She held the glass away from her. “If I drink all this, I will be as drunk as a skunk and you could easily have your wicked way with me. I’d be too poddled to stop you.”
“Poddled?”
“Drunk,” she explained. “Inebriated. Foxed. Addled. Soused. Sozzled.”
His brow lifted. Apparently he was astounded she knew so many words for drunkenness. But one did, living near the stews.
He sighed. “Portia, I can’t believe you think so little of me. I don’t get women drunk to get them into bed. I don’t need to.”
“Of course you don’t,” she muttered.
He leaned closer, hands on his knees. The concern in his eyes made her heart flutter strangely.
“Portia, damn it, just tell me what happened.”
“You needn’t swear. I’m going to. I was lured to a house in Whitechapel by a note that begged me to come to a child’s rescue. But it was a trap. I was knocked out with ether. When I came to, I was in a carriage at the quay. My hands were bound and I was loaded by masked men onto a dory and brought out to the island. Once we docked, I was knocked out again by that horrible stuff. And when I awoke, here I was.”
“Why didn’t you call for help?”
She arched a brow. “I was told this was a bacchanalia, Your Grace. Given I was tied hand and foot to a bed, and utterly defenseless at that time, I thought if I called out for help, I might toss myself into a worse pickle.”
“Yet you just went storming out to confront people.”
“I’m not tied up now.”
He made a sound—distinctly like the grinding of teeth. “Having your hands free will not offer you much protection.”
“At least this time I could run. And I assure you I am spritely.”
“Might I point out you were captured before? This is an island—eventually you’d run out of places to run. Now, in all seriousness, Portia, did those men touch you? Hurt you?”
“Other than slapping an ether-soaked rag to my face, then carrying me upstairs in their arms, my kidnappers were actually perfect gentlemen. Oh yes, and telling me that I was going to wake up in a duke’s bed. Which they found uproariously funny.”
“So you weren’t unconscious the whole time?”
“No, but I rather wished I was when they brought me on the boat.”
“Portia, this is not a joke. This is damnably serious.”
“I know that.” She put her hand to her mouth. A giggle snuck out the side.
Now she realized that half the brandy was gone. She’d drunk much more than she’d expected. Strangely, she felt much different about the kidnapping. More cavalier. Braver.
She had to admit his point about the island was quite true. No matter which direction she ran, there would be the sea. But there must be a boat. Somewhere.
“Explain what happened step by step,” he said. “Every detail.”
She tipped up her brandy for a little more before she began. Wait, where did it go? There wasn’t any left. She held out the glass. “More first.”
“You’ve had enough.”
“This is for medicinal purposes.” But it came out medishnal porpoises.
“No, Portia—”
“You won’t give me any until I tell you. Oh, all right.” She took a deep breath. “I received a note, delivered by a boy from the streets. The missive asked me to go to Maiden Lane, as there was a young girl there about to be sold to a brothel. I hired a hackney—”
“You went alone.”
“No, I took Merry—a girl who works at the foundling home. And a pistol for protection.”
“But it didn’t protect you.”
“Well, it wasn’t loaded. And the men who kidnapped me knew it wasn’t loaded.”
“Interesting,” he murmured.
“I thought so,” she said. “I mean, how would they know that?”
“When did these men approach you?”
“If you let me continue with my story, Your Grace, I will tell you. Before I reached the house, the two miscreants slunk out of the alley and confronted us. I attempted to bluff them with the pistol, but was unsuccessful. Anyway, at that point they let Merry go. I ran and they chased me. One managed to catch me, said I’d wake up in the Duke of Sinclair’s bed, then slapped an ether-soaked cloth on my nose and mouth. Before the bed, I woke up in a rocking dory. I was sick, really sick in the boat. I was knocked out again. I remember going upward. I would have thought I was ascending to heaven, if it weren’t so jostling and uncomfortable. Apparently, that was when they carried me up to this house. After that, I did indeed wake up in your bed. I remember the men perfectly well. One of the men was tall and thin. He had black hair, a crooked nose, and he was missing several teeth. He had a scar on his right temple. The other was short and fat. So fat, he didn’t have a proper neck at all. Just a roll of fat that connected his head to his shoulders.”