Mandy (21 page)

She entered the parlor, where Alfred already on his feet, went forward, “Mandy! You are looking prodigiously well after your…escapade,” Alfred said warmly, evidently determined to start things off amiably.

“Thank you,” Mandy managed to return with a half smile.

He frowned at her, “You are worried about Ned, I know, but my dear. He must face the courts if he is to clear his name.”

She looked into his cold hard hazel eyes and saw without any doubt that this man was wicked. It pulsated off his body in waves that slapped her. She said, making her voice sound hopeful, conspiratorial, “Alfred, he can not prove his innocence from a jail. It makes him look guilty. We were looking for Elly Bonner…don’t you want that too? Don’t you want to prove your cousin innocent of this awful crime?”

“I am shocked. Don’t you know that is precisely what I have been doing? How could you not know that?” He brushed a speck from his dark brown cutaway and regarded her with a look of hurt. “How could you think I would do otherwise?”

She tried to put some sweetness into her smile, “Alfred…I don’t believe you have my brother’s best interests at heart. How could I? In fact, I believe just the opposite of you and your father.”

His brows drew together and he said sharply, “You are not in a position to criticize, are you?”

Suddenly he surprised her by taking a hurried step to her and grabbing her shoulders with both his hands. “You need a beating, you brazen little bitch. I swear, one day you will live to rue your behavior toward me!” He shook her and then bent to kiss her while she struggled to be free of him.

All at once a storm blew in.

Alfred was blasted with a force that managed to lift him bodily and fling him across the room. He landed against a Queen Anne chair, fell off balance, and dropped with a resounding thud to the Oriental carpet.

 Mandy felt a warm glow of enormous proportions slip around her, through her, as a pair of glorious blue eyes looked into hers and an authoritative, caressing voice—
his voice
asked, “Are you quite all right, my love?”

She nodded, unable to trust herself to speak, and he touched her cheek. She took his hand and had to restrain herself from kissing his fingers as she hurriedly told him, “Ned and Chauncey…they took…”

He cut her off, “No, our resourceful lads have not been taken in. ‘Tis all over Harrowgate. I was in the town…met your uncle there and hurried to get to you here. I saw the guards along the way.” He grinned at this juncture. “Apparently, Ned and Chauncey managed to escape them.”

At that moment the Speenham butler arrived and if he found the fact that his employer’s son, was picking himself off the floor, odd, he gave no sign, but announced, “Sir Owen Turndale.”

Mandy was protectively ensconced within the duke’s strong arm. She made no effort to move and the duke seemed content with matters as they stood.

Sir Owen stopped short and frowned at the scene that met his eyes, but he shook his head and said, “Well, it is amazing to me just how much can happen in a short space of time in the country!”

“Sir Owen…have you word?” Mandy asked going forward and allowing him to take her hand and bend perfunctorily over it.

“No, I am afraid not. However, I discovered that someone close to Elly Bonner, a Hawkins fellow…well, it is nothing, just an odd thing.”

The duke went forward, his blue eyes intent, “What is this odd thing?”

“A slip of the tongue…nothing really. However, the Hawkins fellow did come into York for a few things…”

Speenham seemed keenly interested, “Hawkins? Who is this Hawkins and what has he to do with anything?”

“We believe he may lead us to Elly Bonner,” Sir Owen answered him, and turned to Mandy. “What of Ned? Did your uncle actually manage to take him in?”

“Indeed, he tried, but they have escaped, as I shall, for I won’t stay in this house with…” she looked at Alfred, “…him.”

“Indeed, gamine, your uncle is not your legal guardian.
I am,
” stuck in the duke.

“Now, hold on here,” Alfred blustered.

“Hold on? For what?” the duke eyed him threateningly.

“You just can’t walk out of here with my cousin. My father…well, he is a magistrate as well as her uncle and although he has chosen to overlook her crime…her part in Ned’s initial escape…there is no saying that he will continue to do so if…”

The duke was already taking Alfred by the collar and seething with the fury of his words, “Speak like that and I will take great pleasure in knocking out each and every tooth you possess in that sordid button mouth of yours!” the duke warned. “You will remember as I have already informed you, that Miss Sherborne is my ward and as such, under my protection. If he chooses, though I highly recommend he does not, to bring charges against her, he will live to regret it, as I will make certain both his and your future will be fraught with pain and discomfort.”

Sir Owen, his hands folded in his arms stood slightly back, leaning against a near-by bookcase and watched with keen interest.

Alfred spluttered, mumbled and moved toward the side table where he poured himself a stiff drink.

The duke bent his arm toward his ward and said, “Let’s get you home, gamine, for I do not approve of these relations of yours. From here on out, I think you should not have anything to do with them.”

“Thank you…yes, I should like above all things to leave here,” Mandy said feeling very much like skipping along with him. She was going to be one and twenty and at that moment felt like a young girl at his side, happy to allow him to look after her. Life, she thought, was full of unexpected surprises.

He had her horse brought with his from the Speenham stable and saw her skirts spread around her as she sat her horse astride and she told him, “Brock, you are my hero, and Ned would say—a great gun. I do most humbly thank you.”

He laughed. “It is absurd, but to hear you compliment me instead of insult me is more than I can bear. Do stop.”

She giggled and then remembered her brother was now out of reach. “They are safe…yes?”

He regaled her with the tale the guards had recounted to him and they both laughed before he said, “I am pleased to tell you that your resourceful twin and your man Chauncey are free and I am certain, quite able to find a place to stowaway while we find Elly…and we shall. I can feel we are getting close.”

He mounted his horse and they started off together as he said, “I don’t mean to take you directly to Sherborne…is that acceptable?”

“Oh yes,” Mandy thought, knowing she would go to hell and back and then make the trip again for this man.

“I am loathe to have you in the same house with Agatha Brinley. For all we know, she may have killed her stepdaughter and I am not about to allow her to harm a hair on your exquisite head.”

“Then…where…?”

“To Skip’s manor.”

“No, that is…well, it is a bachelor’s residence. People may forgive me for helping my brother escape and hiding out with him, but they would never forgive me if I flout convention and move in with two bachelors.”

“I mean to have your nanny brought to Wharfdale Manor by the end of the day. I know you have her pensioned nearby, as I manage your finances. It will serve,” he said softly and reached for her ungloved hand. “I will always look out for your interests, love.”

She blushed as the heat rushed through her body.
He cared
. Did that mean he loved her? Could this big wondrous man actually love her? She was naught but a country miss…a hoyden without London polish—and yet the way he looked at her was more than the lust they had shared. Could he love her?
Could he?

ELLY BONNER SAT rigid with fright as she stared at the boxes her Jack was piling upon their cavern table. She knew now where he had been and what he had been doing. He had gone shopping in York!

Half of her wanted to scold and half of her longed to go through the treasures he had set before her.

“Bless ye, Jack, what’s this ye be bringing down around m’poor head?”

“Jest wait, Elly!” He grinned like a boy. “‘tis fit fer the queen ye be.”

“Oh Jack, so many things…how? We done spent the last of our ready more than a week ago.” She knew, but she hoped otherwise.

“Aw now, Elly love. Don’t take on like a shrew. ‘Tis fer ye, all of it, fer ye. Ready-made they be, but I swear, one day ye’ll be wearing those that ain’t.”

“Oh Jack…” she exclaimed. He was like a big child pleased with himself, wanting her to get excited and enjoy the presents he had brought her, but how could she when she knew how they had been come by?

“Aw now Elly, don’t be pushing a basket full of questions at me. Jest hold em up and look at ‘em…” He pulled out a pretty green muslin and added, “This one I chose to go with yer pretty eyes.”

“Jack, oh Jack, ‘tis grand. Oh, that grand…but…”

He pulled yet another gown, “And this, Elly…with this pretty straw bonnet…” he scrambled to show her more. “And these boots…and these slippers…and look at the grand trunk we’ll be using when we sail. ‘Tis the two of us from here on out and never mind how, we’ll make it all right in the end.”

She knew what Jack had suffered growing up. She knew his own father was the one that had left the scar across his neck, put there with a knife and how he had finally lost all control and had turned on his father and beat him to death. She knew all that he was, and she loved him, for he was none of those things with her.

He was full of excitement and told her, “Tomorrow, I’ll be bringing the cob and wagon and we’ll head for Bristol and get on a ship headed for that new land ye love so much.”

“But Jack…how?”

“Aw Elly, ye don’t need to know.”

“But I do.”

“I only took a quarter of m’share…jest enough to see us through this. Jest enough to get us established…”

She gasped, “Oh no, Jack darlin’ ye used the gold?”

“Lordy girl, they didn’t give me these things coz of m’fine face.” He shrugged. “I know someone. He gave me a fair exchange for the gold…so that I could get what we needed.”

“If they catch this person, he will lead them to you,” she said her hand at his cheek.

“No, they won’t because we’ll be gone and that will be that.”

“What if that awful man finds out…?”

“He won’t. I made the chest look untouched, I did. I ain’t so dimwitted as some might think.”

“Of course, you are not,” she reassured him.

“He doesn’t know where we are hiding. And we’ll be gone before he realizes it. Soon, all we’ll have to do is get the wagon close, load up what we need and off we will go. What more we need, we’ll buy in the new land…” he reached for her hand. “Now come, Elly girl, come see what else I got ‘ere. There is even a new set of clothes for me, so ye can walk beside me proud.”

She consented because she loved him, felt for him--wanted him to have what he needed. Besides that, the boxes set before her, for a young woman who had never had much more than uniforms and rags were too great a temptation to ignore.

It wasn’t long before the two were dancing about their wares like children at a festival.

* * *

The duke saw Mandy settled in the library of the viscount’s manor house with a tray of refreshments. She then watched as a set of servants lined up to his command and were sent off on various errands.

One to fetch her dear nanny, for which she was tremendously grateful. Her nanny had retired the year before and lived in a cottage that she and her brother had bestowed upon her. She hadn’t visited with her since Ned’s trouble began and she dearly wanted to dive into her arms.

Another servant, this time a housemaid, was told to fetch a wagon and visit Sherborne with instructions to pack a few pelisses with Miss Sherborne’s clothing, slippers, boots, whatever young women wear and return with them as soon as she could.

She smiled to herself. He was a hero in so many ways. He knew just what to do and how to get it done.

Yet another maid was sent scurrying up the stairs to ready one of the guest rooms for Miss Sherborne and after he watched her rush off, he turned to Mandy, rubbing his hands together with satisfaction and his handsome face was alight with pleasure.

“Now, my gamine, off to your room,” he said jovially.

“What? What do you mean, off to my room?” her hands went to her hips. She reminded herself that he was her hero and tried to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“It is reasonable, is it not, that you might be fatigued after your experiences today…I thought you might like to rest for a time,” he said.

He had said this casually, far too casually for her liking. Something was toward!

“You are trying to get rid of me.
Why?”

He came close and took her shoulders, “Believe me when I say, I never want to be rid of you,
never,”
he fingered her lips and his lashes shaded his eyes a moment. “Especially now, when your nearness is driving me mad…I want you here, beside me.” He sighed and dropped his hold on her, “However, I must speak with Skip. He needs to be told what you saw. I don’t like that we know of his assignation with a woman in the middle of the night and are keeping it from him.”

“Then I should be here as well when you tell him. After all…I am the one who came across him.”

“No, I don’t think he will be comfortable with that. You are a female…after all.”

“That is most odious of you to say like that,” she snapped.

“Ah, how much better I feel now,” he bantered. “We are back to our former standards of communication.”

She pouted and turned in a huff, but his voice brought her head around, “Mandy,” he said softly, so softly that she felt caressed.

“Yes, Your Grace,” she returned formally, her eyes alight with mischief.

He only smiled at her as though he couldn’t speak, as though the words had caught in his throat and it sent a wondrous sensation through her, because the look in his blue eyes was full with emotion.

Finally, he said, “Rest well.”

She gave him a flick of her shoulder as she turned back to leave and smiled to herself as she scurried up the horseshoe shaped staircase and found the maid waiting to show her to her room.