The Husband Hunt (Madison Sisters 3)

"Not such a good jab. Robert managed to deflower me the next night despite the trifling wound," she said spitefully. Charles's mouth tightened. "That is most disappointing. "

"Good," Lisa said grimly. "I hope you choke on that knowledge. "

Now he smiled. "So the kitten does have claws. Delightful. I like fight with my fun. "

"I don't know about fun, but you'll certainly get a lot of fight from me, my lord," she assured him, and reached for the handle to the carriage door. But, as if he'd been waiting for just that, Charles caught her wrist at once and twisted viciously as he dragged it away from the door.

Lisa cried out and fell back on the bench seat as he released her. Cupping the injured arm with her good hand, she stared at him as a pleased little smile claimed his lips.

"Does it hurt very much?" Charles asked solicitously.

Sensing that he would enjoy knowing he'd hurt her, Lisa removed her good hand from the wounded wrist and shrugged.

"Not very, my lord. "

As she'd expected, his mouth twisted slightly with disappointment at her words.

Suspecting he would try to hurt her again as punishment, Lisa quickly said, "I gather we are not on the way back to Radnor house?"

Charles blinked and then seemed to relax again and smile. "You are right, of course. We are on the way to my townhouse. I will continue my routine here in town for the next week or so to ensure suspicion is not cast my way, then retreat to the country, heartbroken at what I think is your defection after accepting my proposal. "

"That's why you acted as if we were engaged with Robert," she said with realization. "I thought you were just trying to protect my reputation after getting caught kissing me. "

He grinned. "Your reputation was already shot, my dear.

Langley had bedded you, remember? I did suspect as much even then," he assured her and then added, "No, I claimed we were engaged so that I could play the wounded and bewildered swain when you come up missing. I can go to Radnor and demand to know what is being done to find you. As your fiance, they will keep me apprised of everything and in a week or so . . . " He shrugged. "You retreat to the country with your broken heart," Lisa repeated his words dryly.

"Exactly. At least that is what they will think. Instead I will be headed to Gretna Green with you. "

"You cannot really think I will marry you?" she asked with amazement. "You cannot force me to say the words in front of the blacksmith. "

"My dear Lisa," he said with cocky amusement. "After a week with me you will do whatever I wish you to. "

The words sent a chill down the back of Lisa's neck.

"Ah, we're here," Charles announced, peering out the window as the carriage slowed.

Lisa stiffened. If she was going to escape, this was the time to do it. She had no idea where Charles lived, but it would be in an elite area with people everywhere. All she had to do was scream and make a break for it the minute she was out of the carriage and someone would help, Lisa thought, and then glanced to Findlay sharply when he suddenly snickered.

"It always amuses me when this point comes. You women all think alike, you know. Every one of you starts scheming, hope rising in your breast like a wave. You will get away now. This is your chance. Scream and run, or just run, or some such thing, you all think. " He shook his head at her folly and said derisively, "As if I have not been taking unwilling women into my home for years and learned how best to do it with the minimum of risk and fuss. "

The words were like a splash of cold water in Lisa's face. He had been taking unwilling women into his home for years? What for? And what had happened to those women? Certainly, he hadn't married them as he claimed he intended to do with her, she thought, and then glanced nervously from Charles to the door as the carriage stopped. Her body was tightening, preparing to flee despite his words, the blood pumping through her body in a rush.

Lisa was so tightly strung that when the carriage door opened, she actually gave a little start. She was hoping to see what lay beyond, but a large man filled the opening. Big beefy arms reached in, and before she quite knew what was happening, one sweaty hand was mashing her lips against her teeth and the other was yanking her out the door. She instinctively began to kick and thrash, but it was like doing battle with a wall. Her arms were pinned uselessly to her sides and her feet slammed into what could have been tree trunks, having as much impact as a child's weak blows.

Lisa was carted no more than four feet from the carriage to an open door. It was just long enough to see that they hadn't stopped in front of a house on a busy street, but in a high-walled courtyard at what was obviously the back of the house. No wonder Charles had been amused at her hopes of escape. She hadn't had a chance, she realize

d.

"Take her to the room, Max," Charles's voice ordered as they entered a large, hot kitchen. "I shall be along shortly. "

Lisa glanced wildly around, peering over the large hand covering her mouth and lower face. The hand wasn't just covering her mouth, but her nose as well and she couldn't get any air. She began to struggle more desperately, afraid she was going to be smothered to death, but it had little effect and her vision was dimming by the time she was carted through a kitchen, down a narrow set of steps, and across an open area to a door with a small barred window in it.

Her captor kicked at the base of the door, sending it swinging open. He then walked in and dropped her.

Lisa grunted in pain as she landed on something hard, and then simply lay still for a moment, desperately gasping air into her starved lungs. After a moment, however, she began to feel better and found the energy to raise herself up to a sitting position and peer about.

The only light was that coming from the barred window. It was just enough to see that she was in a tiny room with nothing but the narrow bed she had been dumped on. The mattress was hard and appeared to be stuffed with matted straw. The floor of the room was nothing more than hard-packed dirt. A basement then.

Pushing herself up from the bed, Lisa stumbled to the door and searched for a doorknob, but there was none, at least not on the inside, so she grabbed and pulled then pushed on the bars but that did nothing. The door didn't budge at all. Teeth grinding together, she peered through the bars into the room beyond and stared in horror at the scene. It looked like an ancient torture chamber with shackles everywhere: hanging from the ceiling, affixed to the walls at intervals, and even fitted on each corner of a table in the center of the open area. But it was the various whips and straps also hanging from the walls that made her blood run cold. She swore the ends of some of the items were painted with dried blood.

Swallowing, Lisa backed away and returned to sit shakily on the bed. Mrs. Morgan had understated things when she'd said that the suitor liked it a bit rough. Charles Findlay was obviously one of those twisted individuals who enjoyed inflicting pain, and in many and varied ways. Well, she wasn't going to sit about awaiting the fate he had planned for her. She would escape, Lisa decided, standing up. She just had to figure out how.

"Findlay?" Richard repeated the name with a frown.

"Yes," Robert said grimly, pacing to the parlor window and peering out at the street for the umpteenth time since finding Lisa missing.

"Bastard," Daniel muttered. "I've heard some gossip about him abusing prostitutes, but I didn't think he'd go after a woman of the gentry. "

"Hmm," Robert muttered, staring at the empty street in front of the house and willing the hack Lisa had left in to roll up and for her to step lightly out, healthy, happy and well. It didn't happen of course, but then it hadn't happened any of the other times he'd willed it either.

"And Lisa has been gone all afternoon?" Daniel asked.

"Yes," Robert growled. "She had Harry hire a hack to take her out to hire a runner. "

"What?" Richard asked with surprise. "Why is she hiring a runner?"

Robert ground his teeth together and then reluctantly admitted, "Bet says she wanted to hire a runner to guard her so that I didn't have to. "

There was silence for a minute and then Daniel asked, "And she went by herself? She didn't even take Bet?"

"Apparently she was supposed to take Bet and a footman, but she ran off without either of them. "

"Are we sure she went willingly and wasn't taken?" Richard asked grimly.

Robert sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Handers saw her leave. He said she ran out of the parlor and charged out the front door straight into the hack. He said she seemed upset. "

"Why would she be upset?" Richard asked solemnly.

Robert shrugged. "We were talking just before that, but were interrupted. I said we would finish the talk when I was done. "

"And she ran off to avoid that," Daniel guessed dryly, and walked over to slap him on the back. "You do seem to have a way with Lisa. "

"Your sarcasm is not appreciated," Robert growled. "I was trying to tell her that I had come to the realization that my fears about her being unfaithful were ungrounded, a result of my father's woman-hating paranoia. "

"I knew you'd come around eventually," Richard said quietly.

"What did it?"

"Our talk last night," Robert admitted without glancing around. "You were right, Richard. My father was a bitter, woman-hating idiot. " He sighed and shook his head. "Once I recognized that, it made me look at everything a little more objectively. "

"Hmmm," Daniel grunted. "You say you were trying to tell Lisa that. Was she not listening?"

"She didn't get much of a chance to listen. I didn't get far before Handers announced that Smithe was here and I had to leave. "

"And then she left," Daniel murmured and stepped up beside Robert to peer out the window. "She has been gone more than two hours then. "

"I know. I didn't worry at first, travel can be slow this time of day, and the appointment may have taken as much as an hour. Still, just before you two returned, I sent Harry to check and be sure the hack driver isn't back without her or something. He's to come tell me what he learns when he returns. " Robert had barely finished speaking the words when an uproar in the hall made him turn to peer at the door curiously. Richard was just moving toward the door to check on it when it burst open and Harry appeared, dragging a coachman by a hard grip on his upper arm.

"Sorry to burst in, my lord," the stable master muttered with a nod to his master. "But I'm thinking you'll want to hear what this "gentleman" has to say about what he did to Miss Lisa. "

"I didn't do nothing," the man protested, jerking wildly at his arm in an effort to try to get free of Harry's iron hold. "Didn't do a thing. Never hurt anyone in my life and didn't hurt her none either. "

"Tell him what you told me," Harry barked, giving him a shake, and then before he could speak, turned to Robert. "He let Miss Lisa out in the worst part of the city and then scarpered off, leaving her without protection or nothing," Harry announced with disgust.

"Tried to tell me that she insisted he go and leave her, but Miss Lisa wouldn't do that, so I got a little persuasive-like with my crop. He finally admitted that just before Miss Lisa came out of the house, a feller what looked like a lord approached him, offering him a bag of coins if he left her wherever she was having him take her. " Harry scowled at the wincing driver and growled, "And he took it, he did. Abandoned her there like some poor, homeless waif. "

"Where?" Robert growled, crossing the room to glare down at the man. It was all he had to do, the driver babbled the address at once and Robert's head snapped back with shock. It was possibly the worst part of the city. No woman would be safe there, let alone a beautiful, unprotected woman like Lisa.

He started for the door without even thinking about it, but stopped abruptly when Richard caught his arm. "She won't be there anymore, Robert. He left her there more than two hours ago. "

Robert stopped abruptly at those words and turned back with a frown.

"If Findlay had him leave her there, it was for a reason," Richard pointed out quietly. "No doubt he showed up to save the day when she was stranded. "

"Yes," Daniel said dryly. "And she would have been so relieved to see a friendly face in that neighborhood that she would have climbed right into his carriage like a lamb to the slaughter. "

Robert winced at the description, and said, "Then I shall go to Findlay's. "

"He could already be dragging her off to Gretna Green," Daniel pointed out. "Mrs. Morgan said he planned to marry her. "

"After he ravished her," Richard reminded him quietly.

Robert whirled toward the door again, but Richard caught him back once more. "Think, man. You can't just go rushing off to Findlay's place. He could be taking her away right now. Plans change. "

"You're right," Robert said with a frown, recognizing the wisdom in his words. "We need to plan and cover all possibilities. And we could use some help. Smithe and his men would be useful. " "Now you're thinking," Richard said, sounding relieved. He then suggested, "Send a message to Smithe to come here. We will sort out the various possibilities and decide who should check what. With enough men we can cover all of them and hopefully rescue Lisa before he has a chance to harm her or force her to marry him. "

"If he forces her to marry him, she will be a widow by nightfall," Robert promised grimly.