Page 41 of The Scoundrel of Drury Lane
The constable tucked his pistol back into his belt. “Not to me. Right, then. Carry on.”
Kit turned to Mr. Samuels. “They assured me they will return for your horses, Mr. Samuels. But now it’s time to say goodbye to them. This horse needs you now.”
The driver got to his feet and removed his cap from his head. He said a soft prayer over his fallen friends and put his cap back on.
“You’re a good man,” Kit said to him and laid a hand on the driver’s shoulder. “Now let’s walk this one back to my stables and see to his care, shall we?”
They were halfway home when Darius caught up to them.
“Thank Christ, Kit. When Suzannah told me what happened...” His friend’s gaze swept over the driver leading a lame horse, but he asked no questions.
“I assume Suzannah fetched you?” Kit asked.
“Yes. The doctor’s seen to the boy. It was a clean break, but setting it wasn’t pleasant. The boy will be in bed for a few weeks before he can put any weight on that leg, even with crutches.”
“And Suzannah?” Kit had had only a moment to speak to her before he’d rushed to the scene of the accident. He’d taken her at her word that she was all right, but now he feared she’d been hiding some injury.
“She’s terribly shaken but bearing up well. Still, it would be best to watch over her tonight. She shouldn’t be alone.”
Kit agreed. As of tonight, she and Henry would be his guests. He still had plenty of empty rooms, after all.
When they reached his home, Kit and Mr. Samuels put the injured horse into a stall and a messenger was sent for a veterinarian to take a look at him.
Kit and Darius returned inside and told Palmer about their new permanent driver, who would need dinner and a bed in the servants’ quarters tonight. He’d inform his butler about moving the driver’s family in tomorrow.
Darius took hold of Kit’s arm as they stood in the entryway.
“And what about you? Willyoube all right?”
Kit shrugged. “Warm brandy and dry clothes should do the trick.”
Darius’s blue eyes penetrated Kit’s heart. “I meant with that girl here. She’s under your roof tonight.”
“Being here is a safe place for her.”
“You know what I mean. What aboutyou?” he persisted.
With any other man, Kit would have assumed the question was whether the girl was safe with him. But his old friend meant it another way, that it might be difficult to have someone under his roof he couldn’t trust.
Kit swept his hair out of his eyes and relaxed. “I think I need her here. She calms me. I know it makes very little sense. I don’t even know that much about her, but it doesn’t change how I feel. I shouldn’t trust her. But I do.”
Something about Darius’s soft smile brought back memories of their youth that Kit had feared were long forgotten. It opened up the core of his soul.
Suzannah had made him feel that same way, but instead of thinking of the past like he did with his friends, thinking of Suzannah had turned his mind to the future, a future that was no longer bleak. When he thought of her, his mind always seemed to fill with endless sunlight.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you might be falling in love with her,” Darius teased gently.
“If I was still capable of love... I think I would be. She would be the one I would give everything to.” It was becoming easier and easier to speak openly of his feelings with Darius, and even his other friends.
“Do you remember what your father used to say when we were young boys?” Darius asked.
Kit shook his head.
“No matter how far a man falls, he can always get back up and climb again. You are not incapable of love, old friend. I think you’re capable of loving fiercely, as all great loves should be. Do not hold yourself back because of fear or doubt.”
Darius smiled and left Kit alone in the entryway. Kit turned to the stairs, his shoulders sagging as the last of the tension bled out of him. He knew Suzannah was close, and after everything he’d seen and felt tonight, he wanted to hold her in his arms and see for himself that she was unharmed.
He could have lost her tonight. It could have been her cold body lying in the street. He banished the dark thought and went up the stairs to find her.
