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Marilee squared her shoulders and straightened her back. The slight adjustment did help her to look the part.
“What if we…” Her eyes darted to the door and the noises outside growing ever closer as the highwaymen shifted the bodies of the duke and his men to the side of the road. “What if they…”
Caroline did not want to think about it. She could not consider any alternative but their survival.
“We will not die this day,” she promised. She took Marilee’s hand into her own. “Papa will buy us both. I will make sure of it.”
Just then the door was wrenched open and a bedraggled man smelling of camphor barked in surprise.
“Oy!” he called over his shoulder. “We’re in a hobble here.”
The man dragged Caroline and Marilee out of the carriage with such force that Marilee’s frock ripped straight through to reveal her chemise and Caroline had lost one of her half-boots entirely. She had forgotten that she had loosened the laces for comfort during the ride.
The leader, a towering man with most of his face covered by a dirty scrap of fabric, let out a string of obscenities.
“This wasn’t what we discussed,” the one holding their arms in grips so firm the women would surely bruise said with a ring of panic.
The leader swore again, pacing. “Be silent while I think!” he shouted.
“My father will pay for us,” Caroline offered. “He’s a baron. He’ll pay any ransom for my cousin and I.”
The leader was staring down at the duke’s dead body. Caroline refused to look, did not want to see him lifeless and bloodied. Had her prayers brought this upon them? She squelched a sob. She hadn’t wanted to be married to the duke, but neither had she wanted this.
Finally, the man whirled on them.
“Is one of you, his mistress?” he demanded. His beady eyes searched their faces. “Do you carry his child?”
Caroline had to think fast. She knew there was only one answer that would get them out of this. Would a pregnancy force the men to show them mercy? Would the lie of a duke’s child be a safety net for the two women?
She watched as he glanced down at the duke once more, disgust written all over his face. He kicked the limp form.
“Do you carry this gundigut’s seed?” No, she thought. Aligning herself with the duke was the wrong route. Besides, she did not think she was a good enough actress to pretend she had any dealings with the man, and perhaps that was the safer route anyway. After all, they had killed the gentleman without hesitation.
“No!” she said, letting her face show offense at the suggestion. “He is merely chaperoning us from one location to the next as a favor to my father, the Baron Wickham,” she lied. “I hardly know him!” That, at least, was the truth.
Marilee’s eyes were firmly on the ground, but her back was as straight as the most regal lady at court, refusing to reveal the slightest betrayal of her lady’s tale. Good, Caroline thought, she would second whatever web Caroline wove, but it was clear the deception was in Caroline’s hands.
“We should take them to her,” another voice suggested from behind them. Caroline shivered at the way the man had said her with a mixture of both fear and respect. She was not sure that she wanted to meet this mysterious female, but she supposed anything was better than death.
“Two ransoms will make anything in this haul look like pauper’s pickin’s,” one highwayman said greedily.
Caroline nodded in agreement. “My father is very wealthy.”
“And we haven’t seen your faces,” Marilee added. “We won’t say anything. Just, please…”
“No one can know but us,” the leader snarled, turning to the circle of men who had drawn close. “It’s our ransom, our reward. If anyone asks, as far as we knew, they weren’t even here. We’ll split the coin among ourselves without the gentleman knowing.”
“The duke was out by himself as expected,” one of the vagrants added. “Whatever happened to them wasn’t our problem.”
“We get the ransom and this time,” the leader’s eyes crinkled with what must have been a smug grin, “it lines our pockets.”
Caroline never thought she would be thankful for greed, but she raised her eyes briefly heavenward in a silent prayer. At least their lives had been spared for the moment. Who knew what the future would bring, but with life, there was hope.
It wasa two-day journey without the use of main roads to wherever it was that they were being taken. The carriage had been stripped of all livery and the highwaymen had decided to sell it as soon as they arrived at their destination so that it might not be traced back to them. The initial plan had been to leave the vehicle on the side of the road but instead Caroline and Marilee rode in silence inside. The decision had been made since it would not have done to put two ladies on horses, even one as fine as Bella, in the middle of a band of unkempt, masked men. Caroline had wished that they had put her on the mare. She was a fine horsewoman and could easily have outrun the lot of them. But, she would never have left Marilee even if she had been given the opportunity, and Bella would not have been able to carry a double load as fast or far as they would require. Instead, they had been bound, gagged, and for occasional long hours drugged with something that made them sleepy and compliant.
With every passing mile she wondered what their fate would be.
The men had fought about sending a ransom letter from the nearest town.
