she’d donned the black gown and hat with the black veil covering her face, he was quite sure her own mother wouldn’t be able to recognize her. Since Emily Hale had donned a similar disguise when she’d broken into the Green house, she might conceivably have other reasons for wearing it again.
Of course, Bastian might very well know where his sister was, in which case this ruse would be an abject failure. But it gave them a way in. And would possibly be enough distraction to help them get Kate away from him before he could do her more harm.
“Come in, come in,” said Bastian Hale as the trio rounded the last corner and came into the square center of the overgrown maze. “I wondered if you’d get my—”
He broke off as soon as he spied Caro and began to rush forward. Prepared for such an eventuality, Eversham pulled Caro roughly before him and placed the dagger Bastian had used to secure the poem in the attics to her throat. “Don’t come any closer.”
With a curse, Hale came to a halt. “You’re a dead man, Eversham. I thought I’d make it quick for your lady’s sake, but now I’m going to play with you for a while. After I kill her first and make you watch.”
Even if the man had a pistol on him, he couldn’t risk shooting Eversham without harming his sister. Which was precisely what they’d counted on.
“You say the nicest things,” Eversham said coldly. “Now, come over here away from Lady Katherine and hand me your gun.”
Valentine stepped forward and pulled a pistol from his pocket and pointed it at Hale’s chest. “Over to the bench,” he said, prodding his captive.
While the two men walked, Eversham looked at Katherine, trying to determine whether she’d been harmed or not. She had just stood and taken a step toward him when he noticed her eyes widen.
“Eversham!”
Without the warning, he’d have gone down like a load of bricks. As it was, however, the glancing blow did stun him, and though he turned to strike back at his attacker, Caro got there first.
“Get off me!” screeched Emily Hale as Caro leapt onto her back like a monkey.
The two women went to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs and skirts.
Valentine, who had been about to tie Bastian to the bench, saw that Caro was in trouble and handed the pistol to Kate.
“He’s your prisoner now,” he told her before sprinting toward the brawling women.
Perhaps thinking this was his opportunity for escape, Bastian tried to wrestle the gun away from Katherine. He wasn’t, however, expecting her knee, which she used to render him ineffective for anything but writhing on the ground in pain while the others restrained his sister.
Eversham hurried to where Katherine stood over Hale and, after hauling the man to his feet, tied him securely to the bench arms, which wouldn’t allow him to escape as Kate had. “Are you all right? Did he hurt you?”
“Only my pride,” Katherine said with a laugh. “I thought I was far too clever to be caught out unawares like that. I should have guessed it was Thompson all along.”
His task completed, Eversham pulled her into his arms and kissed her thoroughly. “I thought I’d lost you.” He pulled her against him, desperate to feel for himself that she was alive and safe.
“I thought the same thing.” She buried her face in his neck before leaning back to look him in the eyes. “I’m so sorry I refused you. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“You were afraid,” he said. “And I wasn’t hearing you. I’m sorry. However long you need, I’ll wait. If you never want to marry at all, that’s all right, too. However you’ll have me in your life, Katherine, I’ll take it.”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Bastian Hale said from behind them.
“Be quiet or we’ll gag you,” Kate said over her shoulder.
To Eversham, she said, “I love you. And if you want to be married, then I trust you enough to risk it.”
“I hate to interrupt your happy reunion,” Valentine called from the other side of the clearing, where he and Caro were struggling to control Emily Hale between them, “but we could use some help.”
“Kate, I was in a fight and I think I won!” Caro shouted.
“We’d better go,” Eversham said. There would be time enough for sweet words and plans later.
For now he was happy to have her safe and out of harm’s way.
*