Page 100 of Inconvenient Honor
“This has to be good, doesn’t it? They will have brought the ransom, and Hamidou will let us go,” she said. She shot a surreptitious glance at Scarface.
Richard didn’t answer. She looked up then and recognized thelook he had when his brain worked over time analyzing all possible outcomes, most of them bad.
“Don’t,” she said. She raised a hand to his cheek.
“Don’t what?” he asked, grasping her hand.
“Review all the possible ways this could blow up, all the reasons why it could go wrong.”
His eyes held hers. “Just remember, Lily. Whatever happens here, I love you and I did my best.”
He loves me!
It echoed in her heart, but she had no time to savor it.
“Enough!” Hamidou barked. “You have been seen. They look like they mean to talk.”
Lily looked out at the yawl that moved rapidly toward the island.
“We go down now and see how we can avoid English traps,” Hamidou said.
Strong arms hauled her away and kept her upright down the rugged hill. Others forced Richard down in front of her, in spite of his effort to turn toward her. They frog-marched him swiftly through the cluster of houses toward the cove.
Lily followed as best she could, grateful that her captor accepted the limits of her condition. By the time she reached the rise above the cove, her breath heaved and she felt faint. Her captor dropped her arm, but when she teetered, he put a hand under her elbow to steady her.
Such a mix of violence and gentleness! Will we ever understand these people?
Hamidou, Scarface, and the others holding Richard gathered above the cove. The uncle and a few other villagers stood around. Most villagers hid in their homes or on the rocky far side of the island.
From her place slightly behind the men, she could see that the yawl had reached more than halfway to the island and closed rapidly. The civilians sat shoulder to shoulder in the center. One most certainly was Andrew Mallet. She could now see that the other wasthe Earl of Chadbourn. Relief warred with fear, and her vision began to dim, but she forced herself not to faint. Richard’s friends had come for him.
“No golduntil we talk to His Lordship.” For a man who would rather be a farmer, Will Landrum, the earl, managed aristocratic hauteur well enough.
Hamidou’s men searched the boat and the terrified English sailors. They found nothing. Richard watched his friend take control of the situation after Hamidou demanded gold “Or your English lord will die on this beach.”Keep it up, Will. These animals don’t respect weakness.
“Harm any of us, and the HMS Boreas will reduce this island to gravel,” Will retorted. He and Hamidou took each other’s measure for a fraught moment.
“Understand me,” Will went on. “Your blood money is aboard ship. When we have the marquess and his lady safe, you will have it.”
“They stay until we have the gold,” Hamidou spat back. “And know this. Your lord promised safety to the people of this island. If he does not deliver that, I cannot promise the safety of his wife.” Hamidou looked slowly up to the top of the rise, slow enough for Will to follow, and fixed on Lily who stood pale and shaking in the clutches of a Berber pirate.
Will’s eyes widened at the word “wife,” but he looked where Hamidou pointed. He paled slightly at the sight of her and looked at Richard in surprise. “Nothing happens until my colleague and I speak with His Lordship. Privately.”
Hamidou waved a hand, and Lily’s captor led her downhill. “Very well,” he said. Another gesture and Scarface raised his pistol to place it against Lily’s head, hatred in his eyes “You may talk,” Hamidou concluded.
Richard’s captors dropped his arms. His first instinctconsisted of a murderous need to push Scarface into the sand. Only one thought held him back. If I jump him, the gun may go off. The man’s knowing smirk almost broke his resolve, but he forced his feet forward toward two of the men he respected most in the world.
“You’re a pair of fools,” he murmured. “But I’ve never been more glad to see anyone than the two of you.” He took them both into a two-armed embrace. The three stood facing one another in a tight circle, heads in.
“Where is our friend the major?” he asked.
“Jamie disappeared before you left London. He never turned up.”
No time, Richard thought. No time to worry about Jamie Heyworth now.
“Ransom?” he asked. He pitched his voice low.
Andrew’s eyes flickered behind his gold-rimmed glasses. “Of course.” Richard started to ask them how they did it so fast, but he had no time for explanations. “Most of it,” Andrew went on in a whisper. “They’ll have to count fast or look carefully to find the lack.”
