Page 35 of A Night of Forever
“Stop, or the boy dies.”
Isobel went cold with horror as she recognized Dufort’s voice. So this was where he had gone—to wait for Sealey. She’d just delivered Hadley’s son right into his enemy’s hands. She clutched the little boy closer. Now no one would believe she was not in league with Victoria.
Where the hell was Arend?
“Hand up the boy,” Dufort growled, “or I’ll shoot you both.”
Every nerve screamed at her to refuse, but one look at Dufort’s twisted face told Isobel he would kill them both without a blink if she disobeyed.
Helpless, filled with horror and rage, she followed Dufort’s gesture and lifted Sealey up to sit before the second rider. When she stepped away from the horse, Dufort’s pistol was still pointed at her. So when he held his other hand down to her, two things flashed across her mind.
One, Dufort wasn’t going to shoot her. Two, he was taking her as well as Sealey. Relief seemed out of place, but it flowed through her. At least this way she would be able to protect the little boy as much as she could.
She didn’t resist. For Sealey’s sake, she had to stay alive.
She stepped forward and grabbed Dufort’s offered hand. With a strength that was scary, he lifted her to sit before him on his horse. She barely had time to grip the animal’s mane before he swung his horse around and kicked it into a gallop.
They traveled at a grueling speed for what must have been at least an hour. Once, she heard Sealey crying, and craned around Dufort’s broad shoulder to see the little boy and his captor riding almost at their side.
“Be brave, Sealey,” she called in what she hoped was a cheerful tone. “Everything will be all right, you’ll see. This is quite the adventure, isn’t it?”
The boy’s tears didn’t stop, but he no longer sobbed uncontrollably.
By midafternoon, she was chilled to the bone, and every one of those frozen bones felt as if it had been rattled, kicked, and stomped on. Her fingers screamed with cramp from gripping the horse’s mane.
When Dufort began to slow his horse, she was both grateful at the prospect of their journey’s end and terrified at what was ahead.
A few minutes later they turned into a driveway and followed it to a reasonably sized country house.
Dufort reined in his horse and then swung Isobel down to the ground. She staggered as her legs refused to hold her weight, almost fell, righted herself, and then stumbled over to where Sealey still sat in front of his captor.
Wordlessly she reached up for him. To her amazement the rider allowed the trembling child to slip into her arms.
“It’s all right,” she soothed. “Everything’s going to be all right.”
“I want to go home,” he whispered, his bottom lip trembling. “I want Mummy.”
Her heart broke. “I know,” she whispered back. “But we need to be brave now.”
Dufort dismounted and tossed his reins to the other man. “This way,” he said, and gestured them toward the house.
For one fleeting moment Isobel considered running. But it was a stupid idea. She couldn’t carry Sealey, and she wasn’t going to leave him behind, alone and scared.
Anyway, the chances she would leave this place alive were almost zero. She now knew too much, had seen too much, and was in no doubt that Victoria was behind this kidnapping.
So she wasn’t surprised to walk into the drawing room and find Victoria sitting beside the fire.
“Good afternoon, Isobel,” her stepmother said, studying her with cheerful interest. “Yes, you were right—she was on to us, Dufort. She doesn’t appear surprised to see me here.”
Isobel adjusted Sealey’s weight in her arms. “Dufort is your man, Victoria. Your involvement was a logical deduction.”
Victoria’s smile spread across her face, any pretense that she wasn’t gloating gone. “Where are my manners? Please sit.”
Isobel took the offered seat only because Sealey was heavy. “What are you doing, Victoria?”
Victoria’s attention moved from Isobel to the boy in her arms, and an expression of loathing hardened the lines of her face. “Dufort, I think the boy would be better off upstairs.”
“No,” Isobel said, hugging Sealey closer. “He doesn’t know anyone here except me. He’s terrified. Leave him.”
