The Convenient Bride (25 page)

Mr Pennington looked surprised by the question but began to list her known addresses for the past few years. She had moved a few times, either as her benefactors changed
, or she had been asked to leave when her many visitors drew complaints from other residents.

None
of the addresses seemed a likely venue to hold two men hostage though.

“What about further afield?” Donald asked. “Lovers or friends with home
s not far from London.”

Mr Pennington thought for a moment. “There is her mother’s home. She was basically a kept woman and Lord Ashcroft
bought a house near Croydon for her. He was an MP and after his wife died, he would usually stay with her while Parliament was in session. The mother is dead now but he still owns the house.”

“Where is it?”

Mr Pennington searched through the papers in the file, then wrote something down on a separate sheet of paper and handed it to him.

“Here, it’s just south of Croydon
.”

“This has got to be where the exchange is taking place,” Donald noted. “No wonder she didn’t want us coming here.”

“She’s gone to the exchange alone?” Mr Pennington asked.

“That’s what the note said to do,” Donald confirmed. “And she was adamant that I not accompany her.” He checked his pocket watch. “It’s just after four thirty, if the banker has arrived with the money, I'm sure she’s long gone.”

Mr Pennington nodded. “I have horses we can take; they’re stabled just one street over.”

Donald turned to May. “You take the carriage back to the house. If Lucy is still there, try to
get her to stay; we can handle this.”

May stretched up on her toes and kissed him gently. “Lucy was right about you having responsibilities. Be careful.”

Donald nodded. “I will, I promise.”

***

Lucy slowed as she approached the edge of the village, her fear slowing her down. Mentally she went through the possible scenarios in her mind, trying to see every eventuality and she slowed to a stop as she reached the driveway, although she was unable to see the house.

It didn’t matter how much planning she did, she wouldn’t find out what would happen until she got there but
her instincts told her that there would be some kind of double-cross. She wouldn’t trust Marie or Giles as far as she could throw them.

The letter said that she had to be here by nightfall and she had at least an hour before dusk, so she decided to tether the horse to a tree and approach the house through the
woods. She slowed as the house came into view, took her satchel off and, climbing the limbs of a nearby tree, deposited the bag on a high branch, hoping that they wouldn’t look up if they searched the wood.

With that done, she made her way closer and
went around the side of the house, trying to learn as much as she could before she made her presence known.

No one seemed to be around but the smoke coming from the chimney meant that someone was here.

At the rear of the house she saw the stables but again, no one was visible. Making her way back to the front, she finally saw movement in the house; two people were looking out, towards the driveway.

Knowing that time was running out, she
quickly made her way back to her horse and approached the house.

As soon as they noticed her, five people came out of the house, the four men all holding a gun or knife. Lucy stopped the horse twenty feet away.

“Where are Max and Charles?”

“Where is the money?” Marie demanded. Her smile gave Lucy chills.

“Close by but you’ll never find it without me and if I don’t see that they’re safe and well, I won’t tell you.”

Her hands were
damp with sweat and her heart was racing but she was determined not to show any fear.

“You will tell us,” Giles said, stepping forward and aiming his gun at her face.

“I care nothing for my life next to theirs,” Lucy answered. “Either you show me that they’re alive, or kill me, and you’ll never find the money.”

Marie looked
angry enough to kill but thankfully, she didn’t have a gun.

“They’re in the tack room,” Giles told her, his desire for the money more important than Marie’s for vengeance. “Dismount and follow me.”

Lucy tied the horse to the fence that lined the driveway and although every bone in her body was screaming at her to run, she approached them. The biggest of the thugs they had hired took hold of her arm and they all walked around to the rear of the house.

***

Donald and Mr Pennington were heading past Norbury, about four miles north of Croydon, when two familiar figures came towards them.

“Max?” Donald asked, slowing his horse to a trot as they neared.

Max slowed to a stop.

“Don, what are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing; you were kidnapped!”

“One of the men they hired learned of the plot to kill Lucy and wouldn’t be a party to murder; he set us free.”

Donald’s face turned white.

“Don?”

“You didn’t see Lucy?” he asked.

“Why would we?”

“We’re chasing her,” Don said. “She wouldn’t tell us where the meet was so I went to see Mr Pennington, who thought the Croydon house the most likely place to hold you.”

“Lucy?” Max paled. “We- we had to talk someone into loaning us two horses without any money or proof of who we are… She must have come past then.”

“We’re not far,” Don assured him. “We can gallop the rest of the way in a few minutes.”

Max and Charles turned their horses around.

“No, Father, go to London, summon help, in case we’re too late.”

Knowing that he was more
of a liability than a help, Charles nodded. “I will.”

Charles
turned and headed back towards London.

“Go with him,” Max urged Mr Pennington. “
His health is failing.”

“You
’re sure?”

Max nodded.

“Very well.” He withdrew a pistol from his coat and handed it to Max. “Good luck.”

“Thank you.”

***

As they neared the tack shed, Lucy was held uncomfortably close, as the big thug grabbed her upper arms and held her back against his chest. She could feel that he was tense, as tense as she was, so she didn’t complain, sensing that there was something else going on here.

They stopped directly in front of the door, a few feet away and the redheaded thug approached and opened the door… to an empty room.

“NO!” Marie shrieked, pushing the
man aside and storming into the room. “No, no, NOOO!”

The hostility that she felt radiating
from Marie actually made Lucy lean backwards, into the large man holding her. He may be one of the bad guys but he was a safer option than Marie right now.

“Where are they
?” she demanded, although no one answered. She stormed up to Lucy and repeated the question.

“How should I know? Do you honestly believe that I could stand to be in your vile presence, if I already knew they were free?” Lucy demanded.

Marie slapped her and the big man’s grip tightened on her arms. Lucy looked a little irritated but when she looked back to Marie, she was smiling.

“Max is free, that’s all I need to know. Do your worst, Mary Pool, because I no longer care.”

Marie grabbed a gun from the youngest looking ruffian and aimed it at her head.

“You will care, when you know you’re about to die!”

“We need her alive!” Giles shouted but no one seemed to hear.

Lucy’s smile widened.
“You really don’t understand love at all, do you?”

“I love Max!
I
love him, not you! He was mine first!”

“He was always mine,
Mary; you were just a distraction until we were brave enough to admit the truth to each other. But you see, I really do love Max so while I have no actual wish to die, I don’t mind so very much, not now I know that he and Charles are safe from your abominable scheming.”

“If he loves you so much, your death will cripple him.”

“Marie, put the gun down now, without Lucy we won’t find the ransom,” Giles tried to reason with her.

“You think I care about that!” Marie screamed at him,
although she never took her eyes off Lucy.

Giles aimed his gun at Marie. “Let her go.”

“No, Giles. I will get the location out of her before she dies and you will get your precious money, but not before she suffers.

Lucy could see the ginger
haired and the young henchmen exchanging looks with the one who held her.

Marie smiled coolly at Lucy. “When he sees how much
pain you were in when you died, he won’t be able to go on.”

“
Yes he will,” Lucy shook her head sadly, unsure of how she was able to remain so outwardly calm when inside, she was terrified. “He knows that I wouldn’t like that so he will go on, he will heal and he will find happiness again, because it’s what I want for him.”

“And you would sacrifice your own life so that he might find happiness with someone else?”

“I would. You might once have been able to bend Max to your will, Mary, but you will never break him. He’s made of stronger stuff than you can imagine, stronger than I think he even knows.”

“Thankfully it won’t come to that.” Everyone tuned to the new voice, Max, as he approached them from the woods. His gun was drawn.

From the opposite side came Donald, his gun also drawn.

With a screech of primal rage, Marie took aim at Lucy.

The big man holding her pulled her to the side, so violently that they both fell and the bullet grazed Lucy’s left arm, before embedding itself in her captor’s upper arm. She ended up on her stomach with the man on top of her, in an almost protective position.

Marie made to fire the second barrel of the gun but before she could
pull the hammer back, three shots rang out. Marie took a shot to her chest and a second to her hip from Donald and Max’s guns, while Max was hit in the shoulder by Giles.

Somehow Lucy was able to wriggle free enough to get to get to her father’s
gun at the back of her breeches and she fired at Giles, hitting him in the knee. He fell to the ground and Donald approached and took the gun from him.

Max stepped closer and helped Lucy to her feet then, holding
her close to his side with his injured arm, he went over to Marie, who was sobbing hysterically and aiming her gun at anyone who got too close. Max held his gun on her, a hair trigger ready to fire the moment she made a move.

“Max,” she implored. “I love you.”

Max actually looked sympathetic. “I don’t think you do but either way, I don’t love you. I’m sorry.”

Marie’s tears fell harder,
then suddenly the arm that held the gun began to curl around.

“Don’t do it, M
arie,” Max implored.

“They’ll just kill me anyway.” And with
one last longing look, she put the gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger.

“Jesus Christ!” Giles exclaimed.

Max pulled Lucy to him and held her tightly and no one spoke for a few long moments.

Finally Donald stepped forward and
threw his coat over Marie to shield everyone from the gruesome sight, and Max turned to Big.

“My father is sending reinforcements,
so you’d better go while you can.” He gave him his father’s London address and told him to call tomorrow about employment.

“What about these fellas?” Big asked. “I got them into this.”

“Neither have harmed any of us, so I make the same offer to them.”

Big nodded and held his hand out, which
after passing his gun to Lucy, Max shook.

“Thank you for your help, and doing what you could for Lucy.”

Big nodded then he and the other two men headed into the woods.

Donald stepped up beside Max and Lucy. “He’s the one who set you free?”

“He is,” Max nodded. “I think he’s basically a good man, just desperate.”

“I'm not sure I could offer a job to someone who had kidnapped me.”

“You could if he'd just saved May’s life.”

Donald conceded the point with a nod.

Lucy had been silent since Max arrived, feeling a little overwhelmed and oddly like crying, even although everyone was safe. She took a shuddering breath.

“We don’t know how long the reinforcements will be,” she said, her voice shaking just a little. “Let
’s go inside and get that wound cleaned and dressed.”

They headed for the house.

“What about him?” Donald asked, pointing a thumb back at Giles.