Page 18 of Devoted to the Spanish Duke
Stephen leaned over and offered Lisandro his hand. “Los santos te protegen, my friend.”
“Yes, and may the saints also protect you.”
He followed Stephen out of the coach.
Earlier in the day, while the dog slept, Toby had climbed down from the tree next door and opened the gate to the rear yard. He had then closed it again and placed a stake in the ground in the laneway. From the house, the gate appeared to be shut fast, an illusion they all hoped would hold.
Reaching the break in the fence, Lisandro bent and withdrew the stake. The gate silently opened; they stepped inside.
The poor dog ambled slowly over to them and Stephen pulled out a sausage from his coat pocket. He handed it to the beast, who happily gulped it down.
“Off you go, lad,” he whispered.
The bulldog wandered out the gate to where the driver of the getaway coach was waiting. He lifted the animal up into his arms and it happily settled on the seat next to him and went back to sleep. In the morning, the lucky dog would have a new home and all the sausages he could ever want.
Lisandro and Stephen hurried to the back door; a set of skeleton keys made short work of the lock. The door had just opened when a loud knock echoed in the front of the house. They quickly slipped inside and, after closing the door, hid themselves under the staircase.
“Yes, yes, wait a minute,” grumbled Señor Alba.
He made his way downstairs, followed by another man. Lisandro turned to Stephen and held up two fingers.
Only one unaccounted for.
He caught theclickof multiple pistols being cocked just before the front door was opened. Whoever was at the door was going to be met with force.
In an instant, Stephen had stepped out and fired his pistol twice. The two men dropped to the floor.
The next few minutes were a flurry of activity. Lisandro raced for the stairs with Stephen and Gus close on his heels.
A figure appeared at the top of the first landing, brandishing a rifle. In a deft move worthy of a flamenco dancer, Lisandro leaned to the left as Gus raised his pistol and fired at the man’s head. The shot went wide and Gus swore.
Lisandro moved into position and aimed his pistol. The bullet found its mark and a patch of red appeared in the middle of the other man’s forehead. He dropped to his knees, the gun falling from his hands.
At the top of the stairs, Lisandro turned right while Stephen and Gus went left. Room after room revealed only vacant furniture, but when Lisandro’s hand dropped onto the door handle of the final room, it stuck. Rummaging around in his coat pocket, he pulled out his own set of skeleton keys and slipped one into the lock.
Click.
The door opened, and he stepped into a dimly lit room. On a bed in the far corner lay a body, still, as if dead. His heart stopped for an instant. Was he too late? Had they killed her before answering the door?
When the body moaned and turned over, it was all he could do not to sink to his knees in prayer.
“Oh,gracias padre celestial,” he whispered, and made the sign of the cross.
He hurried over to Maria, halting for a second when he caught sight of her face.
You are as beautiful as a I remember. Thank god you are still alive.
He bent and gently shook her by the shoulder.
“Maria de Elizondo Garza wake up. Maria, we are here to take you home,” he said.
His pleas were in vain. She was either in a deep sleep or had been drugged. Lisandro assumed the latter.
Gus appeared in the room and came to the bedside. “At least one person is still alive in this house. I’m afraid you and Stephen are too handy with a pistol, and none of the kidnappers have survived.”
It was a pity. Lisandro would have loved to spend some time with the late Señor Alba and find out who had been the mastermind behind abducting Maria. Mister Wicker had probably been the one to collect the first ransom and give the second letter of demand to the priest in Bilbao, but from the indiscreet way the Englishman had behaved in the tavern at Zarautz, Lisandro had concluded he was likely only a middleman. Whoever had come up with the plan to kidnap Maria remained hidden.
Stephen entered the room. “The rest of the house is empty. Toby counted the numbers right.” He glanced at Maria and winced. “I assume she has been drugged once more.”
