“My men are not at their posts,” he said in a calm voice. “I must try to locate them.”
Her heart bashed against the cage of her chest. The dread she’d been carrying intensified to a crushing degree. Sophie. She pushed away from the stone wall. Sebastian dragged her back and placed his index finger over her protesting lips.
Then he directed his gaze to the curtain of darkness. In a voice barely above a whisper, he said, “Raven, to me.”
Catherine’s eyes widened when a short-haired woman wearing exotic, silken breeches emerged from the shadows.
The young woman stopped beside them. “Chief. Mrs. Ashcroft.”
“Did you see any signs of them?” he asked the newcomer.
“No, sir.”
Without conscious thought, Catherine leaned into Sebastian’s body. The scar curving around the woman’s left cheek triggered a vague memory, but her mind wanted to focus on nothing but getting to Sophie and her mother. “Sebastian, please—”
“Catherine,” he said. “This is my former ward, Cora. She will accompany you inside while I check on things out here. You may trust her as you trust me.”
Everything came together in a flash of images. The maid serving oysters, the servants she didn’t recognize at her daughter’s party, the heart-wrenching note scribed by Cora-belle. The Nexus had come.
To Cora, he said, “One of her gaolers might be awaiting you just inside. Dispose of him if you must; however, your mission is to locate the child and grandmother.”
“Yes, sir.”
“If I do not return in ten minutes, go to Helsford and get the women to safety. Understood?”
The younger woman’s lips compressed, but she nodded her agreement.
Sebastian’s thumb swiped over the ridges of Catherine’s knuckles before nudging her out of the shadows. “Go.”
“But—”
“Go, Cat,” he said again. “Listen to Cora.”
“Come, Mrs. Ashcroft,” Cora said in a gentle, yet firm voice. “Let us make sure your family is well.”
The landscape of Catherine’s world shifted and tilted in so many directions and with such velocity that she found herself following a stranger, who wore a contraption around her midsection housing an assortment of lethal weaponry, without complaint. Accustomed to making her own decisions, she would have found her current dilemma laughable if it wasn’t all so terrifying.
Before rounding the corner, Catherine glanced back to find Sebastian’s luminescent eyes on her. The situation was reminiscent of their time in the woods while searching for Meghan McCarthy. A shiver tracked down her spine.
Drawing in a deep breath, she followed Raven into God-knew-what.
***
The moment Catherine disappeared from view, Sebastian forced his clenched fist open, releasing some of the tension of his decision to part ways with her. With Danforth and Helsford in the village, it was left to him to secure their perimeter. After Cora’s recent encounter with the French, he did not worry about her ability to protect Catherine. She was as capable as any of his male agents, though he would have preferred not to have involved her, especially so soon after the difficulties of her last mission.
He found Jack and Bingham behind the gardener’s shed—bound, gagged, and unconscious. After a bit of shaking, Jack came to and staggered to his feet. However, nothing Sebastian did roused the older Bingham.
“Jack,” Sebastian said. “Can you make your way to the village? Helsford and Danforth are there.”
The young Irishman ran a hand around the back of his neck, angling his head this way and that. “Aye, m’lord.” He stared down at his comrade. “What of old Bingham?”
“He received a bad knock to the head. For now, he’s safe.”
Jack ripped off his coat and placed it beneath the older man’s head.
“What happened?”
“Can’t say, m’lord. One minute I was walking toward Bingham to see if he had any news, and the next, I was waking up to you rattling my head.”
Frustration coiled through Sebastian. “How long ago were you attacked?”
“What’s the time?”
“Half past ten.”
“Not more than twenty minutes ago.”
Sebastian stilled, his gaze seeking the high angles of the manor’s roof. “Bring Danforth and Helsford now.” He didn’t wait for Jack’s acknowledgment before turning toward the house.
Toward Catherine’s terror-filled scream.
***
Later, Catherine would not recall her flight from the ground floor to the third-floor nursery. Silas’s absence at the door combined with Sebastian’s missing men confirmed the sensations she’d been battling all evening. Sophie was in danger. And Catherine had not been here to protect her baby girl.
Somewhere along the way their panicked flight roused her mother, who was now trailing in their wake. Once they reached the nursery’s closed door, Cora motioned for Catherine and her mother to move aside. The agent drew