Aaron locked his arms around her and pulled her close before he stood. Her feet settled on the ground and then he grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles. “I’ll meet you at the front door in an hour.”
She was startled into silence as he left the room.
Christin wrote a note to be delivered to Potter house and had just enough time to eat a quick breakfast and fetch her bonnet and shawl before it was time to meet Aaron at the door.
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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
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“May I ask you a question?”
Aaron watched a curl dance against Christin’s cheek as the carriage headed toward the docks. She was dressed in a gray ensemble that was made of sturdy material and lined with tiny black buttons up the front. Her headdress, however, was a bonnet draped with dark muslin and lace. She looked the perfect widow, but her skin was far too soft and dewy for anyone to think her much older than a debutante.
She’d surprised him earlier when she’d stood before him with blatant desire in her eyes. He’d almost responded to it.
His body had responded.
But he’d found a way to control himself until the last possible minute.
That she’d found desire for him after hearing about her brother-in-law’s demise was surprising, but after meeting Jack, he understood how grateful she could be.
The man hadn’t been glad to see Aaron and Hugh at his front door, and the moment he’d opened his mouth, Aaron had put an end to his talking. He couldn’t imagine Christin having dealt with the man for the last eight years of her life. He could reasonably estimate that anyone else would have broken into a jig after hearing the news, but he admitted that he’d liked her version of gratitude better… so long as she only did so with him.
He nodded in answer to her question, believing it to be about Jack.
He was wrong.
“What happened between you and your mother?” She seemed to have become anxious by asking it, but still she kept her eyes on him.
Aaron had to calm the roiling anger that tried to catch him in its throes. He placed his arms on his knees and inhaled.
Her hand reached out and covered his. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t wish to.”
No, he didn’t wish to, but he was going to nonetheless. She deserved to know the truth before he dragged her into his life.
And he had every intention of keeping her, even if he did have to throw her over his shoulder to see it done. When she’d mentioned leaving earlier that morning, he’d felt a burst of anger but recalled telling himself that very morning that he needed to control his temper.
Thankfully, he’d worked much of it out with his dealings with Jack.
“My brother died, and in her grief, she rejected me.” Had he ever said those words to anyone before? He thought not. Perhaps the vicar who’d come to visit him later, but anyone else who knew the story had known because they’d been there or had been told by someone who had been.
He watched Christin pull in her own breath and watched it tremble past her lips. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you had a brother.”
“Not many people do,” he told her. “We were both young when he died. After his passing, the spare became the heir, and here I am.”
Her eyes widened. “You lost your older brother?”
He nodded again.
“What was his name?” Christin asked.
“Dan.”
“Can I play?”
“You’re not big enough, Aaron. This is a man’s game.”
“Please,” Aaron had begged. “I want to go with you. You need me.”
He turned to look out the window, but instead of catching sight of brick and the few people who were about that early in the day, he saw green fields, so green, so bright.
And then blood.
“Aaron?”
He turned back to her. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”
She shook her head softly. “Never mind.” She patted the hand she’d not let go of and then leaned away.
She’d most definitely asked him something but had decided to have mercy on him for the moment.
He was never more grateful that she had, and never more grateful that she was his.
“Who took care of you once the countess left?” she asked slowly.
“Eton,” he told her. “And the vicar who visited me after I’d begun to cause trouble… and the Brotherhood. You met many of the men last night.”
“Yes.” She smiled. “They were all very kind. Who was missing?”
“Morris, Duke of Cort, and Mr. Calvin Lockwood, who you know to be in Oxford and Calvin’s brother, Frank Lockwood.”
“And where is Mr. Frank Lockwood?”
“Here in the city,” he admitted. “Though we hardly see him. He’s become a student of the mind, studying various ways in which men think and make decisions. He spends most of his time at Bedlam.”
Her eyes widened. “I hear it can be very dangerous there.”
“It can be, but Frank knows what he’s about. Besides, we’ve come to believe that not everyone in there deserves to be. Miss Maura Shaw lived there for a time.” If one could call a time ten years.
Maura was Lorena’s cousin and the only member of the Spinsters’ inner council who had yet to wed.
She was very pretty. There was no denying it. She had knowing blue eyes, hair that seemed to have been stroked by Midas, and a soft smile she was willing to give anyone. The men had all agreed that Maura was breathtaking. However, she was also very… peculiar.
Christin straightened. “Yes, Maura. I’ve not seen her in months. Where is she now?”
“She is mostly in charge of the Spinsters’ Society Home for Women, which is run out of Lorena’s old house. When she is not there, she spends most of her time with Taygete’s sister, Alcyone. They seem to have the same interests.” Both women were peculiar, enjoying novels with enough ghosts and tragedy to put Shakespeare to shame, though Alcyone had found her match in a wealthy miner’s son.
“I’m glad,” Christin said. “Maura is so kind. I’m sure the women appreciate her. Everyone needs someone who understands them.”
“Yes,” he agreed while holding her eyes.
She held his and then turned away. The smell of the docks began to slip through the open windows as did the shouts of the dock workers. They were close to their destination.
“I suppose we’ve most in common in the form of loss,” she said before looking at him again. Then she smiled and said, “And the caring of little girls.”
He nodded and held himself back from making mention of one other thing they held in common.
The need to touch one another and the hunger that seemed to spark under the barest of gazes.
Her cheeks pinked as though she’d read his thoughts. The carriage door was opened by his footman.
“Are you ready to say goodbye?” Aaron asked.
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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
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Christin hardly recognized the man Aaron pointed out as being her brother-in-law. She asked him if he was sure, but as Jack climbed up the ramp toward the ship, she could tell by his body that he was who Aaron claimed him to be. His face was an arrangement of blue and purple lumps, and he walked with a heavy limp.
He wore the breeches she’d last seen him in and the same shirt, and even yards away, she could see sprinkles of blood through the fabric.
He’d been beaten severely, and she could only imagine the pain he felt. His face had to be throbbing. He nearly fell and would have if the man behind him hadn’t reached out a hand to steady him.
He was really and truly leaving. The boat was heading for America.
She’d never see him again.
She looked at Aaron and found him watching her.
“You disapprove?” he asked with a lifted brow.
She shook her head. “Anyone who threatens a young girl deserves far worse.” And she couldn’t forget the many times she’d seen her own sister beaten and bruised. She was glad to see him gone and a savage part of her was glad for his pain. Tina was safe.
At least, safe from Jack.
And Aaron was the reason.
Had they been alone…
He smiled down at her knowingly. “I like that look on you.”
She lowered her eyes. “This is not me. I don’t even know who I am anymore.”
“I know who you are,” he whispered and then reached out to grab her hand. They were standing in a crowd of others who’d come to see friends and family away. He kept her hand close to her body and the folds of her skirts, so no one would see.
“You’re mine,” he told her plainly.
Pleasure coursed through her blood and even that Christin knew to be unusual. She’d never known herself to be a woman who jumped at the chance to be claimed.
She was more than grateful when two familiar faces appeared in the crowd and made their way toward Christin and Aaron.
He didn’t let go of her hand as Lord and Lady Edvoy approached.
“Good morning, Christin,” Taygete called before reaching over and kissing her cheek.
Christin smiled as she pulled away, her hand finally breaking from Aaron’s. “You’re up quite early.”
Taygete touched her rounded belly. “The baby keeps me up and when Hugh mentioned he would be coming to the docks, I decided to join him.”
“Though I’d rather you had stayed home,” her husband murmured.
Taygete’s gray eyes smiled up at him. “Yes, but short of tying me to a chair, I will do as I please.”
Hugh frowned at her. “You shouldn’t be out and about in your condition.”
“My condition?” Taygete asked. “Hugh, I’ve not caught the flu. It’s a baby.”
“My baby.” He touched her cheek before lowering his hand. “And the most important person in the world carries him.”
Taygete’s eyes watered. “Her,” she whispered.
Aaron grabbed her hand once more and his hold tightened, and Christin didn’t dare look up at him, fearing what she may find in his gaze, fearing what she wanted to be there.
Hugh grinned down at his wife and then turned to Christin. “I’m sure you’re glad that your brother-in-law is gone.”
Christin turned to Aaron then. “He knows?”
“There are no secrets in the Brotherhood,” Aaron simply said.
“And none amongst the sisters,” Taygete said before moving toward her and taking her arm. “I saw a man selling chocolate not but two yards away. Let’s go and get some, shall we?”
“I don’t want you wandering far,” Hugh said with a frown. “The docks are dangerous.”
“You say that about everywhere I go,” she reminded him. “The day is clear, and I’m not going alone. Christin and I won’t be long. You two chat and glare at Mr. Peck’s retreating form while we get chocolate.” She started away.
“Wait.” Hugh reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a slip of paper.
Aaron took it with his free hand and gave it to Christin.
She frowned and disentangled herself from both Aaron and Taygete to open it. She was forced to start reading the letter from the top once more before the words could be understood. Jack Peck released all claims to Tina. She was now officially Christin’s child.
Christin looked up at Aaron and then Hugh, her heart beating with joy. She pressed her letter over it in an effort to control its unsteady rhythm. “Who do I have to thank for this?”
“A solicitor by the name of Mr. Allen Blackfall and a witness who came in the form of Lord Anthony Ellis,” Hugh said.
Aaron frowned at Hugh. “First Prince Garrett. Now Anthony?”
Hugh shrugged. “I needed legal aid on short notice. It was the middle of the night, and I was dragging a limp body with me. I had few choices. Anthony was already there.” Hugh turned to Christin. “They were both quite upset that you’d not come to them for help.”
Aaron stared at her. “You know those men?”
She hesitated. “They are clients of mine.”
Christin had no idea what was taking place, but she did know who both Mr. Blackfall, the renowned solicitor and Lord Eliss, a renowned rake, were. Both had come to her to employ servants. Both were very stunning men in their own right, and both had tried to have their way with her.
Part of her had been tempted. She’d even had dinner with Mr. Blackfall—as was her right as a widow—who’d she’d found be funny and entertaining, but like the many others who’d come before Aaron, she’d turned them all away before things could go further.
So why not him? Why this pull?
“Anthony was very helpful,” Hugh said.
“I’m sure he was,” Aaron said as he turned back to his friend.
She was glad when Taygete began to lead her away before she could be tempted once more to kiss Aaron in fervent gratitude.
“We’ll be back before you know it,” Taygete called, but the men seemed to be having their own discussion and barely heard her. “I love chocolate, don’t you? It’s so warm and creamy as it goes down your throat and so very warm.” She moaned with pleasure as she navigated Christin through the crowd.
Christin supposed she liked chocolate just as much as anyone, but after Taygete’s description, she desperately wanted a cup. She’d just placed her letter into her pocket when she saw the vendor with chocolate.
But Taygete passed right by him without even giving him a glance.
“Taygete, where are we—”
“Here we are!” Taygete stopped in front of a flower vender. The blooms and bulbs were bright and seemed very out of place for the colorless docks. The man behind them also seemed out of place. He was of average height, had a rail thin body, poor posture, and sported a glare.
Taygete was undeterred by it. “I’m in the market for a weed.”
“A weed?” Christin asked. No one bought weeds.
The man looked at Christin and then Taygete. “We’ve don’t ‘ave any weeds.”
Well, of course, he didn’t. No one bought—
Taygete leaned over the cart and shot daggers at the man through frozen eyes. Her voice was a low sneer. “You will give me what I have asked for this very minute.”
The young man’s eyes widened. He looked around his cart and extended a small pouch to Taygete, who readily smiled and tucked it in her pocket.
“Thank you.” Then she extended the man a coin. Christin was shocked to see it was a pound.
The man seemed surprised as well and greedily reached for it, but Taygete pulled it away at the last minute.
“We need one other thing,” Taygete said with a smile.
The man looked around the docks and then back at her. “Would you ‘urry it up?”
Taygete didn’t flinch. “We need to know how to get to Bancroft’s office.”
Christin gasped and then whispered, “Taygete, how do you even know this man knows the way?”
“Yea,” the man agreed with a frown. “Just cuz I’m ain’t no gen’men don’t mean I know ‘ow to find Bancroft.”
Taygete leaned in again. “Tell me.”
The man leaned away and swallowed. “Keep to the left of the garden and walk all the way to the back. There’s a hidden stairwell behind a hanging vine in the corner. You’ll think it’s just part of the wall, but there’s a door. If you can manage to get past the guard on the other side, you’ll find Bancroft.”
“Thank you!” Taygete tossed him the coin and walked away. Again, she passed the chocolate and simply made her way back to the men.
Hugh turned to her and lifted a brow. “Where’s the chocolate?”
She pouted her lips. “I’m not feeling well
. Could you take me home?”
Hugh straightened. “Of course.” He nodded to both Christin and Hugh before ushering a secretly grinning Taygete away.
Christin blinked at her departure.
“You didn’t go to get chocolate, did you?” Aaron asked.
She was glad she’d had her back to him when he did. It gave her time to fix her features before turning to him. “You heard Taygete. She said she wasn’t feeling well.” She would not betray the woman’s trust.
Aaron grunted but extended his hand just as a ship’s whistle blew. “Let’s return home.”
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CHAPTER NINETEEN
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Aaron’s home was being overrun by flowers, long ribbons, and an assortment of men and women he’d never seen before in his life. They ran around the room as though the very devil were upon their heels and only stopped to curtsey once they saw Aaron before hurrying on in the direction they’d come from. The smell of the plants was overpowering, and Aaron decided it best to follow the sound of happy shrills that were coming from the sitting room.
Mary, Lily, Tina, and his mother were in the center of the room while his cousin Elipha and a small maid he didn’t recognize sat in the corner. There were other servants decorating the room with Japanese screens. Lady, Mary’s cat, which was a white Persian creature with a diamond collar that Hugh had bought, was perched on the mantle. Never did Aaron believe there to a better name for a cat. She seemed to look over the assembly with disdain while Lily’s cat, Tom, who was orange and sweet, danced around the happy girls.
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