It was several minutes before Charlotte realised she was not being taken to Piccadilly.

      The chairmen had turned down a dark alley and were trotting at a pace that was bone-shaking. She put her head outside and commanded them to stop. They ignored her; if anything their pace increased. She shouted at them again, but it soon became evident that they had no intention of obeying her. Now she was very frightened indeed. Where were they taking her? And why?

      Captain Carstairs’s warning came to her mind. She was being kidnapped!

      After several more minutes they stopped outside a dilapidated tenement and let down the chair. She hurried to open the door and escape. But they had anticipated that and grabbed her arms and dragged her, protesting loudly, into the building, along a corridor which was as dark as pitch, and into a candlelit room.

      A woman rose from a chair to face them. ‘You got her, then?’

      ‘We did, Molly, we did. ‘Twas as easy as winking, though she made a deal of noise.’

      He was a big man, with a weather-beaten face, a moulting bag wig and bad teeth. He was also the man who had grabbed her bridle in Hyde Park. Captain Carstairs had been right in saying they might try again. Oh, how she wished she had listened to him …

      AUTHOR NOTE

      This is number five in my Piccadilly Gentlemen’s Club series, in which club members solve crimes in Georgian society. Previously I have featured murder, deception, coining and smuggling. This one explores kidnapping—but it is an unusual kidnapping, which involves sailing the high seas. Captain Alexander Carstairs, recently elevated to Marquis of Foxlees, being a Master Mariner, is just the man for the job.

      The ‘kidnapped beauty’ is the daughter of a coachmaker. It was fun researching the coachmaking business, which was once very lucrative; the best coachmakers would have been multimillionaires in today’s terms. Anyone who was anyone needed a coach or carriage to get about, and the richest had more than one—just as today’s millionaires will have several different cars.

      Henry Gilpin, father of my heroine, has become exceedingly wealthy in the coachmaking trade. The trouble is that it is trade—and tradesmen were not admitted to the society of the nobility. He is doing his best to find his daughter a titled husband when she is kidnapped.

      I would like to acknowledge the help of Clive Gilbert, Chairman of The British Society of Portugal, in researching this book.

      About the Author

      Born in Singapore, MARY NICHOLS came to England when she was three, and has spent most of her life in different parts of East Anglia. She has been a radiographer, school secretary, information officer and industrial editor, as well as a writer. She has three grown-up children, and four grandchildren.

       Previous novels by the same author:

      RAGS-TO-RICHES BRIDE

      THE EARL AND THE HOYDEN

      CLAIMING THE ASHBROOKE HEIR

      (part of The Secret Baby Bargain)

      HONOURABLE DOCTOR, IMPROPER ARRANGEMENT

THE CAPTAIN’S MYSTERIOUS LADY*

      THE VISCOUNT’S UNCONVENTIONAL BRIDE*

      LORD PORTMAN’S TROUBLESOME WIFE*

      SIR ASHLEY’S METTLESOME MATCH*

      WINNING THE WAR HERO’S HEART

*The Piccadilly Gentlemen’s Club mini-series

       And in Mills & Boon^®:

      WITH VICTORIA’S BLESSING

       (part of Royal Weddings Through the Ages)

      Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

      The Captain’s

      Kidnapped

      Beauty

      Mary Nichols