All About Love (Cynster 6)

Mrs. Hemmings stepped back.

"Good." Appleby glanced briefly down at the book. He was shaking. "Open the front cover."

Sweetie fumbled but did so. His gaze on Lucifer, Demon, and the other men, Appleby grasped the cover, not looking but pressing his fingertips into the concealed pocket. A fleeting expression of unutterable relief, of flaring victory, traversed his face, then his expression blanked.

He closed the book. "I want all of you to move to the end of the room, up against the bookcases."

Lucifer hesitated, then moved down the room. The others followed. All except Lady Huddlesford. She stood her ground.

"Miss Sweet is nearly done in." Lady Huddlesford lifted her chin; she had never looked so imperious. "If you want a hostage, take me."

Miss Sweet blinked. Trapped against Appleby like some poor, innocent bird, she peered at Lady Huddlesford and visibly rallied. "Why, thank you, Margaret. That's a very kind offer, but…" Despite Appleby's arm, Sweetie straightened her spine. "I believe I'll manage. It's quite all right, really."

Lady Huddlesford considered, then inclined her head. "If you're sure, Amelia." With that, she swung majestically around and joined the others.

"If that's settled"-Appleby's voice sounded strained, wild excitement mingling with something closer to panic-"we'll leave you. I'll take Miss Sweet as far as the wood. I'll hear any footsteps long before you reach us. If I do, things will not go well for Miss Sweet. However, if you remain precisely where you are until she returns to you, you have my word she will not be harmed." He paused, his gaze flicking over Lucifer, Demon, Jonas, Sir Jasper-if he was searching for understanding, there was none to be had. "I never meant to kill anyone, not even Jerry. If there'd been some other way…" He blinked, then straightened. Pulling Sweetie with him, he shuffled sideways to the door. "I will kill anyone who gets in my way."

"We'll wait here." Lucifer kept his voice calm and steady, as he had throughout.

Appleby nodded. "In that case, I'll bid you farewell."

Under his breath, Lucifer murmured, "Au revoir."

They waited. With a raised hand, Lucifer stopped anyone from moving. "He's on the edge-we're not going to give him any reason to panic."

Minutes crawled past. They heard the scrunch of gravel, the sound dying away as Appleby dragged Sweetie through the kitchen garden toward the wood. They exchanged glances but no words. They were all thinking of Sweetie.

Then came a patter on the gravel, drawing closer to the house. It was so light a sound, they were too afraid to imagine it was footsteps. Then the baize door at the back of the hall banged the wall; in a rush of pitter-patter steps, Sweetie appeared in the dining room doorway.

"He's gone!" She fluttered her hands furiously. "Away through the woods he ran!" She flung out an arm in the general direction of the wood-then fainted.

Lucifer caught her before she hit the floor. He carried her into the drawing room and laid her on the chaise.

Lat

er, when she recovered and told her story to the assembled ladies of the village, Miss Sweet was, for the first time in her life, the heroine of the hour.

Chapter 21

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As afternoon edged into evening, Lucifer, Phyllida, Demon, and Flick, with Jonas, Sir Jasper, Mr. Filing, and Cedric, gathered in the library to make a new plan.

"I've sent Dodswell to fetch Thompson and Oscar," Lucifer told them.

"Aha!" Demon said. "So that's what you meant by 'au revoir'."

Phyllida and Flick and everyone else looked their silent question; Lucifer explained. "Someone approached the Beer smuggling gang to arrange passage to France. It had to be tonight. The Beer gang told the man to meet with Oscar's band, who would normally run a cargo tonight."

Jonas looked out the window. The wind had come up as the sun had gone down; the storm was moving steadily in. "No one will be running anything tonight."

"I know that, you know that, most of us know that. The question is, will Appleby know that?"

"He was born and raised and lived most of his life in Stafford," Demon put in. "Stafford's about as far from the coast as it's possible to get, so chances are he won't immediately recognize the implications of the weather."

"Then he'll go to the meeting place expecting to meet smugglers." Phyllida was sitting beside Lucifer's desk.

"Men who have as much to hide as he does," Lucifer observed. "That's the only sort he'll feel safe approaching. He intended today to be a last and successful effort. He came to the Manor with his plans made, his arrangements in place-he never intended to return to Ballyclose."