Page 4 of The Rebellious Countess
“What were ye going to do with her then, Jack? The two of you aren’t known for treating the whores particularly well.”
Again, Jack curled in on himself as if Elias had delivered a second blow. He hadn’t. Which meant the arse was going for the blade in his boot. “If you want to keep your foot and not be calledStumpyfor the rest of your miserable existence, I suggest you leave the blade inside your boot.”
Jack froze, the fingers of his left hand lost to Elias’s view somewhere in between his calves.
Elias raised the pistol. “It’s not a particularly good day to die…according to Billy.” He smiled, every bit of the deadly desire to pull the trigger visible to the man in front of him as he thought of what Jack had planned for Máira. “I suggest you lie flat on your belly with your hands spread wide, palms up.”
Jack showed more intelligence than he had the entire time Elias had known him. He obeyed with a gasp of pain as he straightened his torso.
“Count the pain you’re experiencing as the blessing it is, because if you don’t put those arms straight out away from your body, you won’t be feeling anything ever again.” With his directions followed, Elias tried again. “What were your plans for my wife?”
“A toff promised twenty pounds each if’n we delivered ’er to ’im.”
The price was more than his crew would have received for this voyage. “What toff?” he asked.
“Ah dinnae ken, Cap’n. Ah swear it. Billy, he be makin’ the deal in Dumfries.”
Elias growled his frustration. “It seems I killed the wrong arse.”
Jack’s eyes widened as if he saw his death warrant on the wall. “No Cap’n, you dinnae. I can take you to ’em. The spot I ken well.”
“Why did you ask me where my wife was? You know bloody well I left the ship without her.”
“After you left, Peter brought ’er ashore. We figured ye wanted a fuck.”
“If I wanted a fuck,” he nearly spat. “I’d go to Hag.” It wasn’t true. If he wanted to fuck, he would have done what he’dbeen doing since this blasted mission began. He’d have used his damned hand, not his virgin wife.
“Where’s Peter now?” He asked to keep his mind focused on what was important, locating his wife, who was becoming a major hinderance to the job he was supposed to be doing.
Peter was one of the few men who knew Elias’s real identity. They were working this mission together, and if he brought Máira to shore, he’d had a good reason.
“’Ee came back without ’er.”
“Did you ask him where she was?”
Jack shook his head, another automatic reaction that hurt to his core and back. “’Ee wouldn’t answer our questions,” he continued. “Said ’twas none of our damned business what ye and yer wife be doin’.” He shrugged and then winced when the movement was too much for his broken ribs. “When night fell, we came ashore.”
“Then what?”
“We waited outside The Hag. When ye arrived witout ’er, we took ye instead.”
Wonderful. Just bloody wonderful.
He’d had some time to waste before meeting his contact, and he’d spent it buying a change of clothes for his wife. She couldn’t return home in her wedding dress, it would cause a scandal. He’d had the local dressmaker send the items to the merchant ship Máira was to take back to England the next day. No, that ship left today.
Blasted. She missed her damned ship home, and because he’d been distracted with thoughts of her and had gotten himself kidnapped by these two idiots.
While carting him off, they undoubtedly spooked his contact, and now the mission was at risk. His twoformercrew members were trouble through and through.
“Did Hag know you were part of the crew from theMaribelle?”
Jack shook his head with caution, no doubt wondering if his answer would get him shot.
“Where were you going to take my wife?”
“Let me stand and I be showin’ ye.”
“Ye be telling me, now,” Elias replied through gritted teeth.
