Scoundrel Ever After (Secrets and Scandals)

by Darcy Burke

  Ethan’s men encircled her. She moved toward Ethan, but one of them grabbed her arm and held her back.

  She watched as Ethan was marched to the dais, where Jimmy had taken his throne.

  Audrey was pulled toward the doorway. She dug her feet into the floorboards, but it was no use. Two men had her firmly, but gently, by the arms, and hauled her, at last picking her up.

  “Ethan!” She couldn’t stop the tears, could barely see his handsome face as he watched her go. His expression was stoic, but his eyes were like thunder.

  The men who’d escorted him pushed him to his knees in front of Gin Jimmy. With a final, tortured look, Ethan turned from her.

  And then she couldn’t see him anymore, and her heart shattered into jagged, irreparable pieces.

  Chapter Nineteen

  PAIN UNLIKE ANYTHING Ethan had ever known ripped through him. And Jimmy hadn’t even touched him yet.

  His mind scrambled for a way out of this, but he didn’t see any. Some of the men here supported him, but not enough to go against Gin Jimmy. Like Ethan, they would choose self-preservation above all else. He’d known the plan was a risk and his primary goal had been achieved: Audrey was safe.

  Ethan recognized the men in his peripheral vision and registered the apprehension in Marie’s face before looking up at the man who’d guided him these many years.

  Jimmy’s familiar blue eyes were sad. He shook his head. “I hate what I must do, my boy.”

  Ethan didn’t think there was a point in trying to persuade him otherwise. Jimmy was ruthlessly decisive, never wavering to change his course even if he suspected he should.

  Jimmy stood abruptly and flicked a glance at the men who’d dragged Ethan up to the dais. “Bring him.”

  Hands roughly grabbed and lifted him and propelled him behind Jimmy into his private chambers that lay behind what he liked to call his “throne room.” Ethan had been in these rooms many times. As a member of Jimmy’s innermost circle, he’d been invited to countless dinners and parties. He even had a favorite seat—his gaze shot to the chestnut-colored wing-backed chair situated near the fireplace.

  “Lock ’im up,” Jimmy said, pointing toward the chain that hung from a metal loop on the wall near the fireplace. He went to a sideboard and poured himself a glass of gin, then took his favorite chair, a plush russet companion to Ethan’s.

  One of the men picked up the chain. There were two shackles: one for his wrist and another for his ankle. He’d seen Jimmy use them many times. Until today, he’d never imagined being confined in their grasp.

  Jimmy waved his hand at Ethan. “Give me that jewel in his neckcloth. And the ones on ’is fingers.”

  One of the men pulled the diamond stickpin from his cravat while the other stripped the rings from him. Ethan didn’t care about any of it, save the ring with the L. But he wouldn’t ask for it. While one of the men deposited the jewelry in Jimmy’s outstretched hand, the other removed Ethan’s coat and then his boots, as the first man returned to place the metal cuffs around Ethan’s left wrist and left ankle.

  There was enough slack for him to sit against the wall, but he couldn’t get far enough to reach anything that could be used as a weapon, nor could he sit in his chair. It was a humiliating prison, but that was what Jimmy intended. It was also what Ethan had expected.

  The men left Ethan and positioned themselves on either side of the door. The only other way out of the apartment was through a doorway that led to a corridor connected to several things, including the outside, which was heavily guarded on the exterior.

  Jimmy took a hearty drink of gin. “I knew ye weren’t at the Brazen Bride, but I pretended to go so ye’d make yer move. The letter almost got to me.” His tone carried the barest hint of regret. “Almost.”

  Though Ethan hadn’t expected the ruse to work, he’d still hoped for it. “How did you know?”

  “You ran with the girl. She’s important to ye. I knew ye’d want to come and get ’er.” His lips lifted, but there was a touch of sadness in his eyes. “I counted on it.”

  Hope began to spark in Ethan. Was there a chance he’d show mercy? Ethan nearly laughed. In all the years he’d known Gin Jimmy, he’d never witnessed even a measure of softness.

  “I just can’t comprehend why ye turned on me.” Jimmy sounded almost forlorn. He opened his palm. “Look at all the jewels ye have. Ye’re a wealthy man. Didn’t I give ye everything ye could want?”

  Perhaps Ethan’s letter had worked. He’d penned words he’d hoped would play to Jimmy’s ego and arrogance—thanking him, appreciating him, even begging him. That part, imploring Jimmy to forgive him, had filled him with gall. He swallowed and tried to appear humble, something he hadn’t attempted in a very long time. “You did, and that’s why I wanted to try to make things right.” There was no use saying he wanted to regain his place, not after he’d obviously come for Audrey and Audrey alone.

  Jimmy didn’t seem to register Ethan’s words or the plea in his voice. “I made sure ye found yer way—even at the beginning. I knew ye’d take out Four-Finger Tom if ye were pushed ’ard enough, and if ye thought it was the only way to survive.”

  Ethan shouldn’t have been surprised, but the bitterness of realizing how he’d been manipulated by first Davis and then Jimmy burned like acid on his tongue. “You encouraged him to berate me, to target me as weak.”

  “I thought ye’d be a better leader than Tom. And I was right.” Jimmy raised his glass and toasted him before taking another drink. “Weren’t ye happy?”

  Happy? He was a thief, a predator, a self-serving bastard who not only put his survival above all else, he wasn’t even aware of anything else. Until he was. That’s when it had all changed. “For a time.”

  “It was going into Society, wasn’t it? The lure of the prestige was too great.” Jimmy shook his head as he deposited Ethan’s jewelry on a small table beside his chair. “I should’ve recognized that about ye. It’s one of the qualities I liked best in ye—yer drive to have the most respect, the most admiration.”

  “Actually it was before that.” Ethan wasn’t sure why he opened himself up, but once he’d started with Audrey, he found it to be a balm for his battered soul. And if there was ever a time to unburden himself, it was now, when his end might be unavoidable.

  “I know you wondered why I got the prizefighter. I did it for my father. He used to take me to bouts.” Sponsoring the pugilist had allowed Ethan to reminisce about the life he’d led before he’d been forced into the streets. In turn, that had made him think about the life he might have had.

  Add to that his growing discomfort with the things he’d done, and he’d been ripe for a change of heart. He realized he could pinpoint the exact moment his stomach had begun to sour. One of his men, a particularly ruthless bloke called Swan, had kidnapped Lady Philippa. Though Ethan hadn’t been a part of it, he’d felt fully responsible. He’d had Swan abduct her once before—to watch Sevrin’s fight. Swan’s subsequent abduction had made him sick—and it had given him pause.

  It wasn’t as if Ethan hadn’t known these things happened. Hell, they happened all around him. You couldn’t walk through St. Giles without seeing a woman selling herself or a man trying to somehow degrade a woman. But with Philippa, Ethan had exposed her to that. Ethan. After that, things began to change for him and he’d started to think about a life where he didn’t steal and he didn’t reside in a flash house.

  Jimmy studied him intently. “The prizefighter made ye want to turn against me?”

  “I never would’ve turned against you if you would’ve let me go.” When Jimmy had ordered him to take up his identity as Jason’s half-brother to keep an eye on Lady Aldridge and Wolverton, Ethan had suggested he might not want to return to thievery after that. Jimmy had thought he was jesting. He’d laughed, but there’d been a sharpness to his response that Ethan had interpreted as a warning: Ethan had better be joking about such nonsense for his defection would never be tolerated.

  Jimmy
leaned back and crossed his ankles. “Ye didn’t ask.”

  Ethan barked a laugh. “Christ, Jimmy, you’re the most brutal man in London. You don’t suffer anything you perceive as betrayal.” He leaned as far forward as the chain would allow and narrowed his eyes. “Tell me right now that you would’ve allowed me to live my life if I’d never come back to you.” Ethan watched Jimmy’s mouth purse, his chest rise and fall. Ethan settled back against the wall, his lip curling. “I didn’t think so.”

  Jimmy shot forward in his chair. “Aye, that’s betrayal. But I shouldn’t have been surprised. I knew I couldn’t trust ye with everything. Ye fancied yerself better than a number of my operations.” His expression turned pained, making him look like what he was—a fifty-year-old man who’d lived a rough life. “Ye were my greatest hope, and my biggest disappointment.”

  Though Ethan didn’t want to be the things Jimmy wanted, his criticism still stung. “You’ve chained me up like so many others. Do you have a spectacle planned?”

  Ethan thought of the countless times Jimmy had shackled some poor soul to the wall because of an offense—real or otherwise—though he’d never remained long enough to see what had happened. He’d been disgusted by the pleasure some took at another’s degradation. He understood they existed in a brutal world, but there was no need to glorify it. On the contrary, it was nice to find moments when he could imagine things were different, but then he supposed that’s why he’d wanted to leave.

  Jimmy studied him, his mouth twisting into a thoughtful pout. It was his thinking expression and Ethan recognized it well. “If yer plan had worked today, I would’ve been taken by Bow Street, tried, and likely hanged. Seems like ye deserve the same.”

  Ice settled into Ethan’s veins, sent a chill to every corner of his body. He’d expected it, but hearing it pronounced made him realize just how tenuous his life was at present. So many things could go wrong . . . indeed, so many already had. “You’re going to try me and hang me?”

  Jimmy settled back into his chair and lifted a shoulder before tossing back the rest of his gin in a quick gulp. “Provided ye’re found guilty.”

  Ethan struggled to find his voice. “When?” The word came out clipped and harsh.

  “Tomorrow.” Jimmy looked at one of the men near the door. “Tell White I want a scaffold set up outside by morning. Nothing fancy, but it has to be elevated. I think there’ll be quite a crowd.” The man nodded and left.

  Ethan held his breath. “Do you plan to try me out there too?”

  Jimmy chortled. “’Course I do! The point is to show them that even the best placed man can fall”—he bared his teeth—“when they try to fuck me. The skirts’ll turn out by the ’undreds to weep over ye. Except the one ye really want. Unless ye want me to send for ’er?”

  Ethan pulled at his chain. He wanted to wrap it around Jimmy’s throat and squeeze the life out of him just for referring to Audrey. “Don’t ever speak of her.”

  Jimmy stood up and moved closer to him. “I’m sorry it has to end like this. Ye were a good lad, Ethan Jagger.” He kicked Ethan in the stomach, doubling him over as pain radiated outward through his body. Then he pulled Ethan’s head up by his hair. “I’ll speak of whoever I want whenever I want. If I want to fetch yer precious gel and sell ’er to the highest bidder, I will. And ye’ll be too dead to stop me.”

  He let go of Ethan roughly, shoving his head toward the wall. “Try to get a little rest, if ye can. But maybe it doesn’t matter. Tomorrow ye’ll get the chance to sleep for all eternity.”

  Jimmy turned and quit the room, going back out to his men. Three more guards came in and assumed places about the chamber. Even if Ethan could break free of the shackles, he’d never get past the four men who were armed to their teeth. They were also older, quite set in their ways and methods, and they had absolutely no loyalty to Ethan.

  He reclined against the wall, leaning his head back. He loosened his cravat and idly wondered if he could use it as a weapon. He supposed he could slip it around someone’s neck like a noose if they wandered close enough.

  A noose.

  He massaged his neck and swallowed. A vision of Audrey swam before him and the pain slicing through him made Jimmy’s kick feel like a caress in comparison.

  He wondered what torture would await him before he’d be granted the “trial,” but decided it didn’t signify. The waiting and the expectation were torment enough.

  He brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around his calves. Somewhere Audrey was safe and whole, and in the end, that was the only thing that mattered.

  DARKNESS HAD FALLEN when Ethan’s men ushered Audrey outside of the flash house and through the rotten streets of St. Giles. They moved quickly, never pausing, and they surrounded her on all sides so that she saw very little. But the stench of filth and decay was impossible to ignore. Still, she barely registered its acridity because she was too distraught over leaving Ethan. Twice she tried to turn back, but his men kept her on the path out of the rookery. When they got to a busy enough thoroughfare, they hailed a hack, and two of them climbed inside with her.

  When they asked her for an address, she didn’t even pause before saying, “Lockwood House.” She wasn’t ready to face her grandfather, or even worse, her parents.

  The hack moved through the streets, jarring and bouncing her, reminding her of the awful journey to London. She squirmed on the seat, her insides in utter turmoil. She couldn’t breathe, her throat was raw, and her face was hot and puffy from crying. At last, the cab came to a stop outside Lockwood House.

  One of the men who’d ridden with her, Eddy, jumped out and helped her descend. The second, Fitzgibbons, followed her and stood staring at her for a long moment.

  “Come inside.” Audrey moved up the walk toward the house. “You should be a part of the planning to rescue him.”

  “Miss.” Fitzgibbons looked at her pityingly. “He’s probably already dead. I’m sorry to have to say that, but Jimmy’s not one to make empty threats. He does what he says.”

  “I’m sorry, Miss,” Eddy added. He tried to offer her a smile, but it was so weak it could only be called a half-smirk.

  Audrey couldn’t believe he was dead. She wouldn’t.

  A hack drew up behind hers and stopped. Lord Sevrin climbed out. “Miss Cheswick?” Lord Saxton followed him.

  “Sevrin!” Audrey bolted toward him. “We have to save Ethan. Gin Jimmy’s going to kill him.” She watched Sevrin look behind her, saw his lips turn down. “Don’t listen to them.” They hadn’t said anything aloud, but based on Sevrin’s reaction, she assumed they’d communicated something.

  “Let’s get off the street,” Saxton said, going toward the house.

  “Come,” Sevrin said to Eddy and Fitzgibbons.

  The two men exchanged looks then nodded.

  The door to Lockwood House opened and Audrey allowed herself to be swept through the entry hall and into the drawing room. The last time Audrey had been here had been during Lockwood’s last vice party. The space looked completely different now without its adornment of silks and contingent of masked guests.

  Lydia jumped to her feet. “Audrey!” She rushed forward and hugged her friend. Audrey swayed into her embrace. Every muscle in her body sagged.

  They stood like that for a moment before Lydia guided her to the settee. “North, please bring some tea.”

  Audrey collapsed onto the cushion and let Lydia hold her hand. She felt cold and numb.

  Lydia looked up at Sevrin and Saxton. “What happened? Where’s Jason?”

  “We weren’t with him,” Saxton said. “We were waiting outside St. Giles for Ethan’s word. One of his men informed us that he’d turned himself over to Jimmy in exchange for Audrey’s release.”

  Lydia inhaled sharply. “Then Carlyle wasn’t able to apprehend Jimmy?”

  Audrey glanced between all of them. “What do you mean?”

  “Ethan sent Jimmy a note to lure him out of his lair,” Lydia said.<
br />
  That had to have been the message the boy had delivered.

  Audrey nodded. “Yes, Jimmy left for a time.” That’s when Ethan had arrived. “But he came back. The plan must not have worked.”

  Lydia’s face blanched. “Jason was waiting for him, disguised as Ethan in case Jimmy sent anyone in advance to determine if Ethan was actually there—which he wasn’t.” She looked at Sevrin and Saxton. “Do you think Jason . . . ?”

  Audrey felt the tension in her friend’s frame and heard the worry in her question. Had Jimmy gotten to Jason, discovered he wasn’t Ethan and killed him? Audrey didn’t think it was possible to feel any worse. She couldn’t bear it if they lost both Ethan and his brother in the same day.

  “I don’t know,” Sevrin said darkly. He turned to Saxton and they spoke in low tones.

  “Don’t whisper,” Audrey snapped, unable—and unwilling—to keep her emotions in check. “We have a right to know everything you do.”

  Sevrin nodded and came further into the room, though he didn’t sit. “We don’t know anything. We were just wondering if we should go to the Brazen Bride to determine what happened.”

  “What’s the Brazen Bride?” Audrey asked.

  Sevrin braced his hands on his hips. “The flash house where Ethan met Jimmy. It’s where he asked Jimmy to come. Lord Carlyle went there with several constables to arrest him.”

  “Yes, let’s go and see what happened,” Audrey said, half rising from the settee.

  The sound of the front door opening carried into the drawing room and was succeeded by heavy footfalls across the marble tiles. Audrey held her breath until Lockwood stepped over the threshold.

  Lydia let go of her hand and ran to him. She leapt into his arms and wrapped her hands around his neck. “Jason!”

  Lockwood held her tightly and kissed her forehead. Audrey looked away, unable to suffer the tender moment. All she could see was Ethan’s regret-filled gaze, and all she could taste was his bittersweet kiss.

  Lord Carlyle came into the drawing room, trailed by a man Audrey recognized as one of Lockwood’s retainers. “A trio of Ethan’s men found us in Portugal Street and told us what happened with Jimmy. Miss Cheswick, I’m so glad you’re safe. It was what he wanted.”