Page 12 of Noble Scoundrel

“Well,” he continued hesitantly, “after we came to London, I’d get so restless at night. I just couldn’t be still. So...I started going for walks.”

Fear and anxiety gripped her. “You went out in the city alone?”

He nodded and sat a little taller, though he still avoided looking at her.

Her little brother had been walking the streets of London. At night! Possibly for months.

“Walking up and down the avenues and boulevards helped bring things into focus,” he explained. “I could envision how the city’s pattern spread out around me, how the lines flowed and intersected. Around every corner, a new corridor would open up. It felt endless but measurable. Every block was the same as the one before but also utterly different. It...calmed me, I guess. The more familiar the expanding grid became, the more balanced and, I don’t know, steady, I felt.”

Katherine sighed.

From a very young age, Frederick had displayed evidence of having exceptional intelligence. He’d learned to speak early and by three years of age had amassed an extensive vocabulary. He’d mastered reading and sums shortly afterward. But he’d always had an intense affinity for patterns. Intricate designs and complex systems fascinated him. He adored mazes and puzzles, but eventually he struggled to find any that challenged him.

Katherine understood why he’d be drawn to explore London’s many thoroughfares and crooked lanes. Despite the inherent dangers.

“The somber streets became so familiar to me it didn’t even occur to me to be scared.”

Katherine had to forcefully remind herself that Frederick was safe and sitting right there beside her. She squeezed his hand. “What happened?”

“Two men in a carriage caught me unaware. I should have tried to run, but by the time I realized they meant to abduct me, it was too late. They wrestled me into a carriage and took off at a terrible speed. We didn’t stop until we got to an old inn of sorts where they tossed me into a room that was little more than a cupboard.”

He lifted his gaze to hers. One of his thick brows curved sardonically. “They weren’t too clever, Kit. They didn’t even bother to secure my hands or feet or anything.”

“You escaped?” She tried not to let the fear his story invoked reflect in her tone. He might not have been scared by his ordeal, but the idea of her brother being in the hands of ruthless kidnappers had her heart racing and her stomach churning.

“Quite easily,” he replied matter-of-factly. “At one point, they both stepped outside, thinking I’d be secure enough behind the locked door.”

She almost smiled. When Frederick was six years old, he’d developed a brief fascination with the mechanisms of various sorts of locks. It hadn’t taken him long to master them all, including how to pick them with whatever might be handy, and he’d quickly moved on to something else.

“Once free of the cupboard, I climbed through a window and ran down the alley. The streets in that part of town are different from Mayfair. Twisting, turning, narrow, and dark. Chaotic and sort of fascinating.” His tone lowered. “And the people I encountered...some of them living so desperately and furtively in the shadows.”

Though Frederick had a fiercely analytical mind, it went along with a sensitive heart. He’d never been able to observe suffering without wanting to find a way to fix it.

“Is that where you encountered Mr. Hale?” she asked. “Did he take you in?”

Frederick blinked. Then he shook his head. “No. Not yet. Unfortunately, I was set upon once again.”

Her heart jolted. “The kidnappers found you?”

“Different men. Rougher characters who were much better prepared to prevent escape. They put a cloth over my face, forcing me to breath noxious fumes that burned my throat and put me to sleep. I woke to find myself chained in the company of several other children. We’d been taken by a gang of criminals who intended to sell us into servitude and slavery overseas.”

“Oh my God!” The exclamation slid free before she could stop it.

Frederick looked to her with sharp concern as he quickly assured, “It’s all right, though. Mr. Hale and three others stormed into the warehouse where we were all being kept. Hale and his friends took care of the criminals and made sure every one of us got out of there.”

Katherine took a long breath. She could only imagine how that great-muscled man had taken care of the criminal gang. It seemed the brute wasn’t the villain she’d feared he might be. “I am unbelievably grateful to Mr. Hale for rescuing you. But I still don’t understand why he didn’t bring you straight home or at least send for me.”

“I didn’t tell him who I was.”

“But why?”

“I wasn’t ready to go home.” His tone was unflinching in its honesty.

Katherine’s heart felt like it was being crushed. Had she failed him so terribly?

Their mother had died when Frederick as just an infant. With their father’s recent untimely death, she and Frederick had become wards of their great-uncle, the Marquess of Warfield, whom they’d never met. Their solicitors had sent word to the marquess, but the man was off in Europe somewhere and had no intention of returning. Honestly, his lack of interest in taking on his guardianship duties was welcome. Katherine and Frederick had no desire to fall under the thumb of a stranger.

But perhaps moving to London while their home was rebuilt hadn’t been the best decision.

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