Page 77 of Her Daring Earl
“No,” she said, shaking her head, although she was looking at the candle she was lighting and not at him. “Not directly.”
Fitz’s nerves were on edge. He couldn’t say why, but all was not right.
“Archibald?’ he called out. “Are you still here?”
When silence met him, he stood and began to pace across the room, flicking back the curtain where Archibald was supposed to be.
He wasn’t there.
At least, he wasn’t standing there.
Fitz’s heart began pounding even harder when he found the detective lying prostrate on the floor.
He didn’t have time to check if he was still breathing, for he heard the all-too-familiar sound of a click behind him as a pistol was readied to fire. He whirled around, only to find Madeline standing there with a gun in her hand, pointed directly at him.
Her hand was shaking, and while that told him that she wasn’t completely comfortable with what she was doing, he also knew that a gun was often never more dangerous than in the hands of a scared holder.
He held his hands up in front of him. “Madeline,” he said slowly, trying to reason with her. “What are you doing?”
“I’m sorry, Fitz,” she said, true regret in her eyes. “I wanted to say no, but he upped the amount he offered. I couldn’t turn it down.”
“Who ishe?”
“The—the gentleman that I told you about.”
As she spoke, a curtain across the room moved, and what had been a hidden door opened, revealing another woman he didn’t recognize.
“Who are you?” Madeline demanded, her eyes flicking over to her in fear.
Madeline’s concern did not bode well for Fitz.
“I am here in case you cannot do the job,” the other woman said, her eyes cold and glittering. Fitz knew he might have been able to talk Madeline out of this, but he was certain this other woman would be much more determined to finish the job. Finish him.
“He didn’t trust me?” Madeline said indignantly.
“You do not seem to be a person that anyone should trust,” Fitz couldn’t help but remark, although that didn’t seem to help matters, for it only caused Madeline’s hand to become slightly steadier when she pointed the gun at him.
Fitz sighed. Eliza had been right. Hewouldhave reminded himself to always trust her in the future, except he had a feeling that he wasn’t going to have much of a future after this. If Archibald was down, Fitz didn’t want to think about what that meant for the rest of the men who were standing in wait.
Madeline must have shared the part of the plan that she had been aware of with his adversary, but Fitz could only hope that she had been kept in the dark enough that some of the detectives could maintain their disguises.
His eyes kept flicking to the door, waiting for one of them to enter.
To his great relief, just as it seemed the second woman narrowed her eyes, likely about to pull her trigger, the door pushed open.
Only, it wasn’t one of the detectives who entered.
It was Eliza.
Fitz’s mouth dropped open as he forgot, for a moment, where they were and what was happening.
All he could focus on was her beauty, her courage – and, he would admit, the way her breasts were nearly popping out of the most scandalous gown he had ever seen.
Then he remembered that the entire reason he had put this plan into place was to ensure her safety, and here she was, right amid the chaos and two guns, one which was pointed at him and the other at her.
“I knew it!” she crowed as she glared at the women who threatened him. “Take your guns off of my husband!”
Fitz didn’t think he had ever loved her more.
