Chapter 25

"More coffee?" Lauren offered as Dorothy finished her drink.

"No, thank you," Dorothy replied, putting the cup back on the table and letting out a small sigh as she toyed with the last morsels of a bread roll.

It was time to leave, she supposed. They had eaten a good breakfast, talked about the latest fashionable literary salons, and even laughed a little over good times last Season, when their friendship had seemed so simple and uncomplicated. Now there was nothing left to say or do and no point in stringing out their farewell.

"Well, I think I need more coffee," Lauren declared and rang the bell before giving the order to the rather downtrodden maid with red hair who didn't look up from her tray.

When the maid returned, Lauren rose impatiently to take the coffee pot directly from the tray at the door.

"How long does it take to make a simple pot of coffee, Maisie?" she snapped. "I don't know why we agreed to keep you here, even at such a low wage. I really don't."

Dorothy pursed her lips at this mannerless display. It was not done for ladies to berate their domestic staff before guests, and in any case, the criticism itself was unreasonable. The breakfast room was up on the second floor of the house, presumably some distance from the kitchens and servants' quarters.

Regardless, this was not her household, and she could not intervene. Still, Lauren's outburst only increased her relief that their connection was almost at an end. The number of unpleasant facets to her character now outweighed those that had ever attracted her.

"… and next time I ask you to bring something, make sure you don't tarry on the way," Lauren finished her admonishment of unprotesting Maisie and then closed the door in the maid's face.

"If you only have one maid on duty, service is bound to be slower," Dorothy observed neutrally to Lauren's back.

"My mother likes the house quiet in the mornings," the blonde woman said by way of explanation before she turned back around to face Dorothy. "It's too quiet for my liking. Your company has been most welcome. I do wish you could stay a little longer."

The Talbot house was indeed quiet that morning, with no sign of George Talbot or Lord Frampton, nor of Lady Frampton, who was presumably upstairs in her bedroom. While there had been a number of footmen on duty at the front door, Dorothy had seen only the same single red-headed maid during this visit.

Likely enough, Lauren was lonely and bored here by herself, but Dorothy was uncomfortable remaining any longer than necessary. It was Aaron to whom she owed her loyalty, not Lauren. Nor did she even want to remain.

"I really must go," Dorothy said, rising with a resolute smile even as Lauren sat and slowly poured more steaming coffee for both of them, forgetting or ignoring her previous refusal.

"But why must you go?" Lauren persisted. "After all, you've argued with both your husband and your brother, and you don't want to go home. Where else are you going to go? I suggest you stay here with me."

Dorothy stared at the blonde woman, even more certain that she had not mentioned her argument with Aaron than she had been about the row with Patrick. Had Lauren simply somehow guessed from her presence in the park so early in the day? How else could she have known?

That thought only raised another rather disturbing question. How had Lauren even come to be in the park at that hour, at the very time Dorothy was walking there alone? She was not normally known as an early bird, often expressing her preference for evening over morning entertainment.

"Nevertheless, it is time for me to depart," Dorothy insisted. "People will be expecting me."

"No, they won't," Lauren said confidently. "Sit down and drink your coffee, Dorothy. Let us be friends a little longer."

Something in her commanding and disrespectful tone chilled Dorothy's blood. She reached for the door handle and turned it, but the door was locked.

As she looked back towards Lauren, the other woman took a key from her pocket and held it up before Dorothy's eyes, before tucking it away once more. Dorothy's heart sank. She'd known that her decision to march out of the house alone this morning had been rash, but it had apparently been even more foolhardy than she could have imagined.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked, too angry to yet succumb to any underlying fear. "You have no right to keep me here. You've been following me too, haven't you? Spying on me?"

"It's business, Dorothy, my dear," Lauren said crisply. "Purely business. All we require is your husband's signature on your brother's investment scheme and his full support in recruiting investors. George will be in charge, of course, but the Hoskins name carries more weight around the ton than the Talbot name these days, and the Duke of Dawford is respected by all. The money will soon flow in…"

"But why?" Dorothy questioned, bewildered. "Why do you want even more money? Your family has enough, surely. Anyway, I can already tell you that Aaron will never cooperate in anything involving your family or mine. This is futile."

Lauren laughed, in patronizing amusement. "Oh, you innocent little girl! Everyone always needs more money. Do you really not understand that yet? The bigger my dowry, the better my prospects, and similarly for George. If he wants to catch an heiress of the finest quality, he must be able to lure her in with a shiny hook, must he not?"

"I shall tell the entire ton of your family's so-called business! No one would have either of you if they knew what you were really like."

"No, you won't." Lauren shook her head. "Not once your husband and brother are in it up to their necks too. You'll do exactly as we say, and so will Aaron."

"Ha!" Dorothy scoffed, trying not to show that her fear was now rising. "Aaron will never do what you want."

"He will when we have something in our possession that he values more than anything else in the world." Lauren laughed. "Something I suspect he would go to the ends of the earth to protect from harm."

"What? You have nothing of Aaron's. Everything of high value is kept in the bank vaults."

Dorothy tried to laugh scornfully, but it had no effect on Lauren's assuredness or amusement.

"We have you, you little idiot."

"The note was unsigned," Aaron explained to Miss Hughes and his mother. "It says only that they have taken my wife and that she will be returned unharmed after I pay ￡10,000 in cash and sign my backing to some spurious and ill-based investment scheme I've been avoiding."

"What?!" Miss Hughes gasped, hopping from one foot to another, more like a little bird than ever. "But who would do such a terrible thing?"

"I can guess," Aaron answered darkly, "although I can't prove anything yet. If I could, I'd already be making inquiries about their present address in London right now. I shall certainly not be paying anyone or signing anything."

"Take your pistols and your sword when you do go out, Aaron," his mother urged, for once less agitated than her companion. "Who knows what you will find when you track them down? Their staff might well be armed."

"Whoever he is, you must not call this man out!" Miss Hughes protested. "The palace has forbidden dueling. If you know their identity, you must bring them before the law."

"If matters are as I suspect, there will certainly be no duel," Aaron assured her. "But I cannot guarantee the safety of any man who tries to stop me from securing my wife's release."

Miss Hughes looked confused more than reassured at this statement, but Aaron was not inclined to explain himself further.

"I've alerted the constables as you requested," Toynton interjected, poking his head around the drawing room door. "Do you want me to send out the footmen to search too?"

"Not in uniform," the Duke said. "And not yet, since we have no clues as to the exact location. But get them ready. I expect I will need their support before long."

"It was that awful woman, wasn't it?" Mary asked calmly. "I knew she was up to no good when I saw her, but Dorothy was too young and too good to see it."

Aaron nodded, his face chagrined. "Yes, my wife is both too young and too good to understand such scheming. I've let Dorothy walk into this trap because I didn't warn her well enough or soon enough about these people. How could she have known their ways?"

"May we see the letter?" Miss Hughes asked. "Perhaps we might recognize the handwriting?"

"No," Aaron said, instinctively crumpling it in his hand.

He had minimized the nature of the threats contained in the missive and did not wish to leave the two older ladies as disturbed as he already was himself. They did not need to know that someone had threatened to publicly dishonor and ruin Dorothy if he failed to cooperate.

"But you do make a good point, Miss Hughes…"

Racing up the stairs two at a time, Aaron hurried to Dorothy's sitting room and began to rifle through the drawers of her dressing table and desk. She'd had so little time since the wedding to accumulate correspondence that he quickly found what he was looking for—several short notes signed ‘L' and written in the same hand as the ransom note.

"Lauren damned Talbot!" he swore, stuffing both notes into his jacket and striding quickly back towards the staircase. "I knew it. Toynton!"

A once wicked little girl had grown into an evil woman. Not content with her family having made one attempt to ruin his life, Lauren Talbot was apparently making a second attempt. Well, she was not going to win any more than her father had done.

The ever-efficient butler was already in the hallway as Aaron came bounding down the stairs in his haste, leaping the last few steps and landing loudly at the bottom.

"I need you to send out to my agents immediately for all possible London addresses connected with the Talbot family…"

The two ragged-looking, small boys beside Toynton would have fled in fright at the sudden appearance of this loud giant of a man if the butler had not held tightly onto their collars.

"Now, lads, be still. This is the Duke of Dawford, the kind lady's husband. Tell him exactly what you just told me about meeting the Duchess of Dawford this morning and what happened in the park."

Immediately recognizing both the import of Toynton's words and the fear on the faces of the children, Aaron crouched down beside them. He remembered being a small boy, alone and frightened of the whole world and conscious of his own vulnerability.

"Please tell me what happened," he said, gentling his voice. "My wife is in great danger and needs your help."

"This woman offered us money to watch your house, Mister Duke," one of the boys began hesitantly. "And another house down the road too. Only a few pennies, but money is money, isn't it?"

"It is. When was this?"

"Day before yesterday," the other boy piped up. "She saw some of us running messages for Mr. Johnson's agency and said we looked like boys who were good at noticing things."

"What did she look like, this woman who offered you money?"

"Toby thought she looked like an angel," the older boy said. "Blonde hair and blue eyes and stuff."

"Like a stone angel, I meant," the younger brother explained. "Hard and cold and stony. She hit Jack when he asked why she wanted us to watch the houses and why she didn't get some proper men to do it. We don't break the law."

"Mum wouldn't like it," the older boy added. "Even though she lost her housekeeping job and we have to work, she said we must always be honest and keep the law. That blonde woman laughed when I told her that and then hit me again."

"Yes, that's her!" Mary crowed, having now quietly joined the party in the hallway with Miss Hughes. "That sounds like Lauren Talbot to the life! Sneaking around the ton, hitting children and getting up to no good…"

As if remembering the blows from the blonde woman, the older boy, now identified as Jack, rubbed his face and nodded.

"She said she was a lady, and anything she did was respectable and I wasn't to question her. We were to watch the houses night and day until she could find some other proper watchers. Harry and Bill did the first day, and then me and Toby took over."

"So, you two watched my house. What were you looking for?" Aaron asked, his heart thumping.

"Everything. She even said we had to listen at windows and tell her what we heard. She particularly wanted to know when this other lady, the kind one with the brown hair, left the house alone. If she did come out alone, one of us was to hurry and fetch her."

"And that's what you did this morning?"

Toby nodded. "Your Duchess lady came out this morning and talked to me like she knew me or something. She even gave me money for breakfast. I never asked for anything. Honest!"

Aaron nodded. "I'm sure you didn't. My wife is kind and impulsive by nature. Then what happened?"

"I ran and told Jack, and then I ran to tell the other lady which way your wife was walking. Jack followed her."

Jack again picked up the tale from his younger brother, holding up a hand that was still bandaged with a white cambric handkerchief, monogrammed with a small ‘D' in one visible corner.

"I tripped over, and she came to help me instead of being angry at me for following her. Then she gave me sixpence. I didn't ask for that either…"

His eyes pleaded with Aaron, evidently expecting to be taken to task for his behavior now.

"I only want to know where my wife is so that I can find her and bring her home," Aaron assured the boy. "Did you see where she went from the park?"

"Yes, I hid in the bushes and watched. The blonde lady arrived in her carriage, and they talked before they drove off together. Your wife seemed angry, but that other woman can make people do things. Her voice…"

Jack shook a little at the memory of his encounters with Lauren Talbot.

"Yes, it's a terrible voice, isn't it?" Mary commented, coming over to pat the child on the shoulder. "Her father's voice was like that too. When they talk, it's hard not to listen to them."

"The blonde lady got your wife to get into her coach with her, and then they drove off."

Aaron sighed, expecting now to be told that the boys didn't know where the coach had gone.

"But I was ready for that," little Toby said fiercely. "I was out on the road by the park, and I ran after the coach. It was easy to follow it so early, with only carts on the roads."

"He's a good runner," Jack stated proudly. "Everyone says so."

"The other lady was bad, wasn't she? I didn't want her to hurt the kind lady. Then I told Jack where they'd gone. He said we had to come here and tell you straight away. Even before breakfast."

"She is a very bad woman," Mary confirmed. "You did the right thing."

"You have the address where the coach stopped?" Aaron asked the boys, holding his breath and scarcely daring to believe his luck. "You saw the name of the road or the house?"

"Address?" Toby queried with a mystified, little shrug of the shoulders. "No, I can't read good, Mister Duke. Jack usually helps me with that, or I ask people… But I can take you straight back there. I know all the roads for five whole miles."

"You clever young men!" Aaron grinned, clapping both boys on the back. "You shall have far more than a sixpence for today's work. Toynton, send out for some unmarked coaches for me and six footmen. We don't want to broadcast any warning that we're coming."

"Yes, Your Grace."

"Oh, and these boys will need something to eat on the way. They have run a long way today with no breakfast yet. When we return with Dorothy, they will require a good hot meal too."

"I'll speak to Cook," Miss Hughes offered quickly, eager to do something useful. "Mr. Toynton can ready the coaches and footmen."

"Good." Aaron nodded and went to his study.

Unlocking the cases on the wall where he kept his sword and his pistols, he loaded the guns from another carefully fastened cupboard where powder and ammunition were stored in an airtight container.

When he returned to the hallway, the full party of six plainly dressed and determined-looking manservants was waiting for him as the hire carriages stood outside the garden gate.

"Toby and Jack, you ride with me," Aaron told the big-eyed boys now gnawing on large chunks of bread and cheese, washed down with a flask of lemonade passed between their hands.

"Yes, Sir!" Jack said, while Toby only nodded vigorously, his mouth too full to speak.

"Everyone else in the two other coaches. Remember, stay quiet and still unless I give the order. We will have women and children around us, and we should avoid any trouble if we can. The constables will join us once we can give them the address."

Mary stepped forward and drew her tall son's head down to kiss his forehead. "Bring our Dorothy home safely, Aaron!"