Page 89 of The Duke's Only Desire

As Sophie hurried toward the carriage, the woman let out such an ear-splitting cry of fury and indignation that the sound drowned out all other noise from the little village. Sophie shuddered but didn’t look back.Let her pitch a fit. Let her wail and cry and gnash her teeth.Sophie couldn’t care less. She’d saved Ruby and the other two little ones, and she’d make certain all three were placed into proper, loving homes.

A strong hand grabbed her shoulder from behind and yanked her to a stop.

“Well, well—what have we here?”

The raspy voice curled down Sophie’s spine like icy fingers, chilling her blood in its wake. For one long, frightening moment, she couldn’t move, as frozen as the mud puddles at her feet. Not daring to look back, her eyes darted ahead toward Cora as the young woman poked her head out of the carriage compartment. A terrified expression darkened Cora’s face. Sophie knew without having to turn around—

“Lord Malcolm,” she forced out and somehow kept her teeth from chattering. Tightening her arms around Ruby, she turned to face him. “Awfully far from St James’s for you, isn’t it?”

“Don’t play daft with me,” he sneered, his voice as frigid as the winter’s day. “You know why I’m here. Same as you.” His beady eyes fixed on Ruby. Sophie knew he recognized John in her, just as she had. “I want that child.”

Over his shoulder, Sophie saw a town coach waiting by the footpath and two large men standing guard, the collars of their coarse jackets pulled up against their necks and threadbare tweed caps perched on their heads. Not servants. Hired thugs.

“You can’t have her,” Sophie managed to force past her trembling lips. “I willnotlet her go!”

“Fine.” He smiled icily. “Then I’ll take you both.”

He gestured at the two men, and one hurried forward, his hands clenching.

Sophie turned to run toward the hackney, but the man was too quick. He reached her before she’d barely taken a full stride, grabbed her around the waist and hauled her to the waiting town coach. Sophie fought as hard as she could, kicking and elbowing, but she didn’t dare loosen her hold on Ruby, who screamed in fear.

The thug threw her into the town coach. She twisted her shoulder at the last moment to keep from landing on Ruby, slamming with a hard thud in a heap on the floor. She bit down a whimper of pain.

“You’ll swing for this!” she promised through teeth clenched, only for the man to laugh in response.

“Stop your wailing,” Malcolm ordered as he stepped inside the coach and settled onto the bench with a kick to her ribs. The door slammed shut after him, and the carriage lurched into motion, forcing the two brutes to scramble to grab onto the carriage and flung themselves onto it before they were left behind.

“If you harm me or this child, you’ll go to prison,” Sophie promised, still sitting on the compartment floor. Her eyes locked on Malcolm as she rocked the screaming little girl in her arms. “I’ll make certain of it.”

“I don’t think so.” Malcolm pulled a thin, sharp knife from his coat sleeve and rested it on his thigh. “I wouldn’t get any ideas of attacking me if I were you.” His eyes gleamed. “It would be a shame if you ended up as scarred as your husband.”

Sophie wasn’t afraid of his threats. Instead, she was filled with hot rage.

Still holding the wailing toddler in her arms, she climbed up onto the seat. If she couldn’t stop the carriage—or safely jump from it with the little girl in her arms—at least she would try tokeep track of wherever they were going…and keep her eyes open for any chance at escape. She wouldnotlet Malcolm get away with this, not without a fight.

“You must be stupid to think I didn’t know why you and Seamus were in London,” Malcolm drawled, his voice filled with venom. “As soon as I heard you’d both left Ravenscroft, I knew what you’d planned. So I came here to beat you to it. And succeeded.” His eyes narrowed on Ruby, the little girl continuing to scream even as she buried her face in Sophie’s shoulder in an attempt to hide from the bad man sitting with them. “I’ll keep that little whelp with me until her mother agrees to testify against Seamus, until she agrees to state under oath that she saw him kill his brother in cold blood, and that he did it for you and the dukedom.”

“You won’t succeed,” she rasped and placed a calming kiss to Ruby’s head.

“But I will. Already my men are convincing that woman to testify on my behalf. Once she signs her name to her statement, I’ll bring the girl back to her, send them both away with a little prize to keep her silence until the title is settled on me and Seamus is either dangling by his neck or on his way to Australia.” He callously shrugged a shoulder. “Doesn’t matter which to me.”

“And if Cora doesn’t agree to that, if she goes to the authorities?”

“Then it won’t be a simple kidnapping that happens to her child.”

He meant murder. Tightening her arms around Ruby, she swallowed hard to keep down the rising bile in her throat. She didn’t dare utter the dark thought that crept into her head…thatshewas now a witness to his machinations and could swear to the truth of what he was doing. That he would have to kill her, too, to keep her silent.

How easy that would be, too, if he and his hired henchmen dragged her into the countryside where no one would see or hear her shouts for help.

She couldnotlet that happen. So she turned back toward the window and tried to calm the little girl huddled fearfully in her arms. Her mind raced to plot out a way to escape.

The carriage had slowed, bogged down by the half-frozen road filled with mud puddles, slush, and snowdrifts. If the place he was taking them was very far away, then they would have to stop to change teams. And soon. The town coach with Malcolm’s crest proudly emblazoned on the door was too heavy to go more than a dozen miles down the weathered road before tiring out the horses. They would have to stop at a posting inn, and when they did, Sophie planned on making her move. Or at least not go down without a fight.

So she settled back against the squabs, placed the little girl on the seat beside her so she could continue to soothe her, and waited. The afternoon was passing quickly, and she prayed they stopped before nightfall, when the cover of darkness might ruin her chance to escape. After all, she would never be able to outrun Malcolm and his henchmen, not with a child in her arms. No, her best bet was to cause the biggest scene she could and pray that others came to her rescue. After all, a screaming woman with a wailing child, both crying out at the tops of their lungs, would certainly draw all kinds of unwanted attention.

She hoped.

After an hour, Ruby had cried herself to sleep, and the welcomed silence gave Sophie the peace to collect her thoughts and her resolve. She would have only one chance, and she had to be ready. She would have to act quickly, scream her head off, and—