Captive Surrender (14 page)

“
Stephen
what?”

“
Stephen
Montague.” He sighed when the boy remained in the doorway. Clearly
he had been instructed to stay out of the room and had every
intention of carrying out his orders to the letter.

“
Why were you
trying to kill me?”

Stephen stared at him in
horror. “Is that what you think I was going to do?” He shook his
head slowly, relieved to note that the pain in his head was now
down to more manageable levels. “I was merely trying to stop you
from finding Mr Simpson’s body.”

“
Did you kill
him?”

“
No, I
didn’t. That’s a promise,” Stephen replied firmly, determined to
put paid to that particular idea. “I may be many things, but I am
no murderer.”

“
What were
you doing down on our beach though?”

Stephen decided that if
he had any chance of currying the young boy’s favour, he had to be
honest with him as much as he could be.

“
I saw
someone leave Mr Simpson’s body there. I wasn’t sure whether Mr
Simpson was still alive, but only found him a few minutes before
you arrived. I wasn’t sure what you were doing and didn’t want to
scare you so kept away, but then you decided to investigate the
body.” He smiled wryly at the boy’s avid curiosity and applauded
the innocence of youth. “I was trying to get you to go back to the
house where it was safe. I was going to tell Mr Denbigh where to
find Mr Simpson’s body.”

“
Robbie
Freestone, you get away from that door right now.” Prudence’s order
broke the companionable silence. Stephen swore silently at the lost
opportunity and watched a closed expression appear on Robbie’s
face.

“
It’s
alright, Prudence, Robbie was just telling me that he thought I was
going to kill him last night.”

Prudence stared at him
and wished him in Hades. What was it about him that had such a
profound effect on her? She had tried her very best to stay
downstairs all morning, but the low murmur of a richly masculine
voice had drawn her like a bee to a flower.

“
His name is
Stephen,” Robbie piped up. All trace of fear had vanished from his
face which was now alive with curiosity.

Prudence nodded and felt
a thrill of awareness sweep through her. He was already familiar to
her in so many ways. Stephen. She rolled the name around in her
mind, checking its size. He looked like a Stephen; if anyone could
look like their name. She couldn’t see him as a Rufus, or Simon, or
anyone else. Stephen. She liked it, although she was never going to
tell him that.

“
He saw
someone leave Mr Simpson on the beach last night and was trying to
get me to leave the body alone when I called for you.”

“
Has Rufus
been yet?” Stephen interrupted when it looked as though Robbie
intended to recount the entire evening’s events.

Prudence shook her head.
She felt strangely deflated that the magistrate hadn’t followed
through with his promise and come by to check on them, but had to
remind herself, and her sisters, that he was a very busy man and
had most probably forgotten. Still, the feeling that they were all
alone with this new problem made her more than a little fearful
about their immediate future. It was bad enough that Levant called
by practically every other day, but to add to that, they now had
one of his staff living in one of their bedrooms. How much worse
could their situation get?

Stephen flicked a glance
at Robbie. “Can I have a moment alone with you please,
Prudence?”

Prudence studied him for
a moment and briefly wondered if he wanted to use the chamber pot
again. That particularly embarrassing encounter was going to remain
with her for some considerable time, but it was the least she could
do given the injuries they had caused him. She ushered Robbie
downstairs and entered the bedroom.

“
Have you
been back down to the beach yet?”

Prudence studied him for
a moment. “Not yet. There have been jobs to do here.”

“
Did you move
Mr Simpson’s body?”

“
Why?”
Prudence frowned at him and wondered whether he had been trying to
get rid of evidence when they had disturbed him last
night.

“
Tell me,
Prudence, did you move Mr Simpson’s body?” The fervency in his
voice raised her ire, and she studied him for several long
moments.

“
We moved it
further up the beach to the base of the cliffs. The tide doesn’t go
in that far very often so it is most probably still there. Why, do
you want to get rid of the evidence of your crimes?”

“
It is not
what you think.”

Prudence snorted
inelegantly. “What am I supposed to think?” She snapped, and stared
at him in disgust. Her anger came from nowhere, and she didn’t seem
able to stem the tide of words that lashed him. “What am I supposed
to think, Stephen; if that is your real name? You work for the most
reviled man in the county. One who has a reputation of brutality
and threats, and employs thugs to do his dirty work.” She pointed
one long finger at him. “You are our enemy. You were down on our
beach last night, alone, in the dark, with a dead body. You
threatened Robbie.”

“
How?”
Stephen asked. He wished to hell that he could remove the ties so
he could at least stand up. He hated having an argument while flat
on his back, stark naked in bed. “What did I threaten him with?
Have you asked him?”

Prudence frowned at that
and hesitated. Stephen made full use of the silence.

“
I wasn’t
threatening him, I was warning him to get off the beach and back
home where it was safe. The lad shouldn’t be wandering around in
the dark and should stay the hell away from Dinnington. I found him
there the other night, looking for one of the stable hands, Will.
He is one of Levant’s thugs too. Why is Robbie looking for him? He
should be at home, in front of the fire where it is safe. None of
Levant’s staff are suitable to be the boy’s friend. They are trying
to get him to work with them, Prudence, as young as he is. What
then? What will happen to the boy if Levant gets his claws into
him? You have seen Mr Simpson. He was the last person who crossed
Levant, and look at him now.”

Although Stephen didn’t
raise his voice, each word he uttered felt like a hammer blow to
Prudence’s shattered emotions. She listened with growing horror and
the dreadful realisation that if it hadn’t been for the man on the
bed, Robbie could already have been working for Levant. She knew
Stephen was telling her the truth. Although he didn’t know it, she
and Eloisa had been witnesses to his exchange with Robbie in
Dinnington woods.

“
Prudence,
you need to send for Rufus. If he isn’t here by two o’clock, send
Robbie to go and leave a word at his house. Rufus needs to get his
hands on Simpson’s body. Just go and check that it is still there.
Please, don’t go down onto the beach. Just take a look from the
cliff path and come and tell me if it is still there.”

“
Who are
you?” Prudence whispered as she frowned at him. Fear began to grow
and settled deep in the pit of her stomach at the desperation in
his voice. She couldn’t help but wonder just what Levant’s presence
in the village had dragged them into.

“
Believe me
when I tell you that I am most definitely not your enemy,” Stephen
growled. “Right now, I might be down, but I am not out. However, I
do need your help.” He hated to ask. It irked him that he was at
such a disadvantage in the first place. To show this woman any
further sign of weakness went against everything he had been
brought up to believe in, but there was little else for it. Levant
would probably be looking for him and, if he wasn’t, was due to pay
Prudence and her sisters another visit at some point today. If
Stephen had any hope of being able to get off the bed, and be in a
position to help them if Levant turned nasty, he had to gain her
trust.

“
I need to
discuss matters with Rufus when he gets here. You need to let me
up, Prudence, because you know as well as I do that Levant is due
to visit again any day now.”

As if on cue, the sound
of horses’ hooves on the gravel driveway drew her attention and she
hurried to the window.

“
Don’t open
the shutter all the way, just open it a crack so that you can see
through but they cannot see you,” Stephen’s soft voice warned
her.

She cast him a quick
glance but followed his instructions to the letter.

Stephen knew it was
Levant from the look of dread that swept over Prudence’s face. “I
am going to help you, Prudence, but I need to get my strength back
a bit first. Go downstairs and pretend that everything is normal.
Don’t invite the man in; don’t answer the door and don’t agree to
anything.”

Prudence froze at
Stephen’s words and turned to stare at him. Was he linked to Rufus
in some way? His words echoed the magistrate’s almost word for
word, but Stephen had been nowhere near at the time. Just what one
earth was going on?

“
Don’t answer
the door,” Prudence yelled, aware that she had only moments before
Levant would reach the front door. Sure enough, she was half way
down the stairs when a dull knocking began at the back of the
house.

“
What do we
do?”

“
Stay still
and don’t panic,” Prudence ordered and waved everyone into the
hallway as she scurried around and closed the doors, encasing them
in silence. “Keep quiet. We will wait until they are gone.” She
briefly considered untying Stephen, but quickly decided against it.
She had no idea just yet if his words of caution were part of some
sort of elaborate trick, and wasn’t prepared to risk the family in
order to find out that he had duped her. Whoever he was; whatever
he was; he was not going to be untied until she had a few questions
answered.

“
Should we
gag him?” Robbie gasped as he nodded upstairs. His small face was
lit with a ruthless excitement that made Prudence shake her head
even when she briefly contemplated the notion and shook her
head.

If Stephen was going to
yell for help from his friends, now was the time to do it. Silence
settled over them while they waited. Eloisa gasped at the sound of
rapid series of taps against the window pane in the sitting room at
the same time as loud thumps on the front door beside them began in
earnest. It felt as though they were under siege and she hated
it.

Prudence felt a surge of
anger sweep through her. The noise that surrounded them made her
want to wrench the door open and give the men outside a piece of
her mind. It was only the look of rampant fear on each of her
sibling’s faces that stopped her. She sighed when their mother
decided to add to the cacophony and began to wail and hammer on the
door.

“
Go and shut
her up,” Prudence snarled to nobody in particular and hurried up
the stairs to her own room. She stalked across to the bed and gave
Stephen a dark look. “You had better have been telling me the
truth, or I am going to pray that your soul gets taken by the very
devil himself.”

“
Who is
downstairs?” The calmness in his voice made her frown deeply. Did
he not understand the family’s distress his boss’ presence outside
was causing?

“
Eloisa is
checking on mama, but everyone else is downstairs in the hallway,”
she snapped, wondering how that mattered. “Robbie is there too,”
she hastened to assure him. Thankfully, she had refused to allow
Robbie to go out to the woods to play earlier. He was safely
ensconced in the hallway with Georgiana, Madeline and
Maggie.

“
I mean
outside,” Stephen sighed. He dropped his head into his hands when
he sat upright and the room swirled alarmingly.

“
Levant,
Humphrey, a tall man that he usually has riding with him, and some
other man I haven’t seen before.”

“
Describe
him.”

The cool authority in
Stephen’s voice made her hesitate.

He seemed to sense her
doubt and glanced up at her. “My head hurts too much right now, but
I will explain when I can. Until then, I need to know who they have
replaced me with,” he growled. He hated to feel so weak, especially
with the wolves baying at the door, and couldn’t help but wonder
where in the hell Rufus had got to.

Prudence disappeared to
the window and eased the shutter back just like he had told her to
earlier.

“
He is stout,
with long, greasy black hair. He has a frayed pair of trousers on
and a dark leather waistcoat.”

“
Will,”
Stephen sighed, unsurprised that the most ruthless member of the
staff had joined in the fray in his absence.

“
Will?”
Horrified, Prudence turned to stare at him. “The Will that Robbie
wanted to meet up with the other night?”

Stephen lifted his brows
and wondered if Robbie had told his sister what had happened. He
had put the fear of God into the young lad, and was glad to have
had the chance to do so. He nodded when he realised that Prudence
still waited for him to answer.

“
Oh no,”
Prudence whispered in a mournful voice. “Oh, no, no, no.” She
turned around, fear, worry and horror clearly written on her
face.