Daring the Duke (25 page)

had ever encountered.

"Nooooo!"

Audrey thrashed wildly at the covers holding her under. Stephen reached out and brushed her hair. "Shhhh, it's just a nightmare."

She pushed his hand away and struck out. Stephen ducked to the side; her fist missed his chin by inches. He continued murmuring, trying to soothe her back into dreamless sleep. He stroked a finger down her back, and she curled toward him.

Newgate. Travers had put her there, and Stephen intended to make the man pay for that and much more before this was over.

The game would continue, only now there was a lot more at stake.

Travers approached the two men around the fire. Both men jumped, and one even grabbed his gun.

"Dammit, Hermes, I’m going to let Leonard at you if you do that one more--" The man stopped as he recognized the visitor. The man twitched nervously "Begging your pardon, sir, I didn’t know that was you."

Travers fisted both hands. "Had a late-night visitor, did you?"

"Well, er, yeah, she stopped by for a chat."

"Where’s Leonard?"

The man twitched again and took a drink. "Followed them back."

"Them?"

"Yeah, the duke fella followed her here. They left together."

"Really?" Travers relaxed his fists.

The man said nothing.

Leonard crashed into the clearing. "Damn girl, I always knew she had it in for the high fly--" He stopped midsentence, just as the other man had done. Travers would have smirked if he hadn’t been so angry.

"You were saying, Leonard?"

Leonard spat. He didn’t quite have the brains of the other man. "Saw them going upstairs together."

"And you think that means what?"

He smirked and walked toward the fire. "If you had seen them, you’d know what I meant."

Unfortunately for Leonard, he walked right past him. Travers landed a punch. It didn’t relieve his rage. He started to lean down to throw another, but the third man shifted his gun nervously and looked twitchier than the first. Travers straightened.
Funnel the rage, funnel the pain
. So Chalmers planned to continue taking everything that was his?

A fifth man entered the clearing, his dark clothing mirroring his expression. "Plans have changed. Tomorrow you will follow them.

Somewhere along the pike before they get to London I want you to attack."

Leonard glared at the stranger and rubbed his jaw. "Just who are you?"

Travers felt the jolt of fear that always accompanied him in the man’s presence.

The man scoffed at Leonard as if he were a small spider scuttling from his path. "You will do as you are told."

Something about his voice or demeanor alerted Leonard to scoot back a step. Leonard looked at Travers, who said nothing. There was nothing he could say to gainsay the man who had reached his side.

Leonard seemed to feel this was a good course of action as well, for he simply asked, "Where?"

"I don’t care where. Pick a spot, just don’t let them reach London." The man tapped a finger on the back of his knuckles. "Kill the duke, but spare the girl. Bring her to me."

Fear pulsed through Travers, but there was nothing he could do.

Leonard smiled.

A clinking sound jarred her awake. She opened her eyes to see Stephen grimacing as he closed a large trunk.

"Sorry about that, I was trying to close the damn thing without waking you."

She raised her brows. "Trying to pack, then ditch me, Stephen?"

He chuckled. "And then spend all my time dodging you? I don’t think so."

His gaze focused on her leg, thrown out from under the covers. "Of course, it depends on the manner of the dodging."

She lazily drew her leg up so that the sheet gapped and exposed a smooth, bare hip. "And what manner of dodging would you be interested in?"

A seductive smile spread over his face as he sauntered toward her. Her body tingled and responded as he trailed a finger along her toes and up her leg, creating tremors of desire before disappearing beneath the sheet to find the mysteries underneath.

Much later he kissed her with such burning sweetness that she thought she would burst from it. Even after a wild night in his arms, his gentleness touched her soul, creating within her a deep sense of peace. She sat up and admired his broad back, his long, tapered torso, and his tight bottom as he walked from the bed, unembarrassed by his nudity.

"I found a copy of the estate accounts dating back a few months. Logan must not have known about them." He sat back on his heels. "The estate is perfectly healthy. Just as we both suspected, there’s nothing wrong with it. Makes it all the more curious why Logan would say I was penniless and use this property as proof, then end up murdered."

She propped herself on one elbow. "It does give one cause to wonder."

He looked at her. "We need to return to town and clear your name. Then we will find your sister."

Her fingers knotted in the sheet. He really would help her find Faye. He really would be her knight in shining armor.

"Audrey?" Stephen returned to the edge of the bed and gazed at her in concern.

She forced a smile and waved a hand. "Oh, I just have something in my eye. Let me get dressed so we can be off."

He looked doubtful, but moved from the bed to let her up.

She struggled into her trousers and shirt. Damn, he made her wish for so much more. She had to stop herself from running as she exited the room.

Again the maid said nothing about her sleeping elsewhere and helped her change into a traveling dress dotted with tiny rows of pearls. The feel of the smooth cool pearls was reassuring. Audrey couldn’t help but run her fingers down the iridescent seeds.

They were packed and loaded in the carriage a few hours later. As long as they weren’t waylaid by highwaymen they would be fine. She smirked.

Bandits would be most surprised if they attempted to rob this carriage. In an earlier inspection, she discovered a cache of weapons. The man came prepared.

Stephen spread out estate papers on the seat and was making notes. Even though the ducal coach was top-notch, the macadamized road left something to be desired, and an occasional swear word punctuated the air from his side. He finally gave up and put the papers away.

"Are you enjoying this extra responsibility?" she asked.

He grimaced but then regained his carefree air. "If you had asked me that a week ago, I would have sneered at you. But one must adapt as one must.

Now that I’m not going to have to hie off to some at foreign shore to escape the creditors, this may be just the thing I need."

Envy swept through her. She had never met such a charmed individual.

So together, so everything that she desired. A person able to put everything into perspective, sooner rather than later.

"Good for you, Chalmers."

He smiled. "You're calling me Chalmers again."

"I told you, Chalmers is your irritating side."

"Well, Audrey is both your irritating and your luminous side.

Unfortunately for you, since you won’t have access to the same type of key emotional information."

She grinned. Whatever else could be said for Stephen Chalmers, she truly liked him.

More than liked. That thought brought dark unbidden thoughts that she shoved aside. She was determined to make their last day together fun.

Today it would be just the two of them--no baggage and no betrayals.

Tomorrow would come

soon enough.

She nudged him with her foot. "Tell me more about this luminous side."

A devilish glint caught his eye.

The air was fresh and warm. Billowing clouds formed interesting shapes through the windows.

"There’s a hare being chased by a bear."

"And over there"—he reached across her, pointing—"a hound after a fox."

They talked about everything from the weather to their childhoods.

Childhoods untarnished by death and disillusionment. Audrey came to life under his questions, talking about amusing antics that she and her sister had pulled. Pranks on the servants and contests with the local lads.

"I’d never seen my mother angrier than we she found I'd challenged one of the local boys to a race across the pond." There was a smile on her face. "Good thing she never found out that we actually went through with it later."

"Who won?"

She feigned affront. "Well, I did, of course."

It was the perfect ride. The perfect conversation with the perfect partner.

Stephen was willing to overlook the sad expression that appeared in her eyes before she had started the banter. But he was determined to erase it permanently.

He watched the way she moved her hands as she talked. Elegant and refined. She tried so hard to be jaded and flippant, but the lacy garters he had stripped from her were more feminine than necessary Practical? Yes: they were still able to sheathe her knives, but the embroidery was delicate, the lacing fine. She was unsuccessful in trying to hide her femininity underneath all of those layers.

How hard it must be for her always to present a tough facade and be in control. Never being able to laugh or weep. Stephen recalled how drained he felt after his parents died, but good friends and good fortune had helped him endure. Who did Audrey and her sister have to lean on? No, Audrey’s life had been cutthroat since she was ten. She had been playing a much different game since then. And being female hadn’t been an asset, which was probably why she usually eschewed the trappings of one.

But he had seen her touch the tiny pearls on her dress and the delicate baubles in her hair. She liked them. And God how he wanted her to be able to like them without guilt.

They dined on an enjoyable lunch with pleasant conversation at the Wayfarers Inn. It was still early as they decided to push on toward London.

Within a mile of London the first shot rang out.

The horses raced down the road out of control. "If we’re lucky, we’ll make it in one piece," Stephen yelled over the noise. "Hold on."

No more were the words expressed than the coach hit a huge rut and a wheel cracked.

Stephen pulled Audrey into his arms as the carriage tipped, and they went tumbling into the side of the vehicle, now the floor. The horses had broken free. She could hear their retreating hooves as they scampered into the distance. Or was it their pursuers' hooves? She couldn’t be sure.

Another shot punctuated the air, and something splintered against the side of the coach. She gasped as her lungs finally inflated. She had hit the ground hard.

She pushed off Stephen and grabbed one of the rifles in the sideboard.

Stephen was already moving as well, and he had a gun in hand and was firing through the window at the top of their space.

"We have to leave the coach."

She nodded and tucked a pistol into a hidden pocket in her dress.

A rifle barrel caught her eye, and she grabbed it. Loaded. A shot was fired, and she lifted her hand and blindly returned fire.

Stephen peeked through the trap. "I’m going to fire through the top and draw their attention. You climb through the trap and run for those trees."

He pointed to several large clusters a few yards away.

He barely gave her a chance to get situated be fore he started firing. He had lined pistols up on the floor and was reaching for a new one as she pushed through the trap. She fell ungracefully to the dirt and scrambled on all fours to the boulders, carrying the rifle in hand. Shots rang out behind her, but they were focused on the carriage and Stephen.

He pushed through the trap and she saw a movement in the dark. She tracked it, took aim and fired. A cry met her ears, and she pulled the pistol from her pocket.

Stephen dove behind a neighboring rock.

"l think there are three remaining. They can’t have many shots left," he said.

"No, but they could have reinforcements."

"We can shoot, run, or meet them. You decide. What will it be, my lady?"

A fierce look flashed in his eyes, and Audrey felt a pitter deep inside her chest. A warm glow spread through her. And then a stream of pebbles hit her as a shot fired into the rock above.

They returned fire until the night was silent. She looked at her last pistol.

One more shot and nowhere to run.

"Well, well, well, looks like we need to flush the hare, boys," a voice said from around the boulders.

Audrey looked at Stephen in confusion. Leonard?

"Flanagan will have your head, Leonard," she shouted.

"Not for following orders, he won’t. Now be a good girl and come out."

"Flanagan wouldn’t do that. Who are you working for, you little worm?"

"Don’t like being betrayed, eh, Audrey? Too bad for you. Come on out.

Oh, and bring your lover with you."

Flanagan wouldn’t do this to her. She bit her lip. "You’re dreaming, Leonard."

"Aw now, Audrey. All my dreams are of you, you know that."

She watched Stephen edge around the other side of his rock. "Don’t make me vomit, Beefy."

"No, we don’t want that." He sounded angry. Good. "We’re all going to have a nice little taste of you. See if you taste as sweet as your sister."

Rage and anguish whipped through Audrey. Travers had her sister. More importantly Travers’s men had her sister.

"What are you doing? This is not the plan," hissed the voice of one of the assailants.

Leonard continued, "Brewster over here says you will taste just like her.