Page 75 of The Duke's Forbidden Bride
“You… you are—did you break free of that place? I remember you.” His eyes flashed with recognition.
Spencer stepped in front of her protectively. “She is under my care.”
“And mercifully so. I recall Lord Belgrave’s fury over what happened, but nobody heard the story. I was there when you were taken by Renshaw to St. Euphemia’s. I was…” Mr. Beecham swallowed, looking down. “I was on another job that night. We set off at the same time. Back then, I didn’t fully understandwhat I was doing. Your Grace, my sincerest apologies. If I could only turn back time.”
“All we have is forward and onward,” Theodore interjected, not wanting to waste time lingering there.
“I don’t understand, though,” Mr. Beecham pressed, still looking around Spencer to Eleanor. “They don’t usually keep the girls at that place for more than a few days. At least not the ones Lord Belgrave and Follet send there. But they take up most of the occupancy. Belgrave must have favored you, what with being his fiancée.”
“That is quite enough,” Spencer said sharply. “Thank you for the information, Beecham.”
“Be careful,” Mr. Beecham called out as they turned to leave. “I once heard Lord Follet speak about the girls—one girl in particular.She will go in as a penitent and come out in a coffin.”
Eleanor swooned, bile rising in her throat, and she pressed a hand to her mouth. She keeled over, but Spencer pulled her up, his fingers gently rubbing her shoulders as he led her back to the carriage.
“It is all right,” he murmured. “It is all right.”
Eleanor’s face was deathly pale as she looked at him from across the carriage. Whether she was thinking of Charlotte—and that was who Spencer feared the threat was about—or the knowledgethat once it may have been Eleanor herself facing such a threat, he did not know.
After a moment, he moved to sit beside her. Without another word, he pulled her into his embrace.
Once Theodore got in, he paused and looked at the two of them.
Spencer said nothing except to order the carriage back to the bachelor’s lodgings Theodore owned under another name.
Inside the boot were sewn several names of women Mr. Beecham either knew or suspected had been taken to St. Euphemia’s. Some were women Spencer had heard of. However, since he and Eleanor had been absent from Society for years, it was Theodore who recognized most of them.
“Heavens,” he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he read the names. “Lady Daphne… I remember her. Her parents said that she had gone to live in the countryside after a failed courtship. They said she fled out of shame after her suitor turned out to be penniless.”
Spencer was too busy watching Eleanor’s face darken as she read the names of the women who had not been saved.
Were they dead, or simply shipped to the Caribbean or beyond?
“You never saw anyone you recognized on your travels?” Theodore asked as Spencer opened the other boot to read the second threaded note. “You traveled vastly, did you not? Met many women.”
Eleanor’s head snapped up, but she said nothing.
Spencer frowned at his friend. “You are starting to make me regret the correspondence I kept up with you,” he muttered. “And yes, but that is in the past.”
“I’m not passing judgment, for I know what your vices helped with. I am asking if you recognized faces or noticed anything amiss.”
Spencer was quite ashamed that he did not have many memories of his travels. Most of them were drunken blurs, one gentlemen’s club to another, one lady’s bed to another, caring only for his next chance forgetting the terrible things that haunted him.
He blinked and saw Anna’s face, a mirror to his own. Dead, cold eyes staring up from a hollow, bloodied face?—
He shook his head sharply. “No. Everywhere has its shadows, and I darkened enough seedy doorways, but I don’t recall anything suspicious.”
Eleanor still watched him, but he grunted as he finally tore the last thread holding the sewn information in.
Meet with Julian Gray.If there is a man who knows not only London’s underworld but also the darker dealings of other countries, it is him. He is not afraid to speak his mind. Tread with caution, Lord Avington.
“Julian Gray?” Theodore read over his shoulder. “Ah, yes, I know of him. Although I think I will let you go ahead and meet with him. He is a rather…interestingcharacter.”
“I will go with you,” Eleanor spoke up immediately.
“No,” Spencer said at the same time Theodore laughed.
“Yes,” Eleanor insisted. “If you can allow me to meet with an informant in a shady dockyard, then you can let me go to Mr. Gray’s house.” She looked at Theodore, frowning. “Who is he?”
