Come the Dawn (37 page)

A log hissed, exploding with a shower of sparks inside the grate.

India’s eyes glinted. “No?”

“No, damn it.” Thorne’s jaw hardened as he proved his claim, sliding half-hilt in her hot folds.

She wriggled.

He did not budge.

“Only you?” It was half whisper, half challenge.

“Always.” And then the word was a groan as she closed tight, urging him home, urging him to the dawn their need would kindle. “My heart,” he rasped, moving deeper, finding the core of her sweetness.

She shuddered. “Don’t — spare me, Dev. Don’t spare
us.”

He was lost, just as he had been lost in the crowded Brussels street when her silly hat with the silk strawberries had blown away before him. Just as he had been lost in the moonlit garden while the scent of roses drifted around her. “I won’t.”

And he didn’t. Breath harsh, he pounded deep, each thrust moving her across the fine old carpet. She met him, matched him, goaded him.

Completed him.

And she screamed when the pleasure rocked through her yet again.

Her eyes were hazy and her hands were buried in his hair when he found his own hammering release, bare seconds after hers.

Even then his fingers did not loosen, nor his body pull away. He only dropped his head slowly, then rolled to his side and pulled her tight against him.

Much later, when the fear returned, when the thoughts of Alexis could no longer be kept at bay, he took her beneath him and their bodies met again, urgent and blind, driven by a force more primitive even than fear.

The end of lies.

The dawn of all their tomorrows.

And when they finally slept, her head drawn to his chest, it was the most natural thing in the world.

But even then they were aware of dim shadows creeping closer.

The ransom note came at dawn.

The significance of the time was not lost on Devlyn, amid the words so simple yet chilling. “Hyde Park, near the Serpentine. Just before daybreak tomorrow. Lady India Delamere must bring the diamond — if you ever want to see the little girl again.”

Dev looked down at the crumpled sheet, a pulse throbbing at his temple. “Tomorrow,” he said hoarsely. “Just before dawn in Hyde Park.” His eyes hardened on the scrawled commands.

India watched the emotion go out of him as he became all cold soldier. Only in that moment did she realize exactly how much Devlyn Carlisle had changed. This part of him, too, he had hidden from her.

“Ian and I will choose the point of greatest advantage. We’ll make our plans carefully — and hope we’ll have a chance to use them.”

“Hope?” India said.

“If they have any sense, Alexis’s captors will be making their
own
plans, too,” Thorne explained grimly.

~ ~ ~

 “And Froggett will be hiding here, five feet to the right, just behind a clump of brambles.” Dev, Ian, Connor MacKinnon, and Froggett sat in the kitchen beside India, with Dev’s sketch of the park before them. An X marked the spot where India was to wait for Alexis’s kidnappers. If they tried to draw her elsewhere, it was crucial that she think of a way to hold them in place.

“Do you understand? Right here by the oak tree.” Thorne tapped at the dark X. “It all depends on your bringing them here.” He looked at India then, a flicker of warmth in his eyes. His hand brushed hers for the space of a heartbeat. And then he was all soldier again, hard and impersonal. “We’ll need two carriages and blankets and food for Alexis. She’s bound to be — upset.”

No one contradicted him, though they all knew the word was far too gentle for the terror she would be feeling when they freed her.

If
they freed her.

~ ~ ~

An hour before dawn India was waiting at the base of a giant oak tree in Hyde Park. Below her stretched the gleaming Serpentine. To her right lay a dark tangle of berry bushes. A single lantern in the tree boughs shone down, outlining India’s pale features.

Connor and Ian were hidden in the tree’s dense foliage, ready to leap down as soon as Alexis was brought into view. Froggett was concealed five feet away behind the thicket, and the diamond, the blush-pink gem that was the source of all their troubles, rested safely in India’s shoe.

India’s eyes went to the top of the hill. Each time she’d asked about Dev, Ian had whispered that he would be there later and not to worry. She frowned at the dense shadows running along a stony rise. Where was Devlyn?

Through the trees the first streaks of dawn brightened the eastern sky. Suddenly, leaves crunched behind India. “Lady India Delamere?”

India swung about, her heart pounding wildly. “I’m here.”

A man stood up on the hillside, his features hidden beneath a broad-brimmed hat. “Where’s the diamond?”

India tried to swallow the lump of fear in her throat. “In a safe place. Where’s the child?”

The man pointed behind him. “In a carriage up the hill, where we can keep an eye on her. Come along and we’ll turn her over to you.”

India shook her head. She and Dev had gone through this possibility carefully. Somehow she had to persuade the man to bring Alexis here, or all their preparations would be ruined. “No,” she said flatly. “Right here, right out in the open. Otherwise there’s no telling what you cutthroats will do to her.”

The man moved closer. “And there’s no telling what arrangements
you
have made,” he hissed. “If you want to see the child alive, my lady, you’ll do exactly as I say.”

But India had heard the edge of uneasiness in his voice. She prayed her own voice was convincing. “You want the diamond and I want the child. We can both have what we want. But only here and now, while no one is about. The sooner done,” she added, “the sooner you can be off to freedom.”

The man looked behind him for a moment. India saw his hand move in a sharp gesture. Then he turned back and started down the hill toward her. “Very well, but if you’ve deceived me in any way,” he growled, “the two of you are going to find your throats slit.”

With the sheer force of willpower, India kept her eyes from drifting up where Ian and Connor were hidden. Her knees were trembling, but she kept her voice level. “Where is Alexis? You’ll get nothing from me until I see the child safe and sound.”

“She’ll be along soon enough. Where’s the
diamond?”

He was nearly to the tree now. India moved off the path, hoping to stop him in perfect range beneath the branch where Ian was hidden. “You’ll have everything you want, everything you deserve, just as soon as the girl is brought here safely.” The wind fluttered the leaves and an acorn broke free and went
pinging
off a branch. For one terrified moment India thought the man was going to look up into the foliage, but he simply cursed as the tiny missile hit him on the head.

Then there was a muffled cry and two figures were coming toward India. Her heart lurched when she saw that one of them was Alexis, her mouth bound with a cloth.

The man in the hat took a step closer. “Now you’ve seen the girl. Let’s have that diamond!”

India knew that this was the moment of greatest danger, the moment when all would have to act as one. Carefully she bent down to the ground, every motion larger than life. “It’s in my boot for safekeeping, but I’ll get it for you now. It will just take me a moment.”

Carefully she bent to one knee and tugged at the soft leather. With every step Alexis came closer. Almost time…

Her fingers closed over the cold stone. If only the second man would get close enough to Froggett, hidden just behind the bushes…

“Damn it, what’s holding you up?”

“I’m done now.” India stood up slowly, palm closed. The man on the hill inched closer, hoping for a better view of the stone.

Slowly India opened her hand.

The first prink rays of dawn glinted over the hillside, tossing bright sparks off the diamond in her fingers. The man on the hill shoved Alexis forward, while his accomplice made a low sound of satisfaction. “It’s a pleasure doing business with you, my lady,” he said mockingly. “And now if you don’t mind, I think I’ll take that diamond and ask you to come along up here while we—”

India heard Alexis scream, and then the crack of a gun. In an instant both Ian and Connor had dropped to the ground and were running toward their targets. Froggett, meanwhile, had tackled Alexis’s captor and the two were struggling on the ground.

Alexis was stumbling toward India when a third man appeared on the slope, moving in a direct line for the little girl.

India’s heart lurched. She yanked her pistol from her reticule and tried to focus, but he was too close to Alexis. She couldn’t risk a shot, not with the possibility of hitting the child. She could only watch, horrified, as the man closed in on his captive.

And then in a wild storm of leaves, Devlyn catapulted from the bank on the far side of the oak tree, where he had been hiding. In a second his great whip coiled through the air, snaking out toward the man behind Alexis. There was a loud crack and a man’s wail of pain.

A moment later Alexis was in India’s arms, her body shaking.

“Did they hurt you, Alexis? My little love, are you safe and well?”

The little girl nodded, her face covered with tears. “I was brave. I only cried once. You would have been proud of me.”

“I
am
proud of you. Very, very proud,” India said hoarsely.

“And I didn’t forget my doll either,” the girl said, holding up the battered figure that accompanied her everywhere. It was dustier now, and the skirt more ragged than ever, but like Alexis it was in one piece.

“You were very clever to have saved her,” India said, hugging the girl close.

Up the hill Ian and Connor had their prisoners in tow, while Devlyn wrapped his whip around the third man and dragged him none too gently down the hill.

“Did you see Uncle Thorne?” Alexis asked breathlessly. “I told you he could do wonderful things with his whip.”

“You were right.” Suddenly India felt Alexis tug at her hand.

“But there was something else, something I should have remembered.” The little girl’s lip quivered. “I remembered when I was there in the dark with nothing to do but think. It was very important.” Her eyes filled with tears. “Now I’ve forgotten again.”

India caught her in a tight hug. “Don’t worry, little one. Whenever you need to remember, you will. Now just rest, and think about how happy Andrew and Marianne will be to see you again.”

“I was brave even when I saw the gray people,” Alexis said softly. “They were everywhere, all around the man in that mask. It was the same man with the scar that I kept telling Uncle Thorne about.”

India frowned. Were these more nightmares, or had the girl’s visions been true all along? “The man with the scar was there with you?”

Alexis nodded. “Just the same. Only he was more evil than I thought. And then the gray people came around him, full of hate, hoping for revenge. It was t-terrible. They are waiting for him, just waiting.”