“Besides,” Kit added, just as she was about to head off by herself, “Heath practices fighting nearly every morning with one of the servants.”
She gaped at him.
“Renham told us,” Zack added. “When we stayed the night in London.”
“Apparently, Heath … er … spent his time in Bitche prison learning to fight,” Evan said.
Belatedly, she remembered Heath’s assertion that there had been nothing to do in Bitche but “learn French and fisticuffs.” She had never dreamed he actually meant the part about the fisticuffs.
All the same, she was on the verge of marching off after him, anyway, when she spotted Heath walking back down the path toward them.
“What happened?” She hurried up to him. “Are you hurt? Ishehurt?”
Heath ran his fingers through his hair. “I lost him,” he said bitterly. “I found the Merlin Swing, though, for all the good that does any of us.”
She sighed. “That means he escaped through the Grotto. He is long gone now.”
“I didn’t see any grotto,” Heath said.
“You would not have. It is on the other end of an underground passage. There is a staircase you can only see from atop the Merlin Swing. Going down the stairs leads you into the underground passage where you come out through a grotto and back into the pleasure gardens.”
“Wait,” Evan said to Giselle, “how did you know about …”
“She’s been here before,” Heath said as he fixed her with a wry look. “How else?”
“Youcheated?” Evan said to her.
“No more than you and Heath did,” Kit said, thrusting out his chest. “We would have beaten you, too, if not for me and Zack wanting to see the hermit.”
“At least we now know for certain what Jones wants,” Giselle told Heath. “He really is after Sarah.”
“I heard him demand that Giselle tell him where this Sarah is,” Kit said. “And he was holding Giselle around the waist and had his hand over her mouth, too, the scoundrel.”
“Oh, God,” Heath said, and took her in his arms, heedless of his brothers being there. “How did you get away?”
“Kicked him in the shin with my boot,” she murmured into his coat. “And Kit pulled on his arm.”
“That’s when she bit his hand,” Kit said. “He was bleeding something fierce when he left.”
“Good work, both of you,” Heath said, the look of distress on his face making her want to burrow deeper into his arms. “But we should probably all stick together from now on when in Bath. I think I lost half a lifetime when Zack said that devil had you.”
Swallowing hard, she nodded. “We should probably also warn Mr. Beasley again. Jones will keep trying to get to Sarah.”
“It’s possible Jones mentioned Sarah merely as a way to hide the truth,” Heath pointed out, “which is that he’s really after Beasley. I don’t trust him.”
“Neither do I,” Giselle said. “But short of scouring the town for him, which would not be easy, what do you propose we do about it?”
Heath took her aside. “With your permission, I mean to go to the constable and demand that he put his men to looking for him. Now that Jones has assaulted you—and we know it really has nothing to do with your papers—we can have him searched for through the town until he’s discovered.”
She gazed up at him. “But what if once they find him, he tells them he suspects my papers are not genuine?”
“Then we’ll marry sooner rather than later, and the whole thing will become moot.” When she hesitated, he added, “You know that’s the wisest course of action,ma chérie.”
She nodded. It was. And the way Heath had come to her rescue told her more certainly than anything that he would never let anyone, even his government, harm her and Maman.
Oh, Lord, Maman! She gripped Heath’s arm. “We must fetch Maman, in case Jones decides to use her to get my compliance!”
“Of course.” Heath turned to where the boys were waiting, whispering among themselves. “Come, lads. We’ll return another day. But we must go pick up Madame Bernard. I have to stop at the constable’s office after that, so Giselle and I may report her assault, but then, we’ll go to get pork pies if you would all prefer.”