Page 13 of A Little Bit Dangerous
There was a God!
Good people did exist.
“That’s settled then,” she said, swallowing hard and snatching her hand away. “I wish you every luck for the future, Mr Chance. I pray you find comfort in—”
“No!” He reached for her, gripping her wrist before his brain engaged. “We’ll visit the shipping office together as planned. I don’t give a damn about breaking my oath.” Daventry had hardly been honest himself. “But I’ll not see you starve because of my selfish pride.”
That would make him a hypocrite. And he’d not sleep a wink tonight thinking about her alone in that blasted house.
Miss Lawton glanced at where his fingers touched her bare skin, her breath quickening. “My problems are not your concern. I’ll find a way out of this mess. I always do.”
He imagined her sitting alone in a dark room, muttering to herself, not seated around the huge dining table at Fortune’s Den discussing the problem with siblings.
“My sister Delphine would never forgive me if I did not see you financially secure.” And he suspected she was too proud to accept charity.
Miss Lawton frowned. “Your sister? I’m sure I would have recalled a girl living next door.”
“Delphine is our adopted sister. She’s close to your age, six and twenty.” Delphine had wandered up to them in the alley one night, crying so hard it had taken an hour to settle her. “We’ve taken care of her for the last sixteen years.”
Tears welled in Miss Lawton’s eyes. “Then she is perhaps the luckiest lady alive.” She tugged her hand free. It felt so natural to touch her, Christian had forgotten he held her wrist. “Take some time to think about this dilemma. I’ll wait in Mr Daventry’s carriage until a quarter past the hour. Don’t feel obliged to come.”
Daventry returned. The flustered curator bustled them out of the basement and shooed them through the courtyard to Great Russell Street. Christian watched Miss Lawton climb into Daventry’s conveyance, relief racing through him when he noticed she gripped the food parcel.
She smiled at him as the carriage passed, and he’d be damned if he didn’t wave. She was, without doubt, the most beautiful woman ever to make his acquaintance, yet it was not just her exotic looks that held him spellbound.
He could still feel the imprint of her tender touch. His heart still thumped hard in his chest at the depth of her benevolence. He’d never known such kindness. Kindness from a woman who had every right to hate the world.
Needing air, he walked as far as Newgate Street before hailing a hackney. The closer he came to Aldgate, the more his stomach churned. Aaron professed to have a heart of steel. Yes, he would unleash his tightly reined temper, but he always erred on the side of common sense.
Aaron was standing outside Fortune’s Den when Christian returned, his muscular arms folded across his chest as he stared at the premises opposite.
Christian straightened his spine and came to stand beside his brother. Solving the curator’s ghostly mystery would be easier than dealing with his current problem.
“The Burnished Jade didn’t open last night,” Aaron said, his tone curious, though the bulging vein in his temple spoke of an inner rage. “Have you been to see Lovelace to find out why? Tell me someone shot the bastard and dumped his body in the Thames.”
“I’ve not been to see Lovelace.”
Aaron continued to look straight ahead, though tension stretched between them. “Then you’ve been to throttle Bentham and demand he keeps to his repayment plan.”
“I visited Bentham two days ago, as you well know. The dandy has a bruised eye as proof. You saw it last night.” Though Christian hated arguing with the brother who’d saved them, it was time Aaron accepted his siblings were no longer children. “Why don’t you say what’s on your mind?”
Aaron turned his head slowly. His intense stare had the power to shred a man’s soul. “What did Daventry want with you? It must be important. Why else would you break the sacred rule?”
“We should discuss this inside, not on the street.”
Aaron snorted. “We slept on the street for a month. It’s where we forged our bond. It’s where we made our pact. It’s where you dabbed blood from the cut above my left eye and swore nothing would ever come between us.”
Christian’s stomach twisted into knots.
He had never forgotten the sacrifices Aaron had made. He’d watched his brother take a beating just to earn a few shillings. Watched Aaron draw on his inner strength to beat an opponent twice his age and win a prize large enough to cover six months’ rent.
“Like you, I’m not perfect. You broke the rule once.”
Aaron cursed. “Fear does that to a boy.”
It was a memory Christian wished he could forget. Him waking in the darkness to find Aaron missing from Mrs Maloney’s pokey room. In a panic, he’d rushed to wipe mist from the window. That’s when he saw Aaron hurrying along Lime Street, his meagre belongings in a sack thrown over his back. For a reason unbeknown, his brother had stopped abruptly and glanced back at the second-hand bookshop.
Don’t leave us!
