“Come now, Zack,” Giselle said, trying not to let her impatience color her voice. “Have you not seen enough of the Hermit’s Cot? We are almost to the end, and I wish to beat Heath.”
“I’m waiting for the hermit to come out,” Zack said. “We have to see the hermit.”
“Thereisno hermit,” Giselle said. “It’s just a building. There used to be a life-sized puppet that served as the hermit, but a bad storm blew him away, and they have not replaced him yet.”
“A puppet?” Kit said. “That’s a disappointment.”
“P’raps they decided to replace the puppet with a real hermit,” Zack put in, “and he’s inside or something.”
“Plenty of people hire real hermits to enhance their landscaping,” Kit told her. “I know the Uppingtons do.”
“What?” Giselle said. “You are joking, surely.”
Both boys shook their heads no and continued to watch the cottage.
“Oh, for pity’s sake.” She was about to give them an earful about the idiocies of their fellow noblemen when she felt, rather than saw, someone come up behind her.
She did not even get the chance to turn around before she was grabbed about the waist and a hand was clamped over her mouth.
“Let the boys look,” a familiar voice hissed in her ear. “But you are coming with me, Mademoiselle Bernard, so we can have a conversation.”
She froze. Vaughan Jones. And he was already trying to drag her back into the bushes.
Terror gripped her before she realized that since he seemed to be trying to take her by brute strength, he probably had no weapon. Thank God she had worn her sturdy walking boots today.
She kicked backward at his shin, a maneuver she’d had to use a time or two in Verdun with drunken officers. Though he did not release her, he howled loud enough to draw the boys’ attention.
Kit whirled around to see her struggling with Jones. “You leave her be, you villain!” Then he gave Zack a little shove. “Go find Heath! Now!”
Zack needed no more encouragement to go running back the way they’d come, yelling at the top of his lungs for his brothers.
Meanwhile, Kit threw himself at Jones, dragging on the man’s arm while Giselle bit down on the devil’s hand as hard as she could.
Jones released her to back away from the two of them, holding his now-bleeding hand. “I just want to know where Sarah is!” Jones cried. “If you tell me where she lives, I swear I’ll leave you be!”
“She does not want you!” Giselle snapped. “I will never tell you where she lives, you bloody cur!” Then she let loose with a storm of French invective that even seemed to give Jones pause.
Suddenly, he looked off beyond her, released a curse, and went racing down the path toward where the Merlin Swing was. Evan and Heath came running up to them at that very moment.
“Are you all right?” Heath paused long enough to ask, alarm in his eyes. “You have blood on your chin.”
“Because I bit the scoundrel,” she said, then pointed forward on the path. “Jones went that way.”
“Stay with her!” Heath ordered Evan, and broke into a run once more.
She drew out her handkerchief to wipe her chin, and almost at once began to fret. What if Heath got into a fight with Jones? What if Jones hurt him? What if …
“We have to follow him,” she told Evan.
Zack came running up just then, all out of breath. “Wh-where … did … H-Heath go?” he managed to choke out as he bent over to rest his hands on his knees.
Kit patted his brother’s back. “After the villain. You were so brave, Zack. I’m very proud of you.”
“We all are,” Evan said.
“Yes, yes, every one of you is brave,” she cried, “but what if Jones does something to Heath? We have to go after them!”
“Heath said to stay with you, and staying with you is what I’m doing,” Evan told her, crossing his arms over his chest.