Page 46 of The Journal of a Thousand Years
“Gabe.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. At home?”
“Don’t be cocky with me.” She pushed back her jacket to show her gun.
Valentine swore, making his mother wince. “Are you going to shoot me?”
“You, your mother… It depends on who I think is responsible for Gabe’s abduction.”
Valentine stared at her, his mouth ajar.
Hope bristled. “You thinkweabducted Gabriel? I always thought you were mad, but now I have proof.”
Willie was in no mood for exchanging insults. She wanted answers.
It was Alex who made the next move, however. He shoved Valentine in the chest, sending him careening over the sofa’s back, onto the cushion, and tumbling to the floor on the other side.
Hope gasped. “Get out!” she ordered Willie and me. “And take that savage with you.”
Willie placed the end of her gun to Hope’s temple. “I might be mad, and you might have been brought up a lady, but I got better manners than you.”
Valentine picked himself up and dusted himself off. He jutted his chin at Alex in defiance, but the moment Alex moved,Valentine scurried backward. He appealed to me. “Miss Ashe, what is all this about? Why am I being treated like a criminal? I don’t know anything about an abduction.”
“If Gabriel is in some sort of trouble,” his mother added, “we ought to be told. We’re his family.”
“A man matching your description was seen talking to a hired thug by the name of Mad Dog Mitchell,” I said.
Valentine tucked his undervest into his trousers. “That’s absurd. I’m an earl, for God’s sake. I don’t associate with men whose given name is Mad Dog.”
“You were seen talking to him at the Rose and Thorn pub.”
“I don’t know it.”
“Mad Dog and another man kidnapped Gabe from his bed last night,” Alex said.
“From his own bed?” Valentine echoed. “You mean you two were there and you didn’t stop them? Ha! Now that is amusing.”
Alex grabbed Valentine by the front of his undervest and forced him to sit on a chair.
Valentine shrank back, expecting to be struck. Alex simply stood over him, his hands closed into tight fists at his sides. He was keeping his temper in check, but only just. “You were seen at the pub talking to Mad Dog last night and the night before. Now, you can answer our questions from the comfort of your sofa, or you can answer Scotland Yard’s while sitting in a prison cell. The choice is yours.”
Valentine gulped.
“Where is Gabe?”
A bead of sweat dampened Valentine’s temple. “I don’t know! I swear to you, I’m not involved in any of this. If someone says they saw me, then they’ve made a mistake. I wasn’t anywhere near a pub called the Rose and Thorn on Thursday night. I can call on three people who can vouch for me.”
“Who?”
Valentine began to rub his thumbs over the fingernails of both hands. “I can’t tell you. They’re important people, and I… we…” He looked down at his hands and suddenly stopped fidgeting. “They’re married.”
Willie barked a laugh. “You want us to believe three women were desperate enough to be with you?”
Valentine blushed fiercely. “They weren’t women,” he muttered under his breath.
Hope covered her gasp with her hand. “Val! You told me you’d given them up.”
“Shut up, Mother.”
