The Rebellious Rake (The Notorious Nightingales #4)

Chapter 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“ I fear I may be needed to referee the Thomas siblings, Mr. Peeky. Are you able to continue on without me?”

“Indeed I am. We are finishing up shortly, as the dark will come early today. Young Mrs. Douglas has baked cakes and has the tea brewing for when we are finished.” His smile was barely visible now between the layers of his scarf. Ramsey thought tea and cakes sounded a fine thing. Instead, he headed to where the Thomas siblings now appeared to be in a heated debate.

“You are quite foxed, Charles. Surely you could have sipped your glass instead of guzzling?” Flora said, as yet unaware he was behind her.

“G-guzzling is rather good,” Charles said in that slow way people had when they were attempting to speak clearly after overimbibing.

“Fool,” Flora said. “Come along, you’ll catch your death unbuttoned with no gloves and hat. Let’s get you to bed before you humiliate yourself further.”

“I-I wanted to forget,” Charles said .

He heard Flora sigh. “Oh, Charlie, I know. But this way of trying to obliterate Father’s actions will only give you a sore head and little else.”

“I know, but it hurts.”

Flora sniffed loudly. “It does.”

What had their father done? As the thought entered his head, Charles pitched forward into his sister. Ram stepped closer and caught him.

“Come along, let’s get you to the house. You take one side, and I’ll take the other, Flora.”

Much to his surprise, she didn’t argue. They finally made it to the door after a few stumbles, which was then opened by Mungo.

“Och, what’s amiss now?” He glared at them.

“Charles has been enjoying Mr. Peeky’s brandy,” Flora said. “A little too much of it,” she added.

Mungo’s face changed into what Ram thought may have been a smile, but he couldn’t be sure.

“Well then, I completely understand. He’ll have a right sore head tomorrow.” He then picked up Charles, threw him over his shoulder, and stomped away.

“Well then,” Ram said mimicking Mungo’s words

“Goodbye, Mr. Hellion,” she said, closing the door in his face.

“Goodbye, Flora,” he said to the wood. Looking down, as he felt someone press into his leg, he found Curaidh. “I have yet to get used to the fact you belong to me,” he said, scratching behind a long ear. “Shall we go home, boy?” The dog whined, which he took as a yes.

The painters were now packed up and heading to the Douglas household. He debated whether to join them but thought not. He would find some food for him and Curaidh and settle in for the night.

Heading out the street, he popped into Appleblossoms Bakers for two apricotines and a meat pie, as it was still at least ten minutes to his home if he got a hackney and a great deal longer if he walked.

Taking his first bite, he hummed. The dog made a noise, and he broke off a quarter of the pie and gave it to him. They walked in companionable silence as the air grew colder and the skies darker.

London intrigued Ram but never scared him like it did others. He’d been raised in Bombay, and with that had come noise, color, scents, and crime like you got in any large city.

He enjoyed the dog trotting at his side and thought he really must get a collar for the animal. However, even with no necktie attached, it was staying with him. Flora was right; it had been trained and owned by someone at some stage.

Ramsey turned down the street where he would purchase them some food, and it was there he felt it. Something was off; he just wasn’t sure what that could be. Looking around him, his visibility was still good enough that he could see people milling about, and none were looking his way. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the group of men. His count was five. They were all laughing and talking, and not looking his way.

Curaidh growled softly at his side, as if sensing something wasn’t right. Ram put a hand on his head. “Easy now.”

He struck out with his leg as a hand settled on his shoulder. Spinning, he fought with everything he had. The other night, he’d not had this chance, but they would not take him as easily this time.

Curaidh launched himself at one of the men and latched onto his hand with his large teeth. The man’s scream filled the air.

The men were speaking in rough, desperate words now, needing to subdue Ram and remove him before someone intervened. Ram saw a fist fly from beside him and realized someone was fighting at his side. He could not spare the man a look but knew his odds of survival were now a great deal stronger.

He took down two, Curaidh another by leaping at him, and then the stranger at his side finished the last man standing off.

“Run,” Ram said. He then clicked his fingers for his dog and took off back down the road. The thud of feet told him that he was not alone. Curaidh bounded ahead.

“Find a hackney,” the man with him said.

Neither spoke again until they slowed to a walk, now some distance from the men.

“You have my thanks, sir,” Ram said, stopping to hold out his hand. “Had you not arrived, I’m not sure I would have held them off.”

He was older, and he thought the man had quite a few years on Bram. Tall, with broad shoulders, his face seemed familiar, and yet he was sure they’d never met. The collar of his deep blue coat was raised, and he wore a black scarf, no gloves.

“My name is Ramsey Hellion,” he added.

The man stared at him hard, as if he was weighing up whether to trust Ram or not.

“Do you know why those men attacked you, Mr. Hellion?”

“I don’t, no.”

“Are you sure?”

“What does that mean? Who are you?”

“My name is Brandon Hellion.”

“Good God, is it really?” Before Ram could say another word, the man who was his estranged uncle had turned and walked away, leaving him standing in the street with a hackney bearing down on him.

Flagging it down, Ram climbed in with Curaidh after giving Gray’s address. He then sat back and waited, heart still thudding painfully hard inside his chest. Part of him took in the stale scents of body odor and damp that filled the interior, but his focus was on what had just taken place. A second attack, and the fact that it was his estranged uncle who turned up to help him.

Why had he been there?

Why does someone want me captured?

“You’re a good, brave boy,” Ram said, looking at the dog. “What have you got in your mouth?”

He tugged a piece of material from the dog’s jaw and studied it. It felt to Ram like silk, and if he had to place the origin, he would say India but couldn’t be sure of that. When he reached Gray’s house, he’d take a good look at it.

“I will feed you soon, but right now we have to face Gray. Prepare yourself for the anger that worry will put in his voice.” He tucked the fabric into his pocket.

After stepping down, he paid the driver and then walked to his cousin’s front door. Albert, his butler, answered his knock.

“Is Detective Fletcher home, Albert?”

“He is, at present, in his office, Mr. Hellion.”

“Excellent. We will need food and lashings of tea, with perhaps brandy as a follow-up, Albert. Also, some food for my dog, if you please.”

The butler didn’t so much as blink. “I’ll see to it at once, sir.”

“I understand you have a child in the household now, Albert. It’s my hope you also have more staff to handle the extra work?” Ram said, following the butler’s straight back.

“Indeed. Two more, Mr. Hellion.”

“I am pleased.” Ram took off his outer clothing, and it was then he noted he’d lost another hat. These men were causing him a great deal of distress, not to mention money. “I know the way to my cousin’s office, Albert.” Ram waved the man off to the kitchens while he and Curaidh headed up the stairs.

The dog trotted at his side. After a brief knock on the door and Gray calling to enter, he did so. His cousin sat behind his desk, holding Alice swaddled in blankets, while Ellen sat across from them.

“Ram.” His cousin’s smile fell away as he looked at him. Clearly he still had something in his expression portraying what he’d just endured.

“Are you all right, Ram?” Ellen rose. “Come, sit. You have a smear of blood on your lip.” She pulled out a handkerchief and began to clean him like she would her child.

“I’m all right,” he said when she was done. “I will bring a chair over. I’m sorry Curaidh is here, but he has been a brave boy tonight,” Ram said.

Ellen waved his words away. “Chester is always bounding in and out of here. We love dogs. In fact, we will be getting our own soon.”

“We will?” Gray looked at her.

“Of course. Now sit and tell us what happened to you and your lovely dog.”

Ram pulled up a chair and fell into it. Curaidh wandered to Gray, sniffed Alice, and allowed his head to be patted.

“I was walking home?—”

“You are not that foolish,” Gray said.

“Unfortunately, it seems I am, and I would be grateful if I got the story out before you started the lecture.”

“It will not be easy for him, as my husband does like to lecture people.”

“Not lecture, point out ways they could do better,” Gray added. “Continue, Cousin.”

Ram told his story, ignoring the noises of displeasure Gray made .

“This has to stop,” Gray snarled when he was done.

“Agreed,” Ram added. “But there is more. The man who helped me tonight said his name was Brandon Hellion, my uncle.”

“Good Lord,” Gray whispered. “Really?”

“He walked away before I could say another word, but I swear there was something familiar about him, Gray. He had the look of my father. I didn’t know Uncle John well, as he passed when I was in India, but this man was familiar to me.”

“And the plot thickens,” Ellen said slowly.

“Have you told me everything, Ram?” Gray asked. “Now is not the time to hide anything if I am to help find those behind these events.”

Ram knew he had to come clean then. There was too much at stake. “I had hoped to keep this between Mother and me, but it seems now I must tell you two also.”

“What?” Ellen demanded. She’d risen and taken the now-slumbering child from Gray. She then put her in Ram’s lap.

His arms cradled Alice, and Ram bent to inhale her soft baby scent. The tightness inside him eased, and in that moment, he felt safe, but he knew it would not last.

“My father was not the man everyone thought him to be,” Ram said the words he’d vowed to never tell another soul. “In fact, he was a liar and a cheat and stole a lot of money from a powerful man called Dhruv Desai.”

Gray looked shocked at his words. “I thought he was a good man.”

“No.” He wasn’t a good father either. But Ram kept those words to himself. He’d learned to live with the fact the man who should have loved him hadn’t.

“He owed this man a great deal of money, which I found out after I discovered him slumped in his chair, dead. The doctor said his heart had failed him.” And he failed us.

“Christ, Ram, why didn’t you tell me?” Gray demanded .

“I don’t know, to be honest. I guess I was in shock for a while and likely still am.” He’d known his father was a cold, emotionless person but not a lying thief. “There’s more.”

“Really?” Gray rubbed his chest over where his heart lay steadily thudding beneath.

“A man knocked on my door and told me in detail about Father’s debts the day after we buried him. He also said payment needed to be made in two days, or there would be an incentive.” Ram could still remember how he’d felt that day, reeling from the death of a father he hadn’t loved and coping with a grieving mother. Then this.

“Ram, I can’t imagine what this was like for you,” Ellen said, touching his arm.

He looked down at the slumbering child and ran a finger gently down her soft cheek. So innocent, he thought, and Alice would always be loved by many. She’d never want for someone to protect and nurture her. If any fell, another would be waiting.

“I found papers in my father’s things and saw there was no money. In fact, we had many debts. I paid what I could, but there was nowhere near enough to pay Desai. So I booked us tickets to leave and return here. Mother agreed when I explained to her why. They got into the house one night and took her while I slept.”

“Ram!” Ellen gasped. “Dear Lord, what did you do?”

“I went to Kavya. We talked, and it was decided that her three sons would gather others, and together they’d find my mother. It took two days, and finally we had a location. While Kavya and her friends put our belongings on a ship, we entered the building Mother was being kept in. It was night, but these men with me had been taught to fight. All of them had their faces covered, as did I, as I wanted no retribution.”

“The man, Dhruv Desai, was not there. He’d put only four men on guard. It was a simple matter of silencing them. I got Mother and told her we were leaving India immediately. She was in shock and did everything I asked of her. The following morning, we sailed for London.”

Gray was now writing on a sheet of paper before him. “Spell that name?”

After a thorough questioning, Ram was exhausted. It had been a long day when he took it all in.

Curaidh had eaten and drunk everything put before him and was now lying before the fire, warming his belly.

“You cannot go anywhere alone from this day forth,” Gray said.

“I know. Tomorrow I will write to Mother telling her about the attacks and Uncle Brandon’s appearance, as she must be alert too. I can also inform her I am going to purchase a property in Crabbett Close,” Ram added realizing it felt right to say the words out loud.

“Are you really?” Gray said.

“That property is perfect for me.”

“Well I can’t say I’m unhappy about that,” Gray said. “I can relax slightly as you will be surrounded by nosey neighbors. I’d like to see someone get past the Crabbett Close residents to you.”

“Well one thing is for sure. You’ll never be short of companionship or food,” Ellen added. “And of course there is Tabitha.”