Love and Larceny (17 page)

She stared at him.

Ariadne clapped her hands. “Brilliant! Men
have been playing women in the theatre since Shakespeare’s time.
Why not the other way around?”

“Scandalous,” Lady Minerva declared. “Count
me in.”

“No,” Lady Rollings said. “There must be
another way.”

“Really, Mother,” Ariadne scolded. “Can you
not bend propriety this once?”

“Propriety is not what concerns me,” she
informed her. “I already have one daughter in harm’s way. Do not
ask me to risk another.”

Ariadne’s look softened.

“There should be little risk, so long as we
follow the plan,” Wynn promised.

“And what is this plan?” Lady Rollings
demanded. “Do you intend to arm us? Lead us into battle?”

“The armory is full of weapons,” Ariadne
mused. “I’ve always wanted to try a mace.”

Her mother paled.

“No one need fight,” Wynn assured her. “We
merely have to appear to be an army to frighten off the
smugglers.”

They all looked to Lady Rollings, who closed
her mouth and nodded. With a squeal of delight, Ariadne led the
others up the stairs to raid their betrotheds’ wardrobe.

“Mr. Fairfax,” Lady Rollings said, stopping
him from heading to the armory to select the weapons they
needed.

“Your ladyship?” Wynn asked, almost afraid to
hear what she had to say.

Her face was set, her mouth tight. “I have
made no secret of the fact that I do not consider you a suitable
match for my daughter. We had hoped for a title for her.”

Wynn inclined his head. “I know, your
ladyship.”

She bit her lower lip, and all at once he saw
the resemblance to Daphne. Tears darkened her blue eyes.

“Bring her home to me,” she said, “and I will
waive all objections. My daughter needs a hero, and I can think of
no one more likely than you to play the role.”

*

At the hermit’s hut, Daphne eased open the
trap door and peered out. Night had fallen since she’d been
imprisoned. The moonlight showed that the way to Brentfield Manor
was not as clear as Brooks had claimed. A wagon and team stood
ready to take the last of the materials away, with one man at the
reins and three more positioning goods. Very likely as soon as they
finished, they’d be heading in her direction.

She puffed out a breath. “Still too many,”
she told Brooks, who was standing so close behind her she could
smell the lavender in his cologne. “How exactly did you plan to
help me escape?”

“With considerably less difficulty,” he
assured her, leaning past her to peer out as well. “Perhaps if we
wait a while longer.”

“And have them come back for the rest?”
Daphne shook her head. Her hair must have brushed his nose, for he
stifled a sneeze.

One of the smugglers glanced back at the hut.
Daphne ducked out of sight.

“Is there no other way out of here?” she
asked her so-called rescuer.

“The wall at the back of this room is
supposed to swivel and give access to a tunnel under Brentfield
Manor,” he murmured, gaze darting about the clearing as he too must
have looked for an alternative, “but the mechanism is broken.”

“Then we’re trapped.” Daphne broke away from
him to drop back into the room. Her legs took her about the space,
from the crate where she had been tied, to the wall behind it and
the barrel standing on the opposite side. She spotted no egress and
few possibilities for weapons.

“What are you doing?” Brooks demanded.

“Thinking,” Daphne told him. “Now do
hush.”

His face darkened.

She ignored him. Really, Wynn would have been
so much more use. He always knew what to say to set her mind in
motion. She could almost hear him now.

“Lay down your weapons and surrender, and it
will go easier on you.”

Wait—was that really Wynn?

She rushed back to the door and pushed Brooks
aside to look out again. In the clearing, the smugglers had frozen
in their places, while on the slope to Brentfield Manor stood Wynn.
He bore a flaming torch in one hand, a long sword in the other. The
light reflected off his spectacles, making it appear that his gaze
was as fiery as the torch.

Daphne started forward, and Brooks caught her
arm. “He can’t take them all on alone.”

Daphne shook herself free. “Which is why
we’re going to help him.”

Once more he seized her before she could
move. “Think! They are armed. We’re not.”

There was that. But she wasn’t about to leave
Wynn out there alone. There had to be something she could do.

“You have no chance to escape,” Wynn was
calling. “We have you surrounded.”

As Daphne stared out, figures moved along the
edges of the clearing. Moonlight flashed on swords, axes, the gilt
of pistols. She could see the smugglers’ heads turning as they took
in the numbers. Oh, but it was a masterful stroke by Lord
Brentfield and the others.

Odd that he’d sent Wynn to speak for him,
though. It was Lord Brentfield’s land, after all, and he was one of
the highest-ranking persons in the area.

The smugglers conferred a moment, then held
up their hands in surrender. As several of Lord Brentfield’s staff
came forward to take them into custody, Daphne scrambled out of the
hut.

“Wynn!” She ran to him, and he threw down the
sword to hold her close.

“Daphne, tell me you are unharmed.”

“She is safe,” Brooks said behind her. “I saw
to that.”

For all of a quarter hour, and she wouldn’t
have been captured to begin with if she hadn’t gone to the hermit’s
hut to meet him, but she decided now was not the time to go into
all that.

“I’m fine,” she told Wynn. “Thank you for
coming to rescue me.”

Wynn eyed Brooks, but he did not let Daphne
out of the circle of his arms. “Everyone thought you were on your
way to Gretna Green with him.”

“What!” Daphne swiveled to glare at Sheridan.
“You know I never agreed to that.”

In the moonlight, she thought he flushed. “I
am so sorry, Miss Courdebas. I had hopes we might elope together,
and I instructed a local man to send word to your mother so she
wouldn’t worry. Then when I saw you being kidnapped, I could not
take the time to call him back, being intent on rescuing you.”

“For the last time,” Daphne said, “you did
not rescue me!”

“No,” Ariadne said, moving up to join them.
“We did.”

The servants were leading off the smugglers,
and the rest of Wynn’s army was materializing out of the woods.
Daphne stared at them. Ariadne, their mother, Hannah, Priscilla,
Emily, and her aunt were dressed in breeches and greatcoats,
tricorns or top hats perched on their hair, which was piled up
underneath. Each carried a weapon of some sort, though only Lady
Minerva looked completely comfortable with it. Indeed, she was
fingering the shaft of the pike as if having every desire to take
it like a parasol when next she promenaded through Hyde Park.

“What are you doing?” Daphne asked. “Where is
Lord Brentfield, Sinclair, Sir James, and Mr. Kent?”

Wynn glanced at Brooks. “Chasing after you
and Sheridan toward Wells.”

Brooks was too busy staring at the female
soldiers to pay him any heed. “Ladies, you?”

Priscilla raised her chin. “Who else, Mr.
Sheridan?”

“Do you find fault with our choice of
weapons?” Emily asked, hand straying to the mechanism of her
crossbow as if she wondered how fast the bolt might fly and where
it would be best aimed.

He took a step back.

That made way for Daphne’s mother, who came
forward to enfold her in a hug. “Daphne. We were so worried.”

“So was I, for a bit,” Daphne admitted. She
smiled over her mother’s shoulder at Wynn. “But I knew I could
count on my friends to help.”

For some reason, Wynn was the only one who
did not look pleased by the statement.

“We should get back to the house,” Hannah
said. “It will be safer there should the other smugglers return. We
can send someone to the village for the magistrate and another to
the road to call back David and his valiant troop.”

Wynn nodded, glancing around as if he thought
more smugglers might be hiding in the woods even then.

Daphne’s mother released her, then looked to
Brooks. “You might begin composing what you will say by way of
apology, Mr. Sheridan, for putting them all to such trouble. Walk
beside me and let’s practice now.”

Put that way, he had no choice but to fall
into step with Daphne’s mother and Hannah.

Ariadne and the others walked beside Daphne
and Wynn instead.

“I don’t know how the gentlemen abide these,”
Priscilla said, shaking back her greatcoat to reveal the
embroidered waistcoat hugging her curves. “I far prefer the
elegance of skirts and petticoats.”

“I cannot imagine how the actresses pull it
off,” Ariadne agreed, straightening her tricorn and causing her
hair to tumble free.

“I don’t know,” Daphne said. “I warrant it
would be easier to ride. No more side saddle.”

“How shocking,” Ariadne teased.

“If you ask me, this entire evening has been
shocking,” Lady Minerva said, striding past them with her
too-big-boots clumping against the ground. “I can’t wait to tell
the other dowagers. I’ll be dining out for a quarter year on this
story.”

“I fear the story isn’t over yet,” Emily
said.

“What do you mean?” Daphne asked. “Are you
concerned the other smugglers will return before we can summon
aid?”

“No,” she said. “I believe one never left.
But I would feel better waiting for Lord Brentfield and Jamie to
return before forcing him out into the open.”

Wynn could not seem to settle. Daphne was
whole and safe, the only result of her kidnapping an intense
annoyance with Brooks Sheridan. That alone might be cause to
rejoice. But he could not forget Lady Emily’s comment as they had
returned to the house.

Mr. Harrop had not been among the smugglers
they’d captured. Was he out in the woods still, or had he returned
to the house, thinking no one the wiser for his treachery? Were
they safe waiting for the others to return before unmasking the
villain?

Most of the ladies willingly trooped upstairs
to change out of their borrowed uniforms. Hannah had to convince
Lady Minerva to join them. That left Sheridan, Wynn, and Daphne
alone in the Blue Salon.

“I would ask whether you feel the need to
recover from your ordeal,” Hannah had told Daphne before following
the others. “But I know you too well to suppose you wish to
retire.”

“Quite right,” Daphne had said with a
smile.

“You have my utmost admiration for the way
you handled yourself,” Sheridan said now. He and Wynn remained
standing as Daphne prowled around the room like a caged lion. Wynn
knew she moved to propel her marvelous mind, but he could only
wonder what had her in such a stew at the moment.

She waved a hand at Sheridan’s statement. “It
was nothing.”

Sheridan shook his head, draping one arm
along the polished wood mantel. “On the contrary, your behavior was
nothing short of courageous. Those were dangerous men, hardened,
determined. They might have taken you out to the sea and dropped
you over the side to prevent you from spilling their secrets.”

Wynn felt as if the dark waters were closing
over him at the very thought.

Daphne paused in her pacing, dusty muslin
skirts settling about her ankles. “Do you know, they did not seem
so desperate to me? They simply went about their business, after
they had bound and gagged and blindfolded me, of course.”

So they had been polite as they man-handled
her. Wynn felt his anger burning.

Sheridan merely nodded. “They are probably
local men. They would not want you to recognize them.”

“I wouldn’t have recognized them anyway,”
Daphne said, resuming her pacing, a white blur past the blue
furnishings. “I’m only here another few days, and I rarely visit
the village.”And the smugglers must know that, the way they had
been watching the house. Had they just practiced caution, as
Sheridan had said, or was there another reason they had blindfolded
Daphne?

The ladies started returning then, and they
set about exclaiming over their adventure as they sat on the sofa
and chairs. Sheridan went so far as to praise each of them for
their part in Daphne’s rescue, but Wynn thought the Corinthian was
merely trying to restore himself into their good graces after the
mess he’d made.

Wynn positioned himself to catch Lady Emily
as she entered and drew her aside.

“Daphne always said you could solve any
mystery,” he murmured to her where they stood by the door. “So I’m
not surprised you identified our culprit. Unfortunately, I don’t
think we should wait until the gentlemen return before capturing
him. I can fetch one of the male servants and take him in hand
before anyone else is hurt.”

Lady Emily glanced to where the others were
laughing at something Sheridan had said. “He will be formidable.
His discovery will mean the end of the life he has led.”

“That’s true of all smugglers,” Wynn pointed
out.

Emily turned her dark gaze on him. “Local
people will likely take a more lenient view of the matter. Once
Lord Brentfield presses charges, this fellow may be facing the
gallows or deportation at the least.”

A chill went through him. “So you intend to
allow him to escape?”

She made a face. “No, never that. I only wish
I knew how much longer it will be before Jamie and the others
return.”

“If they are riding as hard as I suspect,”
Wynn told her, “they may have to rest the horses. They might spend
the night at an inn and not return until morning.”

Her gaze narrowed. “In that case, all will be
lost. He could easily slip away in the night.” She nodded, decision
obviously made. “Fetch the servants, and I’ll confront him.”