After settling into the room she and Gareth would share, Emily went downstairs and found Mullins waiting in the private parlor set aside for their party. Gareth appeared before she could inquire as to his whereabouts. A tea tray arrived on his heels, then Mooktu and Bister joined them, and they settled to wait for Jack and Tristan.
It was full dark, nearly dinnertime, before the door opened and Jack walked in. He smiled rather wearily in greeting, and nodded when Gareth raised the bottle of wine he’d broached.
While Gareth poured him a glass, Jack drew out a chair at the table, fell into it, and groaned. “It’s been years since I’ve spent an entire day in the saddle.”
Tristan came in, blowing on his hands. “It’s not just the hours in the saddle, it’s that damned wind.”
He, too, accepted a glass of wine. Gareth waited until both were seated and had taken a revivifying swallow, then asked, “So where the devil are the cultists?”
“Out there.” Jack pointed south. “And yes, they’re definitely there, and in surprisingly high numbers.”
“To start at the beginning,” Tristan said, “one picked up the carriage not far from Mallingham, then two more fell in once you hit the main roads. Those three followed all the way to Gravesend, then one went ahead, crossing to Tilbury. He didn’t return. We don’t think the other two crossed the Thames, but turned back after you’d got on the ferry.”
Gareth nodded. “Probably returning to keep watch on the coast.”
Jack inclined his head. “We found the cultist who crossed the river with a group of eight others—he’d carried the news to them. We were just in time to see that group send another messenger north. Which is a point to ponder, given Wolverstone’s to the north, and our route takes us north. If the Black Cobra is also in that direction…”
“It seemed those following didn’t want to intercept us,” Gareth said. “They passed up any number of excellent opportunities to ambush us.”
Tristan nodded. “They have eight—nine if their messenger returns. The coach has three outside, one inside. You’d think the odds would appeal.”
“They must have orders to follow and send word forward, but not to engage—meaning not yet.” Jack smiled wolfishly. “I do believe this is getting interesting.”
Emily frowned. “Interesting how?”
Gareth replied, “Because it seems we’re being herded again. As long as we move forward, those behind will hang back and simply follow—because there’s some force ahead of us that’s bigger, and more certain of capturing us.”
“It appears the Black Cobra isn’t taking any chances,” Jack said. “Odds are he’s planning a trap for the coach to drive into somewhere along the road tomorrow, a trap you won’t be able to escape. Or so he thinks.”
“Indeed.” Tristan’s eyes gleamed. “And would anyone care to wager that’s exactly what Royce designed his scheme to achieve? The news that the Black Cobra is lurking between us and him—in Essex or Suffolk—is going to make him very happy.”
Jack waved his glass. “No bet. That’s precisely what he would have set out to achieve.” He met Gareth’s eyes. “You and yours chose exceedingly well in appointing Wolverstone your guardian angel.”
“He’s certainly a stickler for detail.” Gareth outlined his observations from their earlier reconnaissance. “In a defensive sense, this place is ideal.”
A tap on the door heralded the innkeeper with their dinner. Mooktu, Bister, and Mullins went out to the tap for theirs.
Once those in the parlor had finished their meal and the innkeeper had cleared the table, Gareth went out and invited the other three back.
They’d just settled when the innkeeper looked in. “Messenger for Lord Warnefleet.”
Jack beckoned and the innkeeper drew back to allow a middle-aged groom to enter. The man bowed, then drew a sealed missive from his pocket and presented it to Jack. Jack broke the seal and opened the sheet, scanned it.
The groom cleared his throat. “I’m to inquire, my lords, as to your situation here.”
Tristan replied in a few succinct phrases conveying their observations and their belief that they were being herded into an ambush ahead.
The groom repeated the salient points. Tristan nodded his approval.
Jack handed Wolverstone’s missive to Gareth, then looked at the groom. “You can also report that we’ll do as your master requests, and make a copy of the letter in question.”
The groom bowed. “If there’s nothing else, my lords, I’ll be on my way.”
Tristan dismissed him. The groom turned and left.
Emily had been reading the duke’s letter over Gareth’s shoulder. “I’ll fetch paper and ink, and make a clean copy.” Rising, she glanced at Jack. “Why does he want it?”
“Details,” Jack replied. “Given Delborough’s sacrificed his copy and gained something from it, then we might decide to sacrifice ours in the same way, which leaves Royce with nothing to study. He’ll want to confirm that there’s no other clue hidden in the wording. A code, even—it’s the sort of thing he would think of and know better than anyone to look for.”
“Which he can’t do”—Tristan accepted the duke’s communique from Gareth—“unless he has the letter, a good copy at least, in front of him.”
Nodding her understanding, Emily left.
“I’m just glad Delborough’s through and safe, and that Monteith’s in England, too.” Gareth fell silent.
Jack asked, “Who’s your fourth?”
“Carstairs.” Gareth glanced at Jack. “Captain Rafe Carstairs, otherwise known as Reckless.”
Tristan raised his brows. “If he’s the last one home…”
If Rafe was the last to reach England, he was almost certainly the one carrying the original letter. They all thought it, but no one said it aloud. Gareth merely nodded. “What about the watches? We’ll need to remain vigilant.”
Emily returned, bearing a ladies’ traveling writing desk with an ornate mother-of-pearl lid. She set it down on the table, opened it, and drew the lamp near. “The letter?”
Gareth drew the scroll holder from inside his coat, and under the fascinated gazes of all there, undid the complicated locking mechanism. Opening the holder, he drew out the sheet it contained, and handed it to Emily.
Smoothing the single sheet, she sat, dipped her nib, and started to transcribe.
“May I see that?” Jack nodded at the scroll holder.
Gareth smiled and handed it over.
While the others played, opening and closing the holder, and Tristan and Jack asked questions about such oriental devices, Emily kept her head down and her mind on her task.
She’d seized the chance to contribute something to Gareth’s mission—to do something, however minor, that would materially assist in bringing down the Black Cobra. Hers and Gareth’s impending happiness had made her sorrow over MacFarlane’s death more acute; she now had a better appreciation of all he’d had taken from him—by the Black Cobra.
Whatever she could do to bring the fiend to justice, she would do.
By the time she’d duplicated the Black Cobra’s mark as best she could, and had blotted off her copy, the men had decided the order of the watches. She handed his copy back to Gareth. He rolled it and slid it into the holder, then closed the holder and tucked it inside his coat. Now she knew where it rested, she could see the bulge, but it wasn’t that obvious; its presence was less obvious still when he carried it in his greatcoat pocket.
With the time for their departure on the morrow agreed upon, they all rose and retired. Mullins took the first watch. They left him sitting in a chair at the end of their corridor, looking back toward the stairs.
The first alarm came at midnight. Bister was suddenly knocking on their door. Gareth reached it first. Emily grabbed her cloak and slung it over her nightgown as she rushed to join him.
He glanced at her. “Someone’s trying to break into the parlor downstairs. Bister and I will go down—wait here.”
br /> “Not on your life.” She grabbed the doorknob. “You two go ahead, I’ll follow.”
Gareth hesitated, but in truth he’d rather she wasn’t far from him. The cult might mount a two-pronged attack, one downstairs, the other above. Curtly, he nodded. “Just stay back.”
He pretended not to see her roll her eyes.
Jack, Tristan, Mullins, and Mooktu were already in the corridor. Jack held a finger across his lips, then mimed that he and Tristan would go down the back stairs and circle outside. Mooktu and Mullins would remain by the bedchambers in case of an unexpected incursion there.
Gareth nodded, and they silently parted.
Bister followed Gareth down the stairs. Emily followed on Bister’s heels, treading close by the wall so the stairs wouldn’t creak. Halfway down, Bister found her hand in the dark and pressed the handle of a knife into her palm. Emily gripped, nodded in thanks when he glanced back.
She clutched the knife and felt a trifle less vulnerable, but her primary concern was Gareth, slipping through the darkness of the inn’s ground floor to the parlor door. She and Bister obeyed Gareth’s signal and hung back. He cracked the door open a fraction, listened, then slowly opened it wider.
Then he disappeared into the blackness beyond.
Bister just beat her to the door. She followed him in, and through the gloom saw Gareth, a large dense shadow, waiting, apparently listening, by the window.
The substantial wooden shutters were closed and fastened on the inside. The window casement was also closed and locked, but it seemed inconceivable that the cultists could even get through the shutters.
Drawing closer to the window, straining her ears, she heard whispers, the cadences distinguishing the speakers as Indian.
Suddenly the whispering rose, then stopped altogether.
“Damn!” Gareth reached for the window latch, pulled the window open, unfastened the shutters, and pushed them wide.
In the faint moonlight, across the inn yard they saw two shocked faces turned their way—then the cultists took to their heels and fled.
Seconds later, Jack and Tristan appeared before the window, looking toward the trees through which the cultists had vanished. “What happened?” Tristan asked.
“They gave up.” Disgust rang in Gareth’s voice.
The others grunted. Hands on hips, they stared at the forest, then shook their heads, waved, and trudged back around the inn.
Gareth leaned out, caught the shutters, resecured them, then closed the window. Bister took back his knife before Gareth turned and waved Emily and Bister up the stairs.
They climbed back to bed rather less quietly than they’d come down.
Emily woke some hours later. Uncertain what had drawn her from her dreams, she lay still—then abruptly sat bolt upright.
The movement woke Gareth. He looked at her. “What is it?”
She drew in a deep breath, let it out in a rush. “Smoke—and yes, I’m sure.”
Gareth was already rolling from the bed.
Scrambling into her cloak, Emily joined him at the door, but then frowned and turned back. “It isn’t so noticeable over here.”
Her side of the bed was nearer the window.
Gareth had gone into the corridor. Mooktu was on watch, sitting closer to the stairs the better to hear any sounds from below. But neither he nor Gareth could smell any smoke in the corridor or the stairwell.
The inn roof was slate—no danger there. Puzzled, Gareth returned to their room—to find Emily at the window, working the latch free.
He was on her in a heartbeat, grasping her shoulders and pulling her away from the glass. “Be careful! Your nightgown’s white—they’ll be able to see you.”
“Yes, but—”
“I know.” The scent of smoke was more definite near the window. “Let me.”
Releasing her, he closed his coat to his throat, then stepped to the window, tugged the latch free and eased the pane open.
A gust of wind blew the acrid smell of woodsmoke into the room.
He pushed the window wider, using the glass pane as a shield of sorts, until he could look down and along the inn. He could see smoke trailing from somewhere toward the rear. Following it back…through the deep gloom he could just make out three figures in heavy frieze standing staring at a pile of wood stacked against the inn wall.
They’d tried to set the wood alight, tried to train the flames back onto the wooden shutters, but it was December in England; the wood was damp. They’d managed to light a tiny blaze at the base of the stack. One crouched and blew—just as a rain squall struck, sweeping down, pelting the men and quenching the nascent fire, creating yet more smoke.
Coughing, hands waving, the three men stepped back. They muttered amongst themselves, then turned and walked away into the trees.
From above, Gareth watched them go.
“What’s going on?” Emily hissed.
The rain intensified. Gareth glanced at the now sodden stack of wood, then closed the window.
“They’re gone.” He faced Emily and Mooktu. “They tried to set the inn alight, but they didn’t try very hard.”
“You get those damned letters back—every copy, every last one!” Ice-cold fury vibrated in Alex’s voice.
In the drawing room of the house they’d commandeered in Bury St. Edmunds, Daniel looked at Roderick, waited for his response.
He and Alex had just received a nasty shock. It appeared the letter Roderick had brought them there to intercept held a far greater threat than any of them had realized. Roderick—the idiot—had absentmindedly included Daniel’s and Alex’s real names. While no one else reading the letter would recognize the connection, if the letter—even a copy—found its way into the Earl of Shrewton’s hands, their father would certainly recognize his bastards. Roderick was his favorite legitimate son. As Alex had pointed out moments earlier, if push came to shove over the Black Cobra, the earl would unhesitatingly offer up his bastards as sacrificial lambs to save Roderick—nothing was more certain.
But Roderick couldn’t function as the Black Cobra without Daniel and Alex. And he knew it.
Eyes narrowed to ice-blue shards, his face like stone, Roderick curtly nodded. “All right. I will.”
“How?” Eyes of an even more wintry, unforgiving ice blue, Alex took up a position before the fireplace. “Tell us how, brother mine.”
Roderick glanced at the copy of the letter Delborough had been carrying, which Roderick had been forced to kill his own man, Larkins, to secure. “Hamilton’s at Chelmsford. I sent eight men to follow and harry their party, to keep them in sight. Tomorrow, I’ll take a force of our elite, and join the eight. We’ll have overwhelming numbers—there’s only four men counting Hamilton, and he has the woman to protect as well. We’ll stop him, seize him and the woman, and bring them here.”
Roderick shot a venomous look at Alex. “I’ll have to leave them to your tender mercies—I’ve just got word Monteith’s in the country. And he, too, is heading this way, but from the direction of Bath, with two guards, as Delborough had, and a pirate captain in train. I’ll have to go west to keep him out of Cambridgeshire.”
“This is rapidly degenerating into the worst possible scenario,” Daniel said. “The four couriers are landing at widely distant ports. Our watchers on the coast are stretched thin. Although we’ve already lost men, admittedly we have more, but knowing where to send them in time—”
“It’s just as well,” Alex said, tone dripping superiority, “that our four pigeons are making for a single roost, and that whoever this puppetmaster they’re reporting to is, he’s nearby.” Alex cast a lethal look at Roderick. “Which is why I suggested we move up here. I’ll hold the fort—man our inner rampart—here, with M’wallah and my guard, but you two will have to take command in the field.”
Alex’s gaze shifted to Daniel. Silently, almost imperceptibly, he nodded. Neither he nor Alex trusted Roderick any more than they trusted his—their—sire.
Unaware of the interplay, Roderick nodded curtly. “I’ll take Hamilton tomorrow. We’ve already got a force quartered on the other side of Cambridge—enough to deal with Monteith.” Roderick looked at Daniel. “You could—”
“No. Leave Monteith for the moment,” Alex said. “He’s not close enough to demand immediate action—we can wait for better details of his position before making our plans. As you say, we already have men in the area. Have we heard anything of Carstairs?”
“Not since he left Budapest.” Roderick ran a hand through his hair. “He’s still somewhere on the Continent, and hasn’t yet reached the coast.”
“As far as we know,” Alex dryly replied.
Daniel uncoiled his long legs and stood. “In that case, I’ll assist with Hamilton.”
Roderick inclined his head, accepting what he saw as an offer of help. “We’ll leave at first light and ride toward Chelmsford. A messenger will come north to meet us and confirm their route. With any luck, it’ll be toward us, along the road through Sudbury. Once we locate the carriage and gather our eight following it, we can pick our spot.”
Roderick glanced at Alex. “Given those riding with us tomorrow will be from our elite, I can’t see how we can fail to seize Hamilton, meddling Miss Ensworth, and the letter.”
Alex’s features had eased to their customary elegant serenity. “That sounds excellent.” Alex met Roderick’s eyes, lightly smiled. “I’ll look forward to celebrating your success.”
20th December, 1822
Still night
Our room at the inn in Chelmsford
Dear Diary,
This is it—our final day on the road. And I have never felt so torn in my life. I want so much to reach Elveden with Gareth and the others all safe and well, if I could just wish us there now…but that would mean we miss what will be our last and possibly best chance to engage with the enemy and reduce the cult’s numbers, especially in this area, which is apparently the crux of Wolverstone’s plan.