Page 98 of Of Fate and Phantoms
Still, I hesitated. I'd been abducted more times than I liked, and I wasn't prepared to add another to the tally. "What do you want?"
"Just come with me and all will be explained."
"No."
"Come on, miss, it's cold and wet out here. It's warm and dry where we're going."
"Are we going to my home, Lichfield Towers?"
He peered at me from beneath the hood, his eyes two shiny centers among blackness. I couldn't make out his features and I didn't recognize his voice. "Somewhere nicer." He offered me his hand.
I kicked it.
He cried out and cradled it against his chest. He wasn't a very good kidnapper. I kicked him again while he was distracted, hitting him square in the chest. He fell back, landing on his rear in a puddle.
"Bloody hell! What'd you do that for?"
I pulled out the knife strapped to my forearm and the other from my boot and jumped out of the carriage. Ice-cold needles of rain pricked my face. I was already wet, and didn't care, but I'd begun to warm up in the carriage, and now I had to endure freezing rain again.
"I am in no mood for this," I snapped. "It's damned cold and I want to go inside for a bath. Unless you have a good explanation for accosting me, I'm going in right now."
"You seem to have this under control, lad," the hackney driver said, urging his horses onward.
"Lad? She's not a lad." My abductor pushed himself to his feet and shook water off his cloak. "Put those knives away, Miss Holloway. I'm not here to hurt you."
"Then why are you here? What do you want? Who sent you to fetch me? How do you know who I am?"
"You just confirmed it. As to the rest, I'm not at liberty to say."
"Then I'm not going with you." I skirted around him, careful to remain out of reach. I did not lower my weapons or take my eyes off him.
"Bloody hell," he muttered, brushing himself off and flicking water over me in the process. "I ought to have asked for extra to do this."
"From whom?"
"The question you should have asked is, for what?"
"I assume you meant for kidnapping me." Why was I having this very normal conversation with an abductor? It was absurd.
"I told you, I'm not kidnapping you. I'm asking you to come with me."
"Why would I go anywhere with a strange man who stops me from entering my home? I'm not a fool."
"No, but you do ask a lot of questions." He regarded me, taking particular note of my knives. "You look like you know how to use those."
"I've had weapons training and am skilled in the art of hand to hand combat."
He paused. "Really? Are you sure you're a woman? It's hard to tell in this light with you dressed in those clothes. Perhaps you're not Miss Holloway."
"I never said I was."
He sighed. "I don't have time for this. My master is waiting for you."
"I don't have time for this either—or the inclination. Either you tell me who you work for or I go inside and you can tell your master that you failed."
"I feel sorry for your man." He sighed again. "Very well, I'll whisper it to you."
"So you can get closer and capture me?" I snorted.
