Page 78 of Her Daring Earl
Eliza’s momentof panic at being caught had quickly diminished when the hands that had grabbed her dropped just as fast. Levi had come to the rescue.
The man certainly knew how to fight. She supposed years at war would do that.
She was never more grateful for her friend’s choice of husband than at that moment. She had barely blinked by the time Levi had wrestled the man off of her and to the ground.
“Lord Brighton,” she muttered in disgust, nudging him with her toe before she returned her attention to Levi. “What did you do to him?”
“A simple trick I learned years ago. He’s asleep but he will wake up soon enough,” Levi said. “We best act fast.”
Eliza nodded as Levi bent, whipping off his cravat and using it to fasten the man’s hands behind him. Eliza, however, didn’t have time to wait as she pushed open the door and stepped into the room.
It was heavily scented in musky fragrances, with sweeping, jeweled-toned curtains surrounding the room. The bed was placed in the center of it all. She was nearly sick right where she stood at the thought of Fitz here with any of these women, but that was the past, she reminded herself. Their future was together.
All that fled from her mind, for there was Fitz, caught in the center of the room beside the bed, two pistols trained upon him by women on either side.
“I knew it!” she couldn’t help but exclaim at Madeline’s role in all of this, although she appeared rather uncertain. “Take your guns off of my husband!”
“I can’t,” Madeline said in just over a whisper, her eyes flicking to Eliza for a moment. “You don’t understand.”
Remembering what Fitz had told her about Madeline, her daughter, and her need to provide for her, Eliza took a small step toward her, more compassion filling her than she would have thought when it was towards a woman who currently held a gun aimed at her husband. “I understand that you are only doing what you feel is best for your family, but I can assure you that your daughter is far better with you in her life than as an orphan after her mother is hanged for murder.”
Madeline began blinking rapidly as her eyes filled with tears.
“That is easy for you to say. You have no idea what it is like to be within my circumstances.”
“You are right. I don’t,” Eliza said, hating that her heart did feel for this woman, as, no matter how dire her own situation might have felt, Eliza had always known that she would have someone to look after her. If not Fitz, then her father or her brother. This woman could only rely on one person and one person alone – herself.
“There are people who would help you if you’d let us. Fitz would. I would.”
“It’s too late,” Madeline said in a shaky voice. “He’ll kill me.”
“No, he won’t,” Levi said from behind Madeline. “He is rather… incapacitated at the moment.”
“I think you are all forgetting something,” the woman from across the room interjected. “Ihave nothing to lose. I have no daughter to worry about, no cares in the world at all. I am not threatened by you, nor is the man who hired us, for you cannot prove anything.”
She walked over toward Fitz, but her eyes were on Levi. She began shaking her head.
“I wouldn’t try that, if I were you, Duke of Death. Oh, yes, I have heard about you. You might be quite the shot, but you best leave that pistol where it belongs, or I will kill your friend here before you can even remove it from your waistband. Some of us can be just as good of a shot without the benefit of war, did you know that? If the army would have taken me, they would have had quite the asset, let me assure you.”
“You’re Lady Danger,” Madeline breathed out from where she stood across the room, her own pistol lowered, at least. “I have heard of you.”
“Heard of me, perhaps,” the woman said smugly. “Most whoseemy face once do not live to see it again.”
Eliza’s heart beat fast. If Madeline and Levi were scared of this woman, then what chance did it leave any of them?
Eliza locked eyes with Fitz, who was ignoring them all as he continued to stare at her.
“I love you,” he mouthed toward her, and her eyes widened as she realized that he had given up – that he was going to givehimselfup – likely to save her.
“No,” she shook her head as she cried out the words, ready to launch herself toward him – just as the small dagger went sailing by her, right toward Fitz.
Fitz knewwhen he heard the words “Lady Danger” that there was no way they were all getting out of this alive. The woman was known throughout England for her prowess. A hired assassin, one who had been taking the papers by storm, for she was unable to be caught by even the best detectives in the land.
There was only one way out – by sacrificing himself. He was who she wanted. If he could distract her long enough, Levi should be able to take care of her and save the rest of them.
As she reached her left hand behind her and closed it around something that he knew would be another weapon, he leaped forward to take her down with him – but when he went flying forward into the air, he landed with an “oof” on the sofa bed before him as the dagger went sailing over his head and landed with a thud in the wall behind him.
He scrambled to his feet to ensure that Eliza was well, only to first see Archibald, tying the hands of Lady Danger behind her.
