CHAPTER 15
When Lilly awoke with a splitting headache and bound on the floor of a rapidly moving carriage, her first thought was that the Comte was most definitely an oily character of the worst order.
Her other thought was that she was certainly no longer in the Duke of Carthage’s ballroom. Lilly desperately tried to remember what had happened after she had followed the Comte out into the gardens.
Mr. Harris had asked for Juliana to dance and Lilly had relied on her sister to fill the war office agent in on their progress. Samantha had been assigned to watch the Countess, which left her the Comte.
Lilly remembered very little beyond wandering beyond the lit path and hiding in the shrubbery. The men were speaking in French, and sadly Lilly had never been a good linguist.
Her head ached something fierce. She wondered what they had struck her with. There was no point pretending to wake. Perhaps she could still gain some knowledge by feigning sleep, so Lilly laid still, and in truth, it did help her head.
Lilly heard many things in the next hour or so that she didn’t understand. But Dover and Cornwall were mentioned she took note, she knew them to be located near the coast.
It didn’t make any sense, and Lilly wished that she had paid more attention during her lessons as a child.
Suddenly she was jerked up by her bound wrists behind her back, nearly pulling her arms out of their sockets.
“Mademoiselle, I see you are awake, how lovely of you to join us this evening.” The Comte twisted one side of his long mustache between dirty gloved fingers and gave a hateful chuckle. “Or should I say, how lovely of you to join us this morning?”
Lillian looked up into his florid face. His lips were thin and pinched showing that he was much more irritated than his tone let on.
Lilly smiled, “How kind of you to insist on me joining you. Might I ask where our destination might be?”
He frowned, she was supposed to be frightened. He leaned in menacingly, “We wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise, would we?”
Lilly pretended to consider, “Well, no, I suppose we ought not. You are right, of course. I have not been introduced to your companion. How do you do, sir?”
The Comte stared at her, was she dicked in the nob?
The rough looking man was entranced. Whomever this lovely creature was, she certainly didn’t mind sharing a coach with the likes of a rough and tumble man like himself.
“My name is Jack, love, Jack Rattenbury.”
The Comte swung around, “You are not to speak with her!”
Lillian dimpled, “It is wonderful to meet you Mr. Rattenbury. I am Lady Lillian Moberly.”
Jack burst out laughing, “Oh, no love! I am most certainly not Mr. Rattenbury! Went to sea when I was nine years old, I did, on my uncle’s boat. I have more years on the sea than I do on land. I have no need for your fancy ways. It is Jack to you, or Jackie if you prefer.”
The large, gruff man intrigued Lilly. There was an honesty about him that the Comte did not possess. Lilly made a snap judgment, “I see, then I shall be Lilly to you as well. I think we shall be fast friends.”
Jack grinned showing browning teeth, “Awe, Lilly, we shall.”
The Comte’s jaw was flapping, “No! There are no friendships. She is our prisoner!”
Lilly frowned, “That is not polite.”
“I never once said I would kidnap a woman, and I won’t trade or smuggle one.” Jack raised his jaw.
“You are a smuggler. I hired you to do a job. You will do whatever I say, or I will not pay you.”
Jack sat up to his full height. The man had to be well over six foot, with two hundred plus pounds of pure muscle. He pulled a mean snub-nosed gun out of his pocket. “I have plenty of work, your offer, while generous, is not the best I have come across. I won’t kidnap nor trade women. Do you understand, or are we about to have an unfortunate accident?”
The Comte swallowed, he hated Lillian Moberly more than anything else in his life at that moment.
For Lillian, everything was suddenly all too real in this little adventure.
Jack, whose eyes had gone from cajoling and fun to hard as ice, cocked the gun, “Waiting for an answer, Comte.”
“Yes, damn it. I understand.” He spat out.
Jack nodded and uncocked the gun sliding it back into his pocket, “Untie Lilly.”
Jack turned to her, “I know that I am not a good man. When you have been press-ganged by the Royal Navy, it is hard to have any loyalty to the crown. You don’t know,” he stopped looking at her, “Being a lady, you cannot know the things that happen in those circumstances.”
Lilly didn’t, “You don’t have to explain.”
The Comte released her from the ropes, and Lilly sighed as she rubbed her wrists trying to get the feeling back into them.
“This is a mistake. She is going to get us all killed,” the Comte grumbled.
Jack winked at Lilly, “Are you saying that you cannot outsmart a small, insignificant woman?”
“I can outsmart the entire English country!” The Comte raged.
Jack smirked, “Then do not worry about her. She is nothing to you.”