Page 38 of Brazen

“Nae.” Joshua shook his head. “He can scream all he likes and no one will hear him down here.”

Robert hesitated.

Joshua rolled his eyes. “Stop fretting. We played in these tunnels over the years enough to know. Now come along. We must reach my room before the servants rise. We cannot chance Mia or Aunt Leana seeing you.”

So, they were still at Westbourne Tower. This had to be a hidden room. Magnus wondered how the boys thought they might smuggle him out of Stirling’s castle and force him onto a ship bound for, well, anywhere, without being detected.

“Think about what you’re doing, lad,” Magnus said. “I understand what motivated you to kidnap me. But to leave me here—and to consider sending me to the Colonies—are actions that can land you in prison.”

“Prison?” Robert paled. “Joshua, I do no’ want to go to prison.”

“You won’t go to prison,” Joshua said with the arrogance born of youth. “He cannot escape. Plus, he is the criminal. Come. We can decide what to do tomorrow.” He crossed to the candle and picked it up.”

“At least leave the candle,” Magnus said. ‘Tis inhumane to leave a man tied to a chair in the dark.”

Joshua hesitated.

“He’s right, Josh. We cannot leave him like that.”

Joshua gave a curt nod and set down the candle. Then the two boys crossed to the righthand wall. Magnus watched carefully as Joshua reached for the edge of the single shelf and pulled back a lever. The wall sprang open and the two boys left, pulling the door shut behind them.

Magnus began working his hands in an effort to loosen his wrist bonds. To his frustration, the cords chaffed his wrists, but the knots remained snug. He twisted and examined the chair. A simple chair, commonly found in kitchens. His head still thrummed, though not as badly as it had when he first awoke. That might change in a moment.

He leaned his weight forward, which lifted the back legs off the floor, then leaned as far forward as he dared. Magnus gritted his teeth, tucked his chin to his chest, then flipped onto his back. The chair broke with a loud crack. Pieces skittered across the wooden floor. The wind whooshed from his lungs and he wheezed in several shallow pants before the pounding in his head slowed its rhythm and the discomfort in his ribs eased. When he got out of this, he would whip the two lads.

At length, he slid his hands down over his buttocks, then over his feet. He removed the broken pieces of the legs still tied to his ankles and shook the rope free. Magnus examined the ropes binding his wrists. He had to give the brothers credit, they knew how to tie a proper half hitch knot. His efforts had only tightened the rope binding his writs.

Using his teeth, he managed to loosen the knot enough to escape his bonds. Magnus stood, fetched the candle, then went to the door and located the lever. He opened the door and pulled it back wide enough to fit through the gap.

The narrow passage stayed straight for about eighty feet, then abruptly ended. Now all he had to do was find the damn button that opened the door. He began on the wall directly ahead and felt around the stone. A third of the way from the righthand wall, he discerned a light depression. He pressed and a door about five feet high clicked open.

Soft firelight shone through the crack. Magnus inched the door open, then pulled aside a tapestry covering the door. He ducked through the doorway into a hallway lit by a lamp on a table not far ahead. He closed the door, then released the tapestry and scanned the hallway. Four evenly spaced doors occupied the lefthand wall and three, the right. A painting of a wooded scene hung to the left of the first lefthand door. He guessed this to be one of the guest wings.

His end of the hallway dead ended at the beautiful tapestry of a hunting scene. Stairs had to be on the opposite end of the hallway. He started along the carpeted floor and reached the second door when a murmur of voices caused him to hesitate and the doorknob on the next door on the right jiggled.

Magnus whirled toward the door to his right. The wonder of who might be in the room flashed through his mind as he grasped the knob. The knob turned. He entered. The bed located to the right was empty. The third door down opened fully and light spilled into the hallway. Magnus closed the door to a mere slit, then listened.

Footsteps grew louder. He tensed. Surely, the person approaching wasn’t the occupant of this room? He stepped to the left of the door in anticipation of the door opening, but the person kept walking. He was too old for these sorts of shenanigans. The door nearest the secret entrance opened, then closed.

Magnus released a breath. His instincts had always been impeccable. He opened the door and stepped into the hallway. Carefully, he pulled the door shut, stopping just short of the latch engaging, then turned toward the stairs. He crept forward in silence. The third door on the right unexpectedly opened, and he instinctively swung around as someone crashed into him.

Magnus seized the woman’s shoulders as he spun with the momentum of their collision. He stumbled backwards through the open doorway. His boot heel snagged on the rug and he fell. In the instant before they hit the floor, his mind registered the familiar fair hair. Mia cried out. Her head struck his jaw. His teeth jarred in unison with her weight compressing his abdomen—her leg jammed against his bollocks.

“Holy God, woman, are you trying to unman me?” He cursed.

She shoved to a seated position atop his abdomen. Her robe gaped, revealing a thin linen shift. A pretty lace nightcap sat askew on her head. Her thick blonde locks tumbled down one shoulder.

“What in heaven’s name are you doing here?” she demanded.

His mind muddled with the pressure of her buttocks on his growing erection. He really should have gone home after leaving her with Lady Chastity. Even his wound now ached.

Footsteps sounded behind him and a man burst into the room. The man stumbled to a halt beside them and stared, mouth agape. Mia’s eyes widened. A woman gasped behind Magnus. An instant later, Mia’s aunt appeared beside the gentleman, who still stared as if he’d never seen a woman straddling a man’s hips.

Leana’s eyes locked on Mia’s open robe and Magnus was almost sure he saw satisfaction in the instant before she said, “I need not ask what you’re doing in my niece’s room, sir.”

Magnus grasped Mia’s waist and lifted her. She took the hint and scrambled off his hip, her knee bumping his cock as she pushed to her feet. He couldn’t halt the sharp intake of breath and caught the understanding on Leana’s face. He rose to his knees, and silently cursed at sight of the man Gordon Young had been speaking with earlier, now standing in the open doorway. Malice glittered in his eyes. News of his visit to Lady Mia’s room would be known to all Stirling’s guests before breakfast and to all of Inverness by evening.

Magnus stood, and affected what he hoped was a sheepish smile, then said to Lady Leana, “I couldn’t resist one more kiss for my future wife before I retired for the evening.”

Lady Mia gasped—nothing like the sensual sounds she had emitted in the ballroom—in unison with Leana smile. Magnus kept his attention on his now-future bride, but felt the man’s stare on his back.

“Shame on you, Lord Magnus,” Leana said, and Magnus noted the emphasis on his title and name. The woman was not only making sure everyone knew who had been caught in her niece’s room—and had declared a proposal—she was making sure everyone knew he was connected to peerage.

“But it is time to take your leave, sir” Leana continued. “Mia needs her rest.”

By now, his future bride was glaring. Leana shooed the two men from the room and Magnus heard in the instant before the door closed, “There you are, Mia.”

Magnus locked gazes with Gordon Young’s companion for an instant, then strode past the onlookers toward the stairs. So much for his impeccable instincts.