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Corbyn shifted his disbelieving gaze towards Oliver. “Your brother is mad,” he declared.
Oliver wore an amused look on his face. “I won’t disagree with you there.”
“Hear me out first before casting judgment,” Baldwin insisted.
“Proceed, then,” Corbyn said as he sat back in his chair. “I find that I need a good laugh anyway.”
“I will abduct a girl and deliver her to the pub,” Baldwin explained. “Then, we tip off the Runners about the location of the missing girls and they will raid the pub. The girls will be saved, and I won’t risk my cover being blown.”
Corbyn shook his head. “How have you stayed alive for all these years?” he muttered under his breath.
“The plan will work,” Baldwin insisted.
“No, it won’t,” Corbyn said. “I can’t even begin listing how many ways your plan could go horribly, terribly wrong.”
“Not if you and Oliver are in on it,” Baldwin revealed.
Oliver shifted in his seat towards him. “What would you have me do?”
“You two cannot possibly be in earnest?” Corbyn asked. “I am all for taking risks, but not at the expense of an innocent woman.”
“That is why we will find a woman who will go along with the plan willingly,” Baldwin said.
Corbyn huffed. “And what woman would be stupid enough to let herself be abducted intentionally, putting herself in harm’s way?”
Baldwin shifted in his chair. “I was thinking Miss Dowding would.”
A heavy silence fell over the room as Corbyn and Oliver stared at him with wide eyes. Finally, Oliver spoke. “I doubt that Miss Dowding is up to the task.”
“I believe you may be underestimating her,” Baldwin said.
“And you may be giving her too much credit,” Corbyn contended. “Furthermore, Miss Dowding is a genteel woman. If word got out that she was abducted, it could ruin her reputation.”
“No one will find out,” Baldwin asserted.
“How exactly can you be sure of that?” Oliver questioned.
“We will pay off the Runners for their silence,” Baldwin explained. “They can announce in the papers that they found the women, but they will leave off their names.”
Corbyn rose from his chair and walked over to the drink cart. “Your plan is foolhardy and far from flawless.”
“Perhaps, but don’t all plans come with some risk?” Baldwin asked.
Corbyn picked up the decanter. “Assuming Miss Dowding goes along with this plan, what would you have Oliver and me do?” he asked.
“Oliver would follow us as we head to the pub, and you would already be positioned inside the main hall,” Baldwin explained. “After I deliver Miss Dowding, you both will stay to ensure she is safe.”
“But I doubt that we will have eyes on her,” Oliver pointed out.
“True, but you can ensure that they won’t move her anywhere else until the Runners arrive,” Baldwin said. “Oliver will keep an eye on the pub from the outside.”
Corbyn took a long sip of his drink before asking, “What is the point of this plan?”
“The radical group are using these abducted girls to help finance their revolution,” Baldwin shared. “They are selling them off to a merchant who sends them off to India.”
“That is disconcerting, but we can’t save every woman who shares a similar fate,” Corbyn said. “That isn’t what we do.”
Baldwin frowned at his friend’s callous remark. “Regardless, I need to earn Morton’s trust, because I fear that this group of rebels is more than they appear to be.”
