My Wicked Marquess (40 page)

“What have you done with her?” James demanded.

“I told you, she's secured.”

“You've brought in help, without our authorization?”

“No worries! Just some of my old mates from my seafarin' days. We're going to do this my way.”

“How dare you!”

“Listen to me, old man.”

Drake tensed behind the door, wanting to go to James's aid if O'Banyon was threatening him.

“You don't seem to realize that you need me,” the cutthroat convict said. “Especially when her father comes back in from the sea to pay her ransom. You may think you're a bad fellow, Eye-Patch, but you've never dealt with the likes o' Captain Fox. Why do you think he had his little girl livin' in seclusion? You steal a pirate's treasure, that is bad enough,” O'Banyon warned. “You kidnap his daughter, and there'll be hell to pay. Trust me, I'm the only one who has a clue how to handle her papa, and he's the one who knows where the Alchemist's tomb is.”

“So, what do you suggest we do, then, hm?” James in
quired, sounding like he was losing patience.

“We wait, mainly. Just like we have to do at sea. It'll be awhile before the message reaches her father, and more time still for the old Sea Fox to get back to England. Not to mention the fact that the Coast Guard will be wantin' to arrest him the moment he sets foot on English soil. In the meantime, I, for one, intend to go enjoy me freedom.”

Through the crack in the door, Drake saw Talon grab the grubby O'Banyon by the shirt. “You think you can succeed in double-crossing us?”

“Take your hands off me, Eye-Patch. To get to the Alchemist's treasure, you need Captain Fox; and to bring in Captain Fox, you need his pretty daughter. And to get your hands on the girl, you need me, seein' as I'm the only one who knows where the lovely lass is stowed at the moment.”

James nodded to Talon.

He, in turn, released O'Banyon angrily.

“I wouldn't agitate Mr. Talon if I were you, O'Banyon. He's killed men for much less, I can assure you.”

“Well, so have I, old fellow. Believe me. So have I.”

“At least tell me that Miss Fox is safe. She is of no worth as a hostage if she's dead.”

“Aye, safe enough. Young Miss Kate ain't too comfortable, I warrant, but she ain't in any danger.”

“You trust whoever's holding her, then?”

O'Banyon grinned. “Frankly, gov, I don't trust nobody.”

 

The girl sat huddled and shivering on a cold stone floor, sightless behind the black blindfold tied around her head. Her hands were also tied, her wrists bound before her, resting on her bent knees.

Kate refused to cry, forcing herself to focus her available senses on whatever she could glean. Heavy tromping footfalls paced above her. Rough voices, mainly male. Busy warehouse. People shuffling boxes or crates around upstairs. What were they? Not ordinary merchants.

Smugglers?

The hint of salt that hung on the cold air took her memory back to ages and ages ago, the rocking masts against the
azure sky. Her father's bold grin as he made a little bo'sun out of her, telling her the orders to shout to the crew in her high-pitched, child's voice.
Trim the topsail, you lazy buggers! Steady as she goes!

Suddenly, she heard a door creak up at the top of the wooden stairs above the clammy cellar where her captors had deposited her. Someone was coming. Kate sat very still, listening for all she was worth.

She had heard them talking before, but now their voices sounded unexpectedly agitated.

“I don't give a damn what O'Banyon said! If the duke's on his way home, that changes everything!”

“What are we goin' to do?”

“I don't know, but we got to rid of her before Warrington gets back!”

“What do you mean, get rid of her? Do we kill her? Let her go?”

Kate drew in her breath, listening keenly.
Quite a choice.
She could barely hear above the pounding of her heart.

There was a silence.

“I don't know,” one of the smugglers answered. He seemed to be the one in charge. “We could tell O'Banyon the lass got away.”

“But the money!”

“Who would you rather cross, O'Banyon or the Beast?”

Beast?
she thought in rising panic.

“Well, that's no contest.”

“Tell me about it!”

“I wish we'd had more warning that His Grace was comin' home.”

“He was bound to come eventually. He owns this bloody place for miles around.”

“What are we goin' to do with her once he gets here? That oversized devil's already goin' to roast us alive for the shipwreck last month. If he hears that now we been party to a kidnappin'…”

“Aye,” the first said grimly. “Well…maybe there's a way we can kill two birds with one stone.”

“What do you mean?”

“If O'Banyon wants the lass, let
him
deal with the Duke of Warrington.”

“You mean…hand the girl over to the Beast?”

“Aye! Like a little present. You know, a little welcome-home package from us and the boys, eh?”

“Aye, that's brilliant! Then maybe he won't bash our heads in quite so much!”

“That's what I'm sayin'! She's pretty enough for 'im. You know how he is with the ladies. A welcome-home gift like her ought to take some of the hammer out of his wrath.”

“Right, and playin' with her, at least that'll keep him preoccupied for a night or two while we wrap up our business.”

“It might work.”

“Ye hear that, girlie? Handful o' trouble, you are,” the leader said, no doubt still swollen and sore in the groin where she had kicked him upon her arrival. “See how far it gets you with the Beast! You try givin' him your sass, and you're goin' to wish you was back down 'ere in this cellar.”

“Aw, don't cry, lass,” the other mocked her. “There's worse things than becomin' the Beast's concubine. 'Course, I can't think of any right now…”

Her head reeled as the smugglers' coarse laughter echoed all around her in the darkness. Her whole body was shivering with dread.

I'm not afraid
, Kate thought over and over again.
I'm not afraid…