Page 107 of A Baby to Seal the Duke’s Fate

Honora looked at her. Something about that smile and her words made Honora uneasy. But she was exhausted, afraid, and she needed a way out before she upset Leopold further. Reluctantly, she climbed into the carriage with Cecily.

The door closed, and the carriage began to move. Honora turned away, unable to watch as Belgrave faded behind her. It had become the only place where she had found true happiness after Celestine died. It had felt like Cecily had a whole family who loved her, which Cecily deserved. Without it, Honora did not know what lay ahead of them, or what kind of future Cecily would have.

Without it, I do not have Leopold, she thought, allowing the thought to linger. And only then, as she was losing him forever, did she allow herself to feel everything she had felt for him and tried to bury and ignore.

For the first hour, there was nothing but the sound of the carriage wheels. Cecily slept against her peacefully, and Honora was grateful.

Only a little milk remained from the bottle she had packed, and she knew she would need to spend some of the little money she had at the inn to purchase food before the child woke. Honora looked through the window at the fields slipping by and tried to think about what came next.

She would go to Northumberland, to see her aunt. She would explain everything and find some way to make it work. Perhaps she could still find a place where Cecily would be safe, even if she would be without the love that Leopold had clearly had for her. She was so lost in thought and worry that she barely noticed when the carriage stopped.

Honora frowned. They were nowhere near the county border. That would have been at least another half an hour away. In fact, there was nothing on either side of the road that she could see except for wide clearings and clusters of trees and flowers. Nothing looked familiar, and Honora realized she did not know where they were.

The door opened. Two men stood outside. She had never seen either of them.

Honora pulled Cecily closer. “Who are you?”

Neither man answered. One reached into the carriage and took the baby from her arms.

Honora screamed. “No!”

She lunged forward. The man holding Cecily stepped back while the other grabbed Honora’s arm.

“Let go of me!”

He pulled her from the carriage.

“Where are you taking her?”

There was no answer. The man holding Cecily gripped her roughly, rousing the baby. Cecily grunted fiercely in protest, craning her neck to see Honora being kept away from her. She reached for Honora, but the man holding her gruffly turned away.

“Give me my baby!”

She struggled against the man holding onto her, but the man’s grip was too strong. She wildly swung her foot, trying to make contact with any point on the man’s lower body, but he expertly held her at arm’s length, so all her foot met was air.

“Cecily!”

The baby began to cry. Honora fought harder, straining to free just one of her hands to aim at the man’s face. Those efforts were no more successful than her attempts to kick the man. Then, she saw another carriage waiting behind them. The man began dragging her toward it.

“No!” She tried to turn back. The first man was standing at the front of the carriage they had been traveling in, holding a now shrieking Cecily with his back to Honora and his partner. “Please! I am begging you, give her back!”

No one answered. She did not understand what was happening, but she made one last desperate attempt to reason with the men.

“I will go wherever you want me to go, and I will do whatever you want,” she said, choking on tears. “I will give you everything we have. But please, give me back my baby. I swear, I will do anything you say if you just give her back to me.”

The man shoved Honora into the carriage. She hit the seat hard. Before she could rise, the door slammed. The carriage started moving much faster than she expected, and she slammed her face into the door as she was in the process of lunging at it when the driver lurched forward.

Honora threw herself against the window. “Cecily!” she screamed. She could no longer see the other carriage.

Strange men have taken my niece, she thought, her panic raw and frantic as she continued slamming into the door. They took my sister’s child, and I cannot get to her to protect her.

She gripped the door handle and pulled. Locked. She hammered against the wood.

“Stop, please?” she cried, as though the driver had not just witnessed the entire ordeal and done nothing to help then.

The driver did not stop, and the countryside blurred past the window. Honora pressed her hands against the glass and tried to understand what had happened.

She was aware that marauders lurked along country roads, looking for wealthy noblemen to rob. But the men had not tried to steal anything. In fact, the only thing they had taken was Cecily. Or rather, they had taken Honora away from Cecily. It was as if the only thing they had been interested in had been the child. At first, nothing made any sense. Then, suddenly, everything did.