“How will we play this?” Val asked as they walked slowly toward their destination. “Should we try to approach from the rear?”
“Let’s try to determine how the house is laid out first,” Eversham said. “We don’t want any surprises.”
But as they got closer, they could hear Tate and Lord Croyden arguing on the front stoop of number twenty-four. Master criminals, Val thought, these two were not.
“You imbecile,” Croyden sneered at Tate. “Are you insane? You didn’t tell me that the chit’s paramour is the nephew of a duke, and now you’ve kidnapped a viscountess?! Do you wish to hang?”
“They don’t hang lords,” Tate snapped. “And what else could I do? Those bloody women were already inside the damned house! I acted in haste. I’d like to see what you’d do in the circumstances. You’re so afraid to get your hands dirty, but then you moan when things don’t go precisely the way you want.”
“I let you be the one to take the girl, you ingrate. I could have killed her and been done with it, if not for you,” Croyden hissed. “And my men managed to spirit Thorn away without one killing the other. You couldn’t even choose your henchmen properly. And keep your voice down. The entire neighborhood can hear you.”
“The houses on either side are empty,” Tate said. “It’s one of the reasons I chose this place from among those shown to me by my solicitor.”
“Well, in one instance you made a wise decision.” Croyden sounded begrudging.
“And how was I to know Mick would take exception to Davy’s insult of his mother and murder him? At least that’s one less thug to pay off once all of this is over.”
Still one house down, Val and Eversham exchanged looks. “So Croyden was lying, after all,” Val hissed.
“He seemed devious to me at the time.” Eversham shrugged. “We need to get in there and rescue our wives.”
“I say we take them by surprise.” Val wanted to pound his fist into the face of the man who’d just confessed to kidnapping his wife. And he didn’t feel the least bit ashamed of the impulse. He loved his wife and would always protect her—there was nothing wrong with that. “We can overpower them. I’ll take Tate; you take Croyden.”
Nodding, Eversham said, “On three. One, two, three.”
Both men rushed the remaining steps leading to number twenty-four.
Still arguing, Tate and Croyden didn’t realize they were under siege until it was too late. Given how much they’d wanted to get their hands on the men who’d kidnapped Caro and Kate, it took a lamentably short time for Val and Eversham to subdue the two lords.
“How dare you!” Croyden shouted as Eversham wrenched his hands behind his back, tying them with a length of cord. “Who do you think you are?”
“I’m a detective inspector with Scotland Yard. And you and your cohort just confessed to kidnapping Miss Effie Warrington, Mr. Francis Thorn, and Lady Wrackham.” Eversham tossed another length of cord to Val.
Not even struggling to resist, Tate held his bleeding nose between his fingers. “It’s broken, you brute.”
“Good,” Val said coldly, twisting the man’s free arm behind his back. “Now, tell me where my wife and Lady Katherine are.”
“Upstairs,” said Tate, though it sounded more like “ubdairs” because of his nose. “I dob hab de key.”
“What do you mean you don’t have the key?” Val snapped.
“He’s had a couple staying here taking care of Miss Warrington and her swain,” Lord Croyden said with disgust. “Though who knows where they are.”
Val’s eyes widened in shock. Frank was there? He fought to keep himself from sagging against the nearest wall in relief. Frank was alive. Now, if he could only find Caro safe…
Eversham had led Croyden inside to stand against the entrance wall. Val pulled Tate’s hand down from his nose, tied it with his other wrist already behind his back, then led him over to the wall opposite Croyden.
“Can you handle these two for a moment while I—”
“Val? Is that you?”
He broke off at the sound of Caro’s voice.
“Caro?” He made sure Eversham had Tate, then took the stairs two at a time until he met Caro on the landing where she threw herself into his arms.
“I knew you’d come!”
“Of course I did,” he said into her hair. “Tate and Croyden said you were locked in a room upstairs.”
“We escaped before you arrived,” Kate said from behind Caro. “And we found Effie.”
“And Mr. Thorn.” Caro pulled away from him. “He’s upstairs but he’s burning with fever. He needs a doctor. He was stabbed by one of the men who abducted him.”
Standing aside to let Kate continue down to where Eversham was waiting, Val asked Caro, “Where is he? Where’s Frank?”
He’d already lost Piers; he’d be damned if he’d lose the cousin he loved like a brother.
“I’ll show you,” Caro said, leading him up the stairs.
The room where Frank had been kept prisoner was redolent with the smell of infection and unwashed skin.
On the floor before the fireplace lay a man in workman’s clothes, his hands and feet bound. Val turned to Caro. “Who is this?”
“Oh, that’s Mick.” She waved a hand dismissively. “He was the one who helped Lord Tate lock us up in here. Kate had to cosh him with a fireplace implement so I wouldn’t have to shoot him. Then I tied him up so he couldn’t come after us. There was a woman named Gert as well, but I’m not sure where she’s gone. Perhaps out the back.”
Val gaped. Not only had she and Kate defended themselves ably against these ruffians, but they’d found Miss Warrington and Frank. Very likely they would have managed to dispatch Tate and Croyden if given more time. He gazed at her in wonder.
“Come see your cousin.” She pulled him toward the other side of the room.
A young woman, whom he presumed to be Effie Warrington, was kneeling beside the bed. A single candle was lit on the bedside table.
Val stepped forward, Caro’s hand gripped tightly in his, and saw his cousin looking very ill indeed.
“We need to get him out of here,” Miss Warrington said in a low voice, holding Frank’s hand up to her cheek. “Francis, I’m so sorry they hurt you. You should have let them take me.”
“Couldn’t let them take m’ best girl,” Frank said weakly.
Eversham, who’d just entered the room behind them, said, “I’ll go find the watchman and have him bring some men from the Yard. While I’m out there, I’ll send the coachman for a physician for your cousin.”
Val nodded, grateful for his friend’s offer and for Caro there beside him as a sudden wave of emotion washed over him.
“Thank you,” he said to the detective. “Truly.”
With a brisk nod, Eversham gripped him by the shoulder and then headed back downstairs.
“If we can find the kitchen,” Caro said, leading him out of the room with a gesture at Frank and Miss Warrington’s close embrace, “I’ll boil some water so that we can make Mr. Thorn more comfortable. Perhaps there’s even a cake of soap or some clean cloths about somewhere.”