by Merry Farmer
“And what, pray tell, does that have to do with you?” Reese asked, one eyebrow arched.
Lenore gulped, staring at Phin with wide eyes. Phin held his breath for a moment before wincing, as if just realizing how careless he’d been. Lenore was willing to forgive him for a lapse into stupidity, though. At the moment, her problems were much bigger than his.
“Do you think your father and sisters would mind if I came to Yorkshire with you?” she asked, standing in an effort to deflect scrutiny from Phin.
“I think they would understand,” Phin said, glancing across the table at her with a look that said he would take her home and keep her safe, even if they didn’t understand.
“Then you should go to Yorkshire,” Freddy said, resting a hand on Lenore’s arm. “And as fast as possible. There is probably a train leaving tonight.”
“You should pack your things and head to St. Pancras as quickly as possible,” Reese agreed. “I’ll pay for your train fare, if you need me to.”
“Thank you,” Lenore said from the bottom of her heart. She glanced to Phineas.
Phin shrugged. “I’ll pack a bag as well and send a telegram to my sister to let her know we’re coming. I’ll need to inform my brother of the situation as well.”
They all stepped away from the table. Lenore’s heart still raced, but at least she felt as though she had someone on her side. A few someones, in fact.
“I can’t thank you enough,” she told them all, smiling at each of them in turn. “And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about my reasons for coming to England in the first place.”
“We forgive you,” Reese said as they all stepped into the hall.
“All of our secrets are out in the open now,” Freddy added with a smile as Lenore headed to the stairs.
She sent him a wary look, hoping he wouldn’t see through it. Not all of her secrets were out in the open, and the ones that remained were the worst of the lot.
Chapter 8
Phin had a small suitcase packed within two hours and had informed Mrs. Wallace and Dora that he was making an unscheduled trip to Yorkshire. He told them in no uncertain terms that it was their responsibility to keep his house from burning down or from thieves breaking in and stealing his work. They were amused by his hasty plans, and Phin had the impression they believed he was running home to consult with his father about marrying his overnight guest. He didn’t disabuse them of that notion and played up the lighter side of the situation, but in fact, he couldn’t have felt more serious about fleeing London and taking Lenore with him if they were being chased out by peasants with torches and pitchforks.
“Time is of the essence,” he explained to Lionel when he dropped by the law offices of Dandie & Wirth to let his brother know what was afoot. “There’s no telling how long this Mr. Swan has been in London or how much searching he’d already done.”
“Do you know anything else about the man?” Lionel asked, getting up from the office’s huge mahogany desk where he’d been working and walking around it with a thoughtful look. “Anything other than the fact that he’s a potential murderer who likely has your charming lover in his sights?”
Phin ignored every bit of the innuendo infused in Lionel’s question. That was simply the way Lionel asked questions and gathered information. “I haven’t had time to investigate,” he said, arching one eyebrow in a hint that Lionel could do that for him. “Though speaking of investigations,” he went on, blowing out a breath and rubbing a hand over his face, “Lady Hamilton has hired a Det. Gleason to seek out the author of Nocturne.”
“Gleason, Gleason,” Lionel said, brow furrowed, tapping his lips. “The name is familiar, though I can’t quite place it.” He cocked his head to the side with a wry grin. “Isn’t that an unfamiliar sensation.”
“What name is this?” David Wirth said, walking out of the back office, his nose in a file.
Lionel instantly snapped straight, his face going pink and his eyes flashing with desire. “My brother has a private detective on his tail,” he said, his voice changing to a softer, more alluring timbre. Everything from the way he stood to the lilt in his steps as he moved closer to Wirth changed to the tactics Phin had seen his brother use when he had a conquest in his sights. “We should all be so lucky.” He sent Wirth a flirtatious smile.
Wirth was so focused on the file he was reading that he didn’t notice the overt flirtation. Or, if he did, he was as used to ignoring Lionel’s silliness as Phin was. And if that was the case, Phin liked the man instantly. But he hadn’t come to Lionel’s place of work to watch him seduce his employer.
“I am about to leave town for an undetermined amount of time and I dropped by to say goodbye to my brother,” Phin said, rolling his eyes at Lionel.
Lionel shot him a defensive look that also managed to convey that Phin was no better when it came to objects of his affection. “I was about to offer to walk my brother to St. Pancras so that he can catch a train home. Do you have any errands that need running? Anything I can do for you? Anything at all?” He flickered one eyebrow seductively.
Phin had to cover his mouth with one hand to keep from laughing. Again, Wirth seemed to be more interested in his file than Lionel.
“If you have time, you might pay a visit to Dr. Cameron in Harley Street to ask about the medication he prescribed for Mr. Greer. I’m still convinced there is some sort of malpractice involved in that case.”
“Your wish is my command,” Lionel said. He bowed gallantly, raking Wirth with a lascivious look as he did, then crossed to fetch his coat and hat from the rack by the door. Wirth wandered over to one of the many bookshelves lining the office to search for a book, still either oblivious or unimpressed.
“Don’t you know it’s shamefully unprofessional to seduce your employer mere months after being hired?” Phin asked with a smirk as he and Lionel headed out the door and began the search for a cab to take them to St. Pancras.
“I have no intention of seducing him,” Lionel said with a disappointed sigh. “Though if I could, I’d’ve had him bending me over one of those delightful sofas in the office on a regular basis long before now.”
Phin chuckled and shook his head. It was a relief to laugh at Lionel’s warped world for a few minutes instead of being mired in his own, as well as Lenore’s, problems. Though as they caught a cab and started their journey to the train station, there wasn’t much more of Lionel’s story to tell.
“Damned vow of celibacy,” Lionel finished his story, then turned to Phin to say, “I take it you don’t have the same problem at the moment.”
“No, I don’t,” Phin said, not particularly in the mood to swap tales of romantic conquest with his brother. Besides which, Lenore was so much more than a conquest to him. “I’m much more concerned with keeping Miss Garrett safe at the moment than I am with bending her over anything.”
“Though I’m sure the two activities could be combined,” Lionel added with a grin.
Phin stared flatly at him. “I’m afraid this matter is far more serious than anything we’re used to. You didn’t see the genuine fear in Lenore’s eyes. This Swan fellow isn’t some comic stage villain. He is a real-life murderer, and Lenore has to be kept safe.”
Lionel lost his teasing grin. “I’ll see what I can find out.”
They spent the rest of the ride to St. Pancras discussing ways Lionel would handle Phin’s business while he was gone and messages Phin would deliver to their sisters. Phin wished he had more time with his brother, mostly because Lionel had a way of steadying him that few other people did.
By the time they reached St. Pancras, Phin almost wished he could ask Lionel to come with him. He considered asking right up until Lionel escorted him to the ticket office.
“I take it that is your mysterious and alluring lover?” Lionel asked with a twitch of his lips, nodding to the line leading up to the ticket windows.
Phin’s brow flew up at the sight of Lenore dressed in a traveling coat, a massive hat on her head tha
t had a long scarf draped over and around the hat and her shoulders. It concealed half of her face, and she wore a pair of shaded spectacles to hide her eyes. The disguise might have hidden her identity, but it drew an inordinate amount of attention to her at the same time. She looked like a heroine out of a mystery novel.
“That,” Phin said, adjusting his own spectacles with a grin, “is the love of my life.”
“You poor thing,” Lionel said, thumping him on the back.
Lenore spotted them and walked forward, traveling bag in hand, glancing this way and that as though Swan would leap from the shadows and tackle her at any moment.
“Miss Garret, you remember my brother, Lionel, don’t you?” Phin asked, tempted to grin in spite of the seriousness of the situation.
“Ssh,” Lenore hissed. “No one should know I’m me.”
“Godspeed, dear brother,” Lionel said, his eyes dancing with mirth even as he kept a straight face. “And best of luck to you, Miss Garrett. Rest assured that I will employ my full powers of investigation and all of my connections to see what can be done about the delicate situation you find yourself in. Good day.” Lionel bowed dramatically, as though making an exit on stage, and backed away.
“He is a bit of a popinjay, isn’t he,” Lenore said, lowering her shaded glasses enough to glance over them at Lionel’s retreating form.
Phin laughed and reached to take Lenore’s suitcase from her. “He likes to think so.”
As soon as they joined the queue of travelers and bought their tickets, then headed to the platform to catch the train to York, their moods sobered.
“I only hope that leaving London will put Bart off the scent,” Lenore sighed as they found the first-class compartment Phin had booked—in spite of it being just out of his price range—so that the two of them could make the journey unobserved. “I pray that he gives up and goes home.”
“Do you think he’s likely to?” Phin asked, storing both of their suitcases in the racks above the seats as Lenore flopped into hers.
“No,” she lamented, unwinding the scarf from her neck. “Not if he came all the way to England in search of me.”
“I agree that making such a journey seems—”
Phin’s words were cut short as the train jolted unexpectedly, causing him to fumble Lenore’s suitcase. It fell from his hands and landed awkwardly on the floor. As a result, it popped open, spilling some of the contents, including a few unmentionables that had Phin grinning.
“I’m terribly sorry,” he said, crouching to gather a handful of Lenore’s knickers to shove back into the suitcase. “How clumsy of me.”
Lenore leaned over with a sigh, sending him a wry look, as though he’d intended to drop the case just so he could handle her underthings. “I would tell you to stop looking at my unmentionables, but we both know you’ve seen more than this.” She batted his hands away and shifted the suitcase closer to her, opening it all the way.
Phin rocked back, laughing. “I dare say I’ll see far more than this as often as I’d like going forward,” he said.
Lenore shook out a chemise that had spilled out of the case and folded it before resting it on top of a large, flat box, the sort that contained valuable documents. “And just what is that supposed to imply, Mr. Mercer?” She arched a saucy eyebrow at him.
Phin tilted his head casually to the side as he pushed himself up and sat on the seat facing hers. “Only that once we’re married, I plan to indulge in watching your morning boudoir on a daily basis.”
Lenore’s hands froze in the middle of folding a pair of drawers, and if Phin wasn’t mistaken, some of the color drained from her face. It was not the reaction he’d hoped his comment would have. She cleared her throat, donned a grin that felt a bit forced to him, and finished repacking her suitcase. As she closed the lid, she glanced slowly up at him. “And what makes you think I have any plans to marry you?”
Phin did not expect her statement to hit him like a fist in the gut. Lenore not marrying him was out of the question. He fought to keep his expression casual and rakish as he bent to pick up her suitcase, standing to slide it into the rack alongside his.
“Of course, you’re going to marry me,” he said, sending her a teasing look over his shoulder. “Unless you’re the sort of woman who mercilessly sleeps with a man, getting his hopes up, only to discard him like so much rubbish the next day.”
She watched him with far more intensity in her eyes than her careless expression conveyed until he was seated again and his arms were crossed. “The fact is, Mr. Mercer—”
“Phineas,” he reminded her in a stern voice, needing her to call him by his given name now more than ever.
“—that you don’t truly know what kind of a woman I am,” she finished, then sent him a challenging look.
He was tempted to admit that she was right. Up until a few hours ago, he never would have expected that she was the sort of woman who needed to run and hide from a vicious murderer.
“I know that you are the kind of woman who doesn’t flinch at having her ankles up around my shoulders,” he said with a heated wink.
He was rewarded by her beautiful face going bright pink. “I suspect, Mr. Mercer, that not many women would flinch at having their ankles perched on your shoulders.”
“Phineas,” he told her again. “And no, I’ve never had any complaints.”
“I thought not.”
“All aboard,” a conductor shouted on the platform beside the train.
Phin caught the last flurry of passengers rushing to make the train as the conductors and station personnel finished preparing for departure. It was a surprising relief when the train rolled forward, picking up speed as it left the station and passed rows of grubby buildings on its way out of town. He wouldn’t truly breathe a sigh of relief until the lazy, English countryside was rolling past them.
Lenore didn’t look as though she would feel relieved anytime soon. In fact, the longer Phin stared at her as the train pulled out of London, the more her expression and her mood seemed to sour.
“I wasn’t just teasing about marrying you, you know,” he said, shifting from his seat to hers, though he maintained a safe distance between the two of them.
“I didn’t think you were,” she said. Her mouth twitched as though she were attempting to smile, but the expression never quite made it to her eyes.
“I might have considered bed-sports a good bit of fun to be had without meaning or consequences in the past, Lenore, but I can assure you I don’t think of them that cavalierly now,” he said, speaking softer.
Her brow inched up. “I don’t hop into bed casually with whomever catches my fancy either,” she said. “Did you think I was that kind of woman?”
“Not at all.” He moved closer to her. “Although I’ll admit, I rather hoped you were game. And I wasn’t disappointed in that regard.”
He reached for a lock of her dark hair that had come undone from its style when she removed her hat, curling it around his finger. They’d already had a harrowing day, and Phin was somewhat surprised to find that all he wanted to do was sink into the comfort of Lenore and let their troubles disappear behind them.
“Have you ever made love on a speeding train before?” he asked with a mischievous arch of one eyebrow.
“No,” she answered, crossing her arms and sending him a brutal grin in return. Her answer was not an account of her past deeds, it was a statement about his implied question.
“We’ll have to amend that one of these days,” he said, taking the hint and leaning back against the side of the seat.
“Not anytime soon,” she answered. She was coy at first, but her expression dropped to exhaustion all too soon. “Not anytime soon,” she repeated with a wistful sigh, glancing past him and out the window.
Phin would have given anything he owned and taken to highway robbery to get more for the chance to know what she was thinking. He could only imagine the strain of having a murderer on his tail. It was bad enough that he
had a detective who was suspicious of his publishing activities. Murder was worse than libel, though.
“I wish you would let me in,” he spoke his thoughts aloud, figuring that was the least Lenore deserved. “I want to help you in every way I can.”
“I know you do,” she said, wincing, as though his affection for her made things worse instead of better. “I want you to be able to help me too.” But the implication was that he couldn’t.
He didn’t bother saying more. She clearly wasn’t in a mood for his prying. Phin figured the best he could do was sit there and keep his mouth shut. She would confide in him when she was ready, or so he hoped. It made sense that she would break down eventually. He wasn’t fool enough to think that opening her legs for him meant that she would open her heart as well. Lenore was no unsophisticated maiden who danced with the suitors her mother told her to and did whatever the titled husband she’d won bid her. She was a woman who knew her own mind. It was why he adored her, but it would also be the thing that drove him mad.
Mad or not, he would convince her to marry him. He was certain of it as he watched her settle into her seat and let the rocking of the train lull her into sleep. She was as beautiful asleep as she was awake and fiery. If it was the last thing he did, he would ensure that her beautiful sleeping head spent the rest of its life on the pillow next to his. Not just for the practical benefits it would bring him. If it was Freddy’s welfare she was concerned with, if that was the reason she seemed hesitant to discuss marriage, then he would make sure Freddy was secure and that he and Reese were free from suspicion too. If it was his relatively humble position in life, he would find a way to overcome that. If it was something having to do with the blackguard Swan or troubles that had followed her from home, he would find a solution to those as well. Perhaps all she needed was a grand gesture and an even grander proposal. That could easily be arranged.
The last thought that passed through his head as he, too, drifted off to sleep was that whatever it took, Lenore would be his wife by Christmas.
