“The devil it does.”
“It does and only a day after you sailed, too.”
“Tony, if you don’t spit it out immediately—”
“They were taken out to sea, James, all three of them kidnapped. We suspect it’s the same men who took Jack before—”
“What did the ransom note say?”
“I left before one was delivered. We felt the first priority was to let you know.”
“Is your captain going back to London?”
“Yes, and—”
Anthony didn’t finish because James was already stepping out of his cabin, bellowing, “Connie!”
It took only a few moments for the first mate to run up to the quarterdeck and guess, “You want me to toss him back over the side?”
“As if you could. Tell his captain to return to London immediately and let George know that I’ll bring Jack, Jeremy, and Percy home. They’re out here somewhere—”
“How the bloody hell did—?”
“I’ll explain later. But I want all eyes watching for other ships, and find out if any have passed us this week. I may need to blast one out of the water.”
James slammed the door shut before Conrad could delay him with more questions and, pinning his brother with a dark look, said, “Now that I’ve heard the end, start at the beginning. I need to know how this could happen again.”
“I was going back to London with my ship,” Anthony said testily, having heard James’s orders.
“Now you’re not, and this is not a good time to argue with me, Tony. If you haven’t noticed, I need to kill something.”
“Can’t very well mistake that look—all right! It was evening, the second day after you sailed. George didn’t know Jack wasn’t in the house until she didn’t show up for dinner. Jack’s maid said she’d gone out with Jeremy and that she’d be home for dinner, but she wasn’t.”
“Leaving without letting George know where and why doesn’t sound like my daughter. She’d at least leave a note so George wouldn’t worry.”
“Even if she thought she’d be home before George noticed her absence?”
“Did anyone look for a note from Jack?”
“The house was searched from top to bottom, first thing. I even looked for the notes from her mysterious suitor who’d been sending her single roses that week in case she’d gone off to meet him. Found the roses in her room, but no sign of his notes.”
“There was a fellow at that masked ball they dragged me to who annoyed me because he refused to introduce himself to any of us before he took Jack out to dance. If— I’m going to kill that bastard! Did you search her jewelry box for his notes?”
“Of course.”
“And the secret drawer at the bottom of it?”
“What secret drawer?”
James sighed. “Never mind. Jack wouldn’t leave a note for George in that, anyway, since George doesn’t even know about it.”
“But you do?”
“I gave her the box. She started collecting tiny rocks when she was six, ugly little things, but since they sparkled, she thought they were special and hid them all over the house. But the servants started finding them and throwing them away, which led to Jack having quite a few tantrums—bloody hell, never mind all that.”
Anthony still rolled his eyes. “You gave your daughter a hiding place for rocks?”
“It was a matter of diplomacy. The servants didn’t like it when she screamed at them. It’s too bad I never got around to mentioning it to George, since that drawer has a hidden latch in the back to release it. There could be something in that drawer that indicates what Jack was up to.”
“Not just Jack. She had cohorts in Jeremy and Percy for whatever—”
James cut in, “What did Henry or Artie say about it? They usually won’t let her out the door without finding out where she’s going.”
“Except when she leaves with family, apparently. Your retired-pirate-turned-butler Artie had the door that day and figured she was fine since she did leave with Jeremy, but George was still worried and sent for me and our brothers and also sent a man off to Jeremy’s house. Danny showed up right after I got there to say Jeremy had left home with Percy, so we sent a man to Percy’s house. It was late by then and George was crying the whole bloody time, so Jason left to pull some strings and get me a fast ship to come after you. It was a good thing he was still in London to be able to do that. We figured you’d want to know about this as soon as possible.”
“When exactly did you sail, Tony?”
“Jason is an excellent string-puller. I was actually going to sail off that very night, well, at least that was the plan. But then Lady Alden arrived to say Percy had told her he was going to the docks for some exciting fun that night. The footman we sent to their house worried her when he told her Jack might be with Percy. She actually came to complain that Malorys were leading her boy astray again. George nearly kicked her back to the curb.”
“So going to the docks was their idea? Bloody hell, they were looking for a ship to follow me, after I told them they couldn’t and why—”
“No. I wish that’s all it was, but it’s not that a’tall. We know mostly what happened because Percy’s driver came knocking at the door a bit later after being told his lady was at your house. Jeremy, Percy, and Jack didn’t even go to the docks, just near them. They drove to the mostly deserted Wapping Street, which runs along the river. They went there to set a trap for someone, but that’s all Percy told his driver. However, that ‘someone’ had set a better trap for them. The driver ran away as soon as the fighting started, and by the time he found a tree to hide behind and he could safely look back, the fight was over due to their opponents’ far, far greater numbers, and Percy, Jack, and Jeremy were already being carried to two longboats that took them out to one of the ships anchored in the river. Dozens of the ruffians that had appeared out of nowhere to spring that trap stayed behind to load Percy and Jack’s men in the coaches left there and drove off with them. And the ship sailed off. The driver stayed long enough to see that before he found his way home to tell his lady what happened.”
“So you don’t have the ransom note?”
“No, I waited two days for it to be delivered to your residence, but nothing arrived. Jason decided you needed to be warned about this before you got to the Caribbean so I sailed. He promised to get another ship and send it to St. Kitts with the note as soon as they receive it. So we can wait for it there—or find your children first. I thought I’d spot your fleet long before now, but we had to do a lot of zigzagging to make sure we didn’t sail past you without seeing you a’tall.”
“Which begs the question, did you pass any other ships heading this way?”
“No, and believe me, we were looking. I hoped I would find them first, play the hero, get them home before you even knew Jack was gone, though I’m not sure how I could have captured them with an unarmed merchantman.”