Lady Bess

The boy shook his head. “One moment I was playing with the baby goats, and the next, someone had his hands over my mouth. I tried biting him when, all at once, I blacked out …”

The earl exchanged a glance with Bess, and Donna exclaimed that the child had been drugged somehow.

“So ye never heard any odd names, maybe even a name ye might have recognized?” the earl asked intently.

“They talked about a flash covey but never a name,” Thomas said solemnly.

“Right then, we’ll talk no more of it. All ye have to do now is feel more the thing. Miss Maddy is just waiting to take ye up for a nice hot bath.” The earl smiled at the older woman, who gave the boy a gentle pat.

“She can’t stay with me when I undress though,” Thomas immediately said on a worried note.

Everyone laughed, and Maddy said, “I’ll trust you to scrub yourself well, including behind your dirty ears. How is that?”

He agreed to it, and they watched Maddy lead him to the kitchen door, where he stopped and turned. “I shall never forget any of you or what you did for me today.” He eyed them shyly. “I hope you will never forget me.”

“Never, ever, could we forget you, Thomas, and we will visit you as much as we can until you are heartily sick of us all, I promise,” Bess said at once.

The lad smiled and turned a questioning look to the earl, who returned his smile and reassured him, “Ye can make a safe wager on it, lad. Ye are stuck with us all.”

Thomas grinned and left them to look at one another meaningfully, and Donna whispered, “Oh, I do wish Robby were back. This entire thing makes me feel sick, because it isn’t over, is it?”

“No, it isn’t. Whoever paid those Gypsies still wants the lad out of the way. The blackguard behind this is the one we need to find,” Bess said. She turned to the earl. “I wonder if we should allow Thomas to leave here where we know he is safe. Will he be safe at Mary Russell’s?”

The earl frowned. “I need to think this out.”

* * *

Robby arrived on the scene, rubbing his hands and grinning from ear to ear. Since Cook had left with Maddy to help her get the boy’s bath ready, Robby began looking around her cupboard for something to eat.

Donna jumped up, rushed her husband, and threw her arms around him. “You are back and safe.”

He patted her shoulder and kissed her forehead. “And what, did you ever doubt it?”

She smiled, for even as he spoke he was reaching for a biscuit he had found. She took his hand, led him to the table, and bade him sit with her, which he did.

After stuffing the last of the biscuit in his mouth, he pinched her chin and warned her in a hard voice Bess had rarely heard him use in the past, “Donna, I tell you frankly and will not brook an argument on this, I won’t have you going off willy nilly like you did. You are my wife, and I won’t have you in danger. Those two Gypsies were as black-hearted a pair as ever I saw, and to think that you and your little partner in stealth were tracking them all alone …” He paused and closed his eyes before continuing, “is more than I can bear.” He looked lovingly into her eyes and said, “I won’t have it—you can’t ever do such a thing, not ever again. Won’t have my wife running amok all over the countryside.”

Bess looked at them and smiled. Donna was a tall and substantial young woman, but Robby always behaved as though she was a delicate flower. Bess saw the pleasure on her face and knew her friend was happy with his obvious concern, but she still couldn’t believe the meekness of Donna’s tone as she nuzzled her husband’s chin with her cheek and said, “Yes, Robby.”

Bess burst out laughing and then, finding that rollicking laughter hurt her side, held herself and mimicked, “Yes, Robby.”

He wagged a finger at her and said, “This is your doing, she-devil.”

The earl turned an upraised brow at Robby. “She-devil is not exactly what I would call the lass, Robby. These two exhibited bravery such as I have never witnessed before in their gender. Quite remarkable,” he said and looked at Bess in such a way that she felt the heat rush to her cheeks.

“Well, some might call it foolish,” Bess allowed.

“Not I, though I, like Robby, wish you will never do such a thing again. However, I must also add that had it not been for you, and Donna here, I don’t know what would have become of that boy today.”

Robby beamed. “Indeed, proud of my wife and even you, sauce-box.” He grinned wickedly at Bess over his wife’s head. “But this whole thing has given me a start. What is to do now?”

“First, tell us, what did the Gypsies say to the authorities? Did he name the man who paid him to take the boy?” the earl asked as he played with his lower lip.

For a moment, Bess became transfixed on the earl’s sensuous mouth and felt her own lips part as her lashes got lazy.

Robby brought her back to reality as he shook his head, set his wife aside, and shifted in his chair, “No, he said though he met with the man, he only knew him as Smith, just Smith.”

“But he would recognize him if he saw him again?” the earl asked thoughtfully.