Her Every Pleasure (27 page)

CHAPTER
         SIXTEEN         

G
abriel hadn’t gone far.

It had been quite a battle between the two of them, but after being ousted from the castle, he had swung up onto his white horse and retreated only a few miles down the road to regroup and decide on his next move.

He had taken lodgings for the night at the first travelers’ inn he had come to, but he was awake again before dawn, hurriedly readying himself to return to the castle. As he dressed in plain civilian clothes with swift efficiency, his mood was one of stoic resolve.

Today he would go back and make it right.

He had any number of reasons to be angry at himself, but Sophia’s opinion of him was what mattered. Perhaps having had some time to cool off, she would be ready this morning to hear him out.

His message was simple: She was not getting rid of him that easily. The night he’d spent tossing and turning had helped to make up his mind.

It didn’t matter if she didn’t love him. It didn’t matter if she did not want to be his friend. He didn’t need the official post as her head of security; he would still protect her.

Tender words and romantic gestures had never been his forte, but if he had to station himself outside the castle gates like her damned guard dog, he would do it.

The bottom line was that he could not live with himself if anything happened to her.

As he finished strapping his sword and pistols around his waist, ignoring the lumpy bed behind him where he had barely slept and the breakfast he had ordered but could not force himself to eat, he heard a commotion of clattering hoofbeats and shouts outside.

He frowned toward the window.

“Colonel!”

“Colonel Knight!”

“Are you there?”

He edged over to the window of his room and peered out warily. Oh, bloody hell. Her Greek bodyguards. Obviously, these men bore him no great love, but he had hardly expected them to come after him afresh in their spare time.

They flooded the quiet courtyard below, dismounting, running about, one banging open the inn’s front door while others checked the stable to see if his horse was there.

He decided to save them the trouble and opened the shutters, leaning out the window. “Morning, boys,” he drawled.

“Oh, thank God you’re here! Is she with you?” Timo asked frantically.

Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”

“Her Highness! Did she ride out to spend the night with you?” he cried.

“I beg your pardon,” he retorted, his face darkening.

“Sophia! Is she there?”

“Never mind your pride, we all know what’s going on between the two of you! Is Her Highness with you or not?” Yannis shouted, running over to stare up at him.

“No, she’s not with me. Isn’t she with you?”

“No!” they shouted in wild unison.

“They’ve taken her!” Niko yelped.

Horror flooded Gabriel. He gripped the frosted windowsill.

“Alexa drugged us and now Sophia’s gone!” Timo yelled. “We thought Sophia might’ve put Alexa up to it so she could slip past us to go to you, but now there’s no sign of either girl!”

“I’ll be right down.” Gabriel grabbed his coat and the rest of his weapons and rushed out of his room, pounding down the steps, tossing several guineas at the landlord as he ran out.

Alexa! She has been the traitor all along. By God, how could he not have seen that?

He could not believe he had been deceived by that insipid blonde. Was it chivalry that had blinded him to her treachery, or had she merely distracted him with her curves and her hand on his groin? If he were not so caught up in Sophia, so tied up in knots with want of her, the truth should have been plain.

All this time, he had known in his bones that there was a traitor among them, but so far, he had only suspected the men. He had shrugged off the notion that Sophia’s girlhood friend and confidante could have possibly betrayed her.

Damn it, he should have suspected it the second Alexa had come on to him—caressing him and covering him with flattery. It had all been a ruse. She had needed him out of the way, that little simpering wench.

But it was himself he blamed above all. Indeed, he had made the same mistake as Griff, underestimating Alexa’s calculating intelligence as much as his brother-in-law had underestimated Sophia’s leadership abilities.

Fool! God, he did not deserve Sophia. He could not believe how he had let her down. He sincerely hoped the prince of Denmark was more worthy of her than he, but at the moment all that mattered was getting her back.

He joined the men outside as a groom brought his horse out of the stable, freshly saddled for him.

“Tell me what happened,” he ordered the men.

“When we came to, both women were nowhere to be found.”

“Are all the men accounted for?”

“Of course we are!” Markos retorted. “Why would you ask that?”

Demetrius stepped closer, scowling. “You think one of us might’ve something to do with this?”

“Did you?” he asked coolly.

“No!” they all said variously.

“You need to let us talk to the prisoner,” Timo insisted. “He’ll know where they’ve taken her!”

“No, he won’t,” Gabriel muttered. “Trust me.”

“Why?”

“Because I lied,” he said grimly. “He wasn’t one of them.”

“What?”

“You tell us to trust you and then say you
lied
?” Niko demanded, moving toward him in angry shock. “What game have you been playing, Knight?”

Now it was his turn to be the suspect, Gabriel thought, glancing around at them. “I knew we had a traitor in our midst, but it was one of you that I suspected, not Alexa. That fool I caught at the ball that night had nothing to do with Sophia. I thought I could trick whoever the traitor was into showing their hand. Apparently, it worked. Come on,” he muttered. “It’s time to get her back.”

He swung up onto his horse while they exchanged a few surly, skeptical looks, but they must have realized he would not be deterred.

They flew back to the castle complex at an all-out gallop, thundering under the massive gate-towers. In short order, they were marching through the stone corridors of the palace.

The men told him on the way that Lord Griffith had already been alerted to what was afoot, but Gabriel’s chief concern was to find out for once and for all what the Turkish ambassador knew.

He had not forgotten the look of recognition that had crossed the man’s guarded face when he had seen that curved dagger with the strange markings on the blade. The man knew more than he was saying, and Gabriel intended to find out what the ambassador was hiding.

Meanwhile, the men were cursing Alexa in the foulest possible terms.

“How could she do this to us?”

“The little whore!”

“After all we’ve done for her!”

Every male ego among them was dented, for that mere
girl
had led them all into a trap.

She must have had outside help, he thought. Somebody pulling the strings, telling her what to do. But who?

The Turkish ambassador ought to be able to tell him that, if anyone could.

A short while later, Gabriel had the turbaned dignitary pinned against the wall in a most undiplomatic fashion. “Now, you are going to tell me what I want to know.”

Down the corridor, Griff saw what was happening, but casually turned a blind eye and ambled out of sight with his hands clasped politely behind his back, leaving Gabriel to gather answers the old-fashioned way.

The marquess might not like his approach, but Gabriel was no longer employed by the British government and no longer in uniform, and no longer had much of anything to lose. Until he had Sophia back safely, the whole damned world had better stand clear.

“Who has her? Answer me!” He slammed the man against the wall again to persuade him.

“I—don’t—know!” The Turk kicked his dangling feet in his curl-toed shoes.

“Don’t lie to me,” Gabriel warned through gritted teeth. “Sophia’s life is at stake, do you understand? I know you recognized that symbol on that knife. Tell me what it means, you blackguard, or I will choke the life out of you!”

“Wait! Very well! Put me down, put me down, and I will tell you!”

Gabriel narrowed his eyes, but slowly lowered the offended but cowering dignitary until his feet touched the floor again. The ambassador rubbed his neck, blanching and puffing for breath.

“Quickly.”

“The symbol on the blade signifies the Order of the Scorpion.”

“What’s that?”

“A secret religious sect that sprang up around Prince Mustafa, Sultan Mahmud’s half brother. Mustafa staged a coup and tried to hold on to power, but we put an end to that. He had many followers among our elite Janissary troops. Once we were victorious over this rebellion, Sultan Mahmud offered a pardon to all those who renounced Mustafa’s backward views and swore an oath of loyalty to His Majesty, but not all of Mustafa’s warriors took the offer. The core of true believers scattered under the guidance of Prince Mustafa’s spiritual adviser, a man known as Sheik Suleiman.

“We have never managed to capture the sheik, and as for the other Janissaries, we have heard the faintest whispers that they’ve been making overtures to Ali Pasha.”

Gabriel remembered vividly how Sophia kept saying that Ali Pasha wanted Kavros. Well, maybe it was time to lend more credence to her views. She had been right, after all, about her bodyguards’ loyalty.

“How many are there, these Janissaries who’ve turned outlaw?”

The ambassador shook his head. “Hundreds.”

Gabriel’s stomach clenched. “Where are they taking her?”

“I do not know.”

“If you could guess?” he hissed in warning.

The man just looked at him; Gabriel drew his own conclusions. “Janina.”

The ambassador nodded grimly.

Gabriel released him and walked away.

When he went to confer briefly with his brother-inlaw, he found the captain of the garrison with Griff, and the three of them combined what they each had learned.

Griff relayed a report from the lord chamberlain that some kitchen servants had seen Alexa and Sophia going down into the wine cellar last night. Alexa had told the curious kitchen staff that Her Highness wanted to pick out a fresh bottle of champagne.

This morning, the servants had been loathe to mention having seen the girls last night because the princess had been in an embarrassing state of intoxication—or so it had appeared. In fact, this told Gabriel that Alexa had drugged Sophia as well as the bodyguards.

The captain of the garrison then filled in more of the picture with news that his men had opened the castle gates to let Alexa drive out last night in her curricle.

When the soldiers on duty at the gatehouse had asked her where she was going, the saucy wench had slyly told them she was slipping out to spend the night with Gabriel!

Given Alexa’s reputation and Gabriel’s all-too-public spat with Sophia yesterday, the men had accepted her story with lewd laughter and sent her on her way. They had not searched her vehicle for they had had no reason to suspect that she was smuggling the princess out in the back of her closed carriage.

“So, what’s our next move?” the captain asked grimly.

“They’re probably taking her to Janina.” Gabriel related what the Turkish ambassador had told him about the Order of the Scorpion.

Griff paled as he listened.

“How far is the nearest port?” Gabriel asked urgently. “They’ll have to get her out to sea as soon as possible.”

“We’re only an hour’s ride from the coast,” the captain answered.

“I’ll send word for some Navy vessels to start the search and when we find them—”

“Easy,” Gabriel cautioned him. “We don’t know what these men are capable of. If we come at them with a whole flotilla of British warships, there’s no telling how they might react. It’s not as if we can subject them to a cannonade with her onboard.”

“He’s right,” the captain of the garrison concurred.

“I’ll take her bodyguards and pursue them toward the Mediterranean in a civilian vessel. That should let us get closer than sailing under the Union Jack. We can do naught but find them and follow at a safe distance until we see our opportunity to move in and get her back.”