Fic: 'Harry & the Pirate VI: Blood and Treasure (Jack/Harry, etc. - 15/20)

[dwgm]

Chapter Fifteen: Abducted


A few days before they were to go back to London, Jack determined that he would be obliged to travel to Lincoln on business connected with the estate, a tiresome burden save that Harry suggested they all go with him.

“More shopping?” he teased.

“Yes, but it’s a lovely town, too, with many things to see. The cathedral is a particularly fine example of Gothic architecture, and there is a famous garden where one can take tea when the weather permits.”

“Tea. And a cathedral.” Jack looked Harry over with a raised brow. “You know, I was under the impression that we’d met before, but clearly I was mistaken. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m your husband, Jack.”

Harry chuckled and kissed him.

Jack suffered the kiss, but added, “Ain’t you forgetting what happened last time you went?”

“I am certainly not,” Harry replied, “but there will be no difficulty: the children shall go with us this time.”

On the appointed day, however, two of their number begged leave to stay behind: Anne, pleading the headache (“That time of the month,” Maggie confided to Harry); and Tom, who offered to forego the expedition in order to ride down to Boston and make certain the Black Pearl and the Christiana would be well-stocked and titivated for the journey south, three days hence.

Tom said, in a tone of self-sacrifice, “I’ll make sure I’m back to bear Anne company at dinner, too, since Cousin Sera goes with you to Lincoln.”

“Very thoughtful,” Maggie said, her eyes twinkling.

“It is,” Harry agreed, and smiled wistfully, for it seemed to her that time was running out for Tom and Anne.

But Tom kissed her cheek and said, “Don’t worry, Mother. It’ll all come right.”

He flashed her a sly grin and a wink, looking so much like his father in that moment that later she knew she should have taken it as a warning.

*

The distance to Lincoln, and the city’s many diversions, made the outing a lengthy affair, and once again they stopped for dinner on the way back. It was after ten when they returned to Fleet Hall, though this was not so late that Tom and Anne should have retired to bed, and they were therefore surprised to find themselves greeted instead by the footman, Blake, his expression grave, and then by Harry’s dresser, Amelie, and her sister, the culinary genius Louise. They came bustling down the lamp lit steps, and Louise was forcibly towing a terrified young maid in her wake. Alfonse and Anatole followed, both of them looking concerned.

Jack frowned. “What’s all th—“

But Louise cut him off. “Capitaine! Neither your son nor Admiral Norrington’s daughter are here, nor did they come for dinner at the appointed hour. But this, this trollop was heard boasting to her fellows that she knew what was afoot! Voyons, if you will only allow me to beat her like the miserable worm she is!” Louise gave the girl a shake, eyes blazing.

The girl yelped and implored Harry, “Please ma’am, I didn’t know they wasn’t coming back! And Master Tom told me he wouldn’t hurt Miss, not for any money.”

“What’s this?” Norrington said sharply, getting out of the carriage.

“What’s happened?” Maggie demanded, for this was the maid who had been assigned to serve Anne these last weeks.

Harry said to the maid, “Madame Guerinot will release you, but you will tell us immediately what all this is about.”

The girl wept a little, but nodded.

Louise complied, but kept her eyes on the maid, her hand ready to grab an arm again should the girl make a false move.

“Now, Constance,” said Harry outwardly severe, though inwardly she was quailing, Oh, Tom! “What do you know of this?”

“It was a note, ma’am. Master Tom asked me to give it to Miss just at four o’clock, and to… to help her leave the house unnoticed. He said it was a surprise, and that she’d like it! On my honor! That’s what he said!”

“And what was this surprise? Do you know?” Maggie asked.

“N-not precisely. But I’ve a friend who works at the Golden Lion in Mavis Enderby and she told me this morning that Master Tom had been in yesterday, ordering up a private room with supper to be served, and victuals of the finest.”

Admiral Norrington raised a brow. “Irregular, but—“

“But they’re not back?” Maggie frowned.

“No, Madame,” said Alphonse, coming forward. “It is that which concerns us, though until a few minutes ago we had no idea where to begin looking for them.”

“Then you’ve not sent to the Golden Lion as yet?” Elizabeth asked, and immediately turned to Harry. “Will and I can stay here with Daisy and William Weatherby, you take the carriage to the Golden Lion.”

“Yes,” Harry agreed, and rather reluctantly met Jack’s eyes.

As she feared, he was watching her narrowly. “Did you know anything of this?”

“No! That is, not precisely.”

Maggie said, to Jack and her own husband, “Harry and I had hoped… and perhaps encouraged Tom to talk to Anne. He loves her, James, and I know she loves him, too.”

“So you knew of this clandestine assignation?”

“No!” both ladies said, in unison.

Their husbands exchanged a glance.

Then Jack reached out and took Harry by the arm, saying, “Right, we can discuss this further in the carriage.”

“Indeed,” James said, coolly, his hand at Maggie’s back. He said over his shoulder to Will and Elizabeth, “See what you can do to prevent further talk among the servants – though it’s probably far too late already.”

*

Mrs. Brown, the owner of the Golden Lion, was already in her nightdress when she opened the door, but when she heard what Jack had to say she was completely dismayed.

“You mean they didn’t go home? With the young lady taken so ill when they was half way through supper?”

“Ill?” Maggie exclaimed.

“What do you mean, ill?” Harry demanded, her heart sinking still further.

Mrs. Brown shook her head. “Master Tom assured me she was just feeling a bit faint, but he had to carry her out to the carriage for all that. I made sure she would have been in her bed these four hours and more by now.”

“James!” Maggie said, turning to her husband in her distress.

And Harry turned to her husband. “Jack, Tom wouldn’t hurt her! He wouldn’t! ”

“No,” said Jack, but he looked worried nonetheless. He said to Mrs. Brown, “Can I get a horse from you?”

James asked him sharply, “Where do think they’ve gone?”

“Boston.” Jack met his friend’s eye.

And James’s brows rose. “My God. The Christiana. And that bed! ”

Maggie frowned, and Harry demanded, “Bed? What bed?”

Jack gave a mirthless laugh. “I meant it for a surprise – but not like this. Bloody hell.” He looked at James and said, “He wouldn’t, not without she was full willing. You know that!”

James looked ready to do a murder, but did not reply to Jack. Instead he turned to the innkeeper. “Mrs. Brown, can you spare a horse?”

“Two,” put in Jack.

“Yes, two,” James agreed, and turned to his wife. “Margaret, you and Harry will return to Fleet Hall for our things and Anne’s, and will put up at the Crown at the Boston waterfront if the Black Pearl and the Christiana are both gone when you arrive.”

Mrs. Brown said, “I’ve two good ‘uns out in the stable, they’ll get you to Boston in no time, if that’s where you think they’ve gone. Oh dear, if I’ve helped your pretty daughter to ruination I’ll never forgive myself! Master Tom assured me you knew about it or I never would have countenanced such goings on in my house, not for any money. And the sun hadn’t set when he carried her out, there were half a dozen or so that were looking on and a couple of those less discrete than one might prefer.”

“I suppose it’ll be all over the county by tomorrow,” Jack muttered. He said to James, wryly, “So much for your earl, maybe.”

“Hartfield!” James said, dismissively. “Anne is our concern. If that miscreant boy of yours has harmed my daughter in any way—“

“James, I’ll have the skin off his back if he has,” asserted Jack, “and then you can kill him.



Continued in Chapter Sixteen: Confrontation