If He's Daring (3 page)

“Thank you.”

“Nor of little redheaded ladies driving your carriage while your grinning child waved merrily at all the people they passed by.”

Orion stared up at the sky for a moment before narrowing his eyes and looking at Trenton again. “I have my pistol on me.”

“Good thing, too. I have heard that redheads can have quite the temper.”

“You are enjoying this far too much.”

“I fear I may be. It but begs to be thoroughly enjoyed. There was one other odd sight.”

“You appear to have had an interesting ride.”

“Very interesting. There was a carriage that rattled past me before I saw yours. It was a startling shade of blue with gold trim, pulled by four speckled gray mares. It, too, was going somewhat fast and it, too, had a face in the window. Another child, but this one was not smiling. Little lad with a head full of black curls, and he looked quite frightened. I almost turned about to follow them and see what was going on, but I need to get back to the city.”

“Could just be a child who does not like traveling.”

“It could be, but I thought I would make mention of it since you are headed in the same direction. If I am recalling it right, that garish carriage belongs to one Sir Morris de Warrenne, and I did not think he was wed or a father. He has been far too busy trying to gain guardianship of his brother’s child.”

“And how have you come to learn that? Is this de Warrenne someone the Crown is interested in?”

“No, but my brother is de Warrenne’s solicitor, and he came by my place to sup with me a few nights ago. Complained a lot about the man, for he just would not give up and made a lot of unnecessary work for my brother and the others in the firm.” He shrugged. “Just wondered if he had finally won his court case, or perhaps decided to go around the decisions of the court and take matters into his own hands.” He shrugged again. “I will look into it when I can. May not be my business, but I have a strong distaste for men who try and take an inheritance away from a child and that appears to be what this is about.”

“I believe I will do the same.” Orion wondered if the theft of his carriage had something to do with Sir Morris and that frightened boy Trenton had seen. He was not sure a custody battle was all that much better to deal with than a lovers’ quarrel, however. Either one could be messy and fraught with the sort of emotional morass he always did his best to avoid.

“Are you certain you do not need a hand?”

“With one small redheaded lady?” he drawled, and Trenton laughed briefly before giving Orion a darkly serious look.

“She should be no problem if she is on her own, but there is always the chance she is not acting alone. You have enemies, sir. It is not beyond possible that this is a trap.”

The younger man might not be as green as Orion had first thought. “I have considered that, but I have it on rather dependable authority that she does not realize there is a child in the carriage.”

“Ah, well, good luck then.” His pleasant voice suddenly grew hard and cold. “If by chance you discover otherwise, be assured of my assistance. The people who work for the Crown need to believe their families are safe and protected. If this matter grows more serious, I would ask you to call on your compatriots for help. Good hunting!” He turned his mount and rode back toward the city.

Definitely not so green after all, Orion thought as he urged his horse forward again. For just a moment he considered bringing the younger man back to ride with him but then dismissed the idea. He wanted to do his best to see this matter settled and put aside without too many people knowing about it. If nothing else, it would not do to have the world know all about Giles yet. Too many knew already. He also did not want his enemies to think that the boy could be easily grabbed and used as a weapon against his father. Orion never wanted to face the choice of his son or his country.

It might be time to end his service to the Crown, Orion thought. He had a third child now and could not keep three children hidden away forever. Nor was it good to continue to go away on assignment as he had been doing, leaving behind no information on how to reach him or even what name he might be using. His work forced him to keep too many secrets. It was satisfying to work for the Crown, even exciting at times, but it certainly was not convenient nor was it conducive to raising three sons.

Cursing softly, he turned his thoughts back to hunting down Giles and the little redheaded carriage thief. Now was not the time to make important decisions about his future. He would do that later. The fact that he was puzzling over such matters showed him that it would probably be wise to leave the service or at least curtail his missions. He now had a family to worry about, and to leave them behind, unprotected, could easily prove fatal.

Several times he paused to speak to people he encountered, but it was not until he stopped to greet a young farmer leading a calf down the road that Orion heard anything more than an acknowledgment of having seen the carriage. He had a very good idea of where the woman was going, but confirmation never hurt. When he asked about his carriage, the farmer eyed him with suspicion and idly scratched at the thin, ragged beard on his sharp chin. That display of mistrust told Orion that he had a chance of getting some useful information.

“Which carriage are ye asking about, milord?”

“Sir, not m’lord. Just sir. I ask about the one being driven by a small redheaded lady.”

“Why?”

“Because it happens to be my carriage the woman is driving. She took it without my permission.”

“That little woman stole a carriage from a man as big as you?” the famer asked, his skepticism clear to see.

“I am reluctant to use the word
stole
. It is a private matter. I just need to find her and my carriage. I am quite certain that she has no idea that my son was sitting within the carriage when she took it.”

“The lad looked to be having a fine time when I saw him. Smiling and waving at me as the carriage passed me by. Not like the wee lad in the carriage that passed by before yours.”

“A blue one with gold trim and four speckled grays pulling it?”

The farmer nodded. “Foolish to buy something so pretty, all blue and gold, only to drive it on roads like this one. It were not looking so fine when it went by me. Driver had to stop because old Jude was taking his sheep across the road. Man inside the carriage was hanging his head out the window and yelling at old Jude and them sheep as if that would be making them move faster.”

Orion smiled faintly when the young man laughed at the memory of the incident. “That must have been a fine sight.”

“Oh aye, it were that. But then I saw the boy. Little lad with a lot of black curly hair and big blue eyes. He was looking out the window at me and he was fair sad, he was. Poor wee fellow looked some scared, too. Odd and all, for I thought I saw some light behind him, but that must have been something else, for the fool shouting at Jude and his sheep would have been blocking the light from the other window. The boy looked to me like he was trying to get the door open and I do swear, I think he was saying
help me
. Thought to go a little closer, but then the fool yanked the lad away from the window and, from what I could see, slapped him fair hard.”

“So they moved on after that?”

“Moved along just as I was thinking I would still go talk to the lad and see what was wrong. ’Bout two hours later that lady came by driving your carriage and your boy did not look sad at all. Nay, he did not. Was grinning like a fool, he was. As I done said, having himself a fine time.”

“Yes, that would be just like Giles.”

“You thinking she stole the boy, too? Took your son?”

Orion hesitated only a moment before shaking his head. “No, I do not. As I said, she just did not know he was in there and he does not seem to be inclined to let her know.” Honesty weighted his words for he was beginning to think Cody had been right. “I begin to believe that she is chasing the man in the blue-and-gold carriage because he took her son.”

“A sad business.”

“It is that.”

“Well, you will be getting him back soon enough. The team pulling your carriage was looking weary, it was. She will have to be stopping soon.”

Now he had to worry about his team, Orion thought, and silently cursed before asking the man when he had seen the second carriage. He left the young farmer and traveled on after discovering that his carriage was not all that far ahead of him. The more information he gathered the more he began to think Lady de Warrenne was doing just what she told Cody she was doing. She was chasing down a man. Orion had the sinking feeling that the sad boy in the first carriage was her son. It was not a mess he wanted to be dragged into, but he had to get his son and his carriage back.

As he rode on he began to notice a difference in the trail he followed. The farmer had been right. His horses were tiring. The team was never intended to pull the carriage at a rapid pace for so long. He had intended to set an easy pace when taking Giles to Radmoor, and an easy pace back to the city after allowing the team a rest or perhaps even changing horses at Radmoor. Orion did not believe he could count on a woman to have the experience to judge when her team needed a rest, and the thought of how she could harm his team stirred his anger anew.

When he caught sight of his carriage pulled off to the side of the road, he feared that she may have irreparably damaged one of his horses, but then he saw his team. The horses were placidly grazing beneath a tree. His son and the little redheaded woman he had been chasing were seated on the ground enjoying the food he had had packed for him and Giles.

It was more than his barely leashed anger could tolerate. Orion reined in next to the carriage, dismounted, and marched toward the woman who had caused him so much trouble. The look of fear on her face as he approached her both satisfied and disturbed him. When she leapt to her feet and put herself between him and his son, he refused to allow admiration to dim his anger. He did not like frightening a woman, but she deserved it. Orion decided it might just teach her some much needed caution. He would make certain that next time she would think twice about what she took without permission.

Catryn stared at the tall man striding toward her as she leapt to her feet and moved to put herself between the man and the boy in case this man was a threat. The way Giles moved to her side and grinned told her that this man was his father, or at least someone he knew, but her unease did not fade much. Her first clear thought was that no man had the right to look so handsome, especially when he also looked so furious. His clothing marked him as gentry as clearly as his fine horse did. At some point during his pursuit of her, his midnight-black hair had come undone and flowed back from his finely carved face in thick waves as he moved rapidly over the grass. Straight dark brows met in a vee over his perfect angle of a nose and, as he got near enough for her to see, his eyes were revealed to be a very stormy blue.

“I believe you have something of mine,” he said and placed a hand on Giles’s shoulder. Then he glanced at his horses and carriage. “Two somethings.”

Those statements deserved a reply, but it took Catryn a moment to think of one. The man’s voice was deep and a little rough. It stirred her in a way that made her heart beat faster. She wanted to think about why it did that, and how a man’s voice could affect her so, but quickly shook aside her fascination and curiosity. Now was a bad time to succumb to some odd feminine fluttering over a very handsome man.

“Yes, I do, and I can explain that,” she said and watched one of his brows cock upward. “I borrowed your carriage but had no idea at all that the boy was inside. I would never have taken the carriage if I had.” A little voice in her head whispered that that was probably a lie, that she would just have made sure the boy got out before taking the carriage.

“So if you had known that my young son was within the carriage, you never would have stolen it.”

His tone left her in no doubt that he thoroughly disbelieved her claim. “Exactly.” She frowned and fought down the guilt she was feeling over her actions, for that guilt could weaken her defense. “And I did not steal it. I borrowed it.”

“Taking a man’s possessions without asking his permission is theft.”

“Only if one does not intend to return those possessions, and I left you my mare in trade.”

Orion realized his anger was rapidly waning. The woman stood there arguing earnestly with him, yet there was a hint of fear to be read in her wide, sea-green eyes. Her beauty had caught his eye from the moment he saw her, but he had refused to allow it to dim his righteous anger. The somewhat ridiculous defense she was making was doing just that, however, and his appreciation of her beauty was rising to the fore again. He had to struggle to cling to at least some scrap of his rapidly fading suspicions about her.

She might, if she stood up very straight, reach his collarbone so that he could rest his chin upon the thick curls of her dark red hair. Short and slim though she was, he could see the womanly curves shaping her travel-stained gown. Considering the aids a woman could employ beneath her clothes to add to her shape, he knew he could be misjudging the true curve of her hips, but there was little doubt that she possessed a magnificent bosom, the curve of her breasts full and smooth above the neck of her soft gray gown. Being a man who unabashedly favored a magnificent bosom, Orion had to force himself to keep his gaze on the woman’s face.

There he saw a sweet innocence beneath the beauty, which made him quell the fleeting thoughts of seducing her. Orion divided women into two groups—those he could seduce if he chose to, the ones who knew how to play lovers’ games, and those he would never try to seduce because they could not separate their hearts from the pleasures two bodies could share. This woman might be a thief, but instinct told him she was one of the latter sort. That was the type of woman a confirmed bachelor avoided at all costs, and he was a very confirmed bachelor. And that, he thought, was a damned shame.

“You believed a maimed horse was an even trade for a team of horses, a carriage, and my son?”

“Sorley was not maimed. She will heal with a little care,” Catryn said.

“And she did not know I was in the carriage,” Giles said and shrugged when Orion frowned at him. “If you could have seen her face when I appeared, you would know the truth of that. Near scared her out of her skin when I stepped out and showed meself.”

“It still does not exonerate her from the charge of theft,” said Orion.

“She had a good reason for doing that. Someone kidnapped her son and she is chasing him. She could not do that on a lame horse, could she, and there was your carriage all set and ready to be driven off. I am thinking you need to stop leaving it there so ill-guarded and ready to go.”

“Are you now?”

“Well, it does get borrowed a lot.”

“Which is why I hired Cody, but she pulled a pistol on him when she stole my carriage.”

“She just needed to stop him from stopping her from borrowing it.”

Orion decided he would not get into an argument with a boy over the distinction between borrowing and stealing, especially a boy who had done quite a bit of both in his meager eight years of life. “Who are you?” he asked her, wondering if she would give him the same name she had given Cody.

“Lady Catryn Gryffin de Warrenne,” she replied. “I told your man to speak to my father, Lord Lewys Gryffin at Gryffin House. He is the Baron of Gryffin on the Wold. He would willingly compensate you.”

“I doubt he could compensate me for the plans I had made for the evening, the ones I was forced to cancel to chase you down.” He smiled faintly when, after a brief moment of frowning, she blushed, revealing that she had understood his implication. “Who took your son?”

“His uncle, Sir Morris de Warrenne. The man has been fighting us over the inheritance left to Alwyn by my late husband and just lost yet another fight to gain control over my son, the de Warrenne lands, and the money. He did not take it well, but I never expected him to do this. By custom, I suspect he should have been named Alwyn’s guardian, but my husband never trusted his brother Morris, so he named my father Alwyn’s guardian in his will. My husband may not have been the best husband, and actually he was a terrible husband, but he was careful to do all that was needed to make sure Alwyn got all his birth gave him the right to. He knew Morris would never do that, or honor his wishes.”

“Do you fear for your son’s life?”

Catryn opened her mouth to reply with a resounding no, but the words would not come. It was something that had worried her briefly, but she had pushed that concern aside and then talked herself out of it, if only for the sake of her sanity. She could not do so this time. The thought of how Morris might react to Alwyn’s childish game of speaking to his unseen friends had obviously brewed in her mind long enough to be a deep concern now. There was also the simple fact that Morris could gain a great deal of wealth in land and money if Alwyn was gone. The panic such thoughts stirred in her heart was difficult to subdue.

“I believe I do, although I have never had such a fear before,” she replied, tasting the truth of her own words. She could not thank this far-too-handsome man for putting that worry in her mind, either.

“The man never took the boy from you before, either, did he? Or try to. Perhaps this latest defeat in the courts has made him see that he can never win his case there and must now take a more drastic action.”

“I need to talk to my father,” Giles said as he grabbed Orion by the hand and started tugging him away from Catryn. “We will be but a moment.”

“I still have questions for the lady, Giles,” Orion said. “Can this not wait?”

“Nay, it cannot wait.”

It was not easy, but Catryn stood where she was as Sir Orion and young Giles walked away from her. For a moment she glanced between the boy and his father and the horse the man had ridden up on. The gelding was strong and made for speed. It could help her catch Morris and get Alwyn back.

She shook her head, crossed her arms over her chest, and silently cursed. The horse had been used as hard as the team pulling the carriage had been. It needed to rest as much as the other beasts did. Her heart urged her to grab the horse and race after her son, but common sense told her that she would not get far. All she would accomplish was to run that horse into a state of dangerous exhaustion and end up stranded on the road as night fell, still without her son. Yet she could not be certain this man would allow her to use either the carriage or the horse once the animals were rested. It was an untenable situation and she had a strong urge to scream.

As she waited for the boy to finish speaking with his father, Catryn struggled to recall anything she could about the man. He had not done her the courtesy of introducing himself, but Giles had told her all she needed to know. Sir Orion Wherlocke was not anyone she knew, however. She had heard some bits of gossip about the Wherlockes and their close relations, the Vaughns, but could recall very little of it and certainly nothing that inspired her to believe this man would help her.

It appeared that she was going to have to go to whatever authorities she could to try and get her son back. She had hoped to keep all this trouble private and settle it herself. The few people in authority she had dealt with since her husband had been attacked and died of stab wounds had not been very helpful or capable. Catryn suddenly had an urge to sit down and cry, for she could foresee weeks, even months, of waiting to get her son back.

 

 

“Look, you done made her all sad,” said Giles, frowning toward Catryn.

“She stole my carriage and you,” said Orion. “She disrupted my very carefully made plans for the day. And night. She held a gun on Cody.”

“Pfft.” Giles waved a hand in dismissal. “You can charm another skirt, and she would never have shot Cody.”

Although his son’s confidence in his skill at charming women was rather flattering, Orion was a little discomforted that the boy knew exactly what he had been planning to do tonight. “How can you be so certain that she would not have actually shot Cody?”

Giles shrugged. “I just am. I know these things. Always have. She is no danger to anyone. Not even the bastard who took her son. Well, unless the fool actually hurts the boy, and then I think she would show him a fury that would scare the biggest brute alive. Dockside rats would probably run from her.”

Orion did not have Giles’s apparent skill at knowing how people felt but believed his son was right about how the woman would react if her child was harmed. “This is not our business, not our trouble to deal with.”

“I think it is, and not just because the man took her son and it would only be right and honorable to help her get her child back.”

“That was well said. A palpable hit.”

“Thank you.”

“What other reason could there be?”

“I think her son may have some Wherlocke blood.”

Orion frowned and looked toward the little redhead pacing the ground over near the carriage. “I see none in her.”

“I could not say where it might come from, but I think he has a gift like Lady Pen has. He can see spirits.” Giles nodded when his father looked at him in surprise.

“She told you that?” Orion wondered if he was in danger of being taken in by a pretty face, a woman who knew all about the Wherlockes and thought to use some false connection to get to one of the family for her own gain.

“Nay, not exactly. She was ranting about how she would never catch that Morris fellow now and worrying out loud about what he might do to her boy. Said the man never spent much time with little Alwyn and might not be kind when her son played his little game of talking to people no one else could see.”

“Children do that from time to time. It does not mean they talk to spirits. Just a make-believe friend. I believe it is common among children who have few playmates.”

“Nay. This is more than that, and not all of the ones he talks to are children, playmates, or friends he makes up in his head. He also has hair like mine.”

“How do you know that?”

“I am fair sure I saw him. That blue-and-gold carriage went by and I saw a little boy peering out of the window. It was a real quick look but he had black hair. That is the carriage we are after.”

Orion softly cursed. His son was the third person to mention that the boy had black hair, something the child had certainly not gotten from his mother. Yet, if her son truly was speaking to the dead, and at such a young age, then his connection to the Wherlockes or the Vaughns was not in doubt. If the boy had a gift, it was definitely the mark of one of his kin; far more of a mark than his black hair. It was now not just a need to help a woman rescue her child that would motivate Orion to assist her, but the need to save one of his own.

He looked at his newfound son and inwardly grimaced. Here was yet another one who was showing early signs of a strong gift. Most of his family showed hints of the gift they had been born with while still in their childhood, but it did not usually grow strong until puberty; although just lately there appeared to be a lot more children revealing a strong gift early in life. Giles revealed a true skill at knowing how people felt, what was in their hearts and minds. He might need to go to Elderwood, the family seat, and train with Aunt Dob, as Modred, the Duke of Elderwood and the head of their whole family, was. God help the boy, he thought, if he was to be cursed with Modred’s gift. It would be difficult for him to find peace anywhere. His future could well be to live as reclusive a life as poor Modred did.

Shaking aside his growing concern for his son, Orion thought about the woman who was trying to retrieve her own child. Inheritance battles were far too common and very messy. It also usually ended badly for the one who held what others in the family wanted or thought should be rightfully theirs. This time the heir was a small boy, one who could well carry Wherlocke or Vaughn blood, and every instinct he had told him to join her in getting the child safely home. He suspected he would have decided to do so anyway for it was a crime he could not, in all good conscience, ignore, but the possible connection to his family only increased his desire to help her.