Page 81 of A Remarkable Rogue

No, Miss Jenner had simply stood there beside the blanket while they’d been attacked and held Robbie in her arms as the men surprised Sydney from behind before she could scream. She’d been holding Robbie not to protect him, Sydney realized now, but to kidnap him. Miss Jenner had known! That was why she’d been so distracted at breakfast, why she’d given Sydney the blue dress to wear…so the kidnapper would know which of the two women to come after.

Sydney narrowed her eyes on the woman she’d entrusted with her son’s life.You bitch.

The kidnapper pulled a knife from his belt. Sydney shrank back at the flash of metal, only to be jerked forward when he grabbed her tied wrists and pulled them toward him to cut through the bindings.

“Do as we say, an’ you can stay free of the ropes,” he instructed in a thick Cornwall accent. “Get in the way, an’ we’ll put ’em back on. With a gag.”

Sydney tried to swallow down the terror swirling in her stomach. “I won’t be in your way.”

He gave a stiff nod, pleased that she was cooperating. He shoved her backward, and she fell onto a narrow wooden bench along the wall. Then he grabbed Robbie by the scruff of his neck and roughly placed him onto the bench beside her.

Sydney grabbed her son into her arms and pressed him protectively against her.

“We’ll wait here until dark,” he told Miss Jenner.

“Why dark?” Sydney asked as suspicion licked at the backs of her knees.

The man sent her a patronizing smile, the same one the old baron used to give her. “So no one’ll see us leave.”…after we’ve killed you and the boy.

The words reverberated through Sydney’s mind as loudly as if he’d actually uttered them.

She glanced down at Robbie as he sat on the bench beside her, his small form both tied and gagged to keep him from crying and being heard.

Think!She had to think through her fear, to ignore the furious racing of her heart and find a way to free them, to hide, to save Robbie—shehadto!

“I’ll watch the boy,” Miss Jenner said as she stepped forward and reached to pull Robbie from Sydney’s arms.

“Do not touch him!” Sydney snarled through clenched teeth.

The woman stiffened, momentarily taken aback. Then she relaxed, and a macabre smile stretched her thin lips. “But looking after him is my job. Thatiswhy you hired me.”

“Iwill take care of him.” She sent a pleading look past Miss Jenner to the kidnapper, knowing instinctively that he was the one in charge. “At least let me take the blindfold off his eyes. He’s terrified with it on. He won’t cry so much if he’s not as frightened.”

The man paused as he considered her logic, then nodded curtly. “Just keep the brat quiet.”

He stalked away to a table near the door, then pulled out a deck of cards from his pocket and settled in to play a game of solitaire.

Sydney’s stomach sickened at his cold-blooded demeanor. He was simply wasting time until dark when he and Miss Jenner would slit both her throat and Robbie’s and use the cover of darkness to make their getaway.

Sydney cooed softly to Robbie as he struggled in terror when he felt her hands at his head. But if she could untie him, then he might just have a chance at running, and if she could distract the kidnapper and Miss Jenner, he might be able to get away. Saving her son’s life was all that mattered. Her own life meant nothing in comparison.

With trembling hands, she slipped the blindfold off and forced a comforting smile at Robbie when he blinked open his eyes. Through red-rimmed eyes glistening with fear, he stared for a confused moment before he recognized her. Then he began to cry, his sobs muffled behind the cloth shoved into his mouth.

“Shh, my darling, it’s all right.” She wrapped her arms around him and pressed him tightly against her.

Miss Jenner reached once more for him.

“Don’t.” Sydney glared murderously at the woman, her eyes narrowing to such furious slits that Miss Jenner gasped and retreated to the other side of the room.

Sydney cradled Robbie in her arms and rocked him gently as she kissed his hair. When he’d calmed enough that he could hear her soft whispers, she brought her mouth close to his ear.

“Robert, listen carefully to me.” She prayed the distress in her voice didn’t send him into a fresh bout of crying. “We have to find a way out of here. You have to do exactly as I say. Understand?”

When the boy nodded, she gently cupped his young face in her hands and kissed away the tears on his cheeks. It anguished her to keep him gagged like this, but she knew she couldn’t free him completely. Not just yet.

“You must doexactlyas I say or—” A piece of her heart shattered at having to create more fear inside the already terrified little boy. “Or that man will hurt us.”

His eyes widened. From beneath the gag, he cried out loudly enough to catch the attention of the kidnapper, who looked up from his cards.