Chapter Forty-One
Judith joined Georgina, Amy, and Gabrielle, who were standing near the entrance. There might be a few more waltzes, but most of the guests had already departed, and Judith had had quite enough dancing for one night.
“Well, how was it, your first official ball?” Georgina asked, putting an arm around her.
“I’ll probably have sore feet in the morning.” Judith grinned. “And where’s Jack gone off to? Surely not to bed yet?”
“Not without telling me, she wouldn’t.”
“Like you, she was dancing most of the night,” Gabrielle said. “But I haven’t seen her lately, now that you mention it.”
“The last I saw her, she was with Catherine at the refreshment tables, but that was quite some time ago,” Amy replied.
Judith glanced about the room again. “I don’t see Catherine, either.”
“Nor Andrássy, for that matter,” Georgina said, beginning to frown.
“Those two wouldn’t sneak off tonight without saying their good-byes, would they?” Amy asked,
But Georgina was a little more than concerned now. “Never mind them, start looking for Jack. I’ll send the men to search the grounds.”
Judith groaned and hurried upstairs with Gabby to check the bedrooms. Jack was probably in the garden getting the kiss she’d wanted from Quintin, and she would be mortified when their fathers found her there. And it would be Judith’s fault. She should have looked for Jack there first.
Jack’s bedroom was empty, as Judith figured it would be. Gabrielle met her in the corridor to say Catherine’s belongings were all still in her room, and Gabby hurried downstairs to report that. Judith started to follow her, but thought she better check on Andrássy first. As fond of Jack as he was, he might know where she was or at least where his stepsister was. Catherine’s absence might be a matter of concern after Jack was found.
But Andrássy’s room was empty, too, his trunks still there. An envelope propped up on his bureau was odd enough for her to grab it along with the little velvet pouch pushed against it that was holding it upright. James’s name was on the envelope. Perhaps Andrássy and his sister did sneak off, after all, and this was their farewell note? But without their belongings?
She hurried downstairs just as her father and uncle were coming in from the garden—without Jack. She felt a pang of fear, seeing how worried they looked. Clinton was informing them, “I’ve sent for the militia, James. We’ll search the entire town and beyond if we have to, but we’ll find her.”
“You might want to read this first, Uncle James.” Judith handed him the envelope. “I thought it was only a farewell note from Andrássy that he left in his room for us to find tomorrow morning, but it could be more than that.”
James opened the letter and started reading it.
Anthony complained, “Blister it, James, don’t keep us in suspense. Read the bloody thing out loud.”
James ignored Anthony until he finished reading. His rage was apparent, the more so because he said not a word, but he handed the letter to his brother. Anthony was about to simply read it silently, too, but Georgina snatched it out of his hand and read it aloud to everyone:
The only reason you are reading this is because I have failed to stop my former lover Catherine’s plot to abduct Jacqueline. I never wanted this to happen, but she and her accomplices are determined to commit this foul deed to please her father. You will receive a ransom note tomorrow by post. No, I am not who I said I am. I am a professional actor who foolishly fell under her spell. She hired me to aid her in her plot because I do actually have Gypsy blood and she wanted me to pass myself off as your relative. I helped her steal the jewelry, but I am leaving my portion of it here to prove I am a man of honor. No harm will come to Jacqueline. I will see to that and to making my amends to the Malory family the next time we meet.
Georgina had started crying before she finished.
Anthony was the first to respond; “Dead men can’t make amends.”
A round of angry agreement followed that statement.
“This must be what I had a premonition about,” Amy said miserably. “I knew something bad was going to happen, but I thought it was the theft when you told me about it. I should have known it would be something worse than that.”
Judith was so shocked by Andrássy’s revelations, she almost forgot about the pouch, but she handed it to James now. “This was with the letter.”
He opened it and emptied the contents into his hand. No more than a few pieces of cheap costume jewelry rolled out along with a lot of stones added for weight.
Anthony snorted, “Of course he’s not a Malory. He’s too stupid. She gave him little more than a pile of rocks in payment.”
“And he has stunningly bad taste in women,” James added, referring to Catherine.
Judith felt hollow inside. She’d befriended Catherine, defended Andrássy! “I believed them without question, but you didn’t, Uncle James. You had doubts from the beginning.”
“His only proof of being related to us having been destroyed in a fire was too convenient, leaving just his word, and a stranger’s word isn’t good enough when it comes to my family. It would have been easy enough to learn about the Stephanoff side of the family, particularly in Haverston, where people still remember Anastasia.”
“Can we even trust what he’s written?” Katey asked. “After all, he’s a Gypsy.”
“Perhaps not even that is true,” Boyd said to his wife.
But just then someone ran in and yelled that the ships in Bridgeport harbor were under attack. James left immediately, everyone else following as quickly as the horses could be saddled or hitched, the ladies in the carriage, the rest on horseback. What they found in the harbor defied description. The Maiden George was tilted on her side, the wharf she’d been tied to demolished under her as she sank into it. The ship on the other side of that wharf was also starting to tilt in the other direction. There didn’t appear to be a single ship along the docks that wasn’t sinking. It was as if the entire area had been fired upon, yet there were no fires and no ships out in the harbor to account for so much destruction.
James was actually walking on the side of his ship, looking for the hole that had sunk her. One of his crew swam out of the hold to report, “A sawed and pried-loose plank, Cap’n, just as you suspected. Had to be done earlier tonight and underwater, which is why the watch saw nothing amiss until it was too late.”
James leapt ashore and told Anthony, “I sent Artie to wake the postmaster. If Catherine and her cronies didn’t want us to get their ransom note until tomorrow, it could have a clue in it about where they’re taking Jack.”
“Out to sea, obviously, or they wouldn’t have sunk our means to give quick chase,” Boyd said.
“Possibly,” Warren replied, “or that’s just what they want us to think.”
But someone suddenly yelled, “Look there!”
A ship was coming into view, moving out from behind a bend just beyond the outskirts of town. It was heading out to the middle of the Sound—and the ocean beyond. James started swearing. Judith thought she saw a woman on the deck, but it was too dark to be sure.
But Henry was on hand and had his spyglass. He handed it to James. “That’s Catherine.”
It was infuriating to just watch them sail away with no way to stop them. James wasn’t the only one swearing now. Then Artie returned with the ransom note. James read it aloud this time:
Come to St. Kitts if you want to obtain your daughter’s release. You will be contacted there with further instructions. It will be a simple exchange, you for your daughter.
James snarled to no one in particular, “They want me, why the bloody hell didn’t they just take me?”
“Speaking from experience,” Warren said cautiously, “you’re not an easy target to take by any means. Whoever wants you apparently knows that.”
“But why make Uncle James travel so far for this?” Judith exclaimed. “Why not do the exchange right here?”
“Because James can gather an army here,” Georgina said, quietly crying again. “They obviously want him isolated, which means—”
Georgina couldn’t finish that thought, but Judith could fill in the blanks. Money wasn’t being demanded as it had been when she’d been kidnapped as a child. They wanted James specifically, which could only mean one thing. They planned to kill him.
“But this makes no sense,” Boyd put in. “They want you to follow but take away your means to?”
“They obviously don’t want a sea battle, likely aren’t prepared for one.”
“Neither were you,” Boyd replied.
“But that wouldn’t stop me from ramming them out of the bloody water.”
“Not with Jack on board you won’t,” Georgina admonished even as she put her arms around James.
James conceded that point, correcting, “Or from boarding them.”
Judith couldn’t bear it, knowing how frightened Jack must be, remembering her own terror when she’d been abducted right out of Hyde Park. Watching her aunt and uncle, she knew they were just as frightened. James just dealt with it differently from most people. He’d move heaven and earth to get his daughter back—and demolish anything that stood in his way. She knew he’d rescue Jack. But at what cost to himself? His only real chance was to get to Jack before her abductors reached their destination.
She moved over to speak with Artie for a few moments before Clinton approached James to assure him, “We might be able to find you a ship before yours is seaworthy again. I’ll send men tonight to the other harbors along the Sound. We probably won’t find a new one, but I’m sure we can locate a captain willing to sell his. It still won’t be soon enough for you to catch up to them.”
“I can’t count on that,” James said. “I bloody well wouldn’t sell my ship for a rescue that means nothing to me, so I don’t expect anyone else to.”
“No, but you’d help,” Georgina said. “You’ve done it before.”
“In either case, I’ll rouse our shipyard employees to get to work immediately on your ship,” Thomas offered. The calmest of all the Anderson brothers, even he looked grim tonight.
James nodded, but Warren added as Thomas left, “It’s still going to take several days or more. It won’t be the first time I’ve assisted in dry-docking a ship, though it’s much easier to do at our shipyard. Everything needed will have to be hauled here. We’ll just need to dismantle the wharf to make room. As soon as the tools get here, we can get started on that.”
Drew remarked, “You instead of money, James? You know who that sounds like, don’t you?”
James shook his head. “Lacross is in prison for life. It’s not him.”
“Are you sure? How do you know he didn’t scheme his way out? And don’t forget a few of his men escaped that night we rescued Gabby’s father. One might be trying to get revenge for Lacross.”
James snorted. “That was too many years ago, Drew. Besides, you really think that pirate had any friends? Most of his men were coerced to work for him toward the end, your father-in-law included. This was Catherine’s doing, for her father, whoever he is.”
Drew conceded with some exasperation, “It was just a thought. I don’t like not knowing exactly what we’re up against.”
“Neither do I,” James said, then peered at Drew’s wife. “I don’t suppose your father was planning to attend this reunion and is just late getting here?”
“I’m sorry, James, no,” Gabrielle replied. “He got his hands on a new treasure map recently, which means we won’t see him for months.”
James was reaching an explosive point, being foiled at every turn. He started ripping up the wharf with his bare hands long before the workers got there. It was painful watching him as the hours passed, because he knew—they all did—that tomorrow would be too late for him to catch up with Catherine and her cohorts before they reached St. Kitts. Even if a ship could be bought, it wouldn’t happen soon enough.
And then The Pearl sailed into the harbor.