“Simple as that?”

“Simple as that.” The baron nodded. “Trying to nab her in the market, I admit, was poorly thought out. Too many people around. This time, however, I’m prepared.”

“What does that mean?” Helmsley made his tone casual.

“If that damned earl makes a ruckus”—Stull wiped his lips on his handkerchief—“I’ll wave the betrothal contract at him. And for good measure, I’ll wave your guardianship papers, as well.”

“Hadn’t thought of that,” Helmsley said slowly, though of course he had. “Why not simply send a solicitor ’round to the earl with the documents? If he’s a gentleman, as you say, he should send Anna along smartly, and Morgan with her, assuming she’s nearby?”

“You don’t understand your peers, Helmsley.” Stull leaned forward. “I’ll wave that document around, but I’m not turning the earl’s solicitors loose on it. The Quality don’t engage in trade, and anything that smacks of business befuddles ’em to the point where they must bring in the lawyers. That will take weeks, at least, and I am damned tired of waiting for my bride.”

“I’m sure you are,” Helmsley said, as he was damned tired of waiting for Stull to pay off his debts. He also silently allowed as how any solicitor of suitable talent to serve a future duke would likely find holes the size of bull elephants in the contracts. “Your plan sounds worthy to me, so what are we waiting for?”

The baron smiled, an ugly grimace of an expression. “We are waiting for Anna to go pick her bedamned flowers.”

Seventeen

“WHY THE FROWN?” Val asked, helping himself to the lemonade provided for the earl and Mr. Tolliver each morning.

“Note from Hazlit.” The earl handed the missive to his brother, Tolliver having been excused for the day. “He began the journey north to track down Helmsley, and lo, the fellow was not more than a day’s ride from Town, supposedly waiting for his horse to come sound. He rode right back into Town and connected with Stull at the Pig.”

“So you have your miscreants reunited.” Val scanned the note. “I wonder what the foray north was about in the first place?”

“Who knows?” The earl sipped at his drink. “They don’t strike me as a particularly cunning pair.”

“Maybe not cunning,” Val conceded, “but ruthless. They were going to torch an entire property, for reasons we still don’t know. That’s a hanging offense, Westhaven, and so far, they’ve gotten away with it.”

“The charges are pending, and I suspect if we catch one of them, the other will be implicated in very short order.”

Val sat on the arm of the sofa. “Stull hasn’t implicated Helmsley yet.”

“The arson charges are not likely to stick,” the earl said, “though they do create leverage.”

“Or unpredictability,” Val suggested.

“Possibly.” The earl noted that Val was being contrary, which wasn’t like him. “How is Miss Morgan?”

“Thriving,” Val said glumly. “She’s blooming, Westhaven. When I call upon her, she is giggling, laughing, and carrying on at a great rate with our sisters, the duke, the duchess…”

“The footmen?” the earl guessed.

“The butler, the grooms, the gardeners,” Val went on, nodding. “She charms everybody.”

“It could be worse.” The earl got up and went to the window, from which he could see Anna taking cuttings for her bouquets. “You could have proposed to her, oh, say a half-dozen times and been turned down each time. Quite lowering, the third and fourth rejections. One gets used to it after that. Or tries to.”

“Gads.” Val’s eyebrows shot up. “I hadn’t realized it had reached that stage. What on earth is wrong with the woman?”

“Nothing. She simply believes we would not suit, so I leave her in relative peace.”

“Except you tuck her in each night?”

“I do.” The earl’s eyes stayed fixed on the garden. “She is fond of me; she permits it. She is quite alone, Val, so I try not to take advantage of the liberties I’m granted. I comprehend, though, when a woman doesn’t even try to kiss me, that I have lost a substantial part of my allure in her eyes.”

“And have you talked to her about this?”

“I have.” The earl smiled faintly. “She confronted me quite clearly and asked how we were to go on. She wants comforting but nothing more. I can provide that.”

Comforting and cosseting and cuddling.

“You are a better man than I am.” Val smiled in sympathy.

“Not better.” The earl shook his head. “Just… What the hell is going on out there?!”

A pair of beefy-looking thugs had climbed over the garden wall and thrown a sack over Anna’s head. She was still struggling mightily when the earl, both brothers, and two footmen pounded onto the scene and wrestled Anna from her attackers.

“Oh, no you don’t,” St. Just snarled as he hauled the larger man off the wall. “You stay right here, my man, and await the King’s justice. You, too, Shorty.” He cocked a pistol and leveled a deadly look at the two intruders.

Baron Stull let himself in through the gate. “I say, none of that now. Westhaven, call off your man.”

“Stull.” Westhaven grimaced. “You are trespassing. Leave, unless you’d like the constable to take you up now rather than when these worthies implicate you in kidnapping.”

“I ain’t kidnapping,” Stull huffed. “You want proof this lady is my fiancée, well here it is.” He thrust a beribboned document at the earl, who merely lifted an eyebrow. On cue, Val stepped forward, retrieved the document, and handed it to a footman.

“Take it to His Grace,” the earl ordered. “Tell him I want the validity of the thing reviewed, and it’s urgent.”

“Now see here.” The Earl of Helmsley sauntered in through the gate, and Westhaven felt Anna go tense. “There will be no need for that. Anna, come along. Tell the man I’m your brother and the guardian appointed by our grandpapa to see to you and our sister. Grandmama has been missing you both.”

“You are not and never were my guardian,” Anna said. “I was of age when Grandpapa died, and while you may control some of my funds, you never had legal control of me.”

“Seems the lady isn’t going to be going with you,” the earl said. “So you may leave, for now.”

“Now, my lord.” Helmsley shook his head. “Let’s not be hasty. I, too, brought proof of my claims with me. Perhaps Anna would like to read for herself what provision Grandpapa made?” With his left hand, he held out a second document, rolled and tied with a ribbon. As Anna took a step forward to snatch the document from his hand, the earl noticed Helmsley’s right hand was hidden in the folds of his coat.

“Anna, don’t!”

But his warning was too late. As Anna reached for the document, Helmsley reached for her, wrapping her tightly against his body, a gun held to her temple.

“That’s enough!” Helmsley jerked her hard against him, the document having fallen to the cobblestones. “Stull, come along. We’ve got your bride, and it’s time we’re going. Westhaven, you are free to call the magistrate, but we’ll be long gone, and when it comes down to it, your word against ours will not get you very far in criminal proceedings, particularly as a woman cannot testify against her spouse.” He wrenched Anna back a step, then another, keeping Anna between him and the earl.

A shot was fired, followed instantly by a second shot. Anna sagged against her brother but was snatched into Westhaven’s arms.

“I’m hit.” Helmsley’s hand went to his side, gun clattering to the cobblestones beside the document. “You bastard!” Helmsley shouted at St. Just in consternation. “You just shot me!”

“I did.” St. Just approached him, pistol still in hand. “As I most assuredly am a bastard, in every sense of the word, I suggest you do not give me an excuse to discharge my second barrel just to shut you up. Defense of a loved one, you know? Deadly force is countenanced by every court in the land on those grounds.”