The Rebellious Rake (The Notorious Nightingales #4)

Chapter 29

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

R amsey had come to the fair because he was sick of his own company, and Flora would be here. He felt a desperate need to see her. Touch her and hear her voice. Walking the path in behind other patrons, he was deep in thought and didn’t see the man who stepped in front of him.

“Plenty of people about to be wandering on your own, if you don’t mind me saying so, Mr. Ramsey, seeing as Detective Fletcher is set on you not being alone in public.”

Ram only just managed to step left in time and avoid knocking the elderly man before him over. Who, on closer inspection, he noted was Mr. Greedy from Crabbett Close.

“There’s many a troubling thought that brings down an unaware man, Mr. Ramsey.”

He searched his mind for who wrote that and came up with nothing.

“I’m quite safe here, Mr. Greedy.”

The man looked about them and wasn’t convinced.

“I’ve been dabbling in my own poetry,” he said through his scarf. Thick and yellow, it wrapped multiple times around his thin neck.

“Well then, keep working on it, and I’d love to hear more,” Ram said with what he hoped was sincerity. “But right now I must find the Nightingale family, who are wandering about in the fair.”

“Good folks, those,” Mr. Greedy said. “You’ll have a care, Mr. Ramsey, after your incident.” He then raised his cap and walked away in the opposite direction.

Crabbett Close residents, Ram had soon realized, were everywhere, and they now knew about his attempted abduction, which would explain why he felt like one of them was always knocking on his front door.

Gray, Ram thought. He’d probably told everyone in Crabbett Close to watch him.

Entering the park, he inhaled the scent of sugar and spices and heard the sizzle of meat, and he felt his stomach rumble. Following the stream of people, he started looking for his friends and family.

Excitement was the only word he felt over the fact he’d see Flora, with her soft lips and alluring scent, soon. His smart-mouthed shrew with a mind that retained facts, according to her brother, and body that he needed a lot longer to worship.

He and Charles Thomas hadn’t become friends exactly. There was a wariness between them, and Ram was sure that with a brother’s intuition, he knew what Ramsey felt for his sister. They’d be brothers-in-law one day, he thought, and where the idea of marriage had terrified him only days ago, it no longer did. Time alone with his own thoughts had given him clarity. In fact, he wanted Flora bound to him with no escape.

“Would you be wanting a lovely wedge of fruitcake, sir?”

A woman was smiling at him with several missing front teeth and hair the color of strawberries. Before her on a long table were plates of cake.

“I don’t know anyone who could resist such an offer,” he said. Pulling out coins, he was soon wandering while consuming it.

He found Alex and Charles standing at a stall, throwing wooden balls at rectangles of wood.

“Do you need someone to show you how it is done?” he enquired, dropping the last piece of fruitcake into his mouth.

“We have it, thank you,” Charles said, closing one eye. “And what are you doing out in public? I thought someone was attempting to abduct you?”

“Gray is not going to be pleased,” Alex said, sniffing the air. “Have you been eating fruitcake?”

“I am not scared of my cousin,” Ram said, “and yes, it was delicious.”

He let his eyes wander as the men lined up their next attempts and saw no sign of any other family members.

“Where are the others?” Ramsey said casually. “I best get the growling over with I will receive from my cousin for daring to leave my house alone.”

Charles looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with him. He knew what lay between Ram and his sister. It was there in his expression. Ram gave him a nod, and Flora’s brother returned it.

“They have wandered off to find tea and food. I told them we would meet them shortly, as I wanted to try the hammer thing again, because Leo beat me.”

“And I am here to ensure he does not cheat,” Charlie said.

“I’m not sure how he could cheat at using a hammer. It’s hardly a game of chance,” Ramsey said, wondering why he felt agitated suddenly.

“Where is Flora?” Alex said, frowning .

“Something’s off,” Charles said at the same time. “Flora is calling me.”

“Our Great-Aunt Constance, who I’ve never had contact with before, as she thought me hideously spoiled, is worried and showing me Flora’s doll, Dotty. You remember that revolting thing with only one eye and a missing arm she carried everywhere?”

“I do. Great-Aunt Constance loved Flora,” Charles said, looking around him.

Ram looked at Flora’s brother. His face was pale, eyes wide.

“I can hear her voice in my head. Something is wrong.”

Ram couldn’t hear anything but the hum of excited chatter around them.

“Alex?”

“Something is very wrong,” he added. “Your father is with Great-Aunt Constance and directing me to get to her fast, Charles.”

“I’m not sure we want to hear anything he has to say in this moment,” Charles muttered.

“Why?” Alex demanded.

“Never mind. Later. We need to find Flora.”

“Which way?” Ram demanded. His eyes were sweeping from left to right as he searched for her. They landed on a tent that had the words Fortune Teller on a small sign above it.

“There,” Charles said, pointing to the sign.

The three men ran, weaving through the crowds, to reach the tent. Raising the flap, they stepped inside. There was a single table with two chairs drawn up to it. A lamp sat on the ground.

“Empty,” Ram said. “But she was here. I can smell her scent.”

Ram saw the small bag and bent to pick it up. Inside was a knitted house that sat on the floor and something else wrapped in paper.

“Is this hers?” he raised it for Charles and Alex to see.

“It is,” Charles said. Both he and Alex then tore off their gloves and touched it. Ram had never wanted what the Nightingales had until that moment.

“Great-Aunt Constance is showing me a knitted blanket the hideous color of rotten cabbage,” Alex said.

“Flora’s blanket,” Charles said. “I can hear her voice. She was in here. I’m sure of it.”

“Have you come to have your fortune told?” An old lady entered from the rear. “It will take time to get through you all, but if you will wait?—”

“Where is she?” Ram demanded, stalking to where she stood. “Tell me what you did with the woman who held this.” He held up the bag.

He saw the flash of shock, and then it was masked.

“She knows,” Alex said softly.

“You will talk, and you will do so now, or it will go worse for you,” Ram said. “The woman who was taken is important to us, and we will do what it takes to get her back. Speak now or suffer.” His words made her flinch.

People thought Ram was easygoing, but he could be mean when required.

“I know not what you speak of,” she said in a thick-accented voice.

“She lies,” Charles said. “I can hear her fear.”

How could he hear the fear?

Leo burst into the tent. “Flora’s handkerchief. I need to find it. Why?”

“She’s missing, and this woman knows where she is,” Alex said.

“Speak!” Ram bellowed. He slammed his fist into his palm .

The woman’s shoulders started to shake as she stepped back, preparing to flee.

“Do you really think you can outrun us?” Charles said.

“Your tears do not move me, madam. Tell me where she is,” Ram demanded.

“They paid me…. I needed the money. I lured her here, but I know nothing more than that.”

“She lies,” Alex said. “Great-Aunt Constance is shaking her gnarled finger.” He then made a humming noise.

Ram shot Alex a look in time to watch his eyes roll upward as he started to twitch. Leo joined in humming and weaving from side to side. Charles started speaking in an odd guttural language.

Surely, she wasn’t buying any of this? Ram looked back to the woman and saw her fear.

“Witches,” the woman hissed, crossing herself.

“Tell us what you know!” Charles threw his voice at the woman. “Or we’ll curse you!”

Ram blinked. He sounded like a ghost. He looked back at the woman, and she was pulling rosary beads from her bodice.

“They’ll turn you into a sewer rat if I let them,” Ram said. “Speak.”

“They want another,” she said quickly, “and she was going to be used to get him. Blackmail.”

Me, Ram thought. They had taken her to get to him. A rage so fierce, it nearly choked him welled up inside Ramsey. Someone had taken Flora from him… them, and when he found out who, they would pay.

“Where is she?” Charles demanded.

“I don’t know that,” the woman said. “Please, I wanted the money only. Don’t curse me!”

“How did you know to grab her?” Ram demanded as Alex started chanting something unintelligible that had the woman’s eyes shooting to him in terror.

“Four men approached me. They pointed out the group the woman was in. You were in,” she said, pointing to Charles and Alex. “They said to lure any of you in here, and they would do the rest.”

“Any of us?” Charles said. “Why would they want any of us?”

“To get to me,” Ram said. “They wanted me, so they grabbed Flora.”

“Where are they now?” Charles advanced on the woman, and she scurried back, out of his reach.

“They left with her in a cart. Please, I can’t tell you more than that.”

“Alex!” Ram snapped when the woman started wailing. “Enough!”

They were moving again in seconds. Heading out the rear of the tent, thoughts thundered through Ram’s head. Flora was in danger because of him.

“Ram, if they want you, maybe you should stay here,” Alex said.

“No. This is because of me. I’m coming.”

“This needs to stop,” Charles said. “My sister has been caught up in whatever is going on with you twice now, Hellion. If you and she are to share a life, it will be without danger.”

“Agreed,” Ram snapped, not denying the words. “She will not be harmed again,” he vowed.

“Well, at least you’re admitting that now, and you and Flora are no longer pretending we are fools,” Leo said.

“You’re still fools,” Ram said.

This was clearly an entrance for stallholders and their carts, as the dew-drenched grass had tracks.

“Where do we start?” Ram asked. “The street is that way, and once there, they could go in any direction. You all need to use your skills to find her.”

“Agreed,” Alex said. “We share her blood, so we will.”

They ran across the grass to the road.

“Left,” Charles declared.

“We need transportation,” Ram said, looking around. “They have a head start on us.”

“I say, why is there a gaggle of Nightingales in the street?”

The man hanging out of the carriage window as it drew alongside was Lord Devonshire Sinclair. “Stop the carriage, Bids!” he demanded.

“Are you sure, my lord?” the driver, who had a cap pulled low and at least two scarves around his neck, said. “There could be trouble about.”

“At once, Bids,” Lord Sinclair said.

The driver slowed the horses to an eventual stop a few feet down the road from where they stood. Lord Sinclair, Mr. Warwick Sinclair, his brother, and the Duchess of Raven, their sister, stepped down.

“What problem has you all standing in the middle of a busy street on a frigid night wearing fierce frowns?” Lord Sinclair asked.

“We are looking for our cousin,” Alex said.

“Where did you lose her?” Warwick Sinclair asked.

“She was taken from the fair,” Ram said. “We are attempting to find her.” Desperation was clawing at his throat now. He had to get Flora back. Had to find her. What if they hurt her? What if—no. She would be safe until he reached her.

“Are you all right, Ramsey?” Lord Sinclair asked. “You growled.”

“He loves my sister, and I quite like her, so we want her back,” Charles said .

Lord Sinclair’s eyes went from Ram to Charles and back again.

“Taken?” the duchess demanded.

“It’s my fault,” Ram said. “They are after me and took Flora as leverage, I’m sure of it. We need to find her at once.”

“And you are doing what on this road?” Lord Sinclair asked.

“We need transportation,” Alex said. “To go that way.” He pointed in the opposite direction.

“Well then, go that way we shall if there is a woman in need of our help,” Warwick Sinclair said. “Miss Thomas is lovely. I met her at the ball.”

“I’m afraid it could be dangerous, Duchess,” Ram said.

“Pffft,” the duchess said. “Danger is my middle name.”

“I thought one of your middle names was Myrtle?” Warwick said with a smirk.

The duchess hissed, “We don’t mention that one, ever! Now let’s go.”

“Excellent, everyone in the carriage at once,” Lord Sinclair said. “Besides, you have just saved me a boring piano recital, which my sister conned us into attending, as her husband was not foolhardy enough to agree. Our wives”—he pointed to Warwick and then himself— “said they would rather have every tooth in their heads removed.”

“It was not going to be boring,” his sister snapped, “you uncultured heathen.”

The siblings argued as they climbed into the carriage. Warwick sat with his brother and sister. Alex sat beside Leo.

“I’ll climb up with the driver,” Charles said.

“Go back the way you came, Bids. I will give you direction when I have it,” Lord Sinclair said. He then shut the carriage.

“Now, tell us all,” the duchess said.

Alex did without elaborating for once .

“I’m sorry this has happened, but you have the best people to help you,” the duchess said. “We are a great deal more resourceful than we look,” she added.

“Indeed,” Warwick Sinclair agreed.

“Extremely resourceful,” Lord Sinclair added, his bright green eyes intense as they focused on Alex. “Now tell us why you believe it was actually you they were after, Ramsey?”

“I don’t know exactly why they are after me.” He told them about the attempted abductions he’d foiled and how Flora had saved him in the sewer and the danger he’d faced in India due to his father. Only the truth was important now.

“Well, we all have enemies in our past and fathers who gave them to us,” Warwick Sinclair said. “But right now we need a direction.”

“It’s the oddest thing,” Leo said, “but I feel we need to travel to Haddock Street to find that handkerchief.”

Warwick Sinclair opened the door above their heads. “Haddock Street, Bids. Yes, yes, we shall take care,” Warwick then added before shutting it again.

“Our driver worries,” the duchess said. “Apparently we are incapable of making decisions for ourselves, so he feels a need to.”

“Our driver thinks we’re idiots also,” Alex said.