Page 44 of Pride of Valor
“Who did all of this?” Richard spread his arms at the carnage around them.
“Lord Julian Blandford chased us in another carriage, and they fired shots before running us off the road.”
“Why weren’t the dogs able to defend them?”
“Nicholas was afraid. He was afraid they’d shoot Max and Fleur.” Thomas paused for a moment and then continued. “Lady Blandford climbed out the back and shot those two with her bow.” He pointed to the injured men on the ground. “But another one got away. Then Blandford grabbed her, and when Nicholas came out to help his mother, he locked the dogs inside behind him.”
He hated that the mastiffs had been prevented from defending Nicholas, but he was proud of how bravely the boy had behaved in coming to his mother’s defense.
“Did Julian hurt them?” Richard’s voice turned murderous.
“No. When Lord Blandford twisted Lady Harriet’s arm behind her, Nicholas went with him. She went on to Bocollyn on one of the carriage horses for help.
“She’s getting pretty good at that,” Thorne observed.
“Which way did he take Nicholas?”
Thomas pointed at the road back toward the lodge and Falmouth.
Lights loomed aheadin the night as Sidmouth’s driver forged on along the dark road. He began to slow the horses as they neared the site of the attack. Harriet noticed Thomas had thankfully managed to get the carriage lanterns lighted and had made the driver as comfortable as possible.
The presence of two additional men in the flickering light was confusing until she saw Dot and Simper, two riding horses from the stable at the lodge. Perhaps Carrick had sent some men out to look for her. Good man.
The minute she stepped down from Sidmouth’s carriage a familiar form emerged from the shadows and strode directly toward her. He didn’t stop until he’d wrapped her in his arms. Somehow, she’d known Lieutenant Richard Bourne would not desert her. She had no idea why, or how, but he was back, and she wasn’t going to let him go for a while. She didn’t care who saw them together. She needed him. Nicholas needed him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and sagged against him. God, he felt good.
“Where have you been?” She growled low against his neck. She lifted her head then and said, “We have to go after Nicholas.”
Sidmouth helped his wife from the carriage and when he turned to look after Harriet, saw Bourne had apparently realized he’d left something behind. He looked down at Her Grace, Lady Jane, and asked, “Do you think this means she’s changed her mind about marrying Grantham?”
She didn’t answer but simply laughed softly. “I knew the first time I saw that man racing up the street after Nana, he was a heartbreaker. What I didn’t realize then is he’s Lady Harriet’s heartbreaker. I thought she was going shoot me with that bow of hers when I commented on what a handsome devil he was.” She chuckled at the memory.
Sidmouth was not amused. “A handsome devil? You really think so?”
Richard heldthe man with the arrow below his shoulder while Sidmouth questioned him relentlessly. With each deepening twist on his arms behind his back, the man became more talkative and begged to be taken to a surgeon. At first he’d been belligerent and refused to cooperate until Harriet had lunged at him and pushed on the arrow buried in his shoulder. In a matter of minutes, he’d emptied the meager contents of his brain.
“Lord Julian, ‘e’s goin ta take the boy to the magistrate over in St. Mawes.” The village was about a mile across the bay from Falmouth.
“Why?” Harriet demanded an explanation.
The idiot was stupid enough to elaborate. “Why, ‘e’s a bit off in the head wot with all the trouble he has formin’ ‘is words, isn’t ‘e? That sprout needs to be in an asylum somewhere.”
The minute he stopped speaking, he realized from the look on Harriet’s face what a mistake he’d made by hurling such nonsense at Nicholas’s mother. She rewarded him with another sharp jab on the arrow. His screams echoed through the woods. After more twisting on the man’s arms, Richard was convinced that was all the man knew. He’d apparently not been told where Julian and his men were taking Nicholas to spend the night.
After a quick conference with Sidmouth and Thorne, they decided they’d load the driver onto the seat on one side of Sidmouth’s carriage while the arrow-stunned men could ride in Sidmouth’s open wagon until they reached a surgeon in Falmouth. Harriet, Her Grace, and Harriet’s footman would accompany them on the remaining carriage seat. Richard smiled at the thought of being pressed close to Harriet’s body all the way into Falmouth. He imagined Sidmouth was having similar thoughts about his duchess from the look on his face.
The dogs would ride on top with the drivers, and Richard hoped to hell they’d behave themselves. But both Max and Fleur did seem subdued after having seen Nicholas ripped away that afternoon. God pity Lord Julian if they ever encountered him and his men again.
Richard and Thorne determined Thorne and Thomas could take the two horses back to the lodge and let Carrick and Mrs. Lanigan know what had happened.
Sidmouth intended to turn both men over to the magistrate in Falmouth as well after their wounds were treated.
Once everyone was loaded back into Sidmouth’s carriage, Harriet twitched on the seat next to Richard like a frog on a hot skillet. Sidmouth proposed staying at Pearce’s again that night until they could intercept Julian in the morning at St. Mawes before he had a chance to hurt Nicholas any more than he already had. Harriet at first was having none of that. She wanted to pound on every door in Falmouth until they found Nicholas.
“There are not enough hours left in the night, my love. You’d never find him before Julian takes him to St. Mawes. We have to be ready. We have to get there first. That’s what you have to direct your mind to tonight and get some rest. He’s going to need you more than he ever has in the morning.”
She leaned against him and curled into his side as if she’d been made to fit there. “Where will you be? She murmured against him.
“There’s something I have to do before morning.”