Page 66 of Her Daring Earl
He shook his head as he considered how much he wanted Eliza to be his and his alone. By all laws and rights, she was.
And yet it meant nothing if she didn’t choose him with her heart and her soul.
Now that he had left her, he wondered if he would ever have the chance to make that come true.
“Come for a drink with us, Fitzroy?”Brighton called to him after the proceedings of the day had finally concluded.
Fitz hesitated. He had wanted to check in with his detective to discuss their next plans. He was hoping that they could draw out the person threatening his life by having him be alone somewhere that would be rather tempting, while the detective and his men would lie in wait.
That, however, would take some time to put into place.
“Sure,” he said. “Why not?”
It wasn’t as though he currently had a wife to go home to, although he found that his desire to stay out late had waned and instead, he simply desired a drink with old friends before returning home to his dreams where he could picture Eliza.
It wasn’t long until five or six gentlemen were sitting around a table at White’s, Fitz with his usual whiskey in front of him.
“Cheers to Fitz’s return,” Brighton said, raising his glass up.
Fitz nodded and sipped his drink, the familiar burn racing down his throat into his stomach.
It wasn’t as comforting as he remembered, for this was not where he wanted to be. This was not who he wanted to be with.
But it was where hehadto be, he reminded himself. To protect those he loved.
Which, he realized in a shocking revelation, included his wife.
He had to get this sorted and return to her.
As soon as possible.
It was his last thought as his stomach began to gurgle and his forehead started to sweat. The voices of his friends became distant as the room began to tilt on its side before the world around him faded entirely.
And then everything went black.
Eliza was exhaustedby the time the carriage pulled up at the gates of Greystone.
It had been a longer journey than she had remembered, made even longer by the fact that she was alone.
This was the first time she had ever traveled alone, a freedom she appreciated as a married woman.
It was ironic that when she could finally travel without a chaperone, all she wanted was to be with her husband.
She prayed that he was well, but despite her desperation to see him with her own eyes, she knew better than to go to London herself. Doing so would only put him in more danger.
The duke would help. He had to.
“Eliza!” Siena ran down the front stairs to meet her. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s a long story,” she replied, accepting Siena’s embrace. “One that I’d like to tell Levi as well. Fitz is in trouble.”
“In trouble?” Siena repeated, clearly concerned. “Of course. Come in, we shall get you settled.”
“There’s no time for that,” Eliza said, realizing when Levi walked out of the drawing room without a jacket or cravat that she had interrupted Siena and Levi’s time together after dinner but there would be plenty of other nights for that.
“Lady Eliza—that is, Lady Fitzroy,” Levi said, rubbing a hand over his brow as though he was waking himself up from slumber. “Has Fitz done something to wrong you?”
“No,” she said swiftly. “Well, not purposefully.”
