What A Rogue Wants (36 page)

An odd expression crossed Grey’s face.
“As I’ve said, he had the king’s ear as a wealthy landowner. Why do
you ask?”

She followed him through the cellar
door and into the kitchen. “I just wonder if perhaps your father
might have been so busy with the king’s business that it caused him
to neglect you.”

Grey wheeled around. “What are you
trying to tell me, Madelaine?”

Behind Grey a pot flashed in a sliver
of moonlight above his head. Madelaine blinked, sure she was seeing
things. But when the pot flashed again and came down with a
resounding thump on the back of Grey’s head, Madelaine screamed as
he crumpled to his knees with a groan.

“
Grey,” Madelaine
exclaimed and bent to help him stand.

Grey waved her off. “I’ll live.
Luckily for your friend, I’ve a hard head.”

Madelaine rose and glared at Abby.
“Abigail Langley! What on earth are you doing here? And what were
you thinking?”

Abby lifted her hem, gave Grey a
narrow-eyed look, and scrambled around him before coming to stand
in front of Madelaine and embrace her in a hug. “I’m here because
someone in the village said they saw a woman riding hell-bent
toward your home. I knew right away it had to be you. You’re the
only woman I know who rides a horse as a man does.”

Madelaine frowned. “I’m sure there has
to be at least one other woman who doesn’t like riding
sidesaddle.”

Grey rose to his feet, rubbing his
head. “Why on earth did you hit me?”

“
I thought Madelaine
needed saving from you.” Abby gave Grey a cool look that made
Madelaine smile.

She’d never known a servant quite as
confident or proud as Abby. Madelaine was so glad to see her and
know she was all right.

“
Where are you staying?
Are you safe? Did you find employment?”

Abby cleared her throat. “I’m in town
at the local inn. Mother went to Uncle Jake’s. He was only willing
to take one of us in.”

Madelaine’s jaw dropped. The local inn
was no place for any young woman who wanted to keep her innocence
or a decent future. She grasped Abby by the arm. “Oh, Abby! I swear
when Father gets out of this mess, he’ll come for you. And your
mother,” Madelaine added as an afterthought.

“
I’m not worried.
Especially since you’re here now. You are here to stay, aren’t
you?”

Madelaine glanced at Grey. Abby was
the one person Madelaine could confide in and Abby had a good head
for figuring things out. But she couldn’t tell her friend the truth
of what was happening in front of Grey. But if Abby came with them,
surely there would be a moment when they were alone, or when Grey
fell asleep that they could talk. The man had to sleep, after all.
An idea struck Madelaine, and she turned to Grey. “Do you think
your aunt or sister would take Abby on as a servant?”

He yawned as if bored with the
conversation. “If I ask them to.”

Madelaine wet her lips, embarrassed to
be asking him for anything in light of what she’d done and what she
was planning to do. What choice was there, though? If Grey promised
to find Abby employment, he’d keep his word no matter what
occurred. “Abby is an excellent hairdresser and
seamstress.”

Abby nodded. “Truly I am, Lord
Drivel.”

Grey smiled. “You recognize
me?”

“
Yes.” Her tone held
amusement.

Grey’s eyes narrowed. “Was this before
or after you hit me?”

Her lips pressed together, but her
smile was evident. “Before.”

“
Then why on earth did you
hit me?” He sounded irritable with his clipped words.

“
Because, Lord Drivel,”
Abby replied, her tone uncharacteristically tart. “I recognized you
from the day Lady Madelaine and I met you in Golden Square, but
I
also
recognize
you from the day you and your men dragged Lord Stratmore from this
house.”

“
What’s she talking
about?” Madelaine’s stomach twisted into knots.

Grey shot her a wary glance. “I’m Lord
Pearson’s equerry.”

“
And?” Did he expect her
to be satisfied with that one line?

“
And Lord Pearson was
required by the king to come question your father, so I was
required as well.”

Anger and disbelief curled inside her
belly. “You lied to me.”

“
I didn’t. You didn’t ask
me if I came here, so I didn’t lie. Frankly, I didn’t relish the
idea of telling you I was in the company of men who took your
father to the tower for treason and murder.

“
What!” Abby’s face turned
pale.

Madelaine ignored her
friend and kept her gaze firmly on Grey. She could understand why
he might be worried about telling her, but he
had
lied, and she suspected he was
lying to her now. But about what? The only thing she could think of
was that Grey knew exactly what his brother and father were. Maybe
Grey was a spy for the king as well. But if he was, then did he
truly love her or was he using her to trap her father? Her father’s
words about not trusting anyone, especially Grey, flooded her mind.
A tremor ran through her. She’d been a fool, made dull-witted by
love.

She pasted what she prayed was an
understanding smile on her face. “I can see why you would have been
reluctant to tell me you helped drag my father to the tower. I
would have felt the same way had the situations been
reversed.”

“
I’m glad you understand.”
He held his arm out to her. “We need to get going. I don’t like
traveling in the dark, but I don’t think we have time to wait for
daybreak.”

She hesitated before taking his arm.
“Will you recommend Abby to your aunt?” She didn’t want to drag
Abby into this mess, but leaving her here alone would be
worse.

“
I vow my aunt will give
Abby a position, no matter what.”

No matter what?
Madelaine’s lips trembled as she tried to offer a
gracious smile. Did he mean no matter if I’m lying to you, or if
I’ll betray you and see you hung beside your father? She didn’t
like this game she was being forced to play. If Grey didn’t love
her, she would be heartbroken. And if he did, she would also be
heartbroken when he realized she had betrayed him. There was no way
to win. And no way out. At this point, she just prayed she could
keep herself and her father alive.

After Grey secured the horses to
Madelaine’s father’s carriage, they left for Kew. Madelaine wanted
to spill her heart out to Abby and see if she had any other ideas,
but Abby prevented that scenario when she insisted on riding on the
driver’s bench with Grey. Grey refused to let anyone drive the
carriage but him. Stupid man. They’d end up dead with him at the
reins. Red streaked the whites of his eyes and he yawned every few
minutes. He had to be exhausted. Abby obviously could see it as
well or she wouldn’t have insisted on riding beside him. Maybe Abby
thought she could grab the reins if he fell asleep?

There was no point in arguing. All
three of them were stubborn people, and they could stand around all
day fighting about who should drive and who should sleep and never
get anywhere. There was not a minute to waste if she was going to
save her father. Madelaine resigned herself to talk to Abby later
and then climbed into the carriage and settled herself on the soft
cushion. She stared out of the window into the passing darkness as
the carriage bumped along the road at a fast-paced clip. Was Grey
eager to get her to Kew to help her or was everything that he’d
told her a lie?

Dear God! If she and
Grey
had
married,
and he was a spy, she would have been unknowingly married to a spy,
just as her mother had been. The idea of almost living her mother’s
same fate made her gulp. She didn’t want a life of secrets and lies
that led to anger and unhappiness. All she’d ever wanted was to be
accepted and loved for who she really was. She’d thought she’d
found that with Grey.

A warm trail of tears slid down her
face. She brushed them away impatiently. She had no time for tears
or a broken heart. Later, once her father was released, she’d
attend to her heart. Methodically, she thought of and discarded
ways to escape Grey. It would be easier now that Abby was with her.
Between the two of them, they should be able to overcome him if
they could get their hands on his pistol. When he slept,
possibly?

She leaned her head against the side
of the carriage as despair overwhelmed her, constricting her throat
and her heart. When she’d given her heart to Grey she’d never
imagined ending up here. Maybe it was her due penance. Punishment
for contributing to the problems between her parents that had
driven them apart. She squeezed her eyes shut wanting to sleep for
a while and forget everything. The rocking of the carriage calmed
her like a drug and after a bit, her body grew heavy and her mind
begin to drift.

MADELAINE AWOKE WHEN HER head smacked
against the side of the carriage. When the vehicle jerked hard to
the left, she gripped her seat to avoid flying out of it then
attempted to move toward the window. What was happening? She was
halfway across the seat when the carriage hit a bump forcing her to
cling to the cushion. Outside, a loud noise boomed through the air.
Was that a pistol being fired? Her heart took off in a gallop that
matched the pace of the horses.

The carriage slowed and came to a
shuddering stop. Momentum threw her off the seat and to her knees.
Pain sliced into her bones and vibrated up the length of her body.
Before she could rise, the door whipped open, and a strong hand
gripped her arm. Grey pulled her out of the carriage and plopped
her onto her feet. Her skin tingled with fear. When she didn’t see
Abby, Madelaine scanned the perimeter of the forest. “Where is
she?”

Grey pointed toward the dense woods.
“I sent her that way. Someone’s been following us.” Behind them in
the pitch-black dark the hard clopping of horses’ hooves rang in
the mostly silent woods, then suddenly stopped.

“
Damn it.” Grey glanced
behind him into the darkness. “Follow Abby,” he whispered. “And
keep running until you reach Cheshire if I don’t catch up with you.
It’s close. Go to the King’s Inn and ask for Charlie.”

Grey suddenly ducked and yanked
Madelaine to the ground with him. She hit the dirt with a thud, the
hard, unforgiving ground knocking the air out of her lungs. Bright
stars shone in her eyes and a dull ache exploded across her
temples.

“
We’re being shot at,”
Grey hissed, dragging her belly-first through the dry leaves over
hard ground.

“
I got that,” she
murmured. Another shot exploded, the sound making her instinctively
cover her head with her free hand.

“
Help me,” Grey demanded.
She pushed with her feet against the dirt to slide toward the tree
she made out in the darkness. The pistol exploded again, the noise
of the shot amplified by the increasing nearness. A scream wrenched
from her throat as bark from the tree beside her hit her in the
right cheek. A sharp sting slashed across her skin followed
immediately by warm, sticky blood.

“
Goddamn it,” Grey
growled. “I’ll kill whoever’s trying to kill us.”

“
Perfectly reasonable.”
She wiped at her cheek while pushing with her feet and shimmying
over the dirt and rough roots of the tree to take shelter behind
the large trunk. Just as they settled behind the trunk, Grey
slammed his hand over her head and pressed her face, mouth first,
into the dirt. For a moment panic clawed at her throat. He was
going to suffocate her. Wait. She sniffed. She could breathe. She
took a ragged breath and pushed his hand away. “Grey?”

“
Stay down.” She didn’t
need to be told twice. Bullets flew nearby, the loud pop of each
shot resounding in her ears. The smell of smoke filled the air. She
jumped at the cocking click of Grey’s pistol. His hand settled
briefly on her back as if to calm her. “It’s too late for you to
run. I’m sorry.”

The anguish that filled his voice made
her heart jerk but there was no time to respond. She locked her
gaze on a lone figure emerging on the path in a sliver of
moonlight. Blazes. She couldn’t see his face. He came a step
closer, and she clutched at the ground. He had two pistols aimed
directly at them.