Page 70 of Lady Louisa and the Carriage Clock
“He will survive,” the other masked man said with a chuckle. “We merely roughed him up a bit.”
“Don’t speak, you two,” Eliza muttered. “Just follow my orders.”
After Louisa’s hands were tied and a none-too-clean handkerchief stuffed into her mouth, the masked man hauled her down the alley to where an old, paint-chipped coach rested. The pair of horses drawing the carriage looked as decrepit as the vehicle itself. Only one lantern on the outside of the carriage was lit.
Eliza entered the carriage first. The masked man who’d gagged Louisa lifted her bodily into the carriage and dumped her on the bench facing the maid. Louisa struggled to right herself as the carriage lurched forward.
“Lord Kettering doesn’t believe Lord Wycliffe will come to your rescue, but I’ve assured him the viscount will.” Her mouth twisted into an unpleasant smile. “Lord Wycliffe doesn’t dance with just anyone. Perhaps his interest at first was only in your clock, but I do believe the man is smitten.”
She shook her head. Eliza couldn’t be more wrong.
“It’s obvious you’re in love with him. That alone would pique the interest of any man.” She let out a bark of laughter. “He is quite the specimen. Never gave me a second look, I can tell you.”
Louisa didn’t have time to rejoice that Cecil wasn’t interested in the maid nor to worry about whether the man knew she had feelings for him.
With a gag in her mouth, she couldn’t ask where the coach was headed. A moment later, Eliza answered that question.
“Lord Kettering is refurbishing a house in Richmond. The gentleman who lives next door is currently in Scotland, so there will be plenty of privacy for what we have planned for Lord Wycliffe.”
Eliza pulled one of the threadbare curtains aside and looked out into the darkness. “We’re almost there. Perhaps we shouldn’t have gagged you. A one-sided conversation is rather boring.”
When Louisa left her bedchamber to go downstairs, it had been nine o’clock. It must be close to ten o’clock now. She’d already said good night to her parents, but Lucy would have gone to Louisa’s bedchamber by now to help her mistress prepare for bed, not found her and alerted the family that she was missing.
The coach came to a halt, and the carriage door opened. One of the masked men reached in and hauled Louisa from the carriage none too gently. The man held her left arm tightly in his meaty grip, causing her to wince.
“Careful!” The voice was Lady Kettering’s. “We mustn’t harm the chit before we’ve got Lord Wycliffe in hand.”
As she stood on the pavement in the shadow of a red brick townhouse, Louisa looked into the face of Venus.
“Bring her inside,” Lady Kettering muttered before turning and leading the way to a set of steps.
Louisa struggled to be free. The enormity of the danger she was in had finally sunk in. For the first time in her life, she was well and truly afraid.
* * * * *
When the coach reached Grosvenor Square, Cecil let Nathaniel exit the carriage first. It was his home, after all.
“Don’t move this coach,” Nathaniel told his driver before racing up the steps of the house and into the entry hall and asking a footman, “Where is Lady Harbury?”
“She is reading in the library, my lord.”
Cecil followed Nathaniel to the library, where Edith was curled up on a settee reading.
“Nathaniel!”
“Edith, please remain here while I go upstairs,” he replied gravely. “Cecil will explain why.”
Nathaniel exited the room to proceed to the servant’s quarters while Cecil informed Edith about what they had discovered about Eliza.
Nathaniel returned a few minutes later, note in hand. He held it out, saying, “It’s addressed to you, Cecil. It was on Eliza’s bed. According to one of the maids, she saw Eliza leave the house an hour ago.”
Cecil glanced over the single sheet of vellum.
If Lord Wycliffe wishes to keep Lady Louisa from harm, he must proceed to Richmond House alone.
“I have to go to Carstairs.”
Nathaniel shook his head. “You’ll only upset Louisa’s family. I will speak with Leopold and he can decide what to tell the rest of his family. The RA will have eyes on my house and will know if anyone accompanies you to Richmond. Take my carriage. I’ll find my own way later.”
