Page 150 of His Duchess in Disguise
Captain Arnault went back to his men and started to turn them about and prepare to march back the way they had come. But Leo caught up to him, and after a few words, he marched them on toward Bristol.
Leo then caught up with Jessup and the two dogs. As Jessup had said, the track was clear. This early in the morning, not even the farm carts were out.
The boy and dog ran at a fair clip. With Rags balanced on his horse’s saddle, Leo paced along after them for a time, until his misadventures of the day before began to catch up with him. Feeling a bit shaky and weak, he climbed into the saddle and followed on behind the young tracker.
Suddenly a clothyard arrow sped out of the hedge near the road and stuck quivering in the dust of the road, having narrowly missed the boy and dog. Leo rode quickly forward, placing the horse and himself between Jessup and the direction from which the arrow had come.
Leo had just ducked to swing down from his horse when another arrow whizzed past his head. Leo continued his descent, then looped up the horse’s reins, fastening them to the saddle, and gave the beast a sharp smack on the rump, sending it running toward the wood.
To Leo’s amazement, Rags leaped from the saddle with a fury of snarls and barks. Red let out a full-voice bay and leaped to join the smaller dog. Jessup ran after the dogs, and Leo approached more slowly as his head had begun to throb again., Red had the fellow in a combat hold, and Rags pounced on the man’s hand and worried it with his small teeth, creating jagged tears in the flesh.
Leo picked up the little dog by his scruff. “Drop it!” he said sternly. Rags complied but continued to bark furiously at the man.
Jessup came up then. “Should I release him, Your Grace?”
“Not just yet. Let us truss him up and discover who has made so bold as to ambush us this morning.”
Since neither he or the boy had come prepared to bind up a man, they divested the fellow of his boots and used the laces to bind his feet. Then Jessup gave the command for Red to release the fellow, and Leo yanked off the cloak, then pulled the man’s coat down from his shoulders, effectively capturing his arms.
“Jessup, if you would be so good as to slice some lengths of cloth off his cloak?”
“Of course, Your Grace,” the boy grinned. “Right willingly!”
Leo used the strips to bind the man’s hands behind his back. With the fellow generally restrained, he felt it safe to relax his hold enough to remove the mask the man wore.
“Reggie!” Leo gasped. “What are you about, man?”
“Gaining what is rightfully mine,” Reggie snarled. “If the late Duke had not remarried, I would be the heir now, not you.”
“That old saw? Reggie, if Garth had not caught that fever, I would not have inherited. Furthermore, had it not ravaged the family, there would be a good round dozen cousins more eligible than you to inherit. Had you behaved yourself, you might still be the heir, but you can be sure that you have just taken yourself out of the line of succession.”
“So, do you think you will marry that little tramp nobody and beget a dozen children?”
“That is exactly what I think, because every day that I know her, she more greatly proves her worth. While you have just proven yourself worthless.”
“Well, you won’t have her. I sent her by coach to the Earl of Cleweme, her legal fiancé by her father’s consent. I sent her just this morning, so you can kiss that pipe dream goodbye.”
Leo felt red rage well up inside himself, and he slapped Reggie across the face. It was an open-handed blow, and not nearly as hard as he could have dealt. “That is a fair match for the bruise Emma had across her face thanks to her father. She is my fiancée, by her own personal consent, and I fully intend to take her back! I should thank you, however, for now, I have some idea of where to look for her.”
“Do you?” Reggie taunted him. “He planned to take her out of London immediately.”
“I will find her,” Leo said. “And if she has been wed against her will, she can just as quickly be widowed. As for you . . .”
At that point, Leo’s temper, which had always been quick to rise and just as quick to subside, simmered down to a level where he could think. He grasped Reggie by one arm, and with Jessup’s help, loaded him stomach-down over the saddle, not realizing that it mirrored Reggie’s treatment of Emma.
“We’ll leave him with the first constable we encounter,” Leo said. “The very sight of him sickens me.”
Now assured that they were heading in the right direction, man, boy and dogs with their prisoner headed on toward London. Neither the man, the boy, or the dogs noticed a second figure that faded back into the overgrown hedge. Once on the other side, it began to run.
Chapter 48
Emma stared in dismay at the two servants who had been most responsible for her upbringing. How could this have happened? A hard lump stuck in her throat.
“Don’t do it, Miss,” Mary breathed next to her ear. “He means to kill us all anyway.”
Emma swallowed hard. “I need to think,” she said aloud.
“You may have a little while to consider your options,” the Earl said. “But don’t take too long. This whole affair has something of a timeline.”
