Page 119 of Miss Prim and the Duke of Wylde
Meg pressed her face, gag and all, into the pup’s soft coat.
Now, we just have to wait and put our trust in everyone else.
Just as Drago had had to do when he’d ridden out that morning.
CHAPTER19
Unbelievably tense and alert, Drago rode up the Wylde Court drive.
Has anything happened?
Is Meg all right?
Who is our villain?
It was an effort to preserve a nonchalant, unperturbed façade as he slowed Vulcan in the forecourt.
Masham, one of the older grooms, was waiting to take Vulcan’s reins. Drago’s first intimation that something had, indeed, occurred was the pointed look Masham sent him. “Your friends, the viscount and his lordship, just raced in and are waiting in the front hall.”
Drago’s pulse spiked. “Her Grace?”
“I understand Her Grace is safe, but not here at the moment.”
Drago gave his customary nod of dismissal and had to fight not to take the porch steps two at a time and, instead, proceed at a normal, unruffled pace up and across the porch and in through the front door, which, as usual at that time of year, was propped wide.
As soon as he passed into the hall proper, George and Harry all but leapt on him. Both were breathing hard, and they literally seized his arms and all but shook him.
“It’s Thomas!” George gasped.
“Truly, it is.” Eyes wide, Harry nodded like a bobbing doll.
Both looked shocked to their back teeth, but…
Drago frowned. “Thomas?” What the devil were they trying to tell him? “Thomas is what?”
“The villain!” his friends all but howled.
George grasped Drago’s shoulders and looked him in the eye. “We couldn’t believe it any more than you, but we saw and heard him with our own eyes and ears.”
“It’s him,” Harry confirmed, still struggling to catch his breath. “It was him all along. He confessed it all to Meg.”
Drago’s head was spinning, but at that, fear reared and gripped tight. “Where is she?”
Harry and George released him to hold up calming hands. “She’s all right,” Harry assured him. “Maurice and Tisdale are getting her out of the cellar of that ruined cottage in the forest.”
“They’ll escort her back here,” George said. “She’s definitely all right, but everyone agreed we should hightail it back here to tell you about Thomas before he turns up.”
Drago frowned. He glanced at the open doorway, unsurprised to see Fothergill and two footmen lurking in the shadows. He looked at Fothergill. “I take it the staff are watching for Mr. Hayden’s approach?”
Fothergill half bowed. “Indeed, Your Grace.”
Drago looked at his friends and waved them into the shadows of a corridor leading away from the hall. “Start at the beginning.” He halted inside the corridor, out of sight of anyone in the hall, and focused on George and Harry. “Thomas met me as I rode out. I told him I was going to Melwin Place and you were on watch. I told him where you would be and sent him to join you.”
Harry snorted. “He joined us all right, but he told us you’d asked him to tell us to drop back along the drive and keep watch for anyone approaching the house. Meanwhile, he would take over watching Meg himself.”
“We weren’t sure that was wise, but if you’d said to do that…” George grimaced. “We started to head down the drive, but it didn’t feel right, you know?”
“The simple fact was that we couldn’t imagine youreducingthe guards around Meg.” Harry shook his head. “That wasn’t you.”
