Page 59 of Bedding the Marquess
“Le Général—one of the men mentioned that name.”Right before beating me, Gideon thought sourly, but did not say aloud.
“He was a Frenchman posing as a purveyor of debauchery and vice,” explained Oliver.
“The rest of his cell did not take kindly to his capture and eventual forced departure from this world.” The icinessto Ramsay’s tone was discomfiting. “Black was responsible for ferreting him out; they wished for revenge.”
“Quite fervently, I might add,” Gideon added sardonically. Now he better understood the viciousness of the attack. Revenge was a powerful motivator.
“They must not have realized the extent of Emily’s involvement, or else she might have been a target as well.”
Gideon’s head whipped toward his half brother. “Emily was involved as well?”
Oliver made a sheepish shrug of one shoulder. “Not my most brilliant idea, but I was desperate.” And that was all the explanation he offered.
“We have the ship. We have the identity of its owner. And now we know who to target in France,” Ramsay said, ignoring Gideon and Oliver’s discussion. His posture was impeccably straight—could his spine have been replaced with granite?
“Can you do that?” Gideon asked with a frown. “Travel to France and simply ‘deal’ with them?”
Ramsay leveled an unnervingly cool look at him. “My lord, I can do whatever I please. And when someone targets one of my agents, I take it very, very personally.”
Gideon barely stifled a chill.
He did not doubt that in the slightest.
Gideon returned tothe room in which Caroline would reside for the next couple of weeks. It was plain and bare, but it was also clean and comfortable. And, judging from the tinkle of feminine laughter, she would have entertaining company to help pass the time. Oliver promised he and his wife would visit often; McCullom had said he and Lady Juliette would remain in residence for two more days before Dr. Bianchi returned and they left for their private residence.
“Our home is not far, so I would not be surprised if my wife is a frequent visitor during Lady Swanleigh’s stay,” McCullom had said. “She seems quite taken with her.”
Gideon appreciated the support he and Caroline were receiving on all fronts, but what he truly wanted was to be alone with her in the comfort of their own home. Were her condition not so precarious, he’d have spirited her back to Bray Castle, where they could exist in peace and return to the last place the world had felt safe.
Emily and Lady Juliette were already standing when Gideon entered the bedchamber.
“I will return tomorrow with that book for you,” said McCullom’s dark-haired wife. “For now, I will allow you to rest and see what Mrs. Green is planning for supper.”
“I am sure we will come for another visit very soon,” Emily chimed in reassuringly. “Let me know if there is anything you are missing from Swanleigh House. If you make a list, then I shall endeavor to obtain the items for you.”
“Thank you…both of you,” Caro said warmly just as the other women prepared to take their leave.
Caroline reclined against several pillows. She’d bathed, dressed in a fresh nightrail of pristine white, and her hair had been brushed to a crackling sheen, making it look like burnished bronze in the waning evening light. The days were growing shorter, stealing with them the warmth of summer. A fire had been set in the hearth in an effort to ward off the early chill, making the room feel comfortably close.
Her pale hands were crossed protectively over the mound of her belly. The smile she gave him was one of fatigued relief. Even bedridden as she was, she’d weathered an ordeal less than twenty-four hours before, and it had taken a toll on her body. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from her long enough to bid the other ladies a proper farewell.
As soon as the door shut, he crossed the room to his wife and dropped into the chair beside the bed. She held her hand out to him and he took it, tracing her fingers and the fragile bones within before placing a kiss upon her palm and then pressing it to his beard-roughened cheek.
“I missed you,” Caro whispered. His heart fluttered uncontrollably.
“I missed you as well,” Gideon said honestly.
This was the first time they’d been truly alone since Caroline’s escape and Gideon’s rescue. There were no fewer than a thousand things to say, but they settled into a companionable silence, their eyes greedily drinking one another in. Caroline lay her head back as if her neck was suddenly too weary to hold it aloft. She sighed with a soft smile.
“Thank you for everything you did.”
“You hardly need to thank me,” he scoffed.
“But I do.”
“You do not,” he said more adamantly, leaning forward and squeezing the hand he still had not released. “I would do it all again for you. I would walk through fire. I would face down an army. I would—”
“Alright!” She emitted a single breathy laugh. “I understand.” She sighed as if her heart overflowed with emotion and she was tired of holding back the flood. “Do you know how much I love you, Gideon?”
