Page 5 of The Last Chance
“Do you?”
“No, but I imagine one needs a firm hand.”
“A woman might conjure Lucifer’s strength to protect her virtue.”
The dark shadows of a memory passed over her face. “Clearly you have never had to subdue someone twice your size.”
The unsolicited pang in his chest had him inwardly cursing. Any emotion he felt was not for the man he’d become but for the child who wanted an end to the pain. “Which goes to prove your point. If we were on intimate terms, you would know that’s the worst thing you could ever say to me.”
Not the worst thing.
She could say he had failed his family.
That he was lacking as a man.
That he was selfish. Inconsiderate.
“I assume you have the names of all those in attendance tonight.” He credited her with some intelligence. When Daventry wasn’t interfering, she showed good business acumen. “You do keep a record of your members?”
“Of course. I relied on my patrons to confirm the gentlemen’s identities and to point out any unsavoury characters. Miss Wickford singled out more than one rake, what with her brother being an absolute scoundrel.”
“Excellent,” he said, keen to get to the matter of the body on the floor before it was too stiff to move. “We should have no issue identifying the victim or making a list of suspects.”
Aaron crossed the room and crouched beside the corpse.
Miss Lovelace did the same, her wrapper falling open and giving him a glimpse of her pretty nightgown. “It’s no ordinary dagger,” she said, staring at the intricate carvings on the hilt. “Do you suppose they’re real emeralds?”
“If it’s as I suspect, and this is a genuine Mughal dagger, then the gems are real.” A host of questions darted into his mind. But they would consider the weapon’s origins once they’d identified the victim. “There’s blood on the boards, but most seeped into his coat.”
“How do we turn him over without removing the blade?”
Aaron considered the man’s thin frame, the fine cut of his dark coat and his swathe of blonde hair. “We’ll roll him onto his side. I know most gentlemen in town. One glimpse of his face isall I need to identify him. I need you to support his weight. Can you do that?”
She nodded. “I’ll try.”
They should not disturb the scene, but he needed to know who they were dealing with if he was to help her escape the gallows.
It did not take brute strength to grip the man by the hip and shoulder and push him onto his side. It took strength not to shout, curse and spiral into a mad panic when he gazed upon the familiar face.
“I know this man.” A wave of apprehension swept through Aaron as he examined the purple discolouration on the victim’s face. In front of witnesses, he had threatened to throw the fool in the Thames. He had dragged the miscreant out of his club and flung him onto the street. Warned him he would be dead if he returned.
“Who is it?”
Fear gripped his heart. “It’s Lord Howard.”
Chapter Two
“Lord Howard? Are you certain?” Joanna dropped the man’s body as if it carried the plague. The urge to scrub his essence from her skin had her squirming and rubbing her hands vigorously. “But he wasn’t amongst the guests tonight. I have not seen him in years.”
She shot to her feet, limbs shaking, barely able to stand still, barely able to suppress the need to run and put a hundred miles between her and the body of this fiend.
“You know him?” Mr Chance said sharply, observing her with a constable’s scrutiny. He rose slowly, the power of his presence an unnerving force.
“I knew him once. A long time ago.” A lump of shame rose to her throat. She should say nothing. To confess meant revealing a secret she had not shared with a living soul. “I assure you. He was not welcome here. I cannot imagine why he would come.”
Mr Chance prowled towards her, the dark hair on his chest visible through his open shirt. In her twenty-eight years, she had never met a man who exuded such raw masculinity.
“You have a backbone of steel, Miss Lovelace.” Despite the compliment, the stern look in his eyes said to expect a reprimand. “I can forgive your lapse in confidence tonight, but your odd reaction shows a severe dislike for this man. You will tell me how you’re acquainted. Yours isn’t the only life at stake.”
