Page 108 of Foes, Friends and Lovers
Patrick was now glowering. “Let me see if I understand this correctly. You’ve kidnapped my niece to force Cynster to sign over the neighboring estate so you have enough land to swindle some mining company and their investors?”
Ecton opened his eyes wide as if innocently surprised. “She’s your niece?” Then his far-too-smug smile returned, and he nodded. “But otherwise, you are entirely right.”
“Youworm.” Disgust laced Patrick’s voice. He raised his gaze to his sons.
Hamish took that as his cue. He reached around the side of the wing chair and snatched the gun from Ecton’s relaxed grasp.
In the same instant, Rory reached over the back of the chair, locked a beefy arm around Ecton’s throat, and pulled tight. Muscles bulged in Rory’s arm.
Ecton gasped and rose in the chair, desperate to ease the pressure on his neck and failing.
Rory leaned forward and, from close quarters, grinned at Ecton, who was vainly tugging at Rory’s sleeve. Ecton’s eyes bulged as they met Rory’s.
Rory showed his teeth. “How about you tell us where you’ve put our cousin, and in return, I won’t break your neck?”
Ecton paled, but then his lips thinned. “You wouldn’t dare!”
Rory tightened his hold. “I’m not English. How do you know what I will or won’t do?”
Ecton’s gaze flicked to Gregory. He struggled for breath, then defiantly spat, “I won’t tell you a damn thing. Miss Fergusson’s whereabouts is my ace in this game. If you kill me, you’ll never find her.” His lips twisted mockingly. “At least not alive.”
Gregory froze, along with all four Fergussons. Searching Ecton’s eyes, Gregory saw no sign that the man was bluffing. He wasn’t going to tell them where Caitlin was; he’d spoken the truth—her location was his only leverage, and he wasn’t about to give it up.
His features like stone, Gregory looked at Rory and Hamish. “Tie him up and lock him away—in the cellar here, if it’s strong enough. If not, we’ll take him back to the Hall.” He cast a scathing look at Ecton. “After we search this wreck of a place.”
From the flare of satisfaction he glimpsed in Ecton’s eyes, he was almost willing to wager they’d find nothing in Ecton Hall. But they—and Caitlin—couldn’t take the risk that he was reading Ecton wrongly. Or being deliberately misled, something else he wouldn’t put past the bastard.
Battling back a surge of fury combined with fear, Gregory swung round and stalked out, leaving Ecton to Rory’s and Hamish’s tender mercies.
Daniel hung back to help his brothers, but Patrick was on Gregory’s heels. “What do you plan to do?” Patrick asked. “We have to find her!”
“Indeed,” Gregory growled. “That’s exactly what we’re going to do—find her and take her home.” To Bellamy Hall, where she belonged.
With him and all the others now waiting in the front hall.
He walked to the center of the hall, and everyone gathered around him.
“We heard,” Henry rumbled.
Parker nodded. “The cowardly little prick is going to make us hunt for her.”
Gregory was glad he didn’t have to recount the recent exchange and what Ecton had claimed regarding Caitlin’s danger. He looked around the cobweb-draped hall. “We can’t trust anything he says, so the first thing we need to do is thoroughly search this mausoleum.”
“You said you wanted him put in the cellar,” Henry said. “Blackie and I know where it is.”
Blackie nodded. “Good solid foundations, this place has. The cellar should still be sound.”
Gregory tipped his head toward the drawing room as the sound of a pained “oof!” emanated from it. “In that case, perhaps you and Blackie should help the lads take his lordship there.”
Henry smiled, and Blackie’s grin turned positively evil. “Be happy to,” Henry replied, and with unabashed eagerness, he and Blackie made for the open doorway.
Consigning thoughts of Ecton’s continued health to the farthest recesses of his mind, Gregory surveyed the small army remaining. More people had arrived while he’d been talking to Ecton. “Right, then.” He looked around the sea of willing faces. “This is what we’ll do.”
He divided the company into groups of three and sent them off to scour the house. As Ecton Hall was a more conventional structure than Bellamy Hall, a comprehensive search was much easier to organize.
As Gregory and Patrick climbed the stairs in the wake of the mob, Gregory murmured, “As much as I doubt she’ll be here, we need to eliminate the possibility before we direct our attention farther afield.”
Patrick grunted. “We’d look right idiots if he’s been silly enough—or clever enough, depending on how you look at it—to put her in one of the bedrooms here.” He joined Gregory in searching one of the larger suites, then they moved on to the next room along the corridor.
