Page 31 of The Honorable Rogue (The Notorious Nightingales #5)

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

“ I know the others believe there is no way anyone could have entered your room, Charles, but I would like to see if I can feel anything,” Ellen said, following him up the stairs. “Then I must take my child home, and you lot can continue to find who is behind this nonsense.”

“You believe it’s nonsense?”

“Perhaps not. But anyone who spends twenty years searching for something seems a bit odd to me.”

“It’s a huge fortune from what I gather, and that could make someone obsessed.”

“True, and with so many living in desperate situations, it would be life-changing,” Ellen agreed.

Had he not been having a discussion with his cousin, both he and Ellen may have sensed something was wrong. But when they stepped into his room, the door closed behind them softly. Turning, they were faced with two armed men. The same two men he was sure had chased him and Violet through London.

“This has nothing to do with her,” Charles said, stepping in front of Ellen .

“But she’s seen us, so she’s coming,” one of them said. “Get the book and the note. We’re going down the back stairs and out to the garden, then through the rear gate. Make one noise, and I’ll shoot her.”

“Ellen—”

“It’s all right, Charles. We must do as they say.”

“I don’t have what you ask for. It’s downstairs,” Charles said.

“Then you better hope you remember exactly what it said,” one of the men said. “Now let’s go.”

“He may not know it, and then what? They’ll be bleeding furious,” the other man said.

“He knows.” The man studied Charles. “Or he’s a dead man for lying, and we come back and get the girl.”

“I know it,” he said, thinking of Violet and needing her to be safe.

“We leave here now,” Ellen said.

He knew she was thinking of her child downstairs and Cyn and Harriet. They had to get these men out of the house now before someone came looking for them.

“Go first, Ellen.”

She did as he asked, and Charles followed with the men at his back. His mind worked through any way to keep her here safe, but he could think of nothing, so he focused on Flora, sent his thoughts to her, and told her there was trouble.

They made it down the stairs undetected to the back door. He could hear Miss Bud humming in the kitchens and prayed she stayed there. Ellen stepped through first, and they followed. Closing it softly, they then walked in single file down the path.

They had chosen this time because everyone was attending the Crabbett Close games. Someone was watching them, Charles realized. Someone knew their movements and had been able to get close enough to learn them .

Who?

Unlatching the rear gate, they walked through, and Charles saw a carriage stood there.

“Get in and sit on the floor.” Someone prodded him in the back. He thought about telling Ellen to run for it but couldn’t risk the chance of someone shooting her.

He squeezed her hand as she climbed in and did as they asked. He joined her. Their hands were then bound before them, and they were gagged.

“Lie on the floor,” one of the men said. He then grabbed Ellen and pushed her down. Charles charged him headfirst, cracking the man on the chin.

“Get him down!”

Hands forced him to the floor, and then he took two kicks to the ribs.

“No more! They want him unhurt!”

“I’ll have a bloody bruise, I will.”

Charles turned his face to look at Ellen. He’d thought her eyes would hold fear, but he saw anger. He blinked, and she blinked back. He had no idea how to interpret that but decided it meant she was all right.

His side burned, but that just fueled his rage. He would have a life with Violet. She was his, and he loved her. He’d thought to give her time to adjust to the fact he was going to court her. Time to love him as well as Tobias, but today he’d needed to tell her that it had been him in that bookshop and that he cared for her.

She would not lose another man who loved her. He couldn’t allow that to happen.

By now, their family would know something was wrong and start looking for them. Where are they taking us?

The carriage rolled on, until one of the men finally spoke.

“Get them up. We’re outside the city now.”

Hands pulled them onto the seat, and he was able to look at the two men who had taken them. Definitely the ones who had followed them that day.

One of them pulled down their gags, and Ellen sucked in a deep breath.

“Are you all right, Ellen?”

“I am. It would take more than these two fools to upset me,” she said, which made him smile.

“How did you know that was my room, and I’d be in it right then?” Charles asked.

“We have our ways,” one of them said. “Today we were searching it, and he looked out the window and saw you approach.”

“Are you brothers?” Ellen demanded. The men nodded. “Which one of you has a tattoo on his right shoulder?”

“Me. Why?”

“I’m wondering why I am having a vision of you with a blond woman, and you’re both naked. She’s got blue eyes and a scar the shape of a circle on her cheek.”

“What?” the other man roared. “That’s my woman!” He turned to his brother.

“She’s lying!”

“But how would I know you had that tattoo and his woman had that scar?” Ellen said calmly. “I’m a clairvoyant, you see, as is my cousin.”

“He did it,” Charles said with a calm he was not feeling. “I just heard him say, How did that bitch know about me and Polly? ”

Charles watched the brothers launch at each other. Fists started flying, but unfortunately the carriage slowed and soon stopped. The door was then opened.

“What’s going on?” An older man looked inside. He was dressed as a gentleman, unlike the two men still fighting.

“He slept with my woman! My Polly! ”

“She’s lying, I tell you!”

“Get out, both of you,” the man said, disgusted. “Or you’ll have more to worry about than your woman being unfaithful to you!”

The men got out, wrestling with each other the entire way.

“Step out, if you please, Mr. Thomas.” His voice was polite.

“We had to bring the woman, as she was in his room,” one of the men said.

“She won’t be pleased, but there’s nothing we can do about that now,” the man said.

Charles stepped out, feeling every pull on his ribs, and then turned to help Ellen. They then stood together and waited for what would happen to them next.

“Come along.” Ellen and Charles followed the man and the brothers, who were still arguing.

“My cousin has nothing to do with this. Let her go.”

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” the man said.

The building before them was huge. A castle made of stone worn dark over the years. Turrets rose high, and wings jutted left and right. Moonlight touching it cast shadows at their feet as they walked.

“Do you think this could be Pavlov’s property?” Ellen whispered.

“That’s my guess,” Charles said. “Stay alert, Ellen, and I’m sorry for getting you into this.”

“Fear not. They will come, Charles. We both know that.”

“Aye” was all he said. Because he knew their family would even now be looking for them.

He’d thought they would enter the castle, but instead they walked around it and along a path. Once past a grouping of outbuildings, they came to a smaller house, and it was this they entered .

“Well now, I’m so pleased you have joined us, Mr. Thomas, and brought your beautiful cousin with you.”

“Brownly?” Charles looked at the man who just this morning had called to Crabbett Close to ask Charles to join him on a hunting trip next week. Did I tell him about the Crabbett Close games? Or perhaps a local had?

“The very one.” He bowed. “And I believe you’ve met my mother,” he said as a woman stepped forward.

“Mrs. Bradbury,” Ellen said. “I always thought your eyes were too close together.”

The woman laughed. “Mrs. Fletcher, how delightful to see you.”

“Why have you brought us here?” Charles demanded.

“I’m quite sure you have some idea,” Brownly said… if that was his name.

“I was Pavlov’s mistress, you see, and Nikolai is our son.”

“And you’ve been hunting for his fortune since his death?” Charles asked. “My god, it was you behind our coach being robbed that day,” he added as everything started to fall into place.

“I’d hoped you were carrying the book with you,” Nikolai said.

“You cannot be serious?” Charles demanded. “You risked people being hurt on the chance I was carrying the book your mother wanted that day in the bookshop?”

“Clearly, your life is exceedingly dull, and you have had nothing else to occupy your time,” Ellen added.

“That fortune should have been mine!” Nikolai roared.

“Yes, and it will be,” his mother said. “I knew that book had something inside the cover, which could be a clue the day you let me look at it in the bookshop, Mr. Thomas,” Miss Bamber said. “But you would not give it to me. Therefore, I had to resort to other measures to obtain it. ”

“So you’re Miss Bamber, and he’s Nikolai Bamber?” Charles added.

“He is Nikolai Pavlov!” she yelled.

“Calm down, Mother,” Nikolai said.

“You’re right,” she said, exhaling slowly. “We have searched for years for the clues, and I have found four.”

Which means mine is the last one.

“We, Mother,” Nikolai said.

“We, darling,” she said, patting his shoulder. “I was suspicious when you befriended Miss Althorp, as she speaks Russian. The night of her musical, I had those suspicions confirmed.”

“You were in her father’s study when she and Miss Wilson entered?”

“I was,” Nikolai said. “I always search whatever house I’m in if possible. As luck would have it, Miss Althorp and Miss Wilson entered and started talking. My only regret was she didn’t tell her friend the clue, and this is why you are both here now.”

“So all of this—the business of scaring Miss Wilson and Miss Althorp that day and the chase through London—is all because you believe the clue I found is going to lead you to your late lover’s fortune?” Charles felt his anger climb as he looked at the woman.

“That fortune should have been Nikolai’s!”

“Mother, stay calm.”

“Tell me what the clue that Miss Althorp translated for you says.”

Nikolai pulled a pistol from his waistband and pointed it at Ellen when Charles didn’t speak.

“ In the heart of the forest, where the moonlight falls, a castle stands without walls. Look not for doors but seek the beast, as what you seek lies beneath ,” Charles said quickly. “Those were the exact words written on that note tucked into the inside cover.”

“Lord, save me from more cryptic words,” Miss Bamber said. “Every time it is the same. Pavlov was a fool.”

“And what did you, Miss Althorp, and Miss Wilson decide those words meant?” Nikolai asked, lowering his pistol.

“They believed that the clue could be pointing to a symbolic location, like a hidden room or secret compartment in a home or library. The forest could symbolize a library or collection of books,” Charles said.

“Is that all you know?”

“Yes,” Charles said. “You have my word on that.”

“The word of a gentleman.” Nikolai smirked. He nodded to the two men standing sullen faced behind him. “Take them to the cell. For now, you will live because we may have a further use for you.”

As they were led back out the door, Charles tried to come up with a plan—anything that would keep them alive. There had to be a way out of this because no other option was acceptable to him. He wanted Violet and a life with her, and he was going to have it.

They were led down a narrow path away from the stables, to what looked like a huge wooden box. There was a solid door, with a window above. Nikolai unlocked it, and told them to enter. He then slammed it shut and threw the bolt home.

“Charles?”

“It will be all right, Ellen. You know they will come.”

He watched his cousin exhale slowly, and then nod.

Find us, Flora.