Join me on the curb in front of this house. I wish for a stroll with you, for I have something wonderful to tell you.
John
He passed the missive to the earl. “I did not write that.”
“Who did?”
The damning evidence had been seared onto John’s brain. “It’s in my father’s handwriting. There was no way Caroline could have discerned the difference, for she loathes reading, doesn’t like puzzling through it, and even if she didn’t, she’s not had cause to see my handwriting.”
“Why would he do this?” Brand cast a glance about the immediate area. Already, carriages were lining up at the curb, for the party had more or less broken up, and without the host in attendance, there was no point to continue it.
“I don’t know.” John shoved a hand through his hair. “I knew it was too good to be true that he wanted to wish us well.” There’d been no announcement, no toast, no attempt to talk to them both together. “Why the hell would he even go to the trouble of having us return to London?”
“Drew! John!” The hail came from Finn, who was silhouetted in the open doorway with a piece of paper in his hand. “You need to see this.”
“What now?” John led the way back up the walkway to the door, whereupon Finn shoved the paper into his hand. “Where did this come from?”
“Well, that Abrams fellow was rather shifty and uneasy, so while you fellows were out searching, I questioned him further.” His eyes twinkled with mischief. “I may have employed a couple of old military tactics on him to… encourage him to talk.”
“And I missed it?” Brand fairly hopped up and down as if he were a schoolboy itching for a fight instead of a married man with a new baby at home. “I’ll wager it was bully good.”
John rolled his eyes and ignored the banter between the brothers. He unfolded the note while the earl read over his shoulder. This note, too, had been penned by his father. “‘By now you are aware I have your wife. You may be many things, but you are not stupid. Eventually you would have realized I took her anyway.’” His hand shook as anger rose up to tighten his throat.
The earl yanked the paper from his lax fingers and took up the narrative. “‘Lord Hadleigh—for you must have wondered why I invited you to my humble event tonight—unless I receive twenty thousand pounds from you by midnight, I’m afraid you’ll find your dear cousin Caroline floating in the Serpentine. The drop point is listed below. Either you come alone or send John. It matters not to me.’”
“Oh, dear God.” For the moment, the will to fight leeched from John’s bones. He sagged, but Brand was there to lend a supportive shoulder. “The gall of the man!” Though he battled both anger and horror from the situation as well as the betrayal, the overwhelming emotion that swamped him was fear. Never had he been more terrified in a situation, not even while forced to do hand-to-hand combat onboard naval ships. “Perhaps I couldn’t keep her safe, after all.”
Had it been a mistake to remove her from the earl’s care and marry her?
“Poppycock. That’s plain rubbish and you know it.” Brand gave him a little shake. “Caroline has bloomed since your arrival in her life last Christmastide. She glows and is happier than I’ve ever seen her.”
Tremors played John’s spine. Threatening tears stung his eyes, but he wasn’t ashamed to show them. “If she dies because of my bugger of a father…”
“She won’t.” Brand shook him again until their gazes met. “You won’t let her.”
His heart ached so much he feared it might attack him. John pressed a hand over that organ. “She’s only just begun to trust others, and now this.” Damnation, but she must be terrified. And she already didn’t like his father. “All along she’s likened me to a storybook hero, asked that I always come and rescue her.”
Finn grinned despite the gravity of the situation. “Then don’t disappoint her. When women have a set idea about their men, they rather expect us to come up to the mark.”
The earl moved into his line of sight. “Do you wish for a pistol?”
“No.” Slowly, John shook his head. Then he straightened to his full height. “I have my fists but know this.” He met the earl’s gaze. “I will kill my father if he’s harmed her in any way.” The man needed stopped, even if that meant plunging his own life into chaos.
“I believe you, but remember, you can’t be a husband to Caroline if your arse is rotting in Newgate for murder.”
The irony of the matter wasn’t lost on him. John snorted. “There is that.”
“Allow me time to secure the funding.”
“No!” John glanced at the three Storme brothers, the men he was now related to by marriage. A muscle in his cheek twitched, for he’d clenched his jaw. “We are not negotiating with the bastard. I refuse to let him abuse my connections, for if we give in, this won’t be the only time he tries something like this. He’ll go through that coin in a week.”
“He’s a desperate man, John.”
It was the second time Hadleigh had called him by his Christian name. Perhaps he’d finally been accepted into the fold. “While this is true, I am not. I know what I’m capable of more than he does. All my life he’s bullied and beat me to get his way. No more.” John curled a hand into a fist. “Any man, regardless of relationship, who threatens my wife will find himself with a large comeuppance.”
The earl nodded. “If you’re certain?”
“I am.” He swallowed heavily in an effort to dislodge the wad of fear stuck in his throat. “I have Caroline’s dowry. If it comes to that, I’ll offer it to him, run him out of England if I must, but I will not allow that man to go forward on this same path.”