Could smell the lemon and sandalwood of his cologne— Would a ruffian such as this one even know what cologne was, let alone go to the trouble of wearing one?
Not just any cologne either, but one that Beatrix was well acquainted with.
No!
It couldn’t be.
Surely James would never do something as outrageous as having his Cockney friends kidnap her?
Yes, yes, he would, came the immediate answer. At least, the gentleman who had been glaring at her with frustration for the past week or more would almost certainly do so.
Until recently, and for ten years, James had lived in the slums of London, carefully concealing his real identity, and allowing his family to believe he was dead in order to protect the only person who mattered to him: his sister Bethany.
So, yes, she believed James was now perfectly capable of having some of his Cockney friends kidnap her.
The question that needed to be answered was why he would go to such elaborate lengths to have her brought here.
Beatrix could think of only one answer to that question.
“Whatcha smilin’ abowt?”
Beatrix couldn’t help but continue to smile as the tightness eased in her chest. The terror, that had held her in its grip since the hood was first thrown over her head and she was carried off into the night fearing for her very life, was also receding.
“Your friends did not hurt me.”
“I’d ’ave their guts fa garters if’n they did,” he snapped.
“Why?”
“’Cos I tolds ’em not ta touch an ’air on yer ’ead”
Just as Beatrix suspected. “A few minutes ago, you asked if I have a lover.”
The air about them seemed to still. “Yeah?”
If Beatrix was wrong in her surmise, then so be it. But even if she was, at least this way her kidnappers might contact James and ask him for the ransom money. Knowing the slums of London as well as he did, and many of the people who lived in them, she had no doubt James would be more successful at finding her than her brother and any of his friends.
Beatrix moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue before speaking. “There is a man I love, yes.”
The man drew in a sharp breath. “’Oo is ’e?”
“Someone who will see you and your cohorts pay dearly for having kidnapped me,” she voiced bravely.
“Doesen’ arnswer me question.”
Beatrix really would be taking a leap in the dark—literally—with her next comment. But truly, what did she have to lose?
Either this situation was exactly as she had begun to hope it was and she and James would be able to dispense with the distance that had arisen between the two of them the past nine days.
Or she had been abducted by four complete strangers and a ransom would be demanded if Benedict wished to have his sister returned to him alive.
One thing Beatrix knew for certain, however this situation was resolved, she could no longer continue to hold James at arm’s length the way she had been doing since attending the Blackbornes’ ball.
Besides, if James really had orchestrated her abduction, then he must already believe she was a strong and resilient woman rather than some damaged lily-livered milksop in need of his kindness and protection.
It was all and everything Beatrix had wished and hoped for.
“I wanna know ’is name,” her kidnapper grated impatiently.
“Why?” she delayed.
“Can’t contact ’im wivout a name.”
“My brother is my closest relative.”
“Not wha’ I arsked, no’ is it.”
Beatrix drew in a deep and calming breath before answering. “The man I love is named Lord James Charles Malcolm Metford. He is the Earl of Ipswich.”
Joy burst inside James’s chest upon hearing Beatrix speaking his name as being the man she loved.
Brave and beautiful Beatrix loved him.
His original plan had been to kidnap her and keep her as his prisoner until he had seduced her into falling in love with him.
But if it was true she already loved him, then that only left seduction…
Once she had forgiven him for having kidnapped her, of course.
If she forgave him!
“Are you still there?” she asked uncertainly at his continued silence.
“I am.” He spoke in his normal voice and accent as he moved behind her and began to untie the handkerchief Billy had secured over her eyes. It was one of James’s own silk squares and had been given to Billy and his friends in readiness for Beatrix’s abduction.
Not that Billy, Arthur, and Sean lived in St. Giles anymore. Since resuming the Ipswich title James had ensured the men who had once saved him from drowning after he was attacked, and continued to be his friends during the ten years that followed, were now living together in a house owned by James. They were also now working for James on several different enterprises. James had every intention of always continuing to ensure the safety and comfort of his three friends.
Having removed the blindfold, and beset by sudden nervousness as to Beatrix’s reaction when she saw him, James continued to stand behind her rather than in front of her. But he could not resist placing his hands on her shoulders, instantly feeling her warmth beneath his palms.
He felt her draw in a long breath before speaking. “James, it was never my intention to hurt you by refusing your marriage proposal,” she told him softly, revealing she already knew exactly who was standing behind her. “I only wished to know that you were asking me for the right reasons.”
“And they are?”
“Love. Respect. The acknowledgment that I do not need anyone’s protection or pity.” She lifted a hand to touch the scars along her jaw. “That I am a complete woman and capable of being a partner and helpmate, and not a burden, to my husband. It is for that reason I decided to come to London and enter Society, after all those years of shunning it.”
“And took the ton, and all the gentlemen, by storm,” he muttered in disgust.
She huffed a small laugh. “I am not sure
