Dangerous Beauty Read online

  The chains were unlocked and taken away and Seth flexed his hands and feet, rubbing the flesh, as they brought pen and paper and a pot of ink. He sat at the table and looked at the chief. “I don’t know what words you want me to write,” he said.

  The chief, who had his arms crossed, watching Seth, nodded his head. “Glad you asked, laddie. I’d have been worried if you’d sat and writ the note without pause.”

  He looked down at the scrap of paper in his hand and read out the words and Seth wrote them quickly. He held the sheet out to the chief, who reached down and took it from him.

  He looked from one to the other and sucked his teeth. “Well, this’d be a pretty kettle of fish. It appears we’re without a suspect.”

  * * * * *

  Seth stepped out past the porticulled gate and took a deep breath.

  Vaughn laughed a little. “It’s hardly fresh around here.”

  “It’ll do. It’ll do more than well enough,” Seth said. He found he was rubbing his wrists again and dropped his hand. He could still feel the manacles there, even though they were gone. He looked around the yard that fronted the prison gate.

  “Where’s Natasha?”

  “Her mother hurried her off straight after you wrote the note.” Rhys stepped out beside them and hefted his carpetbag.

  Seth held out his hand. “I owe you my life.”

  Rhys shook it. “You owe me my bill, which will be large enough. Your life is your own. I just did my job.” He looked over his shoulder. “I have a cab waiting for me. And it looks like Lady Munroe is waiting to impart some choice observations with you, so I’ll leave you good folk to sort out the aftermath.

  “I’m glad I’m not a recognized member of that family.” He grinned. “Natasha will have a hard time of it now.”

  “No, she won’t,” Seth said with a growl.

  Rhys cocked his head a little. “Perhaps not,” he agreed. “Well, I do have a practice to run…”

  “Send me your bill,” Vaughn said quietly.

  Seth saw that Lady Munroe was indeed waiting for them. “Good, let’s get this settled,” he said and headed in her direction.

  He heard Vaughn hurry after him, but didn’t wait and didn’t slow his pace. He faced Caroline.

  “You can lock her inside the carriage, or her room, but it won’t keep Natasha from me. Not forever. Don’t you see, Lady Munroe? I’m not taking her from you. She’s leaving all by herself.”

  Caroline looked a little startled. “Natasha isn’t with me. She went ahead, in Lord de Henscher’s carriage.” She simpered. “After all, she is engaged to be married to him.”

  Seth blinked. “He will still insist on marrying her, after all this? Despite her confession?”

  Caroline blushed and looked down at her toes and muttered something.

  “What?” Vaughn demanded, by Seth’s shoulder.

  Caroline lifted her chin again and revealed her rosy-colored cheeks. She was clearly mortified. “I said, Natasha is too highhanded. He had to practically force her into his carriage.”

  “Force?” Seth repeated.

  “Well, he is going to marry her!” Caroline repeated.

  “What do you mean by force?” Vaughn pressed.

  She looked confused and flustered. “I don’t know,” she said, pushing at her hair in a nervous way. “He bundled her up and pushed her inside.”

  “Did she say anything? Was she protesting?” Seth insisted.

  “Does it matter? After all, she is—” Caroline began.

  “Yes it matters, damn it!” Seth exploded. “If de Henscher is a man who can’t stand the idea of a woman who doesn’t come to him untouched, then he’s quite likely to punish her for it.”

  Caroline paled. “But…”

  Seth felt a tugging on his filthy shipboard shirt and looked down. A just-as-filthy lad with big brown eyes held a folded note out to him and held out his hand.

  “Vaughn, I have no coin,” Seth muttered as he unfolded the note. He heard Vaughn give the lad a copper as he read the note. Then his hearing, his heart and his chest locked in agonized contractions as the meaning of the note slammed home.

  You didn’t leave when I told you to. Now you pay the price.

  “Natasha. He’s got Natasha,” Seth croaked.

  The agony in his chest, his heart, made him double over. He looked up at Vaughn, unable to get his chest to unlock and let him breathe properly. “It’s Piggot. It’s been Piggot all along.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Vaughn grabbed the note and read it. He nodded. “My carriage is right here. Let’s go.”

  Seth managed to take a breath. One more, then he straightened up. “Which way did de Henscher go?”

  Caroline had both hands to her cheeks. It was impossible she could understand everything that was happening, but enough of the tension in him conveyed itself to her, that she was now even more flustered.

  “Why would I tell you, a common criminal—” she began.

  “For heaven’s sake, woman,” Seth cried. “de Henscher—the man into whose arms you just shoved your daughter—is the man who killed your husband. Tell me which direction they went!”

  Caroline began to tremble and tears filled her eyes.

  Seth held out his hand. “Point then, if you can’t find the words. I’m going after her and I need a direction. Just point.”

  She pointed.

  “Come on,” Vaughn urged, running for his carriage. He shouted directions at the driver as he climbed in and the carriage was already turning as Seth hauled himself inside. He positioned himself so he could see the traffic ahead of the horses.

  Vaughn was frowning. “What’s the connection between you and de Henscher?”

  Seth gave a dry laugh. “He was my shipping agent here in London.”

  “You mean…de Henscher is in trade?” Vaughn seemed surprised.

  “I’ve been shipping goods from Australia to him for years.”

  Seth ran a hand through his hair. “It’s de Henscher, though he always signed by the name Sholto Piggot. How could I not have guessed that?”

  Vaughn considered it. “Indeed,” he said, “he has much to lose—even fifteen years ago, when your father voted for trade restrictions on goods to Ireland that competed with local industries. It’s a fairly well-known secret that the family is penniless. He would have lost everything.” He looked at Seth steadily. “Didn’t you say that the soldiers broke into that Fenian meeting that night almost as soon as it started?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is it possible they knew about the meeting ahead of time?”

  “It’s possible. They’ve had more than their fair share of traitors over the years.”

  Vaughn tapped the windowsill, thinking. “It is possible the soldiers broke into that meeting with the single intention of arresting you?”

  Seth jerked at that. “But why? To do that, they’d have had to have known who I was, that I’d be there…”

  Vaughn leaned forward. “I think you’ll find, if you were to question your father, that Piggot was somewhere in the background at that time, unnoticed, absorbing information. But for now, let’s assume that he was. He had you imprisoned to force your father’s hand.” He glanced out the window. “We’re heading for Vauxhall.”

  Seth clutched the window frame. “Vauxhall! Piggot has a warehouse there.”

  “Address?”

  Seth gave it and Vaughn leaned out the window to give the driver the address. He shut the window and sat down again.

  The blood was pounding Seth’s temples. “I will kill him, Vaughn. I swear it.”

  Vaughn removed his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. “And I will not stop you, my friend. The man has taken much from us both and he will not live to see another day.”

  Reaching beneath the velvet-covered seat Vaughn lifted up a box. Lying inside were two pearl-handled dueling pistols which he began to load.

  Seth lifted a brow. “I would ask what those were for, but I suppose I d
on’t need to.”

  Vaughn’s lips quirked. “I never leave home without them.”

  “Lord Wardell, there is a carriage just ahead,” the footman called out, slowing the horses.

  Seth recognized Piggot’s abandoned carriage immediately. The wheel lay shattered and footsteps were clearly seen outlined in the dirt road.

  “The warehouse can not be far,” Vaughn said handing one of the pistols to Seth as they jumped from the carriage. They raced over the small rise ahead and the Thames, sparkling in the late afternoon sun, was spread before them. On its shores, close by where ships could load and offload cargoes, lay an enormous brick building with few windows. None of the massive double doors were open.

  A pistol shot rang out and the bullet whizzed past Seth’s head. Then another shot.

  Vaughn let out a groan behind him. Seth turned, his heart in his throat. Vaughn lay on the ground, clutching at his leg as blood welled around his fingers. Seth dropped down beside him, ripped off the sleeve of his shirt and handed it to Vaughn.

  At that moment, Vaughn’s driver came running. Seth motioned to him to be cautious and he scurried closer, bent over almost double.

  “I have to go,” Seth ground out. His whole body seemed to be tugging him towards the warehouse. The driver took the sleeve of Seth’s shirt and began to wind it around Vaughn’s thigh.

  “From the furthest door to the left. There’s a man-sized door within it. Do you see it?” Vaughn asked, his voice ragged with pain. He held up his pistol. “Take this one, too.”

  Seth shook his head. “You keep it.”

  “He has two. You’ll have to outshoot him. Are you good enough?”

  Seth glanced at Vaughn. “Natasha’s in there with him. I’ll be good enough.” Then better sense made him add, “And if I’m not and Piggot steps out of this building alive, you take him with yours. Agreed?”

  “Understood.” Vaughn propped himself on his elbows. “Go.”

  Seth raced for the warehouse, his heart pumping loudly in his chest. He had faced many an enemy in his time, but none of them had held someone so dear. If anything happened to Natasha, he would tear the man limb from limb with his bare hands.

  No more shots were fired as he approached and Seth had to assume that Piggot had left his position and was somewhere else within the bowels of the warehouse.

  Seth approached the smaller man-sized door and edged it open with his foot, squinting into the darkness.

  No sound, no movement. He stepped fully inside the building and only now noticed the chill of the late afternoon air on his bare chest. There were wooden boxes and crates stacked everywhere, with no uniformity, no sense. The air smelled musty and almost damp.

  As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he saw ahead of him that there was a roughly formed corridor made by the crates. He padded down the soft soil that was the floor of the warehouse, moving silently, clutching the pistol. He filled his lungs with air.

  “Natasha!”

  Silence. Then, faint scuffling.

  “Seth! I’m he—”

  Horror washed over him. The cut-off call could only mean Piggot had silenced her in some way.

  He inched forward down the long corridor. Her voice had echoed and bounced in the cavernous building, but he thought it had come from just ahead and to the right.

  As he progressed, he checked behind each crate that he passed. There was a tiny space behind the next crate. He crept forward, then peered around it, his heart thundering.

  In a small clearing made by badly stacked crates, Piggot stood with Natasha in front of him, staring with wild eyes towards the passage.

  He held a pistol to Natasha’s temple and another pointed towards Seth.

  Seth stepped around the crate, his own pistol at his side. “I’ve reloaded. Don’t take a step closer,” Piggot warned.

  “The note was not a good idea, Piggot,” Seth told him. “You must have known it would immediately point to you. Or is it, perhaps, that you wanted us to know who you really are?”

  “I’ll kill her if you take one more step toward me!” Piggot’s voice was shrill.

  “All those years of scheming and manipulating, of being so clever and not having anyone to applaud you for your efforts. It must have burned you up knowing that no one would ever get to appreciate the work you had put into preserving your lot.” He was within twenty yards of the man.

  Piggot was sweating profusely, his hand shaking. “I’ll kill her!”

  “Not if I kill you first.”

  “I mean it!”

  Natasha was staring at Seth, her eyes wide and glassy with shock. He must have hit her to silence her, before. Seth’s resolve hardened. “All right then, kill her. Then I’ll shoot you,” he told Piggot.

  “You’ll kill me anyway!” Piggot screamed, his voice rising to the rafters, startling birds out of a nest tucked there. Just a little bit more pressure was needed, Seth realized.

  “It’s not like she’d ever love you, Piggot.” He sneered. “You’re not man enough for her.”

  With an outraged cry, Piggot fired. And missed.

  Seth rose from his dodging crouch and raised his pistol. He only had one shot, and everything suddenly seemed clear and bright all around him as he watched Piggot bring the pistol at Natasha’s temple around to bear on him.

  Seth pulled the trigger, already knowing his shot was true.

  The shot took Piggot in the center of the forehead and for a moment he tottered backwards, a surprised look on his face, before his body realized that he was dead.

  He collapsed against one of the crates.

  Natasha flew into his arms and Seth tried to push her away. “I’m not suitable for ye,” he said, plucking at the jail-stained trousers.

  “But you’re wrong. You are exactly the man I have been looking for all these years and now that I found you, I won’t ever let you go,” she said, and wound her arms around him.

  Seth closed his eyes and inhaled her sweet scent.

  Peace. At last.

  Epilogue

  Harrow, Ireland. Christmas Day

  Natasha glided into the drawing room of Innesford Hall and looked around at the people she loved most in this world.

  For this shining day, they were all assembled in her house. Seth, her handsome husband, sat beside Vaughn and Elisa, telling them about their pending trip to Australia.

  She could hardly wait to see the land Seth talked about so often. Seeing her, he stopped in mid-speech and stood. “Here she is now.”

  Elisa, round with child, came toward her, arms wide. “There you are. I was concerned when we arrived and Seth said you were not feeling well. Are you feeling better now?”

  Natasha hugged her dearest friend, relieved they had finally arrived to spend the holidays with them. “I feel much better, especially now that you’re here. I have missed you.”

  “And I you,” Elisa said, taking Natasha by the hand and heading toward the others. “I’m so surprised you chose to travel in such a condition, but I’m very glad you did,” Natasha told her.

  Elisa waved her hand. “I’m not about to go into decline for nine months because of a perfectly natural process. I’d rather see my friend.”

  Natasha sat down and her husband stepped behind her and took her hand in his own. Seth cleared his throat. “We have news that we wanted to share with you.”

  Vaughn lifted a brow. “And?”

  “My mother will be arriving this afternoon. She has decided that she would like to stay here with us.”

  “That is wonderful news,” Eliza replied, smiling at Seth.

  Vaughn’s brow lifted higher. “And what, pray tell, moved your mother from the unforgiving harridan that refused to attend your wedding or acknowledge you in any way at all, to sudden concerned mother…and mother-in-law?” he asked.

  “Ah. As to that…” Seth paused dramatically, to sip at his Madeira.

  Vaughn crossed his arms and Elisa sat with her lips pursed and her eyes sparkling with joy.
>
  “Oh, Seth, stop teasing,” Natasha told him, pulling on his hand.

  Seth relented. “It seems she’s wanting to be here for the birth of her grandchild.”

  Vaughn’s lips curved into a dazzling smile. “Grandchild?”

  Natasha blushed to the roots of her hair. “Indeed, I am to have a child in the spring.”

  “That is wonderful news!” Elisa clapped her hands together. “Our children will be friends, just as we are.”

  Seth sat on the chair beside Natasha, her hand still in his and she glanced over at him.

  The smile had slipped from his face. “What is it, my love?” she whispered, concern flooding her.

  Seth shook his head. “Happy,” he said at last. “I’m happy, as happy as a man can be. I wish I could reach back in time to the lad who got marched up that gangplank in shackles and tell him it would all be worth it—that he must go through this to find the happiness at the other end.”

  Vaughn touched Seth’s glass with his own. “I don’t think it would have made any difference then, Seth, if you’d known.”

  “Why not?” Seth said, a bit sharply.

  “Because the lad then didn’t know what he wanted, didn’t know his place. He couldn’t have taken happiness if it had been offered to him, because he didn’t think he deserved it. You had to go through that to learn there are people in this world who believe in you and love you. You had to go through it to find out that you’re capable of giving that love back.”

  Natasha squeezed Seth’s hand again and kissed his cheek, careless of the fact that they weren’t alone. “I love you, Seth.”

  To her delight he pulled her into his arms, and kissed her back thoroughly. “And I love you, Lady Innesford.”

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