Page 96 of Never a Bride
“Let me go!”
Her pink cheeks were flushed, and blond tendrils of hair framed her lovely face. Alex could see why Edmund had allowed himself to be swept away.
“All we need you to do is answer our questions,” Edmund said gruffly. “I know I’ve wronged you—and I promise to make it right—but that is no reason to send your brothers after my friend. And only you could have told them such a thing. Why did you do it?”
She pulled away from him and stood with her head held high. “I had no choice!” she said coldly. “I had already dishonored myself. The only way I could atone to my family was by offering them a husband more suitable to them.”
Edmund’s face reddened. “I was good enough to pleasure you, but not to marry?”
She whirled to face him. “That is a crude thing to say!”
“But ’tis the truth, isn’t it?”
Alex stepped between them. “You both have much to discuss, but right now we need to tell your brothers the truth. Where are they?”
Lady Elizabeth stiffened. “I don’t know.”
“You’re lying,” Alex said flatly, advancing on her. She backed up step by step. “I have done nothing to you, but you’ve made sure your brothers stalked me, robbed me, and kidnapped me. Last night they took my brother in my place. I will have this done, my lady, and it won’t be in marriage to you! Tell me where they are!” he shouted.
She looked away. “I don’t know what they mean to do. All I heard them say was that they planned to hurt you in any way that they could until you agreed to marry me.”
“In any way that they…” Alex’s words faded as a chill of foreboding seeped through him. There was only one real way to hurt him now.Hellfire.“Edmund, they’re after Emmeline.” He grabbed the stunned girl by the shoulders. “Where have they taken her?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” she cried, her wide eyes frightened.
Edmund gripped him from behind. “I believe her, Alex. Let her go and listen to me.”
Alex was stunned by the blind rage that had seized him. But he released her, and she ran out of the room.
“I just left her at Kent Hall,” he said slowly. “I didn’t even see her to the door. All I could think about was my problems with Spencer.”
“Before we jump to conclusions, let’s see if she’s at home.”
Thankfully, Kent Hall was nearby and Alex’s galloping horse covered the distance in only minutes. But his fears were confirmed when a servant told him that Emmeline had not returned from her morning visit to see him.
Frantic now, he ran behind the house into the gardens, calling her name. No one answered, and a chilling bleakness overcame him.
Edmund caught up with him. “Alex, she’s not here. We must think about where they would take her.”
“Edmund, what if they—”
“I don’t think they’d hurt Emmeline. They just want our attention. I’m assuming they wouldn’t take her to your brother’s home, nor to Langston House and risk tainting their sister with another scandal. Where, then, could they have gone?”
Alex had never felt so irrational. He wanted only to pound their faces into a bloody mess. But he forced himself to consider what the Langston brothers’ purpose could be. “Well, if they want to hurt me, they’ll want me to know about it. So where could they wait, knowing I’d come?”
At the same moment, they both said, “The Rooster.”
Chapter 27
Running up the rickety stairs to his lodgings over the Rooster, Alex was afraid to imagine what he’d see. Out of breath, he flung open the door to find the Langston brothers pacing, and Emmeline gagged and tied to a chair before the hearth. The great fools, they hadn’t even been watching for him. The brothers fell back to guard her, their swords up.
Alex brought his pistol up and aimed.
Kenneth, the older brother, stared aghast at the weapon. “You have no honor!”
“Honor!” Alex said, knowing Edmund entered behind him. “What honor is there in kidnapping an innocent woman?”
“What honor is there in hurting our sister?”
