As she told Pawl to take her home and then climbed into the carriage, Olympia tried to decide if she should tell Brant that she had absolute proof that it was his own mother destroying him in society. He had guessed that it was but it would still be a blow. She sighed and closed her eyes.
For now she would say nothing. It aided nothing for him to know and she just did not wish to give him even more bad news. He had had enough since she had dragged him away from Fieldgate and he was facing far more in the days ahead. She just hoped that he did not get proof of it on his own for he might think she was keeping secrets from him and she was certain that trust was something Brant did not give easily. Catching her in what could appear to be a lie could cost her dearly. Then again, she was keeping other secrets from him. What was one more?
Chapter 7
“I do not wish to think of any blood of mine being forced into such a place,” Brant said as he stood in the shadows of an alley across the road from Dobbin House.
“No one ever does, especially since the poor lad or lass who is most like to be forced to go to such a place. I doubt anyone goes there willingly.” Thomas glared at the dirty, old brick building. “I best not be finding Ned or Peter in there.”
There was such cold hatred in the boy’s voice, one echoed in the harsh lines of his expression, that Brant actually feared for his mother’s life. It was a fear that quickly died away. She might be the woman who had borne him but she was no mother of his, not any longer. It was not because she had sold the woman he had loved and wanted to marry to a brutal killer, either, although he had turned his back on her after that. The woman sold children, was no better than some slaver. He would never again acknowledge her as any relation of his and it was far past time that he removed all sign of her from his life, his siblings’ lives, and every single one of his properties.
Little by little, each tiny piece of information they had gathered had led them to this place. Each piece had also let them know who would have sold children into this sordid life. His mother was rather well known amongst the urchins of the street, too many of them knowing someone she had sold into a form of slavery. He had not missed the fear in their eyes when her name was mentioned. From what they had been told, there had been girls of marrying age forcibly placed on ships to plantations in the colonies and the profit pocketed by his mother and her compatriots, one of which was Lord Minden. Brant did not know if he could ever rescue all the ones she had wronged.
“’Tis not your fault, m’lord,” said Thomas.
“She is my mother.”
“True and that is a sad thing to have to admit to, but she is also a grown lady and must know what she is doing is wrong. Merry always says that it is a choice to do right or wrong and it is only the person hisself who can make that choice.”
“How old is your aunt who has gone missing?”
“She was sixteen, m’lord.”
Brant cursed. “From what we have learned, I am not sure I can ever get her back for Merry.”
“I know. So does Merry. You will give it your best try and that is all you can do.”
“Not all, Thomas. I can also make certain that my mother can never do this again. I cannot see my own mother hanged but I can do many other things that will declaw her, steal all power and ability to continue her crimes.”
“No sight or word of them, m’lord,” said Abel as he and the other three boys joined them, “and we have been looking and listening round here for quite a while.”
For three whole days, Brant thought. They had discussed plans to search for Peter, Ned, Merry’s sister, and the maid’s brother Noah right after he had last kissed Olympia. Three days, fourteen hours, and ten minutes ago. Brant woke several times a night tasting the sweetness of her mouth on his, his body on fire with need. He wanted another kiss; he wanted far more than that.
“I could go inside there and have a look,” said Giles, cutting off Brant’s thoughts much to his relief.
“No,” Brant said sharply, the other boys echoing his command.
“Then how will we ever know for certain if Ned, Peter, or Noah are in there?” asked Thomas. “It is where all those who would talk to us think they are.”
“We will need someone to go in, someone who can pretend to be after some of the wares this place offers.” The very idea of stepping into such a place turned Brant’s stomach but he was certain it was the only way. “Then, once we are certain, if that person cannot free the boys, the fellows at Bow Street need to be called.”
“Bow Street,” muttered Abel. “Naught but a pack of brawn and no brain, always looking to grab some coin.”
“I met a man from there who is a clever, honest man,” said Brant. “A man named Obadiah Dobson. I met him two years ago and he was a good man then, helping us a lot, and doing nothing I found wrong or foolish. I have friends who have turned to him for help since then and they were impressed by him. I think he would find great joy in closing this place down.”
“I have heard of Dobson.”
“Oh? Because you had need of him or because you had to run from him?”
“A bit of both,” said Abel and all five boys grinned. “He does not beat a lad just to hear him squeal when he catches one doing a touch of thieving. He does not let them hang for it neither. I am done with all that though. Lady O thinks I will make a fine solicitor.”
“That be what I think I would like to be,” said Thomas.
“I think you would both do very well at it.” Brant took one long, last look at Dobbin House. “There must be a careful look around done first. I hate the thought of leaving any child in there for even one more minute but, if we are not very careful, and the ones running that foul place catch wind of our plans, the children could be hidden away or worse. That much I am certain of.”
“We best get back to Lady O to do some planning then,” said Abel.
Brant grimaced as he slipped through the shadowy back alleys of the city with the boys. The idea of even mentioning a place like Dobbin House to Olympia was enough to appall any gentleman. It was the dark side of men that no man wanted women to know about. She would not allow him to protect her from such ugliness, however. He both admired that and was dismayed by it. All he could do was hope that she would be so repulsed by the mere mention of such a house that she would leave all planning to him, but he suspected that was a very foolish hope indeed.
“Dobbin House should be burned to the very ground, preferably with every man and woman who profited from such evil tied securely to a bed as the flames consumed them. And then the ashes of them and that horrid place should be scattered to the four winds,” Olympia said, fury making her voice low and husky. “I do not understand how our officials can allow such a place to exist.”
“Olympia, you know full well that sympathy for the plight of poor children is lacking in London, in this whole country. Although, I believe poor children fare better in the countryside. But they also hang a starving child of ten for stealing a loaf of bread,” said Brant as he watched her angrily pace the parlor. “And, sad to say, some of those officials might not be doing anything simply because they avail themselves of the services offered there.”
She smothered the urge to scream and sat down beside him on the settee facing the fireplace. Staring into the flames slowly calmed her, her fury ebbing away, although her outrage remained. Olympia was not so naïve that she did not know such places existed, that such perverse hungers were felt by some men and catered to by others. She was just so very weary of the venality of men, the evil that appeared to know no bounds. When such things reached out to hurt innocent children she was torn between wanting to weep and wanting to become some warrior woman who wielded her sword like a scythe, cutting all such vile people down.
“I am certain they are doing things inside that house that are against our laws,” she finally said.
“Which is why we will watch them and then have Dobson and his men storm the place,” said Brant. “I just need to find a way to know what is
inside there. And who is.”
Her anger was weighted with a sadness he could almost taste. Brant could not ignore it any longer. Nor could he resist the urge, the deep need, to try and ease it. He put his arm around her shoulders and tugged her up against his side. The way she settled against him, welcoming the light embrace, was far too tempting. He knew it was a mistake to stay so close to her but he did not have the strength to pull away from her when she was so in need of comfort.
“This is not wise,” Olympia said even as she savored the warm strength of him, for her mind quickly filled with the memory of the kisses they had shared.
“No, probably not,” he agreed. “Not when we are . . .” He stuttered to a halt as he searched for the right words, ones that would be neither suggestive nor presumptive.
“Attracted to each other. Such proximity only adds to that temptation.”
Olympia Wherlocke was not a shy, reticent miss, he thought with an inner grin. He could attribute that to the fact that she had been directly involved in the solving of several dark crimes in the past few years but he suspected it was far more than that. Olympia was also in her late twenties, considered thoroughly on the shelf by most of society who had forgotten her brief marriage, and had a vast array of male relatives.
“Quite so,” he agreed, noting that she made no move to push him away. “We are also both adult enough and strong-willed enough for that not to matter.” He grinned when she made a soft noise that revealed her utter scorn for his remark. “You do not think us adults or strong-willed?”
“I know you are jesting. Of course we are both. And, of course we both know that that makes little difference. Children running freely through the house does make a difference, however.”
“Very true.” He gave in to the urge to nuzzle her thick hair, breathing in the scent of her and grimacing when his groin tightened with need.
The warmth of his breath against the side of her neck made Olympia shiver with pleasure, but she struggled to hide her reaction. Brant was the first man she had ever felt any desire for but she was still not sure it would be wise to test her own strength with him. The only other time she had been with a man it had been a horrific experience, a tearing away of her childhood and ability to trust. It had left scars upon her very soul. If she reached out for what her body wanted only to find that fear and the pain of the past held her back, she would be humiliated. Yet, a large part of her wanted to reach out, wanted to grab on tightly and experience that pleasure so many of her family indulged in with reckless abandon. She just wished she was not taking so long to make up her mind.
Another thing that held her back was not something she could change to her advantage even if she wished to. Lovemaking required that one remove one’s clothes. Since Brant was obviously a very observant man, she feared he would see the signs on her body that would tell him she had held fast to yet another secret about herself, a very big secret. Olympia did not think she was ready to share that secret with him.
“We must set about making plans for spying on Dobbin House,” she said, praying that talking might take her mind off how good it felt to be held in his arms as he nuzzled her hair.
“We?” Brant moved away enough so that he could meet her gaze. “There is no we in this particular venture.”
“Of course there is. We cannot send the boys to watch that house. They could all too easily be taken up by that scum and I cannot abide even the thought of that happening. You do not have anyone to send in there to look around for you, do you? And you cannot go in as you do not wish to be recognized, which could happen if your mother is known to the ones running the house.”
He cursed softly for she was right in all she said. There was no one he knew to send into Dobbin House, his friends all away from the city and the boys too young, and he could not risk word of his being there getting back to his mother. They had to keep her as ignorant as possible of how closely they were watching her and looking into her affairs or she could easily elude punishment for her crimes.
“I will do the spying myself,” he said after a moment.
“With no one to watch your back?”
“Olympia, this is no place for a woman. You should not even know such a place exists, should have been thoroughly protected from such knowledge. It . . .” He stopped speaking when she pressed her finger over his lips.
“I know ugliness, Brant. Do not forget who I am and what I can do. Even when I would very much prefer to remain ignorant, I stumble upon the ugliness of what man is capable of all the time. Whatever I might learn from spying on Dobbin House matters less than nothing against the need to help those children. Whatever shock or distress I might suffer will be easily soothed by the fact that I will have helped to free them from that hell.”
“You will not go inside and you will not touch anything,” he said, thinking of the horror and deprivations a gift such as hers could reveal. “I want to hear you agree.”
The words he spoke were a harsh command that would usually cause Olympia to immediately bristle with rebellion but she felt none. Instead, she wanted to smile for his words also told her that he believed in her gift, in what she could do. Olympia began to think that he always had, for that first day at Fieldgate, he had never questioned what she had seen when she had leaned against the wall or that she could see anything at all. She doubted he would ever understand just how much that meant to her.
Unable to resist, she brushed her lips over his and whispered, “I agree.”
Light though the touch of her mouth was against his, it sent a wave of heat straight to his groin and Brant nearly groaned aloud. He ignored the stern voice in his head that told him to move away. He pulled Olympia fully into his embrace and kissed her, not even trying to hide the need clawing at his insides. Her mouth was soft and warm beneath his, opening willingly beneath the soft prodding of his tongue. The taste of her banished all caution from his mind.
When she stroked his tongue with her own he lost what little restraint he had managed to hold onto. He ran his hands down her slim back and back up again, savoring the way she shivered beneath his touch. When he pressed a kiss to the side of her throat she tilted her head back to allow him more access. Everything about the way she responded to him made him ache for her. He kissed her again and gently moved his hand up her rib cage until he covered her breast, the ripe fullness of her filling his hand and making him want to see and kiss the treasure he now caressed.
Olympia began to feel too much, the fever he created within her too strong. The way he stroked her breast even as his tongue stroked the inside of her mouth had her trembling like a sapling in a strong wind. She liked to be in control of herself and what he made her feel stole that control. It was wonderful yet terrifying. The moment his mouth left hers and moved to her throat, she placed her hands on his chest and pushed ever so gently. For one moment his hold on her tightened but before the flicker of fear that caused her could come into full life, he moved back a little.
“It has been a very long time for you?” he asked as he fought to rein in his desire to make her want him as he did her.
“I was with a man once,” she said as she fought to gain control of her breathing. “When I was but thirteen. The man became my husband. He died shortly after.”
Shock held him silent for a moment. He knew there was far, far more to the tale than she was telling him. Before he could think of the right questions to ask, the sound of the boys returning caught his attention. He moved away from her and watched as she hastily straightened her gown and attempted to smooth out her tousled hair.
“We have come to say good night, m’lady,” announced Abel as he strode into the room followed closely by the other four boys.
Every single one of the boys eyed him closely and Brant just smiled. He refused to feel guilty about what had just happened between him and Olympia. He had taken nothing she had not willingly given him and he had stopped the moment she had indicated that she wanted no more. A quick study of her as the boys gathe
red around her told him that she had regained her calm, and he felt a little insulted about how quickly she had shrugged off the passion they had tasted. Then he noticed her hands, which were clasped together in her lap far too tightly. She was not as unmoved as she tried to appear.
“Are all of you staying here?” she asked the boys.
“Thomas will be returning to the other house with his lordship.”
His lordship was not ready to retire to his house but Brant said nothing. It was probably best if he did just that. Olympia had confessed a secret about her past and he needed to consider the ramifications of it all before he acted on his desire for her again. He no longer wished to be gallant and leave her alone. Such passion as he had tasted in her kiss was the sort a man would be a fool to run away from.
“But do we not need to discuss spying on Dobbin House?” she asked, turning to him.
Brant really did not want her anywhere near the place but she had made sense in all her arguments against leaving her safely tucked away at the Warren. He could not use the boys and he had no one he could call on to go to the House as if he was a customer.
“We will go tomorrow night. That will give me and the boys a bit more time to thoroughly search the area and the outside of the House. We need to fully know the lay of the land before we creep up to do our spying. Easy routes of escape are most important.”
“Fair enough. I will make a few plans myself.” As Brant left with Thomas he wondered just what plans she believed she needed to make. Somehow he knew that she would surprise him.
If He's Tempted Page 9
