The Countess Page 0,108

frowning when she saw that Freddy had retrieved an old shirt and was rending it into strips. Wariness creeping up her spine, she asked, "What is that for?"

"To bind and gag you. We cannot stay here and I want to find that marker, but I am not sneaking you around to the office until I am sure you wil not scream and give us away."

Christiana stared at him wide-eyed, her mind working quickly. She was in a bit of a spot now, but if he bound and gagged her she would be helpless and she just didn't feel like al owing him to put her in that position. She needed to draw attention while she could. Drawing in a deep breath, she opened her mouth to scream, but al that came out was a moan as his fist suddenly slammed into the side of her head, sending her into unconsciousness.

"I thought I heard voices out here."

Richard glanced toward his office door as Suzette stepped out into the hal . She pul ed the door closed as she glanced over them. Her eyes widened with surprise when she spotted Lord Madison there and she started forward at once.

"Father, what are you doing here?"

"He came to rescue us," Lisa told her before anyone else could speak. "He even held Richard and Daniel at gunpoint until Robert and I explained the new situation to him."

"Oh, how sweet," Suzette said pausing before her father and hugging him, which seemed to leave the man a little startled. Apparently, he hadn't expected a warm greeting from her, but she said, "I am sorry I was so angry when we arrived in London, Father. You didn't deserve it." She pul ed back and added,

"Chrissy says the men think Dicky drugged you and just made you think you'd gambled the money away. It was al a trick to try to get our dowers."

When Lord Madison glanced his way in question, Richard nodded solemnly and said, "There are rumors that I, or Dicky real y, had become quite chummy with the owner of a gaming hel famous for the trick."

Lord Madison sagged with relief and nodded. "I had begun to suspect as much. I have no recol ection of gambling at al , and what recol ections I do have of the gaming hel are quite fuzzy flashes of being led through it, people talking and laughing, being told to sign something . . ." He grimaced and shook his head. "I have never cared for gambling and don't even know how to play the games of chance in those places. Yet there was the marker with my signature on it."

Suzette patted his back and hugged him again.

"Wel , now that that is al straightened out, why do we not sit down and hear what everyone has learned?" Daniel suggested, moving to Suzette's other side so that she stood between the two men.

Richard managed to restrain the grin of amusement that wanted to claim his lips.

He knew Daniel's main concern was changing the subject before anyone could mention that Lord Madison had sold his townhouse to gain the money to pay off his debt without the need for Suzette's dower. The man was going to be itching to get Suzette to Gretna Green before someone spil ed the beans. It seemed he'd definitely settled on the woman to wife, but wasn't sure she would wil ingly wed him in return were it not for the circumstances she had found herself in. Richard wasn't so sure Daniel had anything to worry about though. He had noted the way Suzette seemed always to track him with her eyes, and the way she tended to stick close to him. And then there was the scene he'd walked in on that morning after leaving Christiana to straighten her clothes. By his guess the pair had been a heartbeat away from anticipating their vows. He suspected Suzette's feelings for his friend were much deeper than anyone suspected.

"Yes, let's move into the parlor," Richard suggested and then glanced to Suzette to ask, "Where is Christiana?"

"Oh." She frowned and glanced along the hal . "I was just going in search of her.

She was going to have Haversham fetch Freddy to us to interview, but has taken an awful y long time so I thought I'd best check on her."

"George's valet, Freddy?" Richard asked with a frown. Freddy had been his brother's valet for twenty years and, like Robbie, wouldn't have been fooled into believing George was