Lord Cavendish Returns Read Online Free PDF Page A

low rumble of the carriage wheels as they rolled over the
cart track. He lay perfectly still for a moment and watched the sky
roll past.
    He
wondered if his predicament had anything to do with the French
spies the Star Elite had been working on, but then immediately
dismissed the notion as ridiculous. The spies, and their
associates, were all either behind bars or dead.
    One hand
immediately patted his hip and he closed his eyes on a curse when
he realised that his gun had been taken from him. He turned his
head to study the cart and his surroundings and couldn’t prevent
the low moan that escaped him when he felt a large sore spot on the
back of his head. Bile immediately rose in his throat again and,
for one moment, he thought he was going to be sick but he manfully
swallowed and gritted his teeth. He didn’t have time for any of
that; not right now. There was far too much at stake.
    “ Jesus,” he whispered and was about to sit up when movement to
his left drew his attention. He studied the outrider who trotted
along beside him, but was fairly certain that he had never seen the
man before. From the look of the rider’s expensive clothing, he was
someone who had wealth and status and was confident with his place
in the world. The wicked looking, highly polished pistol on the
man’s hip warned Harper that the outrider was also a man on a
mission of some kind. He carefully turned his head to the opposite
side and studied another outrider who looked very similar to his
counterpart. Were they related in some way? If so, what the hell
did they want with him? Whatever they wanted, one thing was for
certain; he wasn’t going to get any answers lying on his back
pretending to be dead.
    Harper
snarled at the effort it took just for him to sit up. He ignored
the swirling of the world around him and glared balefully at the
man who rode to his left as he touched the wet, sticky patch on the
back of his head.
    “ You are awake.” The outrider called to the man who was
driving the cart and it mercifully rumbled to a stop.
    The
narrow country lane they were in could have been anywhere. Harper
wondered just how long he had been unconscious because there wasn’t
a soul to be seen for miles around. There wasn’t even a church
spire in the distance to indicate that there was a town within
walking distance. Right now, he was well and truly
stuck.
    “ Where the hell am I? Who the hell are you lot?” He glared at
each man in turn and made a mental note of the fact that none of
them made any attempt to dismount from their horses. They were
waiting for him to run.
    “ I am Edward Cavendish,” the outrider to the left of him
replied. He nodded to the man who remained seated on the bench at
the front of the cart. “Your driver is Dominic Cavendish, and the
man on the other side is Sebastian Cavendish.”
    “ The Cavendish brothers,” Harper grumbled in disgust. “I have
heard of you. You are friends with Sir Hugo, my boss.”
    “ That’s right. We have a long acquaintance with
him.”
    “ Has he arranged this?”
    Dominic
sighed and turned to straddle the hard bench that had already
turned his bottom numb. “No, I have arranged this,” he declared
flatly. “Well, we all have.” He nodded toward Edward and
Sebastian.
    “ Well, I bloody well suggest that you take me back to London,
because the last time I checked kidnapping is still illegal in this
country.”
    “ We want to talk to you and, well, you do have a reputation
for being more than a little uncommunicative,” Sebastian drawled
with a sigh.
    “ I talk just like everyone else,” Harper replied
defensively.
    “ We had considered writing to you to ask you to meet with us
but you don’t reply to your correspondence, do you?” Edward
countered.
    “ Why the hell should I? I don’t know you and I have better
things to do than run around after anyone,” Harper
snorted.
    He was
fairly sure that these men were the kind who would send a note and
expect someone to turn