Come the Dawn (35 page)

Fire filled Devlyn’s eyes. “Don’t tempt me, woman. It’s been too bloody long. For months, I’ve dreamed of nothing else. No matter where I was or what I did, there was always the thought of you, the memories hot and sweet. But we were lovers once and that wasn’t enough.
This
time it will be different. I want all of you. We’ll have the passion along with an equal measure of trust.” He smiled wryly. “Although how I can manage to keep my hands off you for more than five minutes at a time is impossible to contemplate.”

“I don’t mean to make it easy for you,” India said softly. “I remember too, Dev. I have the same memories to torment me.” Her hand rose, stretched toward him. She waited, breathless.

Slowly he slid his fingers into hers and locked their hands tight. “How much I love you,” he said hoarsely.

Her face slanted up to his. The taste of her mouth was sunlight itself, heating his blood. Dev felt his pulse quicken when her tongue brushed his. Reckless, he leaned down and kissed his way along her neck. Across the curve of her creamy breast.

“India, my love.” He gripped the cambric of her shirt and slid it free, hearing her husky sigh. Her warm skin filled his hand, and Dev as if the shadows of war had finally been swept from him, burned away by the heat of her body.

Then he stopped.

A horse whinnied. Footsteps pounded along the slope outside the hut.

Someone hammered at the door. “Thorne? Damn it, are you in there?”

Dev cursed sharply and pulled India’s shirt into place. “I was going to tell you, but…” He strode to the door and threw it open. India stood staring at the man outside, a man with dark hair and an angular jaw.

A man with her husband’s face.

She was looking at Devlyn Carlisle — or what looked like Devlyn Carlisle.

“Meet James Herrington, my love. That’s the
other
thing I was trying to tell you.”

India looked from one man to the other, shock in her face. “But he — that is, he looks just like—”

“That’s the general idea,” Thorne said dryly. He waved Herrington inside. “But why have you come? I told you never to come to this hideaway except in an emergency.”

“I fear the worst.” Herrington swallowed. “It’s — it’s Alexis. She’s been kidnapped.”

Devlyn swayed, almost as if an invisible hand had struck him. “She’s been
what?”

“The other two children are safe, but I-I lost Alexis. We had just come out of a hackney and she’d forgotten that wretched doll of hers. She ran back to the carriage before I knew it and—” Herrington looked away and ran a hand through his hair.

“And she never came out,” Devlyn finished harshly. “It’s an old trick. Another coach was waiting on the other side.” He moved awkwardly across the room, as if his legs would not work properly, then sank down on one of the grain sacks. “Dear God, Alexis.” His head fell to his hands. “Alexis, sweet Alexis.” Then his fists tightened and he looked up again, his face hard with fury. “Has there been a note of ransom yet?”

India gasped. “But surely you don’t expect—”

“On the contrary, it is exactly what I expect,” Dev said flatly. “They couldn’t get you, so they chose the easiest alternative. A helpless, innocent girl of six.” He pushed to his feet and grabbed awkwardly for his shirt, the movement showing how much his shoulder still pained him. As he did, India fetched a jug of water and doused the fire.

“What are you doing?” Dev said sharply.

“I’m coming with you, of course.”

For a moment he looked as if he would argue. His shoulders tensed, each muscle flexed. Then he nodded curtly, jamming the buttons of his shirt closed. “I won’t lie and say I can’t use you. You’ll be a treasure. And they will be expecting that diamond to be on you.”

India reached into her boot and held out the blush-pink jewel. “Take it,” she said. “I never wanted it, nor was meant to have it. If it will help Alexis in any way, then of course you must have it.”

Devlyn’s fingers closed over the cold, hard facets. For a moment their hands met and his fingers twined through hers, locking the stone between them. Slowly it picked up the heat of their bodies and cast it back between them. “Thank you for offering so freely. And thank you for being exactly the person you are.” He gripped her hands between his. “I
won’t
lose you again.”

But there was no time to say more. Their questions would hang and their future linger unresolved. A far greater question loomed.

A child’s fate was caught in the hands of madmen.

~ ~ ~

After a quick word with Perkins, Devlyn re-emerged from the
Gypsy
with Froggett in tow. The old man looked as confused as he was happy to be freed from the vessel.

He scowled at India. “What’s amiss, Jeremiah?”

“There’s no need for the deception, Froggett.” Thornwood strode past him and down the pier toward the shore. “I know everything about your mistress’s wild masquerade, just as she knows about my own. But there’s no time for explanations now. A child has been kidnapped and I fear it will require all our skills to see her freed.” He looked at Herrington. “Where are the other children?”

“The Duchess of Cranford collected them and took them off to her estate in Norfolk. She insisted it would be the safest place for them until Alexis was found.”

“She’s probably right,” Devlyn said grimly. “It appears that I cannot keep them safe in London.”

“What do we do now?” Herrington was white, his face a mask of guilt and unhappiness.

“We return to London. And then we wait. Have you brought a carriage? Lady India will require—”

“Lady India will require no more than what she had when she came. Hannibal will carry me back. We’ll make far better time that way.”

After a moment Devlyn nodded. “As usual you’re right. I only wish we’d had you with us at Waterloo.” But the brief warmth left his eyes almost as quickly as it had come. When the great white gelding was brought around from the snug stables in the village, Thornwood’s face was bleak and lined once more.

~ ~ ~

For India the ride to London was a nightmare. The four riders pressed their mounts and made excellent time, stopping only once at a small inn just outside Tottenham. The sky was streaked with red and purple clouds when they finally turned into the bustling thoroughfares near Belgrave Square. Though India ached to ponder the revelations of the last hours, all her thoughts were fixed on the innocent child caught in a web of danger.

As soon as they entered the mews, Dev jumped down and tossed his reins to a waiting groom. India knew he was praying for a message from Alexis’s captors.

He strode through the little garden and up the back steps to the house. “The longer we wait, the less likely it becomes that…” He stopped. His eyes held the blind pain of a wounded animal.

India yearned to touch him and comfort him, but she knew it was beyond her power. Only bringing Alexis home would drive that look from Thorne’s eyes. And if they failed, if it was already too late…

She refused to consider the possibility.

~ ~ ~

The place where she was lying was dark and cold. Somewhere over her head water dripped, loud and incessant. There were no voices, no footsteps, nothing but the water to keep her company.

And Alexis was frightened, terribly frightened.

~ ~ ~

At six o’clock that night everyone clustered in Thorne’s study. Grim-faced, Chilton told them there had still been no messages. He had stayed by the front door every second since the child had been taken.

Devlyn’s jaw hardened at the news. He moved awkwardly from the room, almost like a man reeling under a killing blow. When he returned ten minutes later, his beard was gone and he was dressed in fresh clothes. The horror still hung about his eyes, but now there was a granite resolve in his stride.

“I’ve some messages to send. This hand is far from played, as these brutes will soon discover.” He looked at India. “Meanwhile, you’d better get some rest. You look exhausted. If they’re after the diamond, they might demand your presence, since you were last seen with the stone.”

India nodded numbly and turned away, wishing she had never seen the cursed gem. Then she felt Thorne’s hands on her shoulders. “And don’t take a stubborn notion into your head that you are to blame, for you aren’t. It’s my own fault, every bloody bit of it. If not the diamond, it would have been over something else, for I’ve no doubt that they have watched my house ever since I set foot in London. That’s why having Herrington here was so valuable, allowing me the liberty to come and go at will.” His fingers covered India’s pale cheek. “Chilton will take you up. Never fear, I’ll call you as soon as we have any news.”

India gently combed back the dark lock of hair that had fallen over his brow. “You’re so different. You
didn’t
come back home from Waterloo, not as the same man. And even if you had, I wouldn’t have been here to meet you because I’m no longer the same woman. But I pray that we’re stronger now, because that strength must somehow help us save Alexis.”

“Believe it.” Thorne’s fingers locked around hers, pressing tightly. “Never, never stop believing it.”

~ ~ ~

At nine o’clock the three men were still scouring London in search of anyone who had seen a girl of Alexis’s description. India rested fitfully upstairs, while Chilton manned the front door and two grooms guarded the mews.

But no message of any sort came from Alexis’s captors.

Herrington and Froggett returned, weary and unsmiling. They took a meal of cold meat and very strong tea served by Chilton in grim silence.

When India came downstairs, some of the pallor had left her cheeks, but the lines of worry remained. She read all too clearly from the men’s faces that there had been no word about the girl.

At the last stroke of eleven the front door was thrown open and a hard step echoed through the hall. A tall figure with a hooked nose appeared in the door of Thornwood’s study. “What’s this I hear about the child being kidnapped?” the Duke of Wellington demanded as he strode into the room. “It’s a barbaric act, that’s what it is! We shall run those wolves to ground, I make you my solemn vow on that.” He shrugged off his greatcoat and tossed it to the man behind him. “I’ll need those papers, Stevens. Both sets, including the maps.”

“Of course, Your Grace.” His secretary immediately produced a thick sheaf of documents from a leather satchel.

“Excellent. Now, Thorne, tell me what you’ve discovered so far.”

~ ~ ~

Alexis shivered.

She looked around her at the darkness, fighting to keep from crying. In her hands she felt the old doll that she had carried through half of Europe and on to England after the horrors of Brussels.

It was her only companion now, except for the dripping water and the occasional noises in the darkness. She waited, her thin body shivering, drawn up into a tight ball in the darkness.

But as the hours crept past, she found she was no longer alone. There were drifting shapes all around her. Tall, bright figures with comforting smiles. Alexis had seen them before, when loneliness and fear threatened to overcome her.

Now the bright shapes drew close and ringed her in the darkness, a determined army who would keep her from harm.

Or so Alexis thought, half dreaming with the old doll clutched in her fingers. And then she grew aware of another figure beside her, a smiling boy whose eyes glinted, full of happiness as he looked at her.

And Alexis knew this was the child she had seen near India.