Tenacious Trents 03 - A Reluctant Rake (38 page)

Lydell began to saunter down the
stairs. “Yes. What is this about?”

“I believe she took Audrey with
her.”

Lydell paused in the middle of the
staircase, a quizzical look on his face. “They are
friends.”

“Not any longer,” Jordan informed the
man.

Lydell continued down the stairs
unconcerned. “Perhaps they have patched their disagreement and
decided to spend a few days together.”

Was the man so ignorant of what his
wife had been about?

“I believe your wife means to harm
Audrey,” Jordan informed Lydell as he reached the last
step.

A smile pulled at his lips. “Really?
Why would you think such a thing?” He lifted the crystal to his
lips and drained the liquid from within. Was Lydell already drunk
or just on his way there?

“I think she is the one who attacked
Lady Rothsbury and an employee of Madame Devine’s.”

Lydell’s eyebrows shot up, but an odd
quirk was on his face. He snorted. “I hadn’t anticipated this turn
of events.”

He turned and wandered down the hall to
what Jordan knew to be a back sitting room. He followed Lydell,
enraged at the man’s cavalier attitude. If someone had made such an
accusation against his wife, he would have called the man out.
Perhaps Lydell suspected himself, already knew, or simply thought
it ridiculous. Jordan had suspected her a few times but discounted
the possibility. Had he been that wrong about the woman?

Lydell didn’t say anything but walked
to the sideboard and refilled his glass. After he had taken another
drink he focused on Jordan. “You believe my wife is the one who cut
Lady Rothsbury and Angelique?”

Jordan nodded. Maybe it just took
Lydell a moment to let the accusation sink in. Yet, he didn’t seem
a bit enraged. More humored if anything. Perhaps he simply just
didn’t believe it.

“Why?”

He really didn’t want to have to
explain to the man, but someone needed to. “Your wife has been
pursuing me.”

Lydell’s eyes hardened but a fraction
of a moment before the nonchalant expression returned.

“Lately, prior to their injury, I had
spent some time with both ladies.”

A bark of laughter burst from Lydell.
“Angelique is a lady.”

Jordan bit back a retort.
No she wasn’t a lady by society standards but Jordan couldn’t bring
himself to call her a whore either. “I had spent a good deal of
time with both
women
before they were attacked.”

“Do you think she acted out of
jealousy?”

“It is possible, but I won’t know until
I find her and ask.”

Lydell stared into his glass as he
moved it around, swirling the liquid within. “I’ve been concerned
with her recently.”

Thank goodness the man was not
completely oblivious to her behavior.

“She seems to think herself in love
with you.” His voice was low, almost depressed.

“I’ve done nothing to encourage
her.”

Lydell looked up at him. “I know.” He
sighed and then tilted the glass back and drained the liquid. He
wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve and then set the glass
aside. “If what you say is true, and she really did attack the
lovely women in your life then who knows what she may do to Miss
Montgomery.”

Thank goodness he was seeing that it
was a possibility. “Do you think she has taken her to Bath, or
could they have gone somewhere else?”

“I am sure they are in Bath. Millicent
left but three hours ago. We might be able to catch
them.”

“We?” He hadn’t anticipated Lydell
wishing to come along.

“Let me gather a few things.” He
started for the door. “You do have your carriage, do you
not?”

“Yes.” Jordan followed him out of the
room. “But I don’t think it is necessary you come
along.”

Lydell turned toward him. “I may need
to reason with Millicent. If she thinks you came alone, I fear what
she will do to Audrey to have you to herself.”

The gentlemen traveled through the
night with Lydell slumped in the corner of his seat, sipping from
his flask, staring out at what little could be seen of the passing
scenery. Neither said much. Jordan was too worried about Audrey to
enter into polite conversation and Lydell was probably coming to
terms with how he would deal with this wife. Would he turn her into
Bow Street or take her from the country to avoid
prosecution?

If it were Audrey, not that she would
ever do anything so heinous; Jordan would take her from the country
to protect her. The difference was, Lydell didn’t love his wife and
if she were incarcerated he would still be able to have her
inheritance. Perhaps he would simply like to be free of her, though
it did leave the issue of an heir in question as they only had a
daughter.

They stopped in the early morning hours
to change horses and the two got out of the carriage to stretch and
relieve themselves. Bath was not much further and exhaustion began
to wear on Jordan. He would have dozed in the carriage but the few
times he closed his eyes, his mind would not stop thinking about
the danger Audrey was in. Once this danger was behind him he would
probably sleep for a week. Heaven knew he hadn’t slept all that
much in Newgate.

“I love her, you know,” Lydell said as
they were walking back toward their conveyance. He assumed Lydell
was talking about Millicent.

“After that unfortunate circumstance
with the betting book, I thought the Season was over for me before
it began.”

Jordan nodded. Last year Lydell’s name
had been included in a bet that he would be compromised by a Miss
Moira Kirkwood and the two would end up in Scotland. It was the
young woman’s first Season and if Jordan recalled correctly, they
weren’t even a week into it before the bet appeared. When Lydell
learned that her dowry was large, he set himself up to be happily
compromised by the young woman. Unfortunately for Lydell, Miss
Kirkwood had no intention of compromising Lydell.

“Bath,” Lydell grumbled
again.

Jordan chuckled. Miss Kirkwood hadn’t
even given Lydell a chance to charm her before she simply turned
him down because of the location of his estate. “You ended up
married to your wife before the Season was over,” Jordan reminded
Lydell.

“I noticed her about a week later. We
both know I needed to marry an heiress but I think I would have
wanted Millicent even if she were poor.”

Jordan glanced at Lydell. He really did
care about his wife?

“I tried everything thing I could to
court her, make her take notice of me, but all she wanted was you.”
Bitterness rang in his tone.

An uncomfortable feeling began to form
in the pit of Jordan’s stomach which was in no way related to the
fear and anxiety from worrying about Audrey already eating at
him.

“I thought I had my chance at the house
party when you did not show. But even there Millicent kept asking
for you and wouldn’t give me a moment of her time. She dismissed me
whenever I approached and returned to staring out the window
waiting for your arrival.”

Jordan did not know what to say. It
wasn’t as if he ever encouraged her. They danced a total of three
times. If that was the foundation for such ardent feelings then he
should be in love with most of the ladies in London.

“That is why I did it.”

Jordan looked at Lydell.

“I knew she would never welcome me so I
waited until it was late and went to her room.”

“You claimed to be me when you slipped
into her bed.”

Lydell shrugged. “It is the only way I
knew to get her.”

“Have you told her the
truth?”

“Yes, several times but she won’t
believe me.”

They reached the carriage. The driver
had not yet returned though fresh horses were already harnessed.
There was no footman for this trip so Jordan opened the
door.

“As long as you are around she will
never accept me or my love.”

Jordan stepped into the carriage, a
sense of foreboding slid up his spine and he had the urge to slam
the door leaving Lydell in the courtyard. He reached forward to
grab the handle.

Lydell leaned in. “That is why you have
to go.”

Before Jordan could react, Lydell’s
hand shot up, pistol in his grip and slammed it against Jordan’s
temple.

Audrey slowly opened her eyes and tried
to focus on her surroundings. Her head was pounding and her stomach
churned. She lay back against the pillow, closed her eyes and
willed her body to calm. It would do no good to toss up her
accounts. This nausea would pass in a moment, she was certain of
it. But where was she and what had happened?

She lifted a hand to rub her face but
the other came with it and they felt weighed down. With reluctance
Audrey opened her eyes again, hoping she would not be ill. Her
wrists were shackled together in some form of iron maniacal.
Why?

She tried to twist and slip her hands
through but they were too tight on her wrist.

“I wouldn’t bother,” a voice came from
the opposite side of the room.

Audrey turned in the direction to find
Millicent lounging in a chair caressing a knife. Her blood ran
cold.

“I found them in the cellar.” She rose
from the chair. “This used to be part of a castle and there are
dungeons below.”

Audrey struggled further and only
scratching her wrists as Millicent rose and began walking toward
the bed.

“I don’t even think there is a key, not
that it matters.” Millicent shrugged.

“Where am I?” Audrey finally
asked.

“In my home in Bath.” Millicent turned
in the room, holding her arms out. “Isn’t it lovely?”

Millicent certainly didn’t mean for
Audrey to actually answer that question did she? “How did I get
here?”

Millicent settled on the side of the
bed. “Two of my footmen carried you up. I told them you had become
ill on the trip.” She frowned and studied Audrey. “I thought
perhaps I had given you too much the second time.”

“Second time?”

“Yes, you woke earlier and I had to
give you more to drink. I couldn’t have you alert and talking when
we arrived now could I.”

Audrey barely remembered waking in the
carriage, disoriented and her head pounding and Millicent giving
her something vial to drink.

“They didn’t think it odd that I wore
these?” Audrey lifted her shackled wrists.

Millicent laughed. “I didn’t put them
on until they were gone.”

If there were servants in the house,
certainly someone would come help her, eventually. She opened her
mouth, ready to scream but Millicent pounced on her, covering
Audrey’s mouth with her hand. “You don’t want to bring anyone up
here.”

Audrey certainly
did
want someone else to
walk through that door.

“Besides, we are in the family wing.
Nobody will hear you cry out.” She relaxed her hold and leaned
back.