The Artist and the Rake (The Merry Misfits of Bath 4)

“Money will buy anything. Trust me.”

Nick looked over the drawing. It was quite detailed. “I will reimburse you.”

“You will do no such thing. The price was well worth the rescue of a young lady from the clutches of hell.” He took the paper from Nick that he handed back to him and tucked it away. “My sources told me the procedure at the brothel is the first couple of hours the madam encourages the ‘guests’ to mingle with the ladies, drink, gamble, and otherwise spend money. Then the men select their lady of choice for the entire night and retire to one of the upper bed chambers.”

“That makes it all quite easy.” Nick shifted in his seat and leaned forward, his fingers linked loosely between his knees. “Here is what I propose. We will enter together and go our separate ways but attempt to keep each other in view. I will approach Miss Davenport and let her know who I am and why we are there.”

Marcus nodded.

“I will select her as my lady, and we will retire upstairs. As soon as it appears most of the others are settled in for a while, I will bring her to the end of the corridor where the stairs are. You will meet us there and direct us down and outside.”

The carriage came to a rolling stop in front of the building. There were no indications that this was anything but a townhouse in a respectable middle-class neighborhood.

They exited the carriage and Marcus gave instructions to the driver as Nick bounded up the steps. Once they were together, Nick dropped the door knocker. The door was immediately opened by a tall, bulky man in a liveried suit. “Yes?”

“Mr. Dennis Chambers invited us to join him tonight. I am Mr. Marcus Mallory, and this is Mr. Nicholas Smith.”

The man looked them both over, then proceeded to pat them down, taking Marcus’s and Nick’s weapons. The doorman handed the pistols off to another equally bulky man. “You can retrieve these when you leave.”

He missed the daggers.

Satisfied, the doorman stepped back and they moved forward, following a third man to a large room that might have been a drawing room when the townhouse was originally built. Marcus leaned in next to Nick. “There goes our protection for the evening.”

“I still have two daggers.” He spoke from the side of his mouth. “But if all goes as planned, we won’t need them. I will pass one of the daggers to you when no one is noticing.”

Marcus nodded. They roamed the room, separately as they planned. Since it was not Marcus’s job at this rescue to do anything but wait until everyone was settled and then proceed up the back stairs to meet Nick and the young lady, he decided to spend the time in the card room.

After a couple of hours, he grew tired of waiting, the card game not very interesting. Just as he was about to excuse himself, he looked up to see Nick approach the table. Marcus threw in his hand. “I’m done, gentlemen.”

They both walked the perimeter of the room. Nick stealthily handed off one of the daggers. “I got her.”

Marcus nodded. “Good. I’m thinking it will take this crowd about a half hour to become occupied in the rooms upstairs. Once the madam calls for everyone to make their selection, I will disappear outside and enter through the back and meet you at the top of the stairs.”

“Good luck. Be careful, I’m quite certain they will have someone at every door.”

Marcus nodded and waited about ten minutes then left through the front door, retrieving his pistol. When the man at the door raised his brows at him, he shrugged. “The only one I wanted was taken.”

He strolled down the steps as though he had nothing in particular to do. He walked about two streets and stopped to study the map of the building under one of the streetlamps. Feeling confident that enough time had passed and he knew the layout of the building well enough, he tucked the paper into his pocket and made his way back to the brothel.

There was no one outside the back door, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t someone right inside. He took the pistol out, made sure the safety lock was on and turned it in his hand, then knocked on the door.

The door opened and a man stuck his head out. “Yeah?”

Marcus slammed the butt of the pistol on the side of the doorman’s head. He went down like a bag of flour. Marcus dragged him from the doorway and then further into the alleyway. With a grunt, he deposited him along the building’s brick wall.

He opened the door slowly but assumed if there was someone else with the man he would have been outside already. Taking a deep breath, he climbed the stairs to the floor where he was to meet Nick and Miss Davenport.

After several minutes he saw two shadows making their way toward him. He knew one to be Nick and the other one had to be Miss Davenport. Marcus moved forward. “So far, so good,” he said.

Instead of offering introductions, they all proceeded down the stairs with Marcus leading. “I found it necessary to put the man at the door to sleep. His head will hurt for a while but no serious injury.” Marcus grinned as they hit the bottom step and opened the door to the narrow alleyway.

“This way.” He hurried toward the back of the building where the carriage and driver awaited. They were all panting when they arrived at the vehicle. They quickly entered the carriage and settled in.

As the carriage began to move forward, Miss Davenport took one look at the two men sitting across from her and covering her face with her delicate hands, burst into tears.

3

Marcus could not stop staring at Miss Davenport. She was, by far, the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. And he’d seen a lot—in various stages of dress and undress.