AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He bloody well did. He took my wife to ensure his escape.”
“I—I cannot—he’ll kill me.”
Reiner shoved his face in Falsted’s, the fury of a thousand Roman warriors at his lips. “I know you’re a sniveling coward when it comes to that bastard, but now you have someone even more deadly to worry about—me. So where in the blasted world is my wife?”
Reiner’s hold around Falsted’s neck cut his air and all the man could do was nod.
Reiner slightly eased his fingers from Falsted’s neck. Just enough for air.
Falsted gasped, his fingers still clutching Reiner’s arm, but too weak against Reiner’s strength. “Fine.” He coughed, his throat barely letting wheezed words through. “I shouldn’t have told you of him. He’s on his way to one of his ships to escape. The closest one is on the coast off of Butterwick. He means to get to the continent and still run his smuggling empire from there.”
Reiner dropped his hand from Falsted’s neck.
Hell and damnation.
At night Butterwick was only a six-hour carriage ride away. Four by fast horse. And then to navigate the salt marshes and lagoons, another two, possibly. And Bockton had left two hours—maybe more—ago.
He stormed out of the billiards room. Colton was standing just outside, waiting discreetly. Good man.
“Get her brother.”
“I just received word that he has set out with his camp.”
“In the middle of the night?”
Colton nodded.
“Where to?”
“I assume the northern route, your grace, but it has not been confirmed. They departed an hour past while we were searching for her grace.”
Damn, her brother was now an hour in the wrong direction. An hour he couldn’t spare.
“And Sloane wasn’t with him—you are positive?”
“No. Not according to the two stable boys that helped pack their wagon. I did send a rider out to verify the information and their route.”
Reiner stepped back inside the billiards room and looked at Falsted. The man still slumped against the wall, catching his breath. “It is you and I, Falsted. You know where the ship is so you’re going to bring me to my wife and that heinous bastard.” He stepped toward Falsted, his voice a growl. “And if you’re wrong about this, may the devil take pity on your soul as I rip it from your body.”
{ Chapter 21 }
Sloane gave one last glance over her shoulder before she stepped into one of the three skiffs set on the shore of the small cove of shifting sands.
No one.
Trees beyond the cove.
Sandy shoreline about her that lifted into a dune hugging the cove.
A tidal waterway surging inward at the crux of the three-quarter circle of sand.
And not a soul in the early morning light.
Not Reiner. Not her brother.
No one.
She had hoped against hope that someone would find Vicky before Bockton’s carriage got too far from Wolfbridge. Vicky was safe from him. That was what had mattered. But once they were off Reiner’s lands, she would have welcomed anyone to intervene and extract her from Bockton’s clutches.
