Page 75 of Foolish Bride
Once the trees were behind them, Roxton threw her up into a waiting carriage. A third gun appeared, held by the driver. He was slightly smaller than the others, but still as big as the carnival man who lifted the elephant. A moment later, she heard a loud whistle and the rustle of trees. Roxton climbed into the carriage and sat across from her.
“I hope you are comfortable, my dear, it is a long drive.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“To my lands. I have a lovely castle in the lowlands. You and I will be happy there.”
The weight of the carriage shifted as the other two kidnappers leaped on its back.
Already moving, the carriage tottered back and forth as if being shook. Someone screamed. As Roxton stuck his head out the window, Elinor tried to open the other side door. It was locked or stuck. Everett lay on the ground, wrestling with one of the kidnappers.
A gun fired.
Elinor screamed.
The man got up, looked down at Everett’s body, shook his head and ran toward the still-moving carriage.
“No!” Elinor watched Everett getting smaller and smaller as her kidnappers took her away. He didn’t move. Sheldon ran out of the woods as they turned a bend in the road.
She sat back down. Tears were streaming down her face.
“That is a shame.” There was too much joy in Roxton’s voice for him to sound sincere.
“You’ll hang for this,” she said.
“I do not think so. I am a duke. Dukes don’t hang.”
There was no possibility this idiot was a duke. “The duke of what?”
Unbelievably, he tried to make a bow from the seat. “Duke of Kerburghe, at your service.”
He was mad. That was the only explanation. She would have to think of what to do, but first she had to get more information. And getting that from a madman wasn’t going to be easy.
* * * *
“Mike, is that your young brother running like the devil?” Thomas leaned on his crocket mallet.
Sheldon ran toward them, legs and arms pumping like mad. His face was red, and neither Elinor nor Everett was behind him.
Something was wrong. The hair on the back of his neck stood as it often did when he was on a mission. Michael’s heart sped up.Elinor. Had something happened to Elinor? Where was Everett?He ran toward Sheldon.
Thomas’s footfall was just behind him. By the sound of shouts and running, a few others followed as well. Daniel, he was sure, and perhaps a few more.
When he reached Sheldon, the boy collapsed to his knees, gasping for air.
“What’s happened, Shel?” Michael grabbed Sheldon’s shoulders.
“She’s been taken, Mike. We tried to stop them, but they took her, and now Everett is shot. There was so much blood.” Tears ran down Sheldon’s filthy face.
“Taken, shot, blood,” echoed in his mind.
Daniel arrived on horseback with another in tow. His friends from Eton always knew what was needed.
Sheldon cried into his hands.
Michael pulled him into his arms, and, in spite of his own panic, kept composed. “Sheldon, can you show me where Everett is?”
Sheldon nodded.
