The Langley Sisters Collection 2

by Wendy Vella

“I protest,” Luke said mildly from the comfort of his chair.

  “What needs to be done?” Bella said, ignoring her husband. “Perhaps Thea and I can be of assistance until Phoebe arrives.

  “Yes!” Thea cried. It was just what she needed after what had taken place with Oliver Dillinger. It would occupy her time while she awaited her family’s arrival in London, and give her time to think about her future.

  “What do either of you know about overseeing something like this?” Luke said, rolling his eyes. “Besides, the duke would not be pleased, Thea.

  “Do not roll your eyes at me, Luke Fletcher. Thea and I are more than capable of overseeing the work if Hannah will enlighten us on what is required,” Bella demanded which made him smile. Thea had noticed that everything Bella did made her husband smile, which was just foolish to Thea’s mind.

  “I stand corrected.” He kissed her on the nose.

  “Love makes fools of perfectly sane people, in my opinion, Thea,” Hannah said, now the one to roll her eyes.

  “Yes I’ve noticed that,” Thea added and refused to think about how thoughts of Oliver usually made her smile…used to make her smile, she amended, but no longer. “And when one thinks of the stiff, unsmiling man Luke once was—”

  “I was not stiff and un-smiling!”

  “You were, darling,” Bella said, patting her husband’s cheek which made him look at her lovingly again, and that made Thea jealous, as the man she wanted to look at her like that it seemed never would.

  “Joseph will not mind my doing this, Luke, as he will not find out,” Thea added giving him a steady look, which made him lift his eyes to the ceiling. “Tell us what you require, Hannah, and if you think Bella and I are capable of overseeing your business while we await Phoebe’s arrival in London.”

  “As you know, we have leased the small premises next door to the boutique because we did not have enough room for all the seamstresses above it,” Hannah said. “There are five, and all are good workers. However, should they need something and I am not on hand to get it, or advise them, then I fear things will come to a halt. In all honesty nothing may be needed of either of you. However, I would rather have someone there to open the doors and lock up each day and take care of any issues, should they arise.”

  “Now that could be a problem,” Luke drawled. “Neither of these two likes to rise early.”

  “I rise early, thank you very much, Luke! In fact, most mornings I am in the park before you set a toe on the cold floor,” Thea said, glaring at him. However, now she would ride alone. “I will open up and Bella can come along when she is ready.”

  Thea watched a slow flush heat Bella’s cheeks; she then dropped her eyes. Having known each other since they were children, Thea knew she was hiding something.

  “I’m waiting,” Thea said, looking at her friend.

  “For what?” Luke’s smile was wide as he took his wife’s hand in his.

  “We had thought to wait until my family comes to London. However, as you are my dearest friend and Hannah is almost part of the family anyway,” Bella said, her smile now matching her husband’s, “we are to have a child.”

  “No!” Thea cried, getting to her feet and reaching for her friend. “I’m so happy for you both.”

  When everyone had settled down again, Hannah spoke.

  “Will your brothers mind you looking after the seamstresses, Thea?” Hannah said, bringing the conversation back to what she needed. “The Duke can be formidable and both are protective of you, and especially now, after what happened to you today. I have no wish to get off side with them.”

  “They will have no problem with me going there, as long as I have Ted and my maid with me,” Thea said, hoping she was right.

  “Ted being her footman,” Luke clarified when Hannah looked confused. “Her eldest brother realized very early on that she needed someone other than her maid, who she can walk all over, to keep an eye on her, so he employed Ted, an ex-boxer.”

  Thea poked out her tongue which made her face hurt, but said nothing further.

  “Are you sure you feel up to it after what happened, Thea?” Bella look worried.

  “Yes. In fact, this will be just what I need to take my mind off it.”

  “Well, then, I accept,” Hannah said, clearly relieved to have their help. They then spent the next hour going through what was needed of them, or any eventualities that may arise.

  Thea lay in bed later, trying to ignore the throb of her jaw, and wondered how long it would take her to heal, both from her bruises and the fear that the attack had induced. Fear that if she was alone, it would happen again. Fear that some horrid beast of a man had induced inside her. She did not want to stop being the person she had always been.

  Turning on her side to ease the throbbing only made her face hurt more, so she rolled back again.

  If anyone should know fear, it was Oliver Dillinger. After what she was sure he had suffered, he must be plagued by nightmares.

  “I will think of you no more this night, Oliver Dillinger,” she said, doing the exact opposite as visions of his lips on hers filtered into her head.

  The problem was she was enamored with him. His resilience and strength, his beauty…and just about everything that made up the man.

  “Well, perhaps not his stubbornness and that silly chivalrous streak,” she whispered. “That I do not like one bit.”

  Closing her eyes, Thea finally felt sleep pull her under, and vowed when she woke, she would be the person she had been, before her life had turned upside down.

  Chapter Eight

  “Why have you been avoiding me?”

  Ace looked up from the table where he was reading a report on his latest housing development and saw an angry Luke Fletcher glaring down at him.

  “I’ve called at your house three days in a row, sent you notes, and not one word have you replied to me. I want to know why, Ace.”

  “Stop glaring and sit, Fletcher, before you have an apoplexy.” Ace waved to the seat opposite him.

  He had gone to a tavern, simply because he’d thought no one would find him here. He wanted to keep his friends and family safe, and to do that he had to keep all contact with them brief.

  “Answer the question,” Luke said, sitting.

  “I have not been avoiding you, Luke. I have been busy.”

  “You’re lying.”

  Ace held Luke’s gaze steady, and the other man never looked away. Damn, he’d never been good at lying to the people he cared for.

  “I don’t lie,” he said slowly.

  “Not normally, no, but you are now.”

  “Yes,” Ace sighed, acknowledging his friend’s words. “I am.”

  Signaling a barmaid, Luke then looked at him again.

  “Why?”

  Should he tell him the truth? For days, Ace had sent men to investigate who was after him, but no news had returned and it would be good to talk to someone he trusted about the situation.

  “Someone is trying to kill me.”

  Luke sat back in his chair. “I hadn’t expected that.”

  “I’ve felt as if someone has been following me for quite some time,” Ace said and then went on to explain the attempts on his life, finishing with the night he had left Thea.

  He’d tried to put her out of his head, but when he lowered his guard, there she was. Thea, with her lovely face and sharp mind.

  “You have men looking for whoever is responsible?”

  Ace nodded. “Of course.”

  “And you’re staying away from your friends and family because you fear they will get caught up in this mess?”

  Ace nodded again.

  “Idiot,” Luke muttered, picking up the ale the barmaid had just placed before him and taking a mouthful.

  “It is not idiotic to want to protect the people you care about, Fletcher,” Ace snapped.

  “They’re not after us, they’re after you.”

  “And could use you to get to me.”

&nbs
p; “Granted, that could happen,” Luke conceded. “However, if you don’t alert us then we can take no measures to stop that happening.”

  Ace hadn’t considered that.

  “Furthermore, if these men have been following you for weeks, then they possibly already know all of your family and friends.”

  Christ, he hadn’t thought of that, either. Shaking his head, Ace wondered why his brain was not functioning with its usual competency.

  Thea. Her name popped into his head and he quickly forced it aside.

  “You’re right. I need to tell my family,” Ace said, staring into his ale. “I had thought by not doing so I was protecting them, but perhaps I am endangering them.”

  “How many men hate you so much they would kill you, Ace?”

  He’d thought about this endlessly over the last few days. “Several, but the most likely candidate is halfway across the world, having tried to kill me once before and been dispatched for his efforts.” Ace remembered that day as if it was yesterday because it had nearly been his last.

  “And you have men searching for whoever is responsible?”

  “Yes, five of them, and so far they have found nothing,” Ace added.

  Luke nodded, understanding Ace’s frustration. They sat in silence for several minutes, both thinking, planning.

  “Well, as we can do nothing for you right at this moment, I will share my news.”

  The smile that spread across Luke’s face as he spoke was wider than any Ace had ever seen on him before.

  “Bella is with child.”

  “Congratulations, Luke.” Ace shook his hand, pleased for his friend.

  “She is well?”

  “Yes, although this work she and Thea are doing for Hannah is tiring her, even though she denies it.”

  “What work?” Ace frowned. Thea should not be working, especially considering what had happened to her just a few days ago.

  “They are looking after the seamstresses, for Miss Wooller,” Luke said, frowning. “It’s cold out at the moment, and the streets icy. I have no wish for her to fall now she is with child, or Thea to hurt herself further.”

  Just the mention of Thea’s name made Ace’s heart race. It had to stop. The woman was in his head from the minute he opened his eyes, and when he closed them he saw her in his dreams, where she wove sensual webs around him, and had him waking aroused and frustrated.

  “They are doing what?” he said slowly.

  “Miss Wooller has had to leave London as her father has summoned her, and Alex is unwell, so Bella and Thea are looking after their business,” Luke said.

  “And you allowed this?” Ace couldn’t believe his ears. Lady Althea, sullying her hands in trade. “What the hell were you thinking, Luke?”

  “What would you have me do, Ace? You know those two, and that there is little to be done once they set their minds to something.

  “Say no!” he snapped. “They are ladies and therefore should not be working, and one of them is expecting a child.” He could not believe the man was letting his wife take such risks. “And the other has just been attacked.”

  Luke looked at him and the silence stretched between until Ace said, “What?”

  “So women born into nobility should not sully their hands with anything besides taking tea and water colors. Is that how things should be, Ace?”

  “Yes.”

  Luke laughed. “Obviously you don’t know Lady Althea, Bella, any of the Langley sisters or Miss Wooller very well, if you can make a statement like that,” he added.

  “I know there are exceptions, but she shouldn’t be one of them,” Ace added. “She’s a duke’s daughter.”

  “Ah, so this is about Lady Althea not my expectant wife, who I hasten to add has assured me she will not lift a finger, but also assured me that if I did not let her go with Thea I could sleep elsewhere.” Luke looked far too smug as he mentioned Thea’s name, and Ace wondered when he’d let his interest in her become noticeable.

  “It’s about both of them,” Ace muttered.

  “I remember the first time you saw her,” Luke said not drawn off in the slightest. “She barely acknowledged you; however, you were quite taken with her.”

  “I believe we were discussing the fact that someone is trying to kill me.” Ace tried to sound calm when inside he was a seething mass of emotion, and it was her bloody fault.

  Luke waved his words away. “You and Thea seemed to be having quite an in-depth conversation at the dinner table the other night, Ace. Care to tell me what it was you were discussing?”

  The last words I said to my parents were filled with hate. Ace remembered what Thea had said that night.

  “We were discussing the weather,” Ace said.

  “For most of the meal?” Luke raised a brow.

  “Is there a point you are trying to make, Fletcher?” he snapped.

  “My point is that I think you care for Lady Althea Ryder, Ace, and to my mind that is a good thing.”

  “What!” Ace roared. “How can it be a good thing when she’s a Duke’s daughter and my father was a poor coal miner?”

  “I see you did not deny that you care for her.”

  “Shut up!” Ace snarled. “I don’t want to speak of her or this matter again.”

  “Very well.” Luke smiled and Ace wanted to lean across the table and punch him. Instead, he got to his feet. It was time to go before he said something he’d regret.

  “Will you give me a ride to pick up Thea and Bella, Ace, as they have the carriage?”

  “You take my carriage. I’ll get a hackney and you can return it tomorrow,” Ace said. He had no intention of seeing Thea again so soon.

  “I don’t need your carriage, as I have mine. I only need you to set me down at the place where Thea and Bella are awaiting me,” Luke said reasonably. “It is only a short distance from here, and you need not get out if you have no wish to.”

  Walk, then. Ace wanted to say, but held that thought inside his head.

  “If it is a problem, I can walk or get a hackney,” Luke added.

  Whatever Luke was thinking was hidden behind a calm smile and Ace felt trapped. If he refused, then Luke would think it was because of Thea—which it was, but he had no wish for that subject to raise its head again.

  “Of course, I see no problem with taking you there,” Ace added, hoping that he could drop his friend off and then leave before he caught a glimpse of Thea.

  ...

  Thea was enjoying herself. She and Bella had decided that the expectant mother would be better in charge of anything that did not include heavy lifting or walking up the stairs, so Bella was seated downstairs in the front little office area with one of the seamstresses, sorting through laces and trims. There was also a selection of buttons needed for the dresses and she was taking care of those, too.

  “It is time to finish for the day, ladies.” Thea said after glancing at the clock.

  Everything had run smoothly, and they had the lists that Hannah had left them should they need help, plus Alex was nearby—although Thea had no wish to catch whatever illness he was, at present, laid low with.

  Working here had given her something to occupy her thoughts besides Oliver and her attack. Here, she could keep busy all day; of course, she was not so lucky with that when she closed her eyes at night. Then, he was there, filling her head with his kisses, touches and his handsome face.

  “I believe we are running to the schedule that Miss Wooller set us, my lady?”

  “Yes, we are, Ellen,” she said to one of the seamstresses who was busy tidying away her things. “And as you are all working so hard, I will have Mrs. Fletcher’s cook bake something nice for you tonight, and bring it in for you all tomorrow.”

  The women all smiled and then began to leave the room.

  “Mrs. Fletcher said that her husband has arrived, my lady, and that your footman has not yet returned with the carriage; therefore, he will take you home.”

  “Tell them I shall be dow
n shortly, please, Jane,” she said, wondering whose carriage Luke was in, as Ted was to collect her, because Luke had said this morning he had a meeting to attend.

  Going to the window, Thea looked out, saw the carriage, and then watched Luke step down—and behind him was Oliver. Her heart skipped a beat and began to thud hard in her chest.

  She watched as he stood, hatless, looking around him while Luke went to greet Bella, who had just walked outside. He looked alone at that moment, the man who had forged his destiny through hard work and resilience. Thea want to go to him, tell him that she cared nothing for his past, only that she be his future. He had said he was not worthy of her, yet in all honesty it was she who was not worthy of him.

  She had been cosseted from her earliest memory, and knew nothing of hunger or living in fear. She had achieved little, besides annoying her brothers. Such was the life of a noblewoman, Thea thought. Being born to privilege was a wonderful yet stifling thing.

  “Lord, I’m ungrateful,” she sighed, watching the man whose life had been a succession of trials, tragedies and eventual success. “You are worth ten of me, Oliver Dillinger, and certainly ten of many men I know.”

  His long legs carried him away from the carriage as he looked around the narrow lane at the other buildings. It was almost as if instinctively he chose solitude over company, as he probably had the majority of his life. Pushing the heel of her hand into her chest, Thea tried to rub away the yearning she felt deep inside her to go to him. She ached with need for this man who wanted nothing more to do with her.

  Thea should move away from the window and collect her things, and then walk downstairs and smile politely to the man whose kisses still tormented her and act like he had not seen her breasts. Something made her take one more look out the window, and her eyes were drawn to the alley between two shops on the other side of the street. A man was standing there, hunched over. Pressing her face to the glass, Thea tried to get a better look. There was something about him that made a chill traverse her spine. He was watching the carriage, she was sure of it—or was he watching Oliver? Thea felt panic as Oliver began to walk toward the man. Obviously, he was deep in thought or he would have seen him skulking there. Something was not right—she could feel it. She wanted to call out to Oliver to stop. Her hands went to the window, but the sill was stiff and didn’t move. She saw the man move then, watched as he pulled something from his coat, and she realized it was a gun.