatiently. “I don’t know beans about this farmer, and frankly I don’t want to.” She shuddered. “I’m not interested in any man’s prick. And I’m sure he ain’t interested in someone like me. Not like the parson and Maddy, who were both watching you like you hung the bloody moon. What did I tell you about being candy to them what don’t eat sweets, hmm? And now you’re running because they’ve developed a sweet tooth.”

“Well, they seemed to be quite satisfied with the sweets they have between them,” Hastings said, tired of the allusion. “I always knew I was fooling myself about being able to stay in Ashton on the Green. That’s not a place for the likes of me.”

“And what are you?” Simon asked.

“A killer,” Hastings said. “Which brings me back to the task at hand.”

“Every single person at this table has killed,” Manderley said gently. “I’m not going to lie and say that I have in the same way all of you have. But once or twice when I was a constable it was necessary. And I’ve done it to save Simon’s life. That doesn’t mean I don’t think I deserve happiness with Simon and Christy.”

“Simon is about as far from a devout parson as it’s possible to be and still remain in England,” Hastings said.

“I’d take exception to that except it’s quite true,” Simon admitted. “I’ve done things that make even me blush.” He shook his head as if he was thinking about some of them. “But I also think I deserve happiness.”

“Look, we all deserve happiness,” Hastings said, rolling his eyes. “That’s not the issue. The issue is that they got engaged, they didn’t tell me, and so I left. The end. And I mean that. That’s the end of it. Isn’t that him?” He pointed out the window in a small gesture, squinting at the man hurrying out of the office building. He was surrounded by four guards, who tucked him into a large coach. One of the men climbed in with him and one took up position on the back of the coach.

“By George,” Simon breathed as he looked out the window. “I think we’ve got him.”