fought before with a demented female armed with a parasol beside him.
He should have expected it, yet he hadn’t. Far from cowering behind him-where she ought to at least have stayed-Deliah slipped out to stand alongside him, with her parasol laying into any of the men who came within beating range.
Her active participation as well as her furious flaying threw the three men facing him off balance.
Before matters got too fraught, and the two thugs standing back thought to intervene, Tony and Gervase slid silently from the bushes, and the two thugs dropped where they stood.
The remaining three suddenly realized that instead of being the ones springing a trap, a trap had been sprung on them.
But it was far too late for escape. With ruthless efficiency, Tony, Gervase and Del subdued them, using their fists, rather than any blades.
Then came silence, broken only by the sound of their breathing.
In the deepening gloom of early twilight, they hauled all five men into a row on the grass, sitting them propped against each other. None were in any state to make a bid for freedom.
The men were still groggy, but they could hear.
“Who sent you?” Gervase began the interrogation.
With short, sharp questions coming from all four of them-Deliah joined in, of course, and as her sharper tone made the men holding their heads wince, Del let her fire away-they soon extracted the expected story. The five had been hired by a man-a suspiciously tanned Englishman with close-cropped dark hair-to stalk them, watch closely, and act on any opportunity to seize either Deliah or Del.
As before, the would-be abductors had been told to bring any baggage they might acquire to a tavern, this time in a seedy alley in Tothill Fields.
Turning to Del, Deliah and Gervase, Tony shook his head. “No point going there-it’ll be the same story as last night.”
Gervase grunted an assent. He eyed the five figures slumped before them. “What should we do with them?”
While Del, Tony and Gervase evaluated the merits of turning the men over to the Watch, Deliah stood with her arms crossed and scowled at their prisoners.
They knew she was watching; none dared meet her eye. They shifted, but none showed any sign of getting to their feet and running.
As Del and the other two were in the throes of concluding they might as well let the five go-no real point in going to the Watch and having to spend hours explaining why men continued to attack them-sitting quietly and watching and waiting was wise.
And that, Deliah thought, illustrated what was different about these men. They weren’t like the lumbering louts of yesterday; these men were harder, smarter, quicker-distinctly more deadly.
They were quite a different breed.
“Very well.” Del turned to the men. “You can-”
“Wait.” Deliah shot a glance Del’s way. When he raised a brow but obediently waited, she refocused on the man in the center of the line. He was, she judged, the oldest, and appeared the most sharply observant. “Before you scurry back to your sewers, tell me-do you know others like you? Do you have contacts you can use to get out a warning?”
The man in the center returned her regard steadily. “Might have. Why?”
“Because you need to understand what’s going on here.” Deliah felt Del place a hand on her arm; she nodded slightly in acknowledgment, but continued, “The man who hired you-you noticed his tanned skin. He’s lately come from India. He’s the servant of a man from India-a fiend who’s been terrorizing the country there, among other things butchering and torturing Englishmen, English soldiers and civilians, and even women and children.”
She held the man’s gaze. “The reason the fiend-he’s known as the Black Cobra-sent his servant to hire you was because the Colonel here”-with a wave she indicated Del-“and three others who’ve yet to land in England are carrying information that must get into the right hands in our government to bring the fiend down. Naturally, the Black Cobra doesn’t want that-he wants to be able to keep killing Englishmen in India. So you might tell all your friends that, if they agree to work for any man, even a gentleman, lately from India, then they’re most likely being used as cannon fodder for the Black Cobra, so he can keep killing Englishmen.”
The five men on the ground had grown restive as she’d spoken. When she finished, the man in the center exchanged glances with his mates, then looked up at her, nodded. “We’ll spread the word. Not many of us hold with working for furriners.”
“Good.”
“Do any of you know Gallagher?” Tony asked. “Enough to get word to him?”
All five looked wary, but after a moment, the leader allowed, “I could perhaps get word through.”
“Tell him Torrington sends his regards, and Dearne-Grantham-is part of this caper, too, just not in London. Pass on all the lady told you. Gallagher will understand.”
The men’s attitude had undergone a significant shift, from adversaries almost to allies. The leader nodded more definitely. “I’ll do that.”
He started to rise, then halted, looked at Del.
Del nodded. “Go. And if you’ve got any English blood in you, spread the word.”
With nods, the men clambered to their feet, paused, then bobbed awkward bows to Deliah before lumbering off south toward the nearby slums.
“Well,” Gervase said, “that wasn’t quite a total loss.” He looked at Deliah, and his gaze hardened. “Although, in future, it might help if you would consent to leave the fighting to us. An umbrella is hardly an effective weapon.”
Slowly Deliah raised her brows, then she extended the um brella she still held in one hand, regarded it with approval. “This, I will have you know, is the very latest patented design. It has a steel shaft, a steel frame and mechanism, and, most importantly, it has a steel point.” Raising the umbrella, she displayed the steel spike at its tip. “In terms of an unexpected weapon, one a lady might carry, it’s ideal-and if you had questioned the man with the red spotted bandana just now, he would have told you that getting jabbed with a steel spike made him think twice about getting closer.”
“Yes,
“Getting in the way?”
“I wasn’t going to say that. Having you embroiled in the action,” Tony carefully continued, “is seriously distracting.”
“For you,” Deliah countered. “But for me, what would be totally unacceptable would be for me to meekly cower behind you like some helpless ninny, when in fact, as I just proved, I can perfectly effectively contribute.” Her eyes darkened. “I will remind you, gentlemen, that I’m a part of this enterprise whether I wish it or not. That being so, if you think I’m the sort of female to hide behind your coattails and leave all the fighting to you, you will need to think again.”
Nose elevating, she swung around-casting a sidelong glance at Del.
He bit his lip and kept his mouth firmly shut. The others would have done better to save their breaths.
Deliah humphed, then looked up at the sky, now a dark slate-gray. “Let’s get back to the hotel.”
Head high, she led the way, umbrella swinging defiantly.
Disgruntled, disapproving, but with no option for relief, with Gervase and Tony bringing up the rear, Del fell in alongside her.
Deliah reached her bedroom in a less than chipper mood.
Stripping off her gloves, then struggling out of her pelisse, she muttered, “They could at least have recognized my contribution. Acknowledged the wisdom of
She was disgusted with them all. Although, to his credit, Del had kept silent.
