by Laura Landon
“Thank you, Plunkett,” she told her driver before hurrying through the door her butler held open for her.
“You have a message, Miss Lily,” her butler said when he closed the door. He reached for a silver salver on the foyer table, and held it out to her.
“Thank you, Connors,” she said as she took the folded paper.
She intended to wait until she reached her room before opening it, but something about her name scratched in bold letters made her open the missive on her way up the stairs.
She paused on the third step and read the short note, then turned. The message was from Liam.
Please come tonight. We need your help.
L
“Connors, please tell Plunkett I need to go out again.”
“Yes, Miss Lily,” the butler said. “Will you need me to accompany you?”
Lily hesitated a moment then shook her head. “No, I don’t believe so. I’m only going to my brother’s.”
“Very good, Miss McGregor.”
Lily slipped into her wrap, then waited until Plunkett brought the carriage back around in record time.
In the several minutes it took to travel to Liam’s town house Lily wondered which of the women she’d expected to seek her out had found their way to Liam’s home. She’d handed his address out three times in the weeks she’d lived at her brother’s.
Lily rushed to the door as soon as Plunkett helped her to the ground and found Liam waiting for her with the door open.
“Who is it, Liam?”
“Follow me,” he said and led her to one of the smaller drawing rooms at the back of the house.
Lily didn’t wait for Liam to open the door but rushed ahead into the room.
At first, she thought it must be Millie who was ill or injured for she was kneeling on the floor in front of the sofa. It wasn’t until Lily stepped closer that she saw the crumpled figure huddled on the cushions was Lady Margaret, Russell Broadmoore’s timid wife.
The small woman who lay on the sofa was almost unrecognizable. Her face was bruised. One eye was an ugly purple and black, and swollen nearly closed. Blood oozed from a cut at her mouth, and the left side of her face and lips were badly swollen. Lily didn’t doubt that beneath her gown she’d find even more bruises.
She rushed to the lady’s side and knelt beside Millie.
Millie rose and moved away so that Lily could attend the lady.
“Lady Margaret! Did your husband do this?” Lily asked.
“Mmhm,” she answered through her swollen lips.
“Liam,” Lily said. “Can you get me some fresh water? Then, have my carriage pulled around to the back of the house.”
“Right away,” he said.
Lily heard him leave and turned her attention back to Lady Margaret. “Did you bring any clothes with you?”
Lady Margaret turned her head enough that Lily thought she answered no.
“That’s all right. We’ll get you something later. What about your children?”
“I sent them to my sister’s.” Every word came out with painful effort. “You…you’re not going to make me go back to him, are you?” Her voice trembled with fear, and Lily captured both her hands to calm her.
“No,” Lily answered confidently. “You won’t ever have to go back to him.”
Lady Margaret sighed a deep moan, followed by sobbing tears.
“Everything’s all right now, my lady. I’ll take you where you’ll be safe. We’ll put a comfrey poultice on your bruises and you’ll feel like yourself again, all right?”
“Oh, thank you,” the lady said. “Thank you.”
“But first I have to ask you some questions. Are you up to that?”
Lady Margaret nodded.
“You might not be able to resume your place in Society for some time. At least not until your husband has been brought to terms. Can you accept that?”
“I don’t care. I just want to be away from him.”
“Good. Now, the place I’ll be taking you to is only temporary until we determine where you and the children will prefer to live permanently. You can’t bring your maid or anyone who might slip and disclose your location. Are you going to be all right with that?”
Lady Margaret nodded, and rather than break further into tears at the prospect of leaving her home, the woman seemed suddenly calmer. She needed this badly, and Lily was once again grateful for the network she had in place.
Liam returned with a bowl of clean water and another cloth. Lily rinsed the cloth and placed it on Lady Margaret’s jaw and cheek.
“How did you get here?”
“My carriage.”
“So, your husband might know where you are?”
“No, I had our driver drop me off several blocks from here then return home.”
“That was very wise of you,” Lily answered, then turned to Liam. “Her husband won’t know for a while, but eventually, he’ll figure it out. Will you be all right?”
“We’ll be fine. If I’m lucky, the bastard who did this will let me give him a taste of his own medicine.”
“It’s Russell Broadmoore, Liam.”
“Broadmoore?”
“Jack’s cousin. Although, I’m not sure Jack wants to claim him.”
“If this is an example of his temperament, I wouldn’t want to admit I was related to him either.”
Lily comforted Lady Margaret a little while longer, then motioned for Liam to follow her out into the hall.
“What are you going to do?” Liam asked.
“You’ve mentioned warehouse guards. Would it be possible for one or two of those men to guard my house?”
“Yes. But you’re going to need someone to organize it. Someone to tell them where to patrol and when. Do you think you’re able to do that?”
Lily shook her head. “No, but I know the perfect person who is.”
“Who?”
“You don’t know him. He’s still in Whitechapel. He was my personal guard.”
“Can you trust him?”
“I’ve trusted him with my life since I was in pinafores.”
“Then you can trust him again. How are you going to get in touch with him?”
“I’m not. Bonnie is.”
“Bonn—” Liam smiled. “Yes, Bonnie. Good old girl.”
Lily matched Liam’s smile. “I’m going to take Lady Margaret to my house and get her settled in. Then, I’d like to ask another favor.”
“Yes?”
“Would you go to Jack’s and bring him to my house, then stay with him long enough for me to collect my guard and return?”
Liam nodded.
“Thank you, Liam.”
“That’s quite all right. Jack and I will make sure nothing happens to Lady Margaret. We have an advantage with time, you know. Russell won’t think of you immediately. He’ll assume Lady Margaret sought refuge with her parents first. When he realizes she’s not there, he’ll think of her friends and acquaintances. Hopefully, he won’t think of you for days, or even weeks.”
Lily prayed Liam was correct. She prayed they’d have time in which to decide what to do with Russell Broadmoore. They couldn’t simply dump him aboard the first ship sailing to Australia. He wasn’t someone from the slums of London that no one cared about. He was a relative of the Marquess of Riverdon. He had connections to nobility.
“Let’s go now,” Lily said. “We’ll take Lady Margaret to my home, then I’ll get into my Bonnie trappings while you take my carriage to get Jack.”
“What are you going to do when Jack sees you?”
Lily grimaced. “I’m going to hope he has a sense of humor. If he doesn’t, he’ll never be able to face me again.”
“Oh, facing you won’t be the problem, but you may never get him to kiss you again.”
Lily’s breath caught.
How in the world did Liam know that Jack had kissed her?
Jack sat opposite Liam in Lily’s carriage. He had a dozen or more questions he wanted answers to, bu
t all Liam said was to wait until they reached Lily’s town house and ask them when Lily could answer them.
Bloody hell, he didn’t even know Lily had a town house. He thought she was still staying with Liam and Millie.
Jack thought of another dozen questions, most of them prompted by the fact that Liam had asked him to bring a pistol with him. This whole night was getting more tense by the hour—as if the discussion with his uncle hadn’t turned out badly enough.
The carriage slowed and Jack looked out the window when it stopped. “Lily lives here?” he said looking out the window.
“Yes.”
“How did she manage to acquire a town house like this?”
“It was Gunner’s. He left it to her.”
“When she said he’d left her more money that she needed, she wasn’t joshing, was she?”
“No. She wasn’t joshing.”
“Did he leave you the same?”
“More than I wanted,” Liam said dismounting from the carriage.
“May I ask why?” Jack asked while they made their way up the walk and through the door Lily’s butler held open for them.
Liam stopped and faced Jack. “Gunner didn’t give me a penny to buy a piece of bread when I went to bed hungry every night. I’m sure not going to take anything from him now. I can buy my own bread.”
Jack nodded thoughtfully. He had a feeling the McGregor childrens’ story was a lot more complicated than he’d begun to realize.
“Come in here.” Liam led him to a drawing room. It was a small room, beautifully decorated and painted in warm colors. It reflected Lily’s personality so well that it seemed obvious she had decorated the room.
“Here,” Liam said handing Jack a glass of brandy. “I can tell you need this for the bruise on your face.”
“Courtesy of my uncle,” Jack said.
“That must be where his son inherited his technique.”
Jack didn’t have the faintest idea what Liam meant by that and looked at Liam for an explanation.
“We’re here because your cousin Russell beat his wife within an inch of her life tonight, Jack.”
“Damn!”
“Lady Margaret came to Lily for help and Lily brought her here. She’s upstairs in one of the rooms. Lily’s hiring a guard to guarantee Lady Margaret will remain safe.”
“A guard?”
“A fellow Gunner hired to protect Lily when she was young.”
“In the meantime we can look after the woman,” Jack offered. “Lily can hardly go to Whitechapel this time of night, guard or no guard.”
A smile broadened across Liam’s face. “That’s exactly what she plans.”
“The devil, you say. Then I’m going with her.”
“You’ll only be in the way, Jack. She’ll be fine on her own. Besides, we need to stay here to protect Lady Margaret until she returns.”
“You can stay here to protect Russell’s wife. I’m going to go with Lily to make sure she comes back alive.”
Before Liam could say anything in response, a garish cackling sound echoed from the open doorway.
“What the hell,” Jack bellowed.
“My word, Liam. Where’dja find yerself such a pretty boy? The fellas at the bordello will have themselves a grand time with this one.”
Jack stared at the ragged beggar lady who stood just inside the door. Her clothes were little more than rags and her wild gray hair looked as though it had never been washed, or even combed, for that matter. She wore a baggy gray jumper streaked with dirt and stained with heaven only knew what. She was the most repulsive human Jack had ever seen.
Just when he thought he couldn’t be repulsed any more than he already was, the slum dweller swiped her filthy sleeve across her nose and snuffled.
Jack turned to Liam. “Are you going to throw this blighter out?”
“Well,” Liam said, obviously trying to stop his laughter. “I’d think about throwing her out, but that means I’d have to touch her and I’m afraid what bugs and other creepy-crawlies she might infect me with.”
“Watch yer mouth, boy,” the filthy vagrant said in a gruff voice. As if her voice wasn’t repulsive enough, she added a couple of loud snorts as emphasis, then walked to the sideboard.
“Stop right there,” Jack bellowed when the vagrant poured herself a glass of Lily’s fine brandy. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m pouring myself a glass of fine brandy. I won’t get anything better than rot-gut gin in Whitechapel.” When her glass had two fingers of brandy in it, she turned to Jack and proposed a toast. “Here’s to a successful evening,” she said in a refined voice. Then, the filthy rag-lady sipped from the glass as if she were having tea with the Queen.
Jack stared at the figure in front of him, stunned at the change in her voice.
Bloody hell.
“Lily?”
“Yes, Jack. Liam you’d better hold on to him. Jack looks like he might faint dead away. He’s not ready for the shock I’ve given him after the difficult day and evening he’s already had.”
Jack looked at the broad grin on Liam’s face, then back at the rag-lady in front of him. It couldn’t be Lily. There wasn’t one thing about her that was Lily except her voice.
“Meet Bonnie, Jack. Street mongrel and thief of anything that isn’t nailed down.”
“Lily?”
“Yes, Jack,” she repeated. “You’d better sit down before you fall down.”
“How… uh… What… uh… Who…” He stared at her a little longer. “I don’t believe it. This is magnificent. You’re magnificent.”
“Thank you, Jack. Maybe when I return you can invite your parents for tea. I’m sure they’d be impressed.”
Jack watched Lily finish the brandy in her glass, then head for the door.
“I’ll be back before dawn.”
“Wait. Wait!” Jack followed Lily from the room. He reached her before she was at the door, and looked into a face even uglier close up. “You’ll be careful, won’t you?”
She paused, then smiled a black-toothed grin. “Of course I will, Jack. I always am.”
And then she slipped out into the dark, leaving him standing there in the entryway regarding the change in her, praying for her safety, and questioning every single thing he knew about Miss Lily McGregor.
BEHOLD THE THIEF by Laura Landon
Chapter Sixteen
By the time Lily reached the Devil’s Rest, Murk Matthews was nowhere to be seen. It didn’t matter, though. Lily felt she knew where he’d be—in the shack below the bridge on Cribbly Lane. It wasn’t difficult to find. The one-room hovel was just deeper in Whitechapel than she cared to go. Deeper even than Plunkett cared to go.
The rattle-trap cart rocked across the ancient rutted road. If Murk wasn’t there they’d just have to wait. And wait they did. More than an hour.
Every time she left Whitechapel, it was more difficult to return. The once-familiar smell of the filth and rotten garbage and gin-soaked bodies was more sickening now. She knew the time would come when it would be impossible for her to come back.
She hated to feel this way because no place on earth needed her help more than the women of Whitechapel. No one needed her help more than the desperate and poor of Whitechapel. The time would come when she had to come to terms with her feelings and her responsibility. But that time wasn’t now. There were more pressing things she had to deal with.
“You need me?” the voice of the person she’d come to see whispered behind her.
Lily jumped. She’d been hunkered in the dark behind a barrel, watching Murk’s front door. Plunkett was at the end of the lane keeping watch. She should have known Murk would see the cart and know she was here. She stood and stretched.
“Yes. I need your help.”
Murk Matthews closed the gap between them. “What can I do for you, Lily?”
“I need you to come with me. And bring a satchel.”
“To where?”
“To my
town house.”
“Away from Whitechapel?”
“Yes, Murk. To Mayfair.”
The man who had always followed her requests without a second thought, lowered his gaze to the ground and hesitated for what seemed an eternity.
“I’m not sure I can do that.”
“Is there a reason you don’t want to leave Whitechapel?”
Murk took a step away from Lily and stood with his back to her.
“It isn’t that I don’t want to leave Whitechapel. It’s more that I don’t want to return to Mayfair.”
Lily stared at Murk’s back for several long moments while she digested what he’d just said. “Murk?”
He slowly turned until his gaze locked with hers. “I prayed we’d never have to have this conversation, but somehow I always knew I wouldn’t be spared having to tell you certain things about me.”
Lily took a step closer to the man who’d always been there when she needed someone to talk to. Or, someone to watch over her. Or, someone to carry her when she’d wandered into trouble. Murk had always been that person. It was Murk who had shown her what a father should be.
Maybe it was because he was nothing like Gunner. Maybe it was because Murk was nothing like any of the other men in Whitechapel. Maybe it was that Lily never thought Murk belonged in Whitechapel any more than she thought she belonged there. He always seemed like a fish out of water here, and so did she.
Lily took another step closer to Murk. “We used to pretend that you were raised on a country estate. That you came from nobility. It wasn’t just a game, was it.”
Murk drew her inside his shack so that their conversation would not be overheard. It was tidy, filled with books arranged in orderly fashion on shelves, and weapons neatly tacked in rows on the wall.
“Come, sit beside me, Lily.”
Lily took a seat on a footstool near Murk’s overstuffed chair. When she was settled, the man she’d known and relied on all her life removed the old brown felt hat he always wore and raked his fingers through his dark hair. Lily scarcely remembered him without his hat on his head. He had beautiful hair. He was a good-looking man now, but for the first time Lily imagined how handsome he must have been when he was younger.
