“My lord, I sense the matter is of some urgency. The butler Juan claims it is life or death.”
“Juan lives his life like a melodrama,” Harry told Tremayne the butler. “Everything is life or death to him. Pay him no mind for a few minutes, and he’ll calm down.”
Noble had been frowning into the empty fireplace. He looked up with a speculative air. “I don’t think it was a joke or a test, Harry. Thom was very specific that Plum wanted to hire a thug to kill a Mr. de Spenser without being caught. Why would she be so adamant about that if it was a joke?”
Harry stared at his friend in disbelief for a moment, then bellowed, “De Spenser? It’s de Spenser she wants killed? Are you sure about that?”
“Yes, that’s what the letter said. Would you like me to fetch it? I believe Nick left it somewhere. He’s gone off to see if your niece is in the park, to try to get more information about this odd request. I take it you know this de Spenser?”
“Bloody hell, why didn’t you tell me it was de Spenser in the first place?” Harry roared.
Noble’s face took on the expression of the deepest righteous indignation. “You never asked!”
“Gaaaah!” Harry yelled to the heavens, and spinning on his heel, ran for his horse.
“My lord! Harry, you must hear me out!”
“Later,” Harry shouted to Juan as he ran down the front steps, leaping into the saddle.
“It concerns the diablitos!” Juan bellowed after him.
“I’ll settle with Plum later for whatever they’ve done,” Harry yelled back.
Juan swore fluently, then made for his own horse, kicking the animal into a gallop after his quickly disappearing employer. “Harry, it is the most important that you stop and listen to me!”
Harry didn’t acknowledge the cry of the man behind him. He had more important things to focus on, such as finding his wife and worming out the reason she felt obliged to hire a man to kill a man who was already dead. Could it be a brother she was targeting?
“My lord—” Harry dodged carriages, gigs, people, dogs, horses, children, and all the other assorted obstacles that made up the morning traffic, pulling up only after the words thrown at him made sense.
“The diablitos were kidnapped!”
“They were what?” Harry exploded. He turned his horse and grabbed at Juan’s coat as the butler pulled up next to him, hauling the unfortunate servant halfway off his horse. “THEY WERE WHAT?”
“Stole your children,” Juan panted. “They are gone to Vauxhall, to the ruins, Sam says. You see? If you had listened to me at first, then you would not be so very angry now. No one listens to me. It is my most tragic fate.”
Harry snarled an invective into the man’s face, then tossed him back into the saddle and urged Atlas into a gallop oblivious of traffic and pedestrians alike.
“What do you think, Nick? Those men won’t hurt the children, will they?”
Nick glanced from Thom’s worried eyes to the young woman sitting opposite him. Although he hadn’t witnessed the kidnapping himself — and sorely wished he had been present, for he would have given the bastards a good fight — he had come across Thom and India racing down the street bordering the park afterward. “No, I don’t think they’ll hurt the little ones. They have no reason to — kidnappers only kidnap because they want something in return. They know that Harry will demand proof of the well-being of his children before he pays a ransom.”
“I suppose so,” Thom said, worrying her lower lip. “And they’ll have Digger, assuming he made it onto the carriage without the men seeing him. I just don’t understand why they took only the youngest three. It doesn’t make sense.”
Nick shrugged, glancing out the window. He wanted to be questioning the footman who currently clung to the top of the hired hackney about what he had seen, but had held off because of the erroneous assumption that Thom would be too distraught to be left by herself. He had wronged Thom on that score — she was worried, yes, but not hysterical. “Tell me again what happened. Everything.”
Thom took a deep breath. “We were strolling through the park, as usual. The children wanted to go to Kensington as a change of scenery, so the younger ones were having a little footrace there. One moment then were running and laughing as we approached Kensington Park, the next minute two carriages pulled up, and several men jumped down and snatched up the children. Sam and the two men Harry hired all ran forward, but the other men were armed and struck them all down. Sam was the only one we could rouse, and he said one of the men mentioned meeting at a ruin. Digger ran off after one of the carriages, and I think he made it onto the back without being seen, but I was paying attention to Sam at the time, and I didn’t see for certain. India and I chased after them as well, but they were too fast, and no carriages would stop for us! We must have run for fi fteen minutes before you found us. Thank heavens you were able to make one of the hackney drivers stop. It’s most vexing that they wouldn’t do the same for me! We might have been at the ruins much earlier if they had.”
Nick thought of the wild figures India and Thom had made, racing down the street yelling like banshees, their hair windblown, their skirts covered in dust, but said nothing.
“What was that? Did you hear something, Malmseynose? Did you hear that slithering noise? I distinctly heard a slithering noise! God’s blood, if you’ve got a snake on your person, I’ll have you hung by your cods from the highest tree!”
Max Malmseynose, hired ruffian and primary kidnapper, looked startled at both the thought of carrying a snake around, and the mode of revenge espoused by the gentleman who hired him. “I didn’t hear nothing, sir.”
“Well I heard something, something slitherish. Be quiet, you little brat! I need to listen, and I can’t do that with you sniveling.”
Max put a hand out to the right to push the small boy back into the corner of the carriage, giving him a warning look in the process. He felt badly about his role in the children’s nabbing since they were younger than he expected. The twins were quiet, holding each other for comfort, while the smaller boy was sniffling and crying for his mama. It was almost enough to break his heart.
Almost.
“I want Mama.”
“Shut up,” Max said without any real heat.
“Jackson wants Mama, too.”
“Keep that little bastard quiet! How can I listen for slithering with him babbling!”
“McTavish isn’t a bastard,” the older boy said. “A bastard is someone whose mama and papa aren’t married, but ours were.”
“QUIET!” the man yelled. He took a deep breath, then suddenly jerked his leg up. “There, do you hear it? Slithering! Stop the coach! Stop, I tell you! I won’t go one more foot without the interior checked for snakes!”
Max sighed and resigned himself to searching the carriage for snakes while the gentleman paced outside, ranting against the person who thought to make a cruel joke on him. He set two men to watch the children, then turned back to the carriage. Just as he lifted a cushion to peer underneath it, the twins began attacking the men with fists and feet. He turned back to assist the men, but was knocked backward by the flying body of the small boy.
“Jackson!” the child screamed in his ear, climbing him like he was a tree. “Jackson’s loose! Jackson!”