How to Romance a Rake (36 page)

Twenty-two

“What do you mean you don’t know where they are?” Alec demanded, pacing up and down Winterson’s study. “You were supposed to be keeping an eye on them.”

When he had returned home from yet another meeting with Greenshaw, he had been unhappy to learn that Juliet had gone to spend the evening with her cousins. After what he’d learned today, he wanted to see with his own eyes that his wife was safe and well and, most importantly, out of harm’s way.

“They are ladies, Deveril,” the duke replied patiently, “not children in leading strings. I can hardly require my wife to ask my permission before she leaves the house. Besides that, I think it would just encourage her to defy me out of sheer principle.”

“Well, you may do as you like with your own wife…”

“Thank you for that,” Winterson muttered sotto voce.

“… but Juliet is not as able to take care of herself as Cecily is and I dislike the idea of her being unprotected while her former friend is on the loose,” Deveril finished, thrusting both hands through his hair, as if he were trying to keep his head from flying off his body.

“I think Lady Deveril has proven herself quite capable of taking care of herself,” Monteith said from his chair before Winterson’s desk. “You shouldn’t underestimate her.”

“That’s all well and good for you to say, Monteith,” Alec said dismissively. “But Anna Turner, who spent the better part of a year luring young women to their deaths at the hands of Turlington, is out there and likely has my wife in mind for her next victim. And even Juliet would admit that she is not as physically able to escape danger as other ladies are.”

“Good God,” Winterson said, frowning. “So Juliet’s Mrs. Turner was helping Turlington?”

“Yes.” Alec continued to pace. “And she killed Turlington. And might very well be searching for Juliet even as we speak.”

“How do you know this?” Winterson asked. “And why didn’t you tell me so that I could act accordingly?”

“I only just learned of it this afternoon. Turlington left a letter with his solicitor confessing to all, but only to be opened in the event of his death.” Alec paced the room. “I don’t know when Mrs. Turner changed from unwilling participant to accomplice, but change she did. And she has nothing left to lose now, so I very much wish to know where my wife is!”

“What do you need from me?” Winterson stood, his hand going unconsciously to his side, as if looking for his sabre. “I can ask Cecily’s dresser if she knows where her mistress has gone. I confess when she said she’d be spending the evening with her cousins I didn’t think any more of it. I know those three can get up to mischief when they are together, but Cecily has shown herself to be quite levelheaded since we put to rest that business with her father and the Egyptian Club a few weeks ago.”

“I have been guilty of the same,” Alec said, shaking his head. “What troubles me most is that I knew of Mrs. Turner’s involvement last night but did not tell Juliet. I was trying to protect her from the news for as long as I could. And now in doing so I have endangered her more.”

“We’ll find them,” Monteith said firmly, laying a comforting hand on Alec’s shoulder. Though grateful for his friend’s assurance, Alec, remembering Turlington’s twisted body, was not so sanguine.

“I’ll go find Cecily’s maid and see what she knows of her mistress’s plans for the evening,” Winterson said, striding from the room.

“Never thought I’d see the day,” Monteith said, shaking his head as he watched his friend leave.

Trying not to let his anxiety take control of him, Alec made himself pay attention to Monteith’s words. Anything to distract himself from his worry. “What?”

“You’re just as bad.” Monteith turned back to Deveril. “The two of you are being led about by the ear by your wives. Fortunately, I have no plans to become ensnared by the parson’s mousetrap, so at least one of us will remain rational.”

“Monteith,” he told the other man, his heart constricting at the idea of the peril Juliet might be in, “you have no idea.”

*   *   *

“Juliet.” Mrs. Turner lifted her mask to show her face, which seemed thinner than it had when last Juliet had seen her. “You don’t know how good it is to see you. I was afraid you would not get my note or, worse, that you would not come.”

Rushing forward, Juliet hugged her friend. “I did get it. And of course I came! How could I not when I have been worried for you these past weeks? You’ve had me so worried! How on earth did you escape? Or was there even a need to escape?” The questions seemed to burst forth from her before she could stop them.

Seeing the impatience in her friend’s face, Juliet broke off. “But of course you will tell me all of that later,” she said, squeezing Anna’s outstretched hands. “For now you must be desperate to see Baby Alice. We have her at Deveril House and … Lord, so much has changed since you left. I cannot even begin to tell you.”

“I am eager to hear all of your news.” Anna smiled and Juliet was reminded of how grateful she was to see her friend and mentor safe and alive. “But we must return to my captor’s house at once to release the other women he is holding.” Even as she spoke, she pulled Juliet toward the door of the chamber.

“Then it was not Turlington who held you?” Juliet asked, confused. She had been so sure that Turlington was
Il Maestro.
The knowledge that there was another such monster chilled her to the bone.

“No,” Anna said gravely. “Though Turlington was a bad character, I was being held by someone else altogether. I do not even know the man’s identity myself. But he has gone away for the evening so there is very little time for us to act.”

“Let me send a note to Deveril,” Juliet said. “He has been working with a Bow Street runner who will be able to help us as well.”

She had turned, on her way to request paper and ink from Lady Sydenham, when Anna stopped her with a firm grip on her shoulder.

“No, Juliet,” she said, her voice harsh, “there is no time. We must go now. Come with me. I have a coach and the footmen will be able to help us if we need assistance.”

Troubled by the worry in her friend’s voice, Juliet paused. “But Anna, I can hardly be of use to you in this instance. You know I have difficulty with my leg, and—”

“Darling Juliet,” Anna said with a reassuring smile, “you underestimate your own strength as usual. I will be grateful to have you by my side when we rescue these poor girls. Now that I know how to get in and out of the secret chamber where he held me, it will take but a few moments to get back in. Please, Juliet, come with me. I cannot leave the other women there to suffer more abuse at his hands.”

Grateful to have her friend back, Juliet gave a silent prayer of thanks for her return. “Then I will come with you, Anna. It will be a relief to do something to help these unfortunates if they’ve endured anything like what you’ve gone through.”

Though she’d agreed to leave with Anna, knowing they’d worry at her disappearance, Juliet dropped the note that Anna had sent requesting her presence here. She had no idea where they were bound, but she hoped that knowing she was with Anna would assuage her cousins’ worries for her safety.

Following Anna through the labyrinthine passageways that made up the Sydenhams’ servants’ quarters, before long they reached a door leading outside to the mews behind the town house. The smell of fresh hay and dirt from the back garden mixed with the sooty stench of London in spring. A hack, doubtless the one that Anna had used to get to the town house, waited just beyond the back gate.

Not waiting for the driver to assist them into the carriage, Anna climbed up inside, and reached back to offer Juliet her hand. It was difficult for Juliet to get into a carriage at the best of times, but tonight, in her thin dancing slippers without the strong arm of a coachman to help, it was particularly difficult. Feeling gawky and graceless, but telling herself it was for a good cause, she hoisted herself with her good leg, and braced her free arm against the carriage doorway into the interior. She was barely inside when Anna reached out and closed the door behind them and knocked on the roof to indicate that the driver should go on.

“So it was not Turlington who took you, then?” she asked once her breathing had returned to normal. “The runner, Greenshaw, sent word last night that they’d found his body in his house last night. Even if he wasn’t responsible for your kidnapping, I cannot help but feel some relief at knowing he is no longer endangering young women.”

Anna made a noncommittal noise, and continued to scan the scene outside the window, doubtless to ensure they were not being followed.

“I never liked him,” Juliet continued. “Of course, I had thought it was because Mama spent so much time trying to convince me to marry him. I had wondered if he might be
Il Maestro,
but to be honest he never seemed to have the bottom for it. Even his attempt at stopping our elopement was a dismal failure.”

“Yes,” Anna said briskly, “well, you would be surprised just what someone will do if they are pushed hard enough. Take my situation for instance. Turned off without a reference from your parents. With child and nowhere to go. Some circumstances will drive a woman to take desperate measures.”

Juliet frowned. “But your situation worked out well enough, did it not?” she asked. “You had your own little house, and were able to teach and keep Baby Alice close to you.”

“If you call a dingy little house in a questionable area of town, saddled with a crying brat, well enough,” Anna said with a scowl, “then yes, I suppose I did get on well enough.”

At a loss for words, Juliet stared at her friend. It had occurred to her, of course, that Anna might resent her change in circumstances. After all, none of it was her fault. She had not sought out the addresses of her rapist after all. But she had thought Anna more resilient than she seemed to indicate just now.

“You are exhausted from your ordeal,” she said carefully. “Of course you are. I do go on so, don’t I. Just rest for a bit, dearest, and soon we’ll have the others freed and you will be able to get the rest you need.”

“But how can I rest when there is likely some other poor woman out there being subjected to the most hideous indignities imaginable at the hands of a loathsome man?”

Juliet couldn’t see her friend’s expression, but she knew from her tone of voice that Anna was genuinely distressed at the notion.

“I know you must feel such anguish over their fates, dearest,” she told her friend, “but for now we can only do what we must for these poor creatures who are being held by your captor. Then once that is done, we shall do what we can for the rest of the women you worry for.”

To her relief, Anna seemed to calm down, and reached out to squeeze Juliet’s hand. “I knew you would understand, Juliet. You have been such a comfort to me since my ordeal. And you yourself have had to endure such hardship as well. Yes, you will make an excellent sister in my new endeavor.”

There was something about her friend’s tone that bothered Juliet. Some note of zeal that made her uneasy. “What new endeavor?” she asked. “Do you mean to begin a charity for unwed mothers or the like? I believe I can use my new position as the Viscountess Deveril to—”

But Anna interrupted her before she could finish. “Oh, no, Juliet, you won’t be going back to Deveril. Not after what you must have endured at his hands.” Before Juliet could protest, her friend continued. “Goodness, given his father’s reputation I can only imagine what the son is like. No, you’ll be with me. In fact, we might even add Deveril to our list of quarries.”

Stunned, Juliet felt a twist of fear in her gut. “What do you mean by quarries, Anna?”

“Oh, you know,” her friend and mentor said, as if she were describing the alphabet to a child, “our victims. I dislike calling them victims, though. It sounds so sordid. When in reality they are the ones who are sordid.”

Twenty-three

“I got the idea,” Anna continued, “from Turlington. I told you a little fib, dearest. There was no captor. Just Turlington. He is the one who had the idea of painting fallen women as fallen women. And he needed me to help him procure them. Anyway, at the time I thought it was a noble calling, warning young women through art to protect themselves from fates like mine. But I soon realized that Turlington was enjoying the women more than sending the warning messages. So I had to put a stop to that.”

Juliet swallowed. Anna was ill. Whether because of what she’d endured at Turlington’s hands, or from something that had happened to her earlier, she did not know. But clearly the friend she’d known and loved for all these years was ill and Juliet would need to do something to keep her from harming anyone else.

“How did you stop him, Anna?” she asked, trying to figure out what part of town they were in. She’d made the mistake of not paying attention when they’d first left the Sydenhams’ and now she greatly feared that unless some telltale sound or scent made itself known she would be unable to ascertain their direction until they disembarked.

“Certainly nothing like
he
did to his models,” Anna said, her tone censorious. “When I think of how hard I worked to convince some of those girls to come with me, I become furious at Turlington all over again. I had no idea, mind you, no idea that he planned to use them just as their original seducers had done before their downfalls. I thought I was leading them to die a noble death, and to serve as an example to other young women who might be in danger of following a similar path.”

Closing her eyes against the idea of Anna’s role in those young women’s deaths, Juliet forced herself to make her keep talking in the hopes that Anna would tell her just where they were heading.

“So, did Turlington die in the place where we are going?” she asked, careful to keep her tone conversational.

But Anna had enough of her wits about her to guess Juliet’s intention. “Now, Juliet,” she chided, “you will learn soon enough where we are headed. You mustn’t play guessing games. I cannot risk you escaping and telling that husband of yours where I am.”

“But I thought I was coming to be your compatriot,” Juliet said, wishing that the carriage ride would end so that she could do something to alert Alec. “Do you not trust me?”