Page 55 of With Good Grace
‘Even so, should we not go to that warehouse in New Thames Street?’ Olivia asked. ‘Just to satisfy ourselves that Tom is not being held there.’
‘If we have not heard from the abductors by the time darkness falls, then Parker and I will go there.’
‘And I will come with you.’
Jake fixed Olivia with a look of firm resolve. ‘No, Olivia, you will not. It is quite out of the question.’
Chapter Fourteen
‘You will wear a hole in that rug,’ Jake chided. ‘And pacing will achieve nothing, other than exhausting your physical strength.’ Olivia’s mental faculties were, Jake knew, already in tatters.
She whirled to face him, the delicate lines of her face taut with worry. ‘If you were not being so unreasonable, I would not need to damage your precious rug.’
‘It is not the welfare of my rug that concerns me.’ He fixed her with a searing look intended to sooth. ‘Only you, my love. Always you.’
Her pacing ceased, she blew air through her lips and sighed. ‘I expect you think I am being totally unreasonable.’
‘You are a mother. Of course your primary, your only concern is for your son’s welfare. I should think considerably less of you if it was not.’
Olivia recommenced pacing but Jake caught her wrist as she flounced past him and pulled her onto his lap. It was now late afternoon and they had received no notification from the kidnappers. Olivia fragmented a little more with every slow minute that ticked by and nothing he said, no assurances he offered her, seemed to penetrate her normally incisive brain. It was hell on earth for Jake to watch her torment and not be in a position to do anything to relieve it.
Olivia had eaten no lunch and started like a skittish deer with every sound that might precede the delivery of a letter. And yet no such letter had arrived. Jake would not admit it, but he was both surprised and concerned by the kidnapper’s reticence.
‘I cannot stand the waiting,’ she said with another exasperated sigh.
‘They want to increase your anxiety by keeping you in suspense,’ Jake said.
‘Then they are succeeding better than they could possibly know.’
‘Hmm.’ Jake brushed her brow with his lips. ‘Parker and I will go to that warehouse shortly, before it gets dark, so we can watch any comings and goings and get an idea of the lay of the land before we look inside.’
‘I want to come too.’
And that was what she and Jake had been debating for the past hour or more.
‘You know that you cannot, my sweet.’ Jake closed his arms tightly around her, cutting off her protests. ‘I don’t doubt your ability to blend in if you wear your breeches, and I know you can defend yourself, up to a point. No, don’t argue about that.’ Jake raised a hand to cut off the objection he could sense her formulating. ‘No matter how skilled you are at self-defence, the male of the species is almost always physically stronger and considerably more aggressive. That is a fact of nature even you cannot deny.’
‘It all depends upon—’
‘Besides, a message will arrive for you today; I have not the slightest doubt about that. The abductors must assume that if they leave it too long, desperation will cause you to involve the police and they cannot take that risk.’
‘Yes, but even so.’
‘Surely you want to be here when the message arrives?’
‘Well, of course I do.’ Olivia narrowed her eyes at him. ‘You seek to win the argument by playing upon my maternal instincts; calling them into question. That is low, even by your standards, Lord Torbay.’
She struggled, attempting to remove herself from his lap, but Jake was not ready to let her go and tightened his hold upon her waist. ‘I make no apology for wanting to keep you safe,’ he told her in a softly persuasive drawl. ‘If we can prove that Sir Hubert abducted your son, he could hang for his crime. Men in such desperate situations will resort to equally desperate measures and I do not want you caught in the crossfire.’
Olivia slumped against his shoulder and all the fight appeared to drain from her. ‘You might have the goodness to be a little less reasonable when I am trying so very hard to fight with you.’
Jake chuckled. ‘I live to serve.’ His expression sobered. ‘I require you to promise most faithfully that if you hear from the abductors you will not leave this house, no matter what demands they make, until Parker and I return.’
‘I cannot give my word about that!’ she cried, sitting bolt upright again and glaring at him in total astonishment. ‘What if they set time limits for me to respond?’
‘They are unlikely to be that precise.’
‘Unlikely?’ Olivia sent him a look of unbridled reproach. ‘Are you willing to gamble with Tom’s life by taking that risk? Sorry,’ Olivia added hastily, presumably because he did not veil the torment that her accusation engendered quickly enough. ‘I know you care almost as much as I do, but you are not emotionally involved.’
