Loving a Fearless Duchess: A Historical Regency Romance Book(81)

He knew in his heart that Henry took her there. A sane man would have taken her somewhere unpredictable where no one could find him, but Henry was not a sane man. And for that, at that moment, Edward was eternally grateful.

How had it come to this? They had once had fun coming to the hunting lodge. He and Penelope would build a fire, raid the food, and spend relaxing afternoons talking about their hopes for the future.

Once Henry caught on, things changed quickly. At first, they tried to include him around the fire. It’s hard to talk about your hopes for the future when insults are being lobbed at you. Like everything else, Henry ruined that too.

Did he hate Penelope or think her his only ally? Did he want to kill her or use her to get away? He was so unpredictable, who knew?

They would have to approach quietly. If he got startled, he was likely to react without thinking.

Edward put up a hand to halt. The horses stopped then surrounded him. “How much longer?”

“About a half hour, My Lord,” the stable boy, Buddy, said.

He looked in Buddy’s eyes.” Alert me when we are ten minutes out. We are going in quietly. We’ll talk strategy then. Let’s ride.”

*****

Merritt had estimated that Edward and his riders had started out twenty to thirty minutes ahead of him and Nash. When Nash asked, Merritt didn’t think they would catch up with them before they made it to the hunting lodge.

But Nash’s goal was to catch up with Edward before they got to the lodge. He and Merritt were riding faster than a larger group of men could. Every so often, Nash would find Merritt in his peripheral vision, keeping up length by length with Nash’s horse. It was a good thing. He wasn’t going to slow for anyone.

Nash felt like he had been riding an hour although he knew it wasn’t true. Even so, they were getting closer to their goal. The road had long since turned into a path. Now the path was narrowing, and Nash and Merritt couldn’t ride side by side. They had to slow their horses when the path turned into a trail.

When they slowed, Nash could hear voices ahead. They would run into Edward’s riders after all. He drove his horse as fast as he could go.

“Hey,” he yelled to the last horseman in line.

The man turned around. He grabbed his pistol, “What do you want?”

Nash raised his hands to let the rider know he was unarmed. He lowered them and said, “I’m looking for Lord Balfour. Is he with your group?”

“He’s up front. What’s your name?”

Nash hesitated, knowing he was about to get this man flustered. “Nash Finch, Duke of Norfolk.”

The man drew in a breath. “Your Grace, pardon. The pistol was a precaution. Pardon, Your Grace.”

Before he went on any further, Nash raised a hand for him to stop. He did.

“Could you pass my name up the trail until Lord Balfour knows I’m back here?”

The man nodded and turned. “Benny, tell Lord Balfour that the Duke of Norfolk is back here.”

Nash could hear the voices pass along the word up to the front. He heard a whoop and knew it was Edward. The horses moved to the side as Edward’s horse made his way to Nash.

They faced each other on horses. “Your timing is excellent.”

“I think that is still to be determined, but let’s hope. Is there a plan Edward?”

“There is. At the next clearing, we will finalize it. Want to join me?”



“I thought you’d never ask.”

The two men walked their horses to the front of the line and talked quietly while they moved through the woods.

When the path opened up to a clearing, Edward and Nash positioned their horses in the middle while the rest of the riders surrounded them.

*****

“I’m back, dear Penelope,” Henry said while he slid the bolt back and opened the door. I’ve brought a lot of tools to the kitchen table. Once you take a look, if you see a tool and don’t know its use, ask me. I will enlighten you. Follow me.

“Here. Sit in the seat saved for the guest of honour. That would be you.” Henry smiled. Penelope saw his eyes were lit up. She had seen them look that way before, and it didn’t bode well for her.

Penelope sat in a wooden kitchen chair in the middle of the room. There was a large array of tools spread out neatly on the kitchen table. Items from an axe to a small knife and quite a few things in between.

“I see you have interest in my tools. Would you like me to explain what each one does?”

Penelope shook her head no.

“Until now, I’ve only used them on animals. I think this will be much more fun.

“Don’t worry. No one will miss you. Edward and Nash don’t really care about you. You’re too ugly. If you thought they did care, you were delusional.

“For me, besides being ugly, you have been a thorn in my side since the day my father picked up you and your pathetic family. You were two days away from whoring yourself out for food, weren’t you? How is it, Penelope, that you can be so close to becoming a whore, and all those years later you can also ruin me so that I wouldn’t be a Duke? But, don’t worry. I’ll kill the imposter ‘heir’ then leave here for some time; lay low, and return when this has all blown over. Then I’ll be Duke, and you’ll be dead, so you can’t stop me.

“You keep looking at the door. If you are thinking Edward will come for you, you’re wrong. He isn’t going to find us. Not soon anyway. You’ll be dead before he makes it here. You’ll be long dead, and I’ll be long gone. I’ll come back for him when he least suspects it.”