Almost a Countess by Jenna Jaxon
Chapter 23
In desperation born of fear, Finn grabbed not for the pistol but for the hand that held it.
Leaning forward, intent on the debauchery taking place at the foot of the bed, Scarlet was already off balance. Finn yanked the lieutenant onto the bed, grabbed the pistol, aimed and fired at Hopkins.
The man yelped and thumped to the floor. Good. One down.
Tussling with the lieutenant, Finn scrabbled at Scarlet’s side and drew his dagger. Whipping it around, he rested it against the man’s exposed neck. With his other hand, he stripped the gag from his mouth. “Call off yer dogs, cur, or ye’ll no’ live tae see the dawn.”
The door burst open, and the duchess strode in, garbed in a strange robe of many colors, followed by her maid, Larkin, the innkeeper, and a number of curious potboys.
The duchess peered at him, lips pursed. “Apparently your ruse has been discovered, Lord Aberfoyle.”
Finn grinned at the older lady, as welcome a sight as an avenging angel. “Good evening, Duchess. Apparently sae. Dora?” He tried to peer over the end of the bed but couldn’t see her.
“I’m fine, Finn.” Carefully, she rose, stumbled into the arms of her aunt and burst into tears.
“There, there, my dear. Get yourself in hand. You seem to have lived through the worst of it.” The duchess peered down at the unconscious Hopkins. “Can someone cover this unfortunate man’s privates? I doubt he’d want them on display from the looks of them.”
The innkeeper hurried forward and laid a napkin over the man’s open fall.
“Now, Aberfoyle.” The duchess rapped her stick on the floor sharply. “Explain this bizarre tableau, please.”
The lieutenant squirmed, and Finn pressed the knife more firmly to Scarlet’s neck. The man yelped and tried to struggle, drawing a single drop of blood. “A moment please, Duchess.” He bent down to Scarlet’s ear. “Be on yer best behavior, lieutenant,” he whispered. “Ye wouldn’t want my hand tae slip because ye tried tae move. I’d have sae many witnesses that ye cut yer throat yerself.”
“Unhand me, damnit, Aberfoyle.”
“Sae ye can attack my fiancée and try tae kill me again? When pigs fly wi’ their tails forward, lieutenant.” Finn grinned at him. “I’ll be happy tae share this bed with ye for a while. At least until a superior officer can be summoned tae hear the truth o’ the matter.” He tightened his hold on the officer. “Since I recall yer commanding officer is up in Edinburgh, we will have tae settle for someone closer. Innkeeper.”
“Yes, my lady…uh, my lord?” The tall, thin man Finn had met when they arrived stepped forward, eyes wide as if in a trance. Mr. Perry likely didn’t discover soldiers being held at knife point in his rooms every day.
“Is there a military barracks nearby? I’m in need o’ a major or lieutenant-colonel, although I suppose a lowly captain would dae as a superior officer tae the lieutenant here. Lieutenant Scarlet has been a wee bit o’ a bad’un, it seems.”
“Gates, do something.” Scarlet twisted in Finn’s hands so vigorously it was hard not to cut him.
The only soldier left standing, Gates looked from Scarlet, to the fallen Hopkins, to the injured man in the corner and shook his head. “I don’t rightly know what to do, lieutenant.”
“Take your pistol and shoot this mad dog.” Scarlet continued to struggle in Finn’s arms. “Don’t aim to kill, just wound him in the arm so I can get free of him.”
Scarlet was surely deranged, suggesting a shot so close to his own head. At some point in his pursuit of Finn, he’d apparently become completely unhinged.
“Shoot, damn it.”
Hesitantly, Gates raised his pistol.
“Young man, I suggest you lower that pistol if you know what is good for you.” The duchess stepped forward and poked Gates in the stomach with her walking stick, knocking him backward. “You will neither shoot my nephew-to-be, nor anyone else on the authority of a man who is clearly mad.”
Gates stared first at Scarlet then at the imposing woman. “Are you really a duchess, ma’am?”
“I am indeed. The Duchess of Ostroda.” She pierced him with a steely gaze Finn wouldn’t have wanted to meet on a dark night. “I have more political connections than you can count, young man. You’d best do as I say or face the consequences.” She then turned to Lieutenant Scarlet. “You too, villain.”
The duchess stalked forward, each step punctuated by the click of her stick, until she stood at the end of the bed, directly in front of Scarlet. “I do not know why you are persecuting Lord Aberfoyle, but you will cease your harassment of him immediately or you will be made to pay.” She leaned forward and shook her stick in the lieutenant’s face. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking I won’t do it.”
Finn couldn’t have loved the duchess any more than he did at that moment. The look of astonishment on Gates’s face was priceless. He only wished he could see Scarlet’s.
Seeming to disregard the duchess’s dire warning, Scarlet squirmed again and called out, “Innkeeper!”
Dutifully, Mr. Perry stepped forward again. “Yes, sir?”
“I am Lieutenant Geoffrey Scarlet of Lord Lucas’s 34th Regiment of Foot, stationed at Edinburgh Castle. Lord Aberfoyle here broke the law of the land, and I am bound by my oath to the Crown to take him to my garrison in Edinburgh to be charged.” Scarlet’s subdued tones might well inspire confidence in his statement from a man such as Perry. “Let me and my men take Aberfoyle in. I swear, we are bound for Edinburgh to question him.”
“If that’s all ye were trying tae dae, Scarlet, why is yer man unconscious on the floor with his privates exposed?” Every time Finn thought about what they had tried to do to Dora, he wanted to sink the knife into Scarlet’s bared throat and revel in the man’s demise. He pressed the knife a bit harder. If the man swallowed, he’d cut his own throat.
“Yes, lieutenant,” the duchess had pushed past Mr. Perry to stand before Scarlet once more. “Explain just what that unfortunate young man was attempting to do to my niece?”
“It was a bluff only, madam.” Scarlet must have felt the blade bite for he pressed his head back on Finn’s chest. “We were trying to frighten Aberfoyle into going with us without a fight. Wanted to avoid something like this.”
“That might have the ring o’ truth, Scarlet, except at the time Miss Harper entered the room I was already tied up and gagged. There was nae question I was going with ye. And quietly.” The knife trembled with the tension in Finn’s hand. He wanted to kill the bastard so badly he couldn’t think of anything else.
“Lord Aberfoyle?” Mr. Perry had come forward and was peering at him. “Are the lieutenant’s charges true? Did you break a law?”
“Aye, I did.” Finn nodded to the innkeeper. “But the offense was slight compared tae what the lieutenant wishes tae charge me with.”
“It was an act of treason, Aberfoyle, pure and simple.” Scarlet wiggled so frantically Finn had to loosen his hold on the man. Quick as a snake strike, the lieutenant flung himself off the bed and his sword rang free of the scabbard. “We will take the prisoner to Edinburgh at first light.”
“I’d no’ go across the street tae a pub with ye, Scarlet.” Finn rolled to the opposite side of the bed, keeping his distance from Scarlet, and began to untie the rope around his legs. “Much less make a week’s long journey. Find the nearest garrison and put the matter before its commander.”
“Aye, my lord, there’s one over in Nottingham, not a half a day’s ride.” Mr. Perry pointed toward the far wall. “The 15th Dragoons is stationed there. Major Collins is in command.”
“I know nothing of this Major Collins.” The lieutenant looked rather wild with the sword, whipping it this way and that. “I’m the officer in command of these men, and I am sworn to take my prisoner to my garrison in Edinburgh.”
“Lieutenant, I will gladly turn myself in tae Major Collins tomorrow and inform him myself o’ my transgression.” Finn ran his hand through his hair, glad to be rid of the hot wig. He’d be even happier to be out of these heavy skirts, but that would have to come later. He still had to convince Scarlet to let him go for the night. “If he deems there is tae be a trial, I will retain counsel and let the judge decide my innocence or guilt. And if punishment is tae be meted out, it will be at the hands o’ someone more temperate than ye.”
Scarlet scowled at him then cut his gaze over to Mr. Perry, the duchess, and the plethora of other witnesses. By agreeing to surrender himself to a greater authority than the lieutenant, Finn hoped he’d cut Scarlet’s legs out from under him. The innkeeper and all the others had understood all too well what Scarlet had allowed his men to do to Dora. Knew too the officer had overstepped the boundaries of decency in doing so. They’d more likely support Finn at this point.
“I demand you surrender yourself to me tonight, Aberfoyle.” Scarlet pointed his sword at Finn’s chest. “Tomorrow, we’ll head to Nottingham, and you can tell your story to the major. But I’m not letting you out of my sight tonight.”
“I plan tae sleep in this bed tonight, lieutenant. Ye and yer men are welcome tae sit outside my door all night long.” Finn sketched a bow. “However, I draw the line at four odd bedfellows.” Finn frowned. “Dinna ye have a fifth man under yer command when last we met?”
“Lackland’s out with the horses, my lord.” Gates had spoken up, but a scathing look from Scarlet shut him up quickly.
“Och, well, that accounts for that. Gentlemen, ladies,” he bowed to Dora and the duchess, “’tis late, and we have an early morning on the road tae Nottingham, sae if ye will excuse me, I need tae change—”
“I know you don’t think me fool enough to allow you to stay in this room tonight, Aberfoyle.” A deep scowl on his face, Lieutenant Scarlet seemed ready to come across the bed and throttle Finn. “You’d slip out the window before I could set a watch outside the door. No, if you stay the night in this room, it won’t be alone.” He sneered at Dora. “And it won’t be with your lady-bird, either.”
Finn started across the bed, intent on killing the swine, when small, strong hands grasped him from behind.
“No, Finn,” Dora whispered, “don’t let him goad you into attacking him. Then he could kill you and say it was justified.”
“I willna allow him tae slander ye with such names,” he whispered back, touching her face. He loved her so very much at this moment he thought he might die with the fullness in his heart.
“They are only names. We know they are not true. For God’s sake, let it go.”
Finn nodded. He couldn’t lose his head and give Scarlet the satisfaction of skewering him.
“My aunt and I will let Lord Aberfoyle stay in our room with us and our maids tonight.” Dora looked at her aunt, who nodded. “Will that suffice, lieutenant?”
“Hah,” Scarlet scoffed. “You’re already in league with him. I’d as soon put a mouse in charge of a wheel of cheese. He’d be out the window and down the road before the door clicked shut. No, he’ll stay within our sight all night, thank you.” He turned to Mr. Perry. “Innkeeper, do you have a room with good stout lock that has no windows? It doesn’t have to be one of your bedchambers, just a safe place Aberfoyle can’t pick his way out of.”
Mr. Perry put his hand on his chin, thinking. “There’s only the cellar. I keep the wine down there. I get parties of gentry or nobility who want a good bottle occasionally. I keep it under lock and key.”
“That’ll do.” Scarlet waved his sword. “Lead us to it, if you please, sir.”
Finn turned to follow Mr. Perry when Dora grabbed his hand. “Finn, you can’t sleep in a wine cellar.”
“If I canna be with ye, I have nae qualm being locked in with the wine.” He looped her hand through his arm. “Besides, who said ye canna come visit me while I’m there?”
Dora cut her gaze at Scarlet, still pointing his sword at them. “Do you think he’ll put up a fuss?”
Finn shrugged, and they hurried after Mr. Perry. “There are too many witnesses tae this little escapade. If he disna act honorably tonight, it will be all over the town in the morning and will spread from there.” He patted her hand. “I dinna trust him, but I think we will be fine. Once we get tae Nottingham and confront Major Collins, it may go differently. I’m no’ sure how stringently they regard the breaking o’ the Dress Act, but at least someone other than Scarlet will be hearing the case.”
They wound their way down to the kitchen where Mr. Perry revealed a set of stone steps leading under the inn. He picked up a lantern and lit it from the fireplace. “Follow me.”
Finn stared at the gray granite stairs, and a chill raced down his back. “Dora, perhaps instead ye should return tae yer room.” He untucked her hand and kissed it. “Ye canna stay wi’ me all night and it’s likely cold and damp down there. Get yer rest and I will see ye in the morning.”
She raised up on tiptoe and kissed him hard and long, her sweet mouth the best solace.
“Come on, Aberfoyle.” Gates shoved him away from Dora.
Much as Finn would have loved to plant the man a facer, he shrugged it off. “Jealous, Gates?”
The soldier narrowed his eyes at Finn and shoved him roughly again. “Get on wi’ ya.”
The stairs were narrow and steep but not terribly long. Four steps brought them to a barred opening, a huge iron padlock on the gate. The innkeeper took a monstrous key on a chain from around his neck, inserted it, and turned. The lock popped open, and Mr. Perry pushed the gate in. He held the lantern up high, revealing a stone floor and several rows of rough-hewn wine racks. “There’s enough space for you to sit or lie down, my lord. Not much other comfort, I’m afraid.”
“If I can have yer best bottle o’ wine and a glass tae keep me company, I’ll not mind at all, Mr. Perry.” Finn peered into what amounted to a cave, the chill making him suddenly glad for the thick skirts he still wore.
“Wait.” Scarlet pushed past him. “I’ll just make certain there’s no other way out.” He ducked into the opening and stopped. The back wall was only a half dozen paces away and no way out. He spun around. “Very good. Lock him in, Mr. Perry.” The lieutenant shot a look of pure malice at Finn. “I’ll post one of my men at the top of the stairs.”
With a look that spoke of his regret, Mr. Perry handed him the lantern then turned the key in the padlock. “I’ll send a maid down with some blankets, my lord,” he whispered. “And help yourself to that bottle on the back bottom shelf. It’s the best in the cellar.” With a nod, he left, and Finn settled himself down to wait for the morning, pondering what exactly that would bring.