raised her glass to her lips.
‘Don’t you dare drink that, Olivia,’ boomed a familiar voice from the doorway.
Her hand jerked, sloshing a small amount of the red wine over the side of the glass and down the front of the skirt of her gown. Uttering an unladylike word, she placed her glass on the table.
‘What in the world are you doing here?’ she demanded, glaring at Gabriel.
Gabriel had ridden as fast as he could through the streets of Mayfair to reach Olivia. She was his world and he was not about to lose her—not this time. He needed to increase Bennett’s wages for his discretion during her departure and for supplying Gabriel with the address she had given her coachman. He’d assumed she would be going to her sister’s house. Victoria and Olivia had always been close and he knew in his bones she would be the one person Olivia would turn to for help. But this address had been foreign to him.
When Gabriel had arrived at the nondescript town house, he had run out of the names of people he thought might occupy the building. Never in his wildest imaginings did he think his wife would turn to Janvier. It wasn’t until his knock went unanswered and he picked the lock on the front door, that he realised he was in the home of the blackguard he had been preparing to apprehend that very night—a man who Gabriel had just seen place something from a small vial into Olivia’s wineglass.
After following the sound of voices, he stood outside the doorway to the drawing room and listened to their unguarded conversation. A part of him wanted to storm into the room and remove his wife from this dangerous man. But this other part of him, this sick twisted part that would be bound forever by a sense of duty, wanted to listen and see if the Frenchman revealed his plans.
It wasn’t until he saw Olivia raise the glass to her lips that he knew he needed to interrupt the intimate tête-à-tête before his wife was poisoned. It was taking all of Gabriel’s control not to rip the man limb from limb.
‘Your Grace,’ said the Frenchman, his eyes narrowed on Gabriel. ‘I had not heard your knock.’
‘Neither did your staff.’
‘My staff is now off for the evening. I’m afraid there is no longer anyone here attending the door.’
Olivia’s attention had been focused on blotting up the wine from her skirt until Janvier uttered his last statement. ‘You had not told me you had given your staff the night off.’
The man smiled at Olivia and Gabriel’s right hand tightened into a fist.
‘You had not asked,’ Janvier replied with a smug smirk.
That was all it took. Thoughts of trapping the man in his plan no longer mattered. He was going to break his legs so he wouldn’t have the opportunity to go to the theatre. Gabriel advanced into the room, but stopped suddenly at the sight of Olivia picking up her glass.
‘I told you not to drink that.’
‘As if I have any interest in what you want.’ She brought the glass closer to her lips.
He snatched it out of her hand.
‘I am not tipsy and that glass will not make me the least bit inebriated. Give it back to me.’
‘No.’
‘No?’ She stood up and crossed her arms.
‘Your friend put something in your glass.’
‘Don’t be absurd, Janvier would never do such a thing.’
‘I resent such an insinuation,’ the Frenchman stated, placing his own glass down on the nearest table.
‘I wasn’t insinuating anything. I am stating a fact that you put something into my wife’s glass. What is in here?’
‘Nothing but some of my finest wine.’
Gabriel held the glass out to Janvier. ‘Then why don’t you have a sip?’ He tilted the glass and surveyed the contents. ‘There isn’t much left. It would be a shame to waste it.’
Olivia let out an exasperated breath. ‘I have no notion of what you think you are trying to prove. Are you attempting to have me question everyone I associate with?’ She took the glass from him and almost had it to her lips when he swatted it out of her hand. It flew across the room, landing with a crash and splattering the remainder of the wine around the fine furnishings and his wife.
He knew the look on her face. She was incredulous and he had pushed her too far. His gaze dropped to the reticule she was holding and he considered how heavy it might be.
She glared at him and it looked as if she might be trembling with rage. ‘You have thoroughly and completely ruined this dress.’
He wanted to laugh at the absurdity of her statement, spoken through clenched teeth, but he needed to concentrate on Janvier. ‘What did you put in it?’
‘You believe I wish to kill her? I adore her. Why would I do such a thing?’
‘Why indeed? But I did see you place something in her glass from a small vial.’
‘I did no such thing.’ But his eyes shifted. It was a gesture his very astute wife did not miss.
She stepped closer and searched Janvier’s eyes. ‘Did you?’ she asked as if she could not believe her friend could be so evil.
His gaze darted from her to Gabriel and back again. A cold shiver ran along Gabriel’s spine, raising the hairs on his neck. There was no telling how Janvier would react to being cornered and Olivia was standing too close to him. Her safety was paramount. Gabriel needed to distract him and keep her out of harm’s way.
‘Is that what you planned to use tonight to kill the Prince Regent at Drury Lane?’
He should bang his head into a wall. That was the worst distraction in the history of Britain—no, the world! His concern for Olivia had stopped his brain from thinking clearly. He knew enough not to reveal his hand too early and he had just shown Janvier all of his cards.
Olivia was about to back away from Janvier when the Frenchman spun her around by the waist and pulled her back against his front. Gabriel reached behind him under his coat and pulled out his double-barrel pistol just as Janvier removed a sharp knife from his sleeve. The silver of the blade at Olivia’s throat flashed in the candlelight.
They were at an impasse. Olivia remained motionless. The sound of her breathing was as loud in Gabriel’s ears as if her head had been resting on his shoulder. He needed to keep his entire concentration on Janvier to read any signs that would indicate what this man was about to do. He knew he had to block out Olivia entirely, or he risked being caught again by surprise.
‘Well, it appears we are both not what the world sees. How is it you are aware of plans against your monarch?’
‘I have heard rumblings.’
‘I see. And those rumblings brought you to
