Page 64 of Their Brazen Countess
“Mother, where are we going?” Matthew asked as he looked up at her.
“I have to go by the linen shop and the dressmakers.” Jo stopped and tapped her chin with her index finger. “There is one more stop, and I can’t quite remember it…”
Matthew grinned, hope shining in his big brown eyes. “The sweet shop?”
Jo shook her head. “No, that wasn’t it.” She paused. “What was it?”
Her son bounced up and down, yanking on her arm. “The toy shop! It was the toy shop!”
She laughed and squatted down. “That was it! See how helpful you are? I’d completely forgotten.”
He threw his arms around her neck. “I love you, Mother!”
Jo hugged him back. “I love you too, sweet boy. Now we have to get going if we are going to complete all our errands.”
She stood up and took hold of his hand once more. They walked to the corner, looked both ways, and then Jo stepped off the curb. With her skirts in one hand and her son’s hand in the other, she hastened across the street. That was why she was about halfway across the cobblestone street when she heard the thunder of hooves and the clatter of wheels bearing down on them. Someone shoved her from behind and sent her and Matthew careening across the road and out of the path of the vehicle. Stumbling forward, nearly to the other sidewalk, Jo managed to keep her feet as she yanked her son protectively into her arms.
Heart hammering, chest tight, lungs working hard, Jo turned in time to see a man rolling out of the way of the horses’ hooves towards them. When he stopped on his back, she gasped. “Linc!”
One of the men she loved groaned as he sat up. “Are you and Matthew unhurt?”
“We’re fine. Are you injured beyond the obvious?” Jo knelt down and cupped his face, probing a scratch she could see on his cheekbone.
“I’m well, as long as you two are.” He moved to stand up, but groaned as he half sat, half fell back down. “Perhaps I should sit here a moment more.”
One of the footmen from Lord Brougham’s carriage came over. “My lord, are you hurt?”
“I am perhaps a little worse for the wear. If you wouldn’t mind helping me up?” Linc’s lips quirked up on one side.
Jo and the footman helped Linc to his feet as Matthew clung to her skirts. With the man’s help, Linc made his way over to the waiting carriage. Once they had him sitting inside, the footman lifted Matthew up then helped her into the carriage where she settled next to her quivering son.
Taking him into her arms once more so she could assure herself he was well, Jo turned her focus to Linc. “You saved my life. Our lives.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Thank you, Linc. I don’t know if I can ever repay you.”
He leaned back against the cushioned seat of the carriage. “There is nothing to thank me for. I would never let harm come to you or Matthew if I could help it.”
“Still, thank you.” Her heart continued to pound in her chest, but her breathing had evened out.
“You’re welcome.”
“If you hadn’t been there…” Jo’s voice trailed off as images of Matthew’s broken and bloody body assaulted her. She felt a fool for having missed the carriage in the street. She swore she had looked and it had been clear. Taking a breath, she gathered her thoughts and asked the one question that was burning in her mind at the moment. “How did you happen to be there?”
Linc’s cheeks turned ruddy as he cleared his throat. “I…well. I was following you.”
“Following me? Why?” She tipped her head to the side, curiosity rising within. Why in the world would he have been following her?
Linc grunted. “Jo, we tried to tell you yesterday—you aren’t safe just because you escaped your home. Lord Downs is determined to keep the title and the fortune in his family’s hands. If he can’t do that by legal means, we believe he will do it through more…nefarious methods. Since we left you yesterday, we’ve had someone watching you at all times. Today, it was me.”
Jo sucked in a sharp breath and hugged her son closer, pressing her hands over his ears. “He was trying tokill me?” Her voice came out as a whisper from both shock and a need to protect her son from the truth.
Linc’s blue gaze bore into her, serious and weighty in a way she’d never experienced from him. “We strongly suspect so, and…not just you.” He let his gaze drop to her son.
Fear ripped through Jo in an unexpected stab that stole her breath. “No!” She shook her head in denial, though whether it was a denial of Linc’s words or merely a refusal to allow anyone to harm her son, she couldn’t say. In either case, she knew she would do whatever was required to protect her child.
“I’m sorry, Jo. Perhaps we should have been clearer about what we wanted to protect you from when we—when Arthur asked you to marry him in such spectacular fashion.”
“I’m afraid I understood to some degree. I just never imagined that it might come to an attempt on my life, or…” Jo looked down at her son. “But clearly I have underestimated Bernard at every turn.” Her laugh was bitterly. Frustration and anger slid through her veins, a thick and sludge-like sensation. “You’d think after all that has happened to me in my life that I would learn to believe the worst of men right from the start.” She looked down at her son. “But I refuse to raise a cynical boy, and if I had been such a bitter, cynical woman, I would never have met you and Arthur.”
“And that would have been an absolute shame.” Linc smiled. “But now is not the time for looking backward. We need to look ahead and determine what comes next.” The carriage lurched to a stop, causing him to wince. “Perhaps we can start by ensuring that you and Matthew are unharmed, and have a physician take a look at me.”
