Page 55 of A Stolen Heart

“Wot?” The man blinked at him.

“You may notice that one of my hands is not on the table,” Thorpe went on coolly. “That is because I have a pistol in it.”

“Wot!” The man glanced at the table as if he could see through it to Thorpe’s concealed hand.

“Yes. And it is pointed at a rather vital part of your anatomy. Now, if you don’t tell me who this madam is and where her brothel is located, I shall fire, and you, my friend, will die a slow and painful death. I’ve seen men with their privates blown off, and it’s not a pleasant way to go.”

Peggoddy paled, and he glanced from Thorpe to Murdock, who said, “I would do as he said.”

“But…but you’re a toff! You can’t do that!”

“Can’t I? I’m afraid you will find that I am not the sort of toff you know.” He leaned closer, his eyes boring into the other man’s. “The only reason you are alive right now is because I need you to tell me where you took Alexandra. If you don’t tell me, I’ll have no reason not to kill you, which, believe me, would bring me a great deal of pleasure.”

“Th-then you’d never find out.” Sweat beaded on the large man’s forehead.

“Oh, I think I would.” Thorpe offered him a wintry smile. “I’d find someone willing to tell me what madam you supplied girls for. It would just take a little longer—which is why I am willing to bargain your life for the information.” He paused. “So which is it? I need to get on with it, one way or another. I haven’t the time to waste.”

Peggoddy licked his lips and cast a last desperate glance at Murdock, who stared at him stonily.

“All right. All right. I’ll tell you.”

“Better than that. You will show us.”

“Wot?”

“You didn’t imagine that I would leave you here to run away after you had given me a false address, did you? Not everyone is as witless as you are. You are coming with us, and Murdock here will watch over you while I get the girl out of madam’s house. If she is not there, I’ll use you for target practice, starting with your ankles and working up.”

Peggoddy stared at him, his eyes huge. Sebastian rose, his coat pocket distorted by the obvious shape of a pistol. Peggoddy’s eyes flickered to Thorpe’s pocket. Then he swallowed hard and rose to his feet. Murdock linked arms with the big man and steered him around the table. Thorpe followed them out.

Peggoddy directed them to a slightly better part of town, glancing nervously from time to time to the pistol Thorpe kept trained on him and then to Murdock, who sat beside Thorpe and had pulled a pistol from his waist and held it, too, on Peggoddy.

“’Ere now,” he said finally, “You’re not goin’ to shoot me now, are you? I didn’t ‘urt ‘er none.”

“Other than sell her to a brothel?” Thorpe asked in an icy voice. “Oh, and give her a little…tap, was it?”

“It weren’t nothin’,” he protested. “I ‘ad to knock ‘er out, see.”

“If I were you, I’d keep my mouth shut,” Murdock offered. “You’re digging your grave deeper every time you open it.”

Peggoddy settled into an aggrieved silence. Thorpe studied him.

Finally he said, “No, I shan’t shoot you—as long as you’re telling me the truth about where Alexandra is. If I get her back, you’ll live.”

“There it is,” Peggoddy said in a hushed voice, looking out the window.

Thorpe signaled to the coachman to stop. “Where?”

“The buildin’ in the middle, the one with the green door. There’s an alleyway beside it, see, and you can go down it and go in the back door. Madam’s got stairs up the back, that’s where I go.”

“What room is she in?”

The man shook his big head. “I dunno that. Where I took ‘er’s not where she keeps ’em. Put her in a fancy room for the toffs, I imagine.”

A light flared in Thorpe’s eyes, and the big man drew back a little. “I didn’t know she were nothin’ to you! ‘Ow was I supposed to know?”

“I’m going in,” Sebastian said to Murdock, turning to his servant as he put his pistol into his pocket. “You stay here and make sure this one doesn’t get away. If he’s steered us wrong, I’m coming back to kill him bit by bit.”

“Harrison could watch him, sir,” Murdock protested. “You might need my help.”