Wildfire Kiss (22 page)

“Fool, she is without guile—though she is very
naughty and unconventional. She doesn’t like Ned … and I have
to think she is somehow being forced into this.”

“Well then, we have but a few miles left to us.
Let’s make haste so that I can get to the bottom of this mess.”

Twenty-two

LADY BABS HURRIED down the avenue to the designated
corner where she was supposed to meet Sir Edward. She had a bad
feeling about this. Why this sudden change of heart?

A large, old-fashioned, and cumbersome coach came to
a slow and then a full stop quite near where she was standing. She
pulled her light blue velvet cloak tightly around her and adjusted
her bonnet as she considered the vehicle.

A warning light was blinking in her head. A skittish
sensation was tickling her spine. Something was not right. However,
Sir Edward opened the door and waved for her to join him.

“What happened to your coach …?” she called as
she approached.

“Something wrong with the spring … and it looks
like rain, didn’t want to take out my open curricle.”

Babs hesitated. A sixth sense curled around her
stomach and yanked at her brain.
Don’t go with him
, it told
her.
Run, Babs, run!
a voice in her head demanded.
Run,
run now … run!

“I think, Sir Edward … you should meet me back
at Waverly where we can talk … I don’t think I feel well
enough for a ride today,” she said, starting to back away.

“No, I think we need privacy for this …” he
said, getting out of the coach. He took a minute to pull the hood
of his dark cloak well over his head and then reached out with a
cloth and covered her face. He held her as she struggled and then
went limp into his arms, and he smiled as he carried her and
deposited her in his coach.

In all the excitement, he didn’t see Otto just
climbing up and over the dune some distance away. He didn’t see
Otto go stock still for only a moment. He didn’t hear Otto call out
above the ocean waves and wind, “Stop, fiend! Stop …”

He ordered his coachman forward, and forward they
went with Otto chasing on foot.

Otto continued to shout and chase until he could run
no more. He bent over his knees in order to catch his breath.

Inside the coach, Babs had fallen into a black
canyon. She knew as she fell deeper and deeper that she was in
serious trouble, and all she could see was a pair of bright blue
eyes. “Nick …” she said out loud to the chagrin of her
captor.

And then blackness enveloped her.

***

Miss Bretton had not reacted quite as Sir Edward had
expected. He had thought she would go to the stables, take out the
Waverly carriage, and use their driver, who would take much longer
than a lady on horseback.

And that was what she was, a lady on horseback,
taking shortcuts through the fields on her way to Lewes. She was
used to rugged terrain and had often learned how to use the lay of
the land to her advantage. Having lived in the States, she was
accustomed to land far more rugged than the sedate and established
roads of England.

It was therefore only a quick and easy ride to the
Lewes. She hopped down from her sidesaddle, brushing the dust off
her spencer and sticking her crop into her tall riding boot while
she looked around.

The inn seemed respectable enough. It was an old,
Tudor-styled building with an oversized barn that looked even
larger than the main building.

Several chickens clucked and scattered as she walked
by, and a fat white goat eyed her with suspicion as she spoke
sweetly to it. “Nice goat …” she said as she led her horse
towards the groom coming out of the barn.

“Sorry, mum, didn’t hear ye … was out back oi
was.”

“No bother, just walk him for a bit before you water
and stall him … and do give him a flake of hay as well.” She
dove into her pocket and paid the boy, adding a generous gratuity
for himself as well.

“Oi’ll do ’im up proper, oi will,” the lad said,
grinning as he pocketed his share and put the rest in a can at the
side of the barn.

This left Miss Bretton facing the main entrance of
the inn. She took a long breath of air and marched towards the
front door. She saw no sign of Babs and no sign of her Freddy, and
she was beginning to tremble with trepidation.

“Well, now,” she mumbled to herself. “You should
have known better …”

***

Freddy saw the inn as they passed the driveway to it
and called to his driver to circle back to it.

Something nagged at him.

The inn was perfectly respectable in appearance, and
so he told himself he was just being fanciful and all would be
explained as soon as he found his dear Corry.

A moment later he managed the business of climbing
out of the carriage with only a slight wince of pain as he jostled
his set arm still hanging in a sling.

It was just inside the front door that he found Miss
Bretton questioning the innkeeper. She heard Freddy’s approach and
turned to say, “Thank goodness, Freddy … you are here.” And so
saying she flung herself into his arm, realized she was pressed up
against his sling, and then stood back to say, “Oh … did I
hurt you? I am so very—”

“Nonsense. Hurt me indeed. It would have hurt me if
you hadn’t thrown yourself into m’arms. Its where you belong.” He
grinned at her, but then he got right to the point. “Corry, why did
you want to meet here?”

She looked at him with dawning horror. “I did
not … but I received this from you …” She fished into her
deep pocket, produced the note, and handed it to him.

He surveyed it quickly and shook his head. “What
devilry is this? I did not pen this …” He looked at her. “And
you did not send me a note requesting me to meet you and Babs
here?”

“No … I did not, and Freddy … I fear the
worst. I think Babs may have received some sort of note as
well … and may now be … in danger …” This last she
said with a fist to her mouth and a sob caught in her throat.

“Well then, come on … where is your carriage?
You come along with me, and—”

“I came by horse. Quicker …”

“Egad, woman, you are everything a man could hope
for!” He beamed proudly. “Right, then, we’ll tether it at the back
of my coach … and you come along with me. Looks like it will
rain any moment …” With that he led her unceremoniously out of
the inn beneath the innkeeper’s astounded gaze.

Freddy grimaced to hear the innkeeper at his back
remark to his wife, “Flash gentry, never know what faradiddle they
will be up to.”

***

The duke, with Sir Charles beside him, rode hard
towards Brighton. He had a nagging gut feeling that things were in
a turmoil.

After some time his horse tired; Nick pulled him to
a trot, relieved to see the outskirts of Brighton ahead.

They took a shortcut through the back of the village
and parted at the duke’s lodgings, where Charles left to attend to
his own affairs.

Nick was poised to take the steps at a run when he
heard his name called and turned to see the count running down the
avenue and waving at him like a lunatic.

“Ho there … Nick … Nick, I say …
Nick …” cried the Count, in a state of hysteria.

“What is it Otto? I am a bit rushed …”

“Babs … he took Babs … I’ve been making
tracks to get my horse …” Otto was out of breath and obviously
beside himself.

“Took Babs … who took Babs?” Fear gripped the
duke’s heart and wrung it unmercifully.

“That devil friend of yours, Sir Edward—”

“He is no friend of mine, and he will be a dead man
before this day is done,” the duke said, gritting his teeth. “Did
you see which road he took?”

“I did.” Otto nodded. “I called after him, but he
never noticed me. Believes he got away clean. He did something to
her, by God, I saw him … put something over her face …
she went limp …”

“Which road did he take?”

“The beach road, south … he went south …”
Otto said breathlessly.

Nick started taking the steps two by two, and Otto
called after him, “Here … where are you going? We have to go
after her!”

“Get your horse, Otto, and follow as you can. I’m
for my pistol, a fresh mount, and Edward’s head!”

“’Tis something I’d like to see …” returned
Otto, taking off once more.

***

Sir Edward moved the window shade aside and gazed at
the passing scene of sand and sea. The mist was turning into a fog.
Pushing the window jacket open to let in the breeze, he sighed.

It was lowering to think he had come to such a
pass.

Here he was, abducting a lady of quality, one of his
own, and why? Because she didn’t want him.

What if she never forgave him for this day’s
work?

He turned and looked at her. He had set her on a
pillow, but even so, the bumping and lurching of the coach was
going to give her a kink in her neck when she awoke. Just one more
reason for her to think him the worst of men.

She slept like a child, unaware, but she would wake
and know him for what he had become—a scoundrel.

“Lookee … look sharp, Papa!” cried the young
groom to his father.

Sir Edward frowned and looked out the window.
“What …?

It was too late.

The driver had not seen the huge rut in the road in
time, and Sir Edward was thrown back into the coach. He heard his
driver howl with something close to terror just before the world
around him tumbled and crashed.

The horses pelted out sounds of fear as the driving
reins yanked them hard. In spite of their tethers, and for
self-preservation, they jumped the wide ditch to avoid it. Although
they cleared the gap, the carriage wheels landed directly in the
long, wide gully.

The driver was flung forward, and the carriage
tilted precariously to one side but miraculously only fell onto its
side.

Inside, Babs groaned in her ether-induced sleep as
she fell to the floor. Sir Edward was flung hard and hit his head
against the wall in front of him. He was then thrown back against
the squabs and lay dazed against them.

A moment later, Sir Edward shook off his lapse in
consciousness and found Babs’ boots in his chest.

The driver was at the door, which was hanging open
as the coach creaked and moaned. He had been dusting his wool cap
off, but at the sight of Babs unconscious on the floor he threw his
hands to his uncovered head and wailed, “Sir Edward! Oh no, the
lady … be she hurt?” And when Sir Edward regarded him foggily,
he asked, “Sir Edward … can ye ’ear me?”

Sir Edward was dazed still but lifted Babs’ legs and
set them aside as the driver kept repeating that they’d landed in a
ditch. He wanted to swing at the fool and make him be quiet.

“The road must have washed out a bit with that storm
we had last week …” The driver scratched his head as his son
tugged at his coat. “What, boy … what …?” He turned
anxious eyes on his son.

“We best be getting them out … before she goes
over …”

Sir Edward gently eased himself out of the coach.
Then he turned, took Babs under her arms, and slowly eased her out.
The driver jumped to help him, and together they carried her and
laid her on a patch of grass alongside the road.

“A blanket for the lady,” Sir Edward said, beginning
to regain some of himself.

He had a nasty gash across his forehead, and blood
dripped down his face. He brushed it away with the back of his hand
and rubbed it off on the damp grass. The lad arrived with the
blanket and laid it on the ground. Sir Edward and the driver lifted
Babs again to place her on the blanket. Sir Edward wrapped her up
in it, and then he sat beside her, his knees drawn up as he
contemplated the problem before him.

Babs moved inside the blanket. Her eyelids
fluttered, and she said softly, “Nick …?”

With that she fell off again.

Sir Edward dropped his aching head into his
hands.

Twenty-three

THE DUKE HAD lost his hat somewhere along the way,
and his black long hair blew around his face as he charged along
the beach road on a horse better suited to his coach than his legs.
However, the big horse had just enough steady speed to satisfy.

His thoughts tumbled over one another. Hove was the
very next town. Why was Ned taking her to Hove? What was there?
Damn the man’s eyes, he would shoot him and then carve out his
heart and …

Damn, let him be on time; by all that was holy, let
him be on time.

Thoughts of carving Sir Edward into pieces carried
him until he was met with the sight of the lopsided coach in the
ditch. “What the …” he murmured, and then he sucked in a long
dreg of air, for there was his love!

Babs lay still in a blanket on the ground.

Babs … Babs was hurt?

“Hell and brimstone!” he shouted, for his heart was
pounding out of his chest and his mind was reeling so quickly he
couldn’t see straight.

He was there, jumping off his horse and rushing
towards Sir Edwards to tell him as he picked him up off the ground
and shook him, “I shall have your heart out for you to examine as I
cut it in pieces!”

Babs stirred, and her eyelids fluttered open. She
took a long breath and tried to focus on her surroundings. What had
she been doing?

Ah … yes, Sir Edward had … what had he
done? Something horrid over her nose and mouth …

She looked up and saw the love of her life knock Sir
Edward to the ground. She smiled. If she was dreaming, this was the
good part.

“Nick,” she said softly and then louder,
“Nick … oh Nick … you have come!”

He turned to her at the sound of her voice. He
looked ragged with fury and concern, so she held up her hand to
him. He took it and kissed it furiously as he dropped down beside
her. “My love … don’t move, you are quite pale … are you
hurt?”