Page 8 of The Last Chance
“I’ll stay until Daventry arrives. He helped to create the problem. He can help to find a solution.”
As head of the best enquiry agency in London, Mr Daventry would know exactly what to do. Yet, to her mind, no man could match Aaron Chance’s strength and capabilities.
His gaze dipped to her wrapper. “You should change out of those damp clothes before you catch a chill. Shock has kept uswarm until now, but we should light a fire downstairs. Do you have brandy?”
Joanna nodded. “In the drawing room.”
“I must return to Fortune’s Den. I’ll be ten minutes at most. I’ll not meet Daventry looking like I’ve just crawled out of bed.”
She almost smiled. She wasn’t afraid of being alone. And seeing him half-dressed made him seem less like the indomitable figure who dragged drunkards from her doorway.
“I’ll make myself presentable while you’re gone.” She tucked a damp lock of hair behind her ear. “What must I look like?”
His eyes softened as he looked at her, his lips parting like he meant to reply, but an invisible barrier acted as a restraint. Instead, he stepped aside and gestured for her to leave the room.
She took one last look at Lord Howard’s body, searching within herself for an ounce of remorse. She had none. “I’m not sorry he’s dead.”
Mr Chance locked the door behind them and kept the key. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice a mix of anger and regret. “I would have enjoyed torturing that louse. I would have waited in the shadows, a beast in the blackness. No one would have known it was me.”
Why?she wanted to say.
Why did it matter?
He didn’t strike her as a defender of wronged women.
“Then I’ll reiterate what I said earlier. I’m glad he’s dead. Your family needs you. I wouldn’t want you to lose your liberty because you helped a stranger who lives across the street.”
“You’re hardly a stranger,” he countered. “You’ve attended every family wedding. My brothers’ wives consider you a friend.”
“I’m a stranger to you.” He knew nothing about her and never bothered to ask. He usually avoided conversation altogether.
“We’re not strangers. We’re competitors. It wouldn’t do to become too familiar.” Before she could contradict him, he descended the stairs and headed to her bedchamber. “I want to ensure there’s no one in the house before I leave. Do you have any objection to me checking your room?”
Panic fluttered in her throat. He was always so meticulous; everything kept in its place. She had thrown off her clothes tonight, so tired, she’d fallen into bed.
“Why would I object?” she said, straightening. “As we’re merely competitors, you’ll glean nothing of my business secrets in there.”
She didn’t ask how he knew where she slept.
Her chamber overlooked the street, as did his study.
A few times, their gazes had locked as she drew the curtains.
“I didn’t think you’d want a prized ape rummaging through your private things. I believe that’s what you called me.”
Trust him to remind her of their spat weeks ago. She might have chuckled if not for the dead man upstairs. “Were we not strangers, you’d know I hold no prejudices. I’m a great lover of the natural world.”
He didn’t tut or sigh but hovered outside the door as if poised on the edge of oblivion. When he turned the knob, he did so slowly.
Joanna hurried into the room behind him, gathering her petticoat and stockings off the chair. “I don’t keep a maid, and it was gone midnight when I climbed into bed.”
“What made you venture to the upper floor?” He was scanning the room, his dark eyes roaming over her private things, absorbing every detail despite the gloom. “Were you struggling to sleep?”
“No matter how many times I closed my eyes, I just lay there, revisiting the night’s events.” Despite tossing and turning for hours, she couldn’t shake the terrible sense of foreboding.The feeling she’d made a dreadful mistake in listening to Mr Daventry.
“Why leave your bed and venture to that particular room?” He was kneeling now, peering under the bed, his large hand splayed on her mattress.
To admit the truth would show her in a weak light. But a woman living alone was always vulnerable. And she’d sworn never to fall foul to a man’s weaknesses again.
