Through The Leaded Glass (30 page)

Or perhaps he
had
known about it. Who
would he have told? And why?

And why not tell
him
? There’d been no
love lost between the brothers, but there’d been no hatred either,
though Frederick’s treatment of the women was a sore point between
them. Dowering them had been Alex’s first act when Frederick had
left for battle.

Could his brother have charged someone with a
deathbed promise to avenge him for that?

‘
Twas possible, but Frederick
wouldn’t have had much of a deathbed since he’d died in battle. As
for a loyal man to carry it out, not even those who’d returned his
mangled remains had stayed for the burial. Frederick had never been
one to instill loyalty, using fear and intimidation instead. In
that, the brothers were very different.

Yet Alex had made an enemy. A cunning, vile
enemy, and he was no closer to finding who than when the first
provisions had gone missing.

And now Kate was as well. Alex pounded the
wall.

It moved.

“
Tris, here!” He found the release
and the door swung inward revealing a newly cut stone corridor.
“This isn’t original to Shelton.” He took a candelabrum from a
table and entered the tunnel, Tristan behind him.

Two tunnels branched off from Kate’s room. One
went toward his chambers; the other fell in a steep decline. He
swept the candles above the floor, and, there, as before, a set of
footprints in the dust.

He followed them down the decline to where it
veered off at an odd angle. He looked around and saw why: whoever
had made this sallyport had miscalculated the angle to align it
with one of the original tunnels.

He turned to Tristan. “I doubt this bastard
would be so stupid as to leave her in here as he did with William,
but I won’t take the chance. Go back and prepare the horses, then
meet me by the chapel. That’s where this sallyport will end. And
bring the window.”

He gave Tris one of the candles and they
separated. Running as fast as he could in the treacherous tunnel,
Alex was outside and climbing through an overgrown hedge in minutes
just as Tris rode up with two pack-laden horses.

“
I’ve found his tracks, Alex, back
that way. The mud has marked them well.”

Alex prayed to God they weren’t far
behind.

***

Kate had one hell of a headache. She opened
her eyes, the room swimming before her, the only light coming from
a small fire on the other side of the room. That was odd. It should
be full sun by now.

She tried to focus, but couldn’t see much in
the dim light. She looked up.

No yards of crimson fabric hung above her
head. Instead, it was…

Stone.

What? She’d been in bed after a delicious
night with Alex, now she was—she wiggled her butt—sitting on some
dirty hard floor in a cave?

And, if that weren’t enough to freak her out,
when she tried to move, she couldn’t. Her arms and legs were tied
down. And her mouth—She’d been gagged!

She twisted to one side, then the other,
strands of hair sticking to her face and catching behind her head.
She tried to spit out the gag as she squinted to see a thick rope
binding her arms behind her. It was attached to a stake in the
ground. She kicked her legs, but all she succeeded in doing was
digging the ropes into her ankles.

She screamed behind the gag—

A grimy hand clamped over her mouth from
behind. “Now, now missy, ye don’ want to make noise, else I might
be havin’ to cut out yer tongue.”

He held a knife in front of her.

Kate froze as he drew the flat side of it
across the tip of her nose.

“
You’ll be doin’ as I say now,
won’t ye?”

She nodded.

He lowered the gag. “Not a sound or it goes
back on.”

She nodded.

“
Good. I knew ye’d see
reason.”

He released her to stand in front of
her.

Kate clamped her eyes shut.

“
What are ye doin’ that
for?”

“
If I don’t see your face I can’t
tell anyone who you are.”

He laughed and the sound slithered down her
spine. “And just when d’ ye think you’ll be havin’ the
chance?”

“
Well... after you get the ransom.”
Please, God, let this be about money. All of it: William, the ring,
her. Fate wouldn’t have sent her back here to die,
right?

“
Ah, Kate, you do amuse me.” His
creepy laugh would’ve done Vincent Price proud, but his new speech
pattern startled her into opening her eyes.

Which she quickly slammed shut again, but not
before getting a glimpse of an unkempt, disheveled man with an eye
patch.

She’d seen him before. But when?
Where?

“
My dear Kate, hope does spring
eternal in that foolish heart of yours.” He ran a finger down her
cheek, the contact making her flinch. “There will be no
ransom.”

“
No ransom?”

“
None,” he said, running a finger
over her bottom lip. “Why should I ask Alex for what’s already
mine?”

Chapter
Twenty-Seven

Jonathan Griff checked his watch once more as
his cart slogged eastward along the muddied road. How could it have
gone wrong? Raphael, his superior, had said he’d had until today to
save them. Kate’s appointment wasn’t for four more hours; he’d
gotten the window there in more than enough time. He could have
given it to Alex yesterday, but the timing was important. Rafael
had impressed that upon him. So he’d waited until today, done his
job, and now it should all work out.

But nothing was going as planned. Not that
that was anything new for him. Lord knew—and He did—that he tried.
Every assignment. And he almost got them right. Almost.

Now the gypsies were overly curious—and that
was a big problem because Alicia’s scenario also needed impeccable
timing and now was not it—and Alex wasn’t following the rules. Free
will was good in theory, but how was Jonathan supposed to keep
everything running smoothly with people making their own agendas?
Boss
, what he wouldn’t give for a crystal ball—not that
those things worked for him anyway.

One of the horses snuffled and the other
neighed, both of them stopping at a fork in the road. Great. Now
all he needed were highwaymen. Honest-to-The-Boss, this fifteenth
century never got any easier to deal with. He much preferred the
twenty-first, truth be told.

He looked at the ground. It’d be just like
him
to throw a snake in the horses’ path.
He
was
always trying to undo whatever good deeds Jonathan did and get him
in trouble with his superiors.

Jonathan looked in front of the animals. No
serpents.
This time
.

He jangled the reins, hoping to jump start
them, but they just lowered their heads to munch on the soggy grass
by the edge of the road.

“
Come on, boys. We’ve got the other
one to help.” He clicked his tongue, but the horses just flicked
their tails. This never happened with automobiles. Well, except
that one time. But he’d learned to keep an extra gas tank on hand.
But where did one keep an extra horse?

Beyond the next hill apparently, if those
neighs were anything to go by.

Jonathan cocked an eyebrow heavenward. Divine
assistance? He doubted it. Raphael had said he needed to do this
one on his own if he wanted that promotion. And he did, but not at
the sake of his Charges’ future and happiness.

His horses, however, didn’t seem to care what
the help was. When they heard the neighing, they pricked up their
ears and started moving.

In the wrong direction.

“
Silver, Trigger, this way.”
Jonathan pulled on the reins. Silver looked back over his shoulder
and Jonathan would have sworn—if he swore, which he didn’t—that the
animal laughed at him.

The horses paid him no attention and plodded
south toward the neighing of what appeared to be not one, but many,
horses. Great. Highwaymen. He was going to have to use that divine
assistance anyway because there was no way he could deter a band of
ruffians by himself, never mind erasing the incident from their
memories.

He was never going to get that
promotion.

Then Gregorio and his brothers rode over the
hill.

Jonathan groaned. He’d dealt with gypsies
before; ruffians would be easier to deal with.

***

Why ask Alex for what was already
his?

Kate tried to figure out what her kidnapper
meant, but her brain, still fuzzy from whatever drug he’d given
her, came up empty. None of this made any sense, and that
monotonous drip of water somewhere in the cave only illustrated
that time was passing. She had to get out of here if she wanted any
hope of getting home. Twenty-first century home, not
Shelton-home.

Though Shelton sounded pretty damn appealing
right now. Then again, so did Isobel’s vault room.

Her abductor seized her chin in his hands, his
breath hot and fetid on her cheek. She tried to turn her head, but
he tightened his grip. She’d have bruises there later. Hopefully,
that’d be the worst of her problems.

“
Open your eyes,” he snarled,
shaking her.

Yeah, she didn’t think so.

“
Open them or I’ll do it for
you.”

She opened them.

Oh, God. She knew where she’d seen him. He’d
almost knocked her down right before Rory’s mother had
screamed.

She didn’t like coincidences.

He patted her cheek and stepped back, his gaze
lingering on her chest. “Much better.”

No, really, it wasn’t. She was at his
mercy.

Her self-defense instructor had said to keep a
kidnapper talking. Humanize herself to him. It was worth a
shot.

And the only one she had at the
moment.

“
Wha...” Her voice cracked in her
parched throat. She licked her lips and tried again. “What did you
mean when you said that what Alex has is already yours?”

“
You haven’t yet figured it
out?”

His gaze moved up to her face, thank God. And
her sensei, too.

“
It means that Alex stole it all.
Everything he calls his, everything the king declared to be his, is
mine. And I mean to have it.” He smiled a perfect horror-movie
smile. “To his sorrow.”

***

Nick met them at the meadow’s edge, his horse
lathered with sweat, a contingent of Marston and Shelton men behind
him. “Alex, I swear, Isobel had nothing to do with
this—”

“
I know, Nick.”

“
So who did?”

Alex exhaled. All sorts of possibilities
jumped to mind, but he forced them back. “We don’t know yet, but
we’re going to find him.” He pointed to the crushed grass in the
field. “There. The rain was heavy enough to soak the ground,
leaving us an easy trail to follow.”

“
That worries me,” Nick said,
nudging his horse next to Alex as the men fell in formation behind
them. “It’s as if he wants to be found.”

“
He can’t control the weather,
Nick. That’s to our advantage. It makes tracking him easier. He’ll
not get the best of me.” Not this time. Kate had found his ring, he
and Kate had found William, now he would find Kate. They were fated
to be together and this bastard would not undo that.

Herald’s gait jostled the window against his
back. He shouldn’t have left her alone. He should have kept her
with him all night, gossip be damned.

But he hadn’t. Because it would not honor
Kate, and, after what Frederick had done, Alex did his best to
restore honor to the family name.

At least, that had been his plan. But now,
with Kate missing, he wished he’d ignored his damn pride and kept
her safe.

He didn’t want the title. He wanted to be just
Alex. Father of William. The caretaker of his family who would live
his life contented and happy with a woman and child he loved. True,
gold and land and royal favor were a privilege, but having lost
Jeanne and their son, having faced William’s and now Kate’s
abduction, Alex knew nothing was more important than his family.
And, by God, he was going to see this bastard burn in Hell for
harming them.

They followed the trail through the meadow and
were at the forest’s edge when the thunder of horse hooves came
barreling toward them.

His men circled around, swords
drawn.

‘
Twas Gregorio and his
brothers.

Alex sheathed his sword and nudged Herald
through his men to meet the gypsies halfway.

“
We heard of Kate’s disappearance.”
Gregorio reined his horse in. “What do you need from
us?”

Alex looked at the men before him and those
who had ridden out with Nick. This was the measure of a man, the
friendship and loyalty he inspired in others, not the title he
wore. The knot in his throat thickened. “He has her.”