by Nerys Leigh
When Toby finished, he gagged both men and moved on to Mr. Loomis.
“If you try to run, I’ll shoot you,” Toby said, once he was free.
Mr. Loomis stood, rubbing at his wrists and stamping the blood back into his feet. “If you get me out of this, I’ll do whatever you say. This whole thing was a mistake from the start.”
They headed out into the workshop and had reached the door they entered through when a noise from the front of the building startled Clara. The three of them darted into the small room leading to the back door.
Footsteps sounded in the main room.
“Where’s Graves? He should be out front.”
“I don’t know, Boss. He was here when I left. You want me to…”
They didn’t wait to hear the rest.
Once outside, Toby grasped the back of Mr. Loomis’ collar, propelling him ahead of them. “Remember what I said. Don’t try anything.”
They made their way through a back yard and along a narrow alleyway between buildings before reaching the main road. A wagon stood in the street in front of the cabinet maker’s. No one was with it.
“Let’s go,” Toby said.
“Fifteenth precinct police station on Elizabeth Street,” he ordered when they got back to the cab. “And hurry.”
The driver’s eyes widened at the sight of them, but he set the horses in motion without question.
As they traveled, Clara touched her fingertips to Toby’s face where the trickle of blood had dried on his skin. “Are you all right?”
She couldn’t help thinking of Ephraim Long, his body left cruelly cut and bloody. If she hadn’t gone in there, would Toby have ended up the same way? The thought scared her more than facing any number of gang members.
“I’m fine,” he said, looking away.
She lowered her hand to her lap.
Was he angry at her for disobeying his order to not go after him? Well, if he was, she wouldn’t apologize for it.
She would never be sorry for saving his life.
~ ~ ~
Once they reached the station, Tobias reported everything to Captain Perkins and he sent men to the furniture maker’s.
Clive Loomis was placed in a room for questioning, despite his protestations that he was nothing more than a blameless victim. Given his history, no one believed that. After initial reluctance and some charm from Clara, the captain allowed them to speak to him first.
Tobias glanced at her as they walked along the corridor to where he was being held, his emotions whirling between anger that she had ignored his orders and put herself in danger, relief that she was all right, and pride in how she’d fought and bested the two Hats.
There was no doubt she would make a fine Pinkerton agent, but he couldn’t bring himself to find that a good thing. He’d never felt such terror as he had when witnessing her in danger. Even once they were no longer working together, how could he stand knowing she might be in peril and he wasn’t there to protect her?
But more than that, how could he stand to be apart from her?
Stifling a sigh, he turned his attention to the upcoming interrogation. He had more immediate concerns. The rest could wait.
“I need a doctor,” Loomis said, the moment they walked in the door. “And you have no right to keep me here.”
Tobias moved two chairs to the opposite side of the table from where he sat. “You want us to send you out on the streets while the Hats are looking for you?”
He didn’t reply.
Tobias held one chair for Clara to sit then took the one beside her. “You want to tell us why the Hatmakers are so unhappy with you?” he said. “And who the dead man in your apartment was?”
Loomis’ shrewd gaze studied them. This was no innocent bystander, Tobias was sure of that much.
“I want assurances first that I won’t be charged with anything. And I want protection.”
“I can’t do that. That’s up to a judge.”
He sat back. “Then I’m not talking.”
“If you don’t tell us anything,” Clara said, “how do we know you have anything worth protecting you for?”
From his expression, Loomis hadn’t thought of that. He pursed his lips, staring at the tabletop.
Finally, he said, “All right, but I’ll only give you the basics. You want specifics, I’ll want those assurances.”
Tobias shrugged one shoulder in reply.
Loomis looked at the table again. “So my partner heard about this,” he stopped, glancing up at them briefly, “business opportunity.”
“Is your partner Ephraim Long?” Clara asked.
“Yeah. He and I work together sometimes. Anyway, this was a very lucrative business opportunity involving a certain man. Unfortunately, neither of us knew this man happened to be the head of the Hatmakers. For obvious reasons, he doesn’t spread that around. Let’s just say he was unhappy with what happened and wanted his money back.”
“So you ran a confidence trick on the leader of the Hatmakers and he found out,” Tobias translated.
Loomis shifted in his seat. “I’m not admitting anything until the judge says I won’t be sent to jail.”
So that was a yes. “Go on.”
“Anyway, he sent his men to find us and persuade us to tell them where the money was. We both knew we were dead men if we talked, so we didn’t.”
“And they killed your partner,” Tobias said.
A shudder passed through him. “Yeah. They tried to force him to tell them, but he couldn’t. The truth was, he didn’t know. Only I knew where I’d hidden it.”
Clara gasped. “So you let them torture him to death for something only you knew?”
“Hey, I’m not proud of it. But they’d have killed us both once they got the information they wanted.”
Her eyes blazed with anger. “You’re despicable.”
Tobias couldn’t have agreed more.
“Once Ephraim was dead, they took me to that place. Said they were waiting for the boss ’cause he wanted to work me over personally, since I was the one he’d dealt with and gotten him to trust me. Then you showed up. Guess I should thank you for that.”
“Yes, you should,” Clara snapped.
“So what do you have to offer?” Tobias asked.
“Names, places. I know who the head of the Hats is, and where he lives, plus all his lieutenants. That’s what he calls them, by the way. Thinks he’s running some sort of army. Anyway, I can give you enough information to bring the whole gang down.” He sat back, looking smug.
Clara opened her mouth to speak. Instinctively, Tobias knew she wasn’t going to hold back on how she felt. He touched her arm, shaking his head slightly when she looked at him. They needed more information first.
She closed her mouth again, although she didn’t look happy about it.
“We’ll pass all that on,” Tobias said. “But first, we have more questions for you. Do you know a Miss Josephine Carter?”
Loomis frowned. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Just answer the question,” Clara said.
His eyes flicked between the two of them. “I knew Jo, but I haven’t seen her for a year and a half. Whatever she’s done, it’s nothing to do with me.”
Clara leaned forward a little. “When did you last see her?”
“I don’t know the exact date. It was sometime in March of last year.”
“And what was the nature of your relationship?”
He shifted in his seat again, avoiding Clara’s penetrating gaze. “We were… friends.”
“Just friends? Because we have a statement from a landlady who says the two of you lived together in her boarding house.”
“We had a… casual relationship. It was nothing serious.”
“And how long had this not-serious relationship been going on?”
“Not long. A couple of years, maybe.”
Clara narrowed her eyes. “That sounds more than casual to me. Were you intimate?”
>
“I don’t see what that has to do with….”
“Do you know where she is now?”
“No! I told you, I haven’t seen her.”
“Was the baby she was carrying yours?”
Loomis’ mouth snapped shut. He looked at Tobias. “I think I’m done talking. I want that deal with the judge.”
Sitting back, he folded his arms and looked away.
A slight smile tugged at Clara’s lips as she sat back. “Thank you, Mr. Loomis. You’ve been very helpful.” With a pointed look at Tobias, she rose from her seat and headed for the door.
He followed, not entirely sure what had just happened.
At the door, she looked back at Loomis. “And may I just say, you are about the most despicable, selfish, heartless, loathsome, contemptible excuse for a man I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet, and I hope you get everything you deserve.” And with that, she walked out.
“Hey, I want that doctor!” Loomis called after them as they left.
“He’s telling the truth about not having seen her,” she said as they walked away from the room. “He just about fell off his seat in surprise when you first mentioned her name. Something happened between them, something he should feel ashamed about, although I doubt he knows what shame is. They were definitely intimate.”
Tobias had no idea how she knew all that, but he didn’t doubt her. He read evidence, she read people. They would have been the perfect investigating team, if he could have overlooked the fact that he couldn’t stand to see her in danger.
“So was there a baby?”
“Most certainly,” she replied. “He showed no surprise at all when I asked him about it.”
“And was it his?”
They walked a few more paces before she answered. “I’m not sure about that. Either he doesn’t know or he doesn’t care.”
He nodded and lapsed into silence.
He tried to think about the case, but his mind stayed on Clara. He had to talk to her about what had happened, but he didn’t know what he was going to say.
As her training agent, he could reprimand her for disobeying a direct order, except she’d probably saved his life by doing so, and had certainly saved him a lot of pain.
The fact was, he wasn’t angry at her for coming to save him; he was terrified she’d do it again.
And that next time, things wouldn’t turn out so well.
Chapter Twenty
Toby was quiet for the entire journey back to the hotel.
Of course, he was hardly the most loquacious man Clara had ever met, but he was certainly more talkative with her than he had been at the beginning. He was also smiling more, and a couple of times she was sure he’d even been close to actual laughter. But none of her new, relaxed Toby was in evidence now.
Afraid it was because he was angry with her for disobeying him when she’d promised not to, she made no attempt to draw him into conversation as they returned to the hotel. Although by the time they walked into their suite, she was fit to burst.
“Are you angry with me?”
He was facing away from her, looking at the sky outside the window. Even with his back to her, his tension was clear in the rigid set of his spine.
When he didn’t answer, she said, “I know I didn’t do what you said, but I couldn’t leave while you could have been in there hurt. I just couldn’t.”
He spun to face her. “Anything could have happened to you in there! You could have been hurt, or even killed! You promised you’d go for the police.”
Annoyance replaced her fear that he was angry with her. “I saved your life! He would have killed you the same way he did Ephraim Long. You’d barely been there five minutes and he already had a knife on you.” She waved at the wound on his cheek.
His voice rose. “I was managing it!”
She planted her hands on her hips. “Really? Because it looked like all you’d managed to do was get yourself tied to a chair!”
“I was formulating a plan. You shouldn’t have come after me. You can’t just go around risking your safety, not for me or anyone else.”
“Why ever not? I can’t be a Pinkerton agent without risking my own safety.”
He shook his head a little, frustration evident in the twitching nerve in his jaw.
And then he strode across the room, grasped her head, and crushed his lips to hers.
She squeaked in surprise, her eyes snapping wide open. And then instinct took over and they fluttered closed again.
She clutched the front of his shirt, steadying herself as she pushed up onto her toes to get closer. A low sound rumbled through his chest and he tilted his head, deepening the kiss until her knees threatened to give way.
When he finally released her, she dropped unsteadily back onto her heels with a thud.
For a few seconds the only sound in the room was the two of them gasping in lungfuls of much-needed air.
He lifted his fingers to her face, stopping short of touching her. His eyes closed and he released a heavy breath before opening them again.
Gazing into her face with an intensity that made her breath catch, he whispered, “I don’t want you in danger because I’m in love with you.”
Her jaw, still hanging open from the spectacular kiss, dropped even further, then flopped up and down as she struggled for a coherent thought. “Well… um… well...”
Giving up on words, she grasped his head, pulled him back down to her, and pressed her lips to his.
His hands slid around her waist, drawing her closer, and she wound her arms around his neck and abandoned all idea of keeping her knees solid. He’d hold her up if the need arose.
When the kiss finally came to an end, she whispered, “I’m in love with you too.”
A look of wonder crept onto his face. “You are?”
“Yes, and it’s no easier for me when you’re in danger than it is for you when I am.” She touched the trail of dried blood on his cheek. “I won’t ever be able to turn my back when you need me.”
His chest rose and fell against her. “This could be a problem for our future assignments together.”
Her heart leapt. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? “Does that mean you want us to stay together after we finish the case here? You want us to stay married?”
“I do. Do you?”
Did she? She gazed into his serious gray eyes and knew there was never any doubt. “I do, very much. Although you do realize I’ll still be breathing all night, every night?”
His lips twitched in what was, for him, a wide grin. “To tell you the truth, I think I’ve gotten used to your breathing. I might even quite like it.”
Her heart thudding, she ran one finger down his chest and looked up at him through her eyelashes. “So does that mean that neither of us will be sleeping on the settee tonight?”
He swallowed. “I, um, I’m happy to go along with that.”
She suddenly felt breathless. “Perhaps we could have an early night.”
“I have absolutely no objections to that either.”
Taking his hands, she backed towards the bedroom.
“I have just one question,” she said as they entered the room and he drew her back into his arms.
“What’s that?”
“Did you really have a plan to get free?”
His eyes darted away briefly. “I… was working on it.”
“Ha! So you admit I did save your life.”
His lips twitched as he bent his head to hers. “I admit nothing.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Tobias awoke with a smile on his face. To his knowledge, it was the first time in his life that had happened. Even as a child, he’d never smiled so much as he had since he’d met Clara. He’d severely underestimated how good smiling could feel.
He drew in a deep breath of the scent of his sleeping wife where she lay curled into his body with his arms wrapped around her. It came to him that he’d be waking up like this every day from now on. He could
n’t think of a better way to begin each new day.
She stirred and stretched, lifting her face and blinking up at him. Her lips curved into a sleepy smile. “Good morning.”
His smile was still in place so he simply widened it. “Good morning, wife.”
The word came easily to him now. Clara was his wife, in every sense of the word.
She snaked one hand from beneath the covers to touch his cheek. “Good morning, husband. How did you sleep?”
“Well. Very, very well.”
“Even with me breathing?”
He chuckled. “Especially with you breathing.”
She gasped, her eyes opening wide. “You laughed.”
He blinked. “Uh, yes?”
“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you laugh.”
“I must have laughed before.” He frowned, attempting to recall. “Haven’t I?”
“Nope, not once. The day after we met, I made it my mission to hear you laugh. So I’d have noticed.”
There was something sad about that. Had he really been so unhappy before? “I think I will be laughing much more from now on.”
“Good. It’s a beautiful laugh.” She reached up to kiss him then snuggled her head against his chest. “So what are we going to do now? How do we find Josephine?”
In all the excitement of the previous day, and the blissfully diverting activities of the previous night, he’d almost forgotten their original assignment to find Josephine Carter. “I’m not sure we can. If she left on the train, she could be anywhere.”
Her sigh brushed across his bare skin. “But we can’t give up now. There has to be a way.”
He hated to leave a case unfinished, but he was at a loss. “So how do you suggest we find her?”
“Is this part of my training, as in you know the answer but you want to know if I do?”
Smiling, he drifted his fingers lazily down her bare arm and back up again. “Sadly, no. I genuinely am not sure where to go from here. I’d welcome any suggestions you have.”
Her fingers, resting in their usual place on his side, tapped against his skin. “All right, let’s think about this logically. If you were on your own and pregnant, what would you do?”
“I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer that question.”
