In Dangerous Company: The Dorset Boy Book 4 Read online

  Marty thrust Beth into Mary’s arms and was only beaten to the man by Matai who was trying to persuade Blaez to let him go, but Blaez wasn’t interested, he had his teeth sunk well into his shoulder and was shaking him in anger. The man was howling and trying to hit the dog with his free hand but that just made him madder.

  In the end Marty had to drag Blaez back by the collar after Matai used a trick he had learned while getting dogs to release their prey when he was hunting. He pushed his thumb into the gap behind the dog’s teeth forcing him to open his jaws and let go.

  As soon as he was free Tom and John held him by the arms and dragged him to his feet. Marty picked up the gun and checked it and was surprised to find it wasn’t loaded.

  They looked him over, he was European, around five feet four in height, sandy haired with blue eyes that were watering in pain. His left shoulder was bleeding, and Marty was sure there would be a fairly clear imprint of Blaez’s teeth in his skin.

  “Well, you got lucky my friend.” Marty told him. “The dog got you before me and my friends filled you full of holes.”

  The man looked around and saw that every one of them held at least one pistol, including Caroline.

  “Now why were you waving that pistol around?”

  “I haven’t eaten for three days,” he sobbed in pain. “I found the pistol by someone who had been killed on a back street in the town so I thought I would try and get some money to buy food.”

  “By robbing us?” Caroline asked.

  “Yes, biggest mistake of my life,” he replied in tears, “but you were all sitting there looking well fed and” he looked around in disbelief “unarmed.”

  That caused a laugh and they all put their weapons away.

  “What is your name?” Marty asked.

  “Leon Ingridsson,” he replied

  “Swedish?”

  “Yes.”

  “And that was the first time you’d tried to rob anybody?”

  Leon looked at the floor.

  “Yes, I am desperate.”

  “Let him go,” Marty instructed.

  Marty looked around, saw a couple of servants watching nervously and beckoned them over.

  “Bring some food please. Samosas, pakoras, Bhajis and murgh makhani with bread for one person,” he ordered. “and a bowl of warm water and some cloths.”

  When the water and cloths arrived, he asked Antton to see to his shoulder.

  Antton sat Leon down at a table and gently started to work on his shoulder. Blaez had done a good job and he asked Mary to get him a large needle and some catgut from his room which he kept for stitching up bad cuts.

  Mary put Beth down as she started to struggle and the little one ran over to Blaez and put her arms around his neck and gave him a big hug.

  “Now why are you in Bombay and in such a mess?” Caroline asked.

  “I was a topman on a merchantman, the Stockholm, and we had a really bad trip. When we got here, we were all given leave to have some shore time. I got drunk and was robbed while I was unconscious. When I came to and got back to the docks my ship had sailed.”

  He winced as Antton took a pocket flask of brandy from Wilson and poured it into the wounds.

  “That was three days ago, and I haven’t eaten since. I asked at ships, but they didn’t need anyone. I don’t know this town at all so didn’t know where to go for help.”

  “There’s no sailor’s mission here yet,” Tom observed.

  The food arrived and before Leon started to wolf it down Antton put half a dozen stiches into his shoulder to close up the wounds Blaez’s canines had caused. When that was done, and he was bound up he started to eat only slowing down when Caroline cautioned him not to make himself sick.

  “You want a berth?” Marty asked

  Leon nodded too busy eating to talk.

  “You can have a berth on our new ship. You will be tested on the shake down voyage. If you shape up, we will keep you on. If not, then you will be put back on shore. Understood?” Marty said.

  “I won’t let you down sir,” he replied

  “Tom sign him on and give him some money for lodging and food.”

  After Ingridsson and Tom had left to get him a room at a cheap sailor’s hostel near the docks Marty and Caroline settled down to open a pile of mail from home. They split them between them and sorted them into date order.

  “The dairy is working out just fine and making its first profits,” Caroline observed after reading a report from Mountjoy their Estate Manager. “The reorganisation of the tenancies into cooperatives has also been finished and apart from a couple of disputes seems to have settled down nicely. They started implementing your plans for crop rotation and land management . . .” she checked the date on the letter, “a year ago.”

  She opened a second letter from Mountjoy.

  “Ha!” she smiled. “Crop yields are already up. Mountjoy attributes that directly to the soil improvements.”

  Marty smiled and then read out that:

  “The agent has found two suitable farms in Dorset. They are next to each other and were owned by two brothers. Both died within six months of each other and neither had children.”

  “They had no children?” Caroline asked.

  Marty read on for a minute then said.

  “No, neither ever married. It used to be one farm. Oh, this is ripe! They were twins and the father damned them as a pair of sodomites in his will and split it between them on the condition they stayed single. If either married, they would both forfeit their inheritance. Seems the old boy didn’t want them passing their proclivities on.”

  “There is a letter from your brother Alfred, what does he say about it?” Caroline said pointing at another letter in the pile.

  Marty opened it and read it through.

  “He says its prime land and the two farms together can make a fine estate. He thinks it would be best used for sheep on the hills and beef down in the valley with a bit of cereal for rotation. We should get Mountjoy to have a look and see what he thinks.”

  “He already has.” Caroline was reading another letter. “He says Arthur asked him down and he agrees with him.”

  “I should have known.” Marty smiled.

  They worked their way through all the personal letters and then Marty opened one from Wickham. It was three months old, dated June 1801.

  “They are still expecting Napoleon to sue for peace,” Marty quoted. “The government is swallowing his overtures hook line and sinker. Wickham still thinks it won’t last. He says we can stay here for a while if we want as Wellesley has indicated he might be able to use us.”

  “Trust Arthur to be thinking of himself,” Caroline sighed she took a deep breath.

  “Marty there is something you need to know.”

  “Yes darling,” he replied without looking up.

  “Dammit! will you pay attention?”

  He looked at her quizzically.

  She took another deep breath.

  “I’m pregnant again.”

  The whoop Marty made as he swung her around in a hug could be heard over the whole house.

  Chapter 6 What goes around.

  The Caroline was ready for sea on time. She looked fast with her raked masts and streamlined hull. Marty and six of the boys were on board to see how she sailed. Caroline was suffering from morning sickness so decided to stay on shore. Christo and Matai stayed with her as security.

  Captain Harrington was in command and Charles Longstead his First Mate. The crew were all experienced sailors and made up of Europeans and Indians. She had a full load of water and food for the crew but was empty of cargo and ballasted so she rode a little high in the water.

  They cast off from the dock and warped her out into Mahim Bay. They set the staysail, and mizzen and she picked up the breeze immediately, headed out of the bay past Bandra Fort on the Northern point and out into the Arabian Sea.

  There was a very stiff Easterly breeze once they got out to sea so they set the main
sail, jibs and topsails.

  “She sails like a witch!” Marty whooped as they heeled over making better than ten knots.

  They slowly increased the amount of sail she carried until they were carrying every stitch she could, and she was heeled over to the gunnels.

  “She’s fast alright,” agreed Harrington, “but she is trimmed too far down at the bow and is griping a little. If we get her sat more on her heals, we could get another knot or two out of her.”

  “What about the rake?” Marty asked, “could she benefit from another couple of degrees?”

  “Aye, we could try that too,” agreed Harrington, “but let’s get her trimmed right first.”

  They reduced sail and set the crew to work moving the water barrels and stores aft to lift the bow around a foot as she stood hove to. Once that was done, they set off again. The gripe was gone, and a cast of the log showed just under fifteen knots!

  They decided that the masts could stay as they were and tried all the different combinations of sail they could. After three days they returned home.

  Marty pronounced himself satisfied with the performance of their new ship and left the crew to take the slack out of the rigging caused by the new rope stretching and bedding in.

  Marty and his men returned to their rented house and were met by an officer of the Bombay regiment at the gate. Marty was about to ask what was going on when Mary flew out of the house crying hysterically.

  “They’ve killed poor Christo and took Lady Caroline and the baby!” she cried.

  Marty froze for an instant then pushed past the officer and ran into the house followed by his men. The scene that met them was chaotic and there was ample evidence of a fight, Christo lay on the floor in a pool of blood. A bullet hole in his chest and his sightless eyes staring at the ceiling. Antton knelt and closed his eyes gently muttering something in Basque. There was also a dead Indian servant in the doorway to the drawing room and Garai saw to him with one of the Indian servants. Matai was nowhere to be seen.

  Marty held up his hand and in an icy calm voice said, “I want every square inch of the house searched for clues. I want to know what happened and who did it. Don’t move or touch anything until I have seen it.”

  He took Mary into the nursery, sat her down and asked her to tell him what she knew.

  “It were early this morning before dawn. We was all asleep when Blaez started barking. Then I heard Matai and Christo yelling for Lady Caroline to lock her door. There was a shot and the sounds of a fight.” She started to cry, and Marty hugged her and said softly.

  “Shhh, take your time.”

  Mary took a deep breath and composed herself.

  “I heard voices, then a banging like they were trying to break down a door. Then a crash and two more shots. Someone yelled and was swearing, and I heard Lady Caroline screaming.”

  She sobbed again.

  “Then one comes into the nursery and Blaez he did go for him, but he was ready for that. He had a net or something and the dog jumped straight into the middle of it. He was all tangled up and the man gave him a right kicking. Then he comes over and took Beth. I tried to stop him, but he just punched me in the face.”

  She had the makings of a black eye to prove that.

  “Did he say anything?”

  “He told me I was only alive so I could tell you that you would hear when he was ready to name his terms for you to get your family back.”

  “English then?”

  “Oh yes he were English.”

  “What did he look like?”

  “A bit taller than you, solid built, brown hair, he had a scar on his forehead sort of curved like.”

  “Billy Smith,” Marty snarled. “I should have killed him when I had the chance.” He was blaming himself for what had happened but knew he had to control himself if he was going to help his beloved. He knew if he let guilt or doubt overcome him, he would be no use to his wife, child and unborn baby.

  “Sir?” Mary asked wondering how he knew.

  “I gave him that scar when we were ship’s boys. I slammed his head in to the deck during a fight. There was a bolt head sticking up and it cut him.”

  Marty left her with a female servant and went to find Blaez. He was lying down in the drawing room on a blanket and, when Marty came in, he struggled to his feet and whined as Marty approached.

  “Steady boy,” he said as he knelt and ran his hands over his body. “Those bastards hurt you didn’t they.”

  Blaez yelped as Marty brushed a rib and Marty felt another surge of anger.

  “Cracked I reckon.”

  “Marty, we found some things you should look at,” said Tom from the door.

  Marty told Blaez to stay and went with Tom to their bedroom. Her pistols were on the floor. Both had been fired. There was smear of blood on the door. Tom pointed out more drops leading across to the bed and a torn sheet.

  “Looks like she shot one of them,” Tom observed, “and he tore a strip off the sheet to bandage it. They also ripped down the bell pull.”

  “Probably to tie her hands if she was fighting them,” Marty concluded.

  “From what we seen in the hallway and outside there were probably four or five of them,” Tom continued and took Marty out to show him the evidence.

  “There be two sets of bloody footprints where they trod in Christo’s blood. See they be different sizes. Outside we found more prints and Garai says he can tell that four people made them.”

  “What happened to Matai?” Marty asked.

  “Well there be more blood on the door frame by your study and whoever left it drew an M with a V on its side on the door.”

  “Let me see it.”

  The went to the door and Marty looked at the bloody marks.

  “That’s not a V it’s an arrow,” he decided. “Matai has left us a message.”

  He went into the study and carefully searched the desk, floor and shelves. There was nothing there. He stood back and looked again. Looking to see what wasn’t there.

  There was an empty space where he kept a jar with Blaez’s treats.

  There was a knock on the door and the officer who had been outside came in.

  “My Lord, my men have secured the area around the house and the Bombay police have arrived. They would like to talk to you if possible.”

  A man in a bowler hat stepped into the room.

  “Lord Candor? Detective Winter, Bombay police.”

  Marty just nodded to him, went over to his Arms Chest and unlocked it.

  “I understand that your wife and child have been abducted. I wish to assure you that we will do everything in our power to find them and return them to you safely.”

  Marty took out his Durrs Egg Carbine and its ammunition, then his double-barrelled pistols. He placed them on the desk. Lastly, he removed his weapons harness and his hanger and put it on. He sat at the desk and started loading the pistols.

  “I am very comforted to hear that Detective, but we have no time to waste and a trail we can follow,” he looked at Tom.

  “Get the boys ready to move out. I want them fully armed.”

  Tom nodded and left.

  “Sir, I must protest,” the policeman spluttered. “We need to do a proper investigation!”

  “Well you do that,” Marty growled as he clipped the loaded pistols to his cross belts and slung his knife on the left side of his belt. “You can catch up with us when you are done.”

  Marty stood and pushed past him. The Detective grabbed his arm.

  “If you want to keep that you will let go now,” Marty said very quietly and looked him in the eyes.

  Detective Winter had never looked death in the face before and he was absolutely sure he never wanted to again.

  Marty went into the drawing room and, crouching, talked to Blaez.

  “Blaez my friend, I need you to find Matai for me. Can you do that?”

  Blaez’s ears perked up.

  “Find Matai!” Marty commanded.

&n
bsp; The dog pulled itself to its feet and headbutted Marty in the chest. Marty put him on his lead and stood up. Blaez walked slowly towards the door to the study and sniffed the blood on the floor and the door. His ears pricked up and he started to sniff the floor in the hallway.

  The rest of the team were waiting outside the front door.

  Blaez looked up and saw his pack stood around waiting for him. He knew what he had to do. He sorted through all the scents on the ground and homed in on Matai’s. It was leading out through the gates and he kept his nose close to the ground and followed it. Just outside the gate he found one of his treats. He wolfed it down and got back on the scent. He noticed that Matai’s scent was overlaid on the scent of the alpha female and the pup. He could also smell the stink of the one that had kicked him.

  He followed and they came to a big road which a lot of people and animals had been travelling. It confused the scent and he started to circle. His chest hurt but not so bad as to make him want to stop. Then he got a hint of another treat. It was there! On the side of the road.

  He wolfed that one down as well and picked up on Matai’s scent again. It was following the wall up the road. He found a few spots of blood and licked them, tasting them. Not Matai. He followed the scent some more.

  It turned down a side road. There was a treat on the corner. This was easier, there hadn’t been so many people on this trail. He picked up the pace a little. The Alpha held him back keeping him to a walk.

  He found another treat; the scent went into a narrow path between two buildings. He followed. He could smell The Alpha female stronger now, but Matai’s was even fresher.

  He had no sense of time or distance just the scent. He followed the narrow path until it came out into a bigger path and found another treat. Nice Matai, he could taste him on the treat. He cast around and the scent led down the hill towards the water. The scent became stronger and he led his Alpha to a wall and along behind it to where he knew Matai was sitting.