it with fingers that were numb with cold.
Dear Rosalie, we are all safe, though the house is a burned-out shell. I am sending Katy to you with Biddy, because the child was inconsolable and wanted you badly. As Biddy will tell you, you must make haste, both of you, to Mr Wheeldon’s house.
I have more idea now, Rosalie, who our enemy is. Because shortly before the fire another note was delivered, just like the first—on the same notepaper, in the same handwriting—saying, ‘If you write one more word about Lady A., then you and those close to you will be the target next, not just the house.’ I fear I have made a vicious enemy, Rosalie. But Mr Wheeldon and his sister and their servants here make me feel most secure …
Rosalie felt the world tilt around her. An enemy Helen had made, then, not her. So the finger of blame was no longer pointing at Alec Stewart … Oh, Lord. She tried to shove the letter back into her pocket, impeded because Katy, upset, was fighting to get free.
‘Hush, sweetheart,’ Alec was saying softly to the little girl. He’d picked up the tattered rag doll she’d dropped and gave it to her.
Katy gazed up at him, her crying hiccupping to a stop. ‘Polly-doll,’ she said.
Decisively Alec took her in his arms. ‘News?’ He nodded curtly towards Helen’s letter.
The colour crept hotly up Rosalie’s throat to her cheeks. ‘It seems I might have been mistaken. In the matter of what happened to my friend, and the fire at her house. I—apologise.’
His expression remained iron hard. ‘You make rather a lot of mistakes, don’t you, Mrs Rowland?’
‘I’ve said I’m sorry!’ she flashed. ‘Let me have Katy back.’
‘You’re not fit to look after yourself, let alone a child!’
Katy stared up at Alec, wide-eyed, interested. ‘It’s all right,’ he said soothingly to her. ‘It’s all right, sweetheart.’ He gazed narrowly at Rosalie. ‘You’ve nowhere to go, you’re not well and you have the child to think of. You’re what I’d call in trouble.’
‘Lord Maybury would have helped me!’
His lips thinned. ‘If you believe that, you’re even more foolish than I’d thought. And as Lord Maybury’s gone on his sweet way, I’d say you’ve actually no choice but to let me take you both to my house for the night.’
Fear jolted through Rosalie. She’d always intended to tackle this man. To enter his lair somehow, and find out all she could about Linette’s enemy. But, oh, Lord, not like this. Not with her legs shaking, and her stomach heaving, and her brain a woolly mess. And with—Katy.
Yet what else could she do? She had no money. No means now of even getting safely to Mr Wheeldon’s house. ‘Wonderful,’ she said bitterly. She pushed back her hair. ‘So it’s your basement again, is it?’
Her legs wobbled and he saw it. ‘Take hold of my arm,’ he ordered. ‘I’ve got the child safe. And this time, we’ll try to do better than my basement. Garrett!’ He was turning to call out to Eyepatch.
‘Captain?’
‘I want you to take the horses home. But first find me a hackney, quickly. I’m bringing Mrs Rowland and her child to Two Crows Castle.’
Garrett’s face was a picture of dismay. ‘My God, Captain, have you lost your wits?’
‘Button it, Garrett. Just do as I say, will you?’ Glancing down, Alec saw that Rosalie looked white as death.
The child looked anxious. ‘Mama?’
‘She’s all right,’ Alec said gently. ‘Your mother will be all right, Katy.’
Alec realised he was getting himself into a fine pickle. No wonder Garrett had looked aghast. But when Alec had seen her struggling to get out of Stephen’s carriage, he’d wanted to punch his brother into the gutter. She looked so defenceless in her drab wet cloak, with her rain-soaked hair clinging to her face. Yet not only had she paraded her wares at the Temple of Beauty, but she’d been with Stephen tonight. She’s no innocent, you fool. Young though she is, she’s a widow and has a child. What’s more, she’s a gossip-raking troublemaker who’s wrongly accused you of all sorts of rubbish …
The hackney summoned by Garrett rumbled to a halt close by. He thought he could see tears misting her eyes as she turned to him and whispered, ‘You promise me the child will be safe?’
‘I promise,’ he said, tight-lipped. God, she could barely stand. Grimly he climbed after her into the dingy hackney with Katy still secure in his arms and cursed himself for a fool all the way back to Two Crows Castle. His men would be far from delighted to see her after her last visit. But he couldn’t leave her out on the street. ‘Why not?’ loyal Garrett would say. ‘She deserves no better.’
Alec sighed. The trouble was that even now, bedraggled and sick and hostile as she was, she was still so eminently desirable that his loins ached. Dear God, she was prey to anyone like this, let alone his evil brother. She was clearly of gentle birth and educated. So what the hell was she doing, getting involved not only with the gutter press, but with Dr Barnard’s place and with Stephen? She could be big trouble. Could? She already was, damn it. Nowhere to go, apparently. No one to turn to except him.
The child slept in his arms. If he’d not tried to warn his father off his new wife, and if he himself had married that heiress as he was supposed to, he might have had a child of his own by now …
A hell of a lot of ifs. The coach was pulling up. They were there.
* * *
Rosalie’s heart plummeted as they pulled up outside Two Crows Castle. The smoky lanterns that hung on either side of the big front door did little to relieve the gloom. She insisted on holding Katy herself as soon as she was out of the cab. For one night. One night only.
‘What’ve you got there, Captain Alec?’ That big red-haired Scotsman—oh, she remembered him—was drawing closer, frowning suspiciously. ‘Och, now, you’re not forgettin’ she’s the one that accused you of all those bad things the other week?’
‘That was a misunderstanding,’ said Alec curtly, guiding Rosalie towards the door. ‘And she’s here to stay, Sergeant McGrath, just for a day or two.’
More men were gathering round. Rosalie clutched Katy tighter. ‘A child,’ they were muttering. ‘He’s brought in a child and that woman.’ Eyepatch was there, too; he must have stabled the horses, and his frown was equally dour.
Panic-stricken, Rosalie swung round to Alec. ‘Look. I’ve changed my mind. Katy and I will find somewhere else.’ Anywhere else.
‘We’ve been through this,’ Alec answered tightly. ‘Where else, exactly, would you find shelter at this time of night?’
Nowhere. She shrank back from all their cold stares.
‘Don’t worry, Mrs Rowland.’ Alec sighed. ‘You and the child will have a room of your own, with a key on your side of the door—not that you’ll need it. This place is far from luxurious, but at least we’re all honest.’
Suddenly
