Page 68 of A Lady's Dangerous Secret
“His followers areles flammes,and they are part of hisl’Enfer…his Inferno, hell, Hades. Whatever you call it, it’sle Diable’sdiabolical following. I don’t know how long Roberts was involved withles flammes.”
Charlotte’s mind had been more at peace since she and James reconciled, and she had been cleared of murder when it was accepted it was self-defense. Subsequently, memories of theIncidenthaunted her less. But talk of such frightening matters transported Charlotte back to that fateful day in Roberts’s office.
Escape.
I need to escape.
Charlotte’s heart pounded in her chest. She scanned the room for keys. She knew the door was locked. Her eyes fell on the corpse sprawled on the floor. Blood crept through the linen of Roberts’s shirt from her bullet. Bile rose in her throat and Charlotte forced it down.
No time for hysterics, she told herself while trying to think clearly. She would be discovered any moment if she did not escape quickly. She scanned the lifeless body. His gun lay next to his hand.
“Dammit,” Charlotte muttered. She had seen Roberts lock the door to his office, so the key must be nearby. Her eyes flitted around the room once more for what felt like minutes but was only mere seconds. She returned to the corpse and saw a bulge in his trousers.
She rushed to his lifeless body and fell to her knees. Charlotte shoved her hand into the pocket of his trousers, and the coolness of metal struck her skin. She yanked out a ring of keys and dashed to the door, fumbling with them until she found the correct one. She ran out of the office and toward the rear exit, too panicked to check if anyone saw her escaping. Charlotte spilled into the alleyway and sprinted until she reached the main thoroughfare. She slowed down to a brisk walk, so as not to appear suspicious.
“Charlotte! Charlotte!”
Something tapped her right hand, and she was forced back into the present. She took a gulp of air and was about to bolt from her chair when firm hands applied pressure to her right arm and left hip to keep her still. Charlotte’s eyes blinked several times, and the familiar furnishings of her aunt’s drawing roomcame into focus. Her heart still beat a staccato and sweat dripped down her corset.
A storm raged in James’s eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m fine…just fine,” she choked out, and tried to settle herself.
He released her body and ran a hand through his hair. Despite his new debonair appearance, some habits could not be squelched.
“This is why I didn’t want to tell you.”
“No.” Charlotte paused and closed her eyes, controlling her breathing. She concentrated on the pain in her arm to distract her from the memories. Her eyes opened slowly, and she carefully continued, “I need to know. I’m not some cossetted miss. I’m not a coward and will face my enemies.” Charlotte tilted her chin up with bravado for which she fought, and locked eyes with James.
The storm did not thrash in his eyes as much, but it still simmered. “You were thinking of that day in Shrewsbury.”
Charlotte nodded.
“You need to tell me how to help you. I can’t just watch you suffer,” James said.
While Charlotte put her mind to rights, a question formed. “How didle Diableknow that I was Mrs. Gibson?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps someone followed you that day. But nowle Diableshould also have me as a target, since I’ve been deemed responsible for the murder at the ball. I hope that will deflect his attentions from you.”
Charlotte furrowed her brow with worry. “James, I would never want you hurt.”
He grabbed her hands and ran his thumbs soothingly along the tops, despite the fiery look in his eyes. “I want him to come for me so that I can slit his throat and stomp on his cruel heart.”
“James!”
“No one hurts those I love.”
Charlotte worried her lip. “Do you thinkle Diablewas responsible for your aunt’s death?”
He let out a long sigh. “The Runners haven’t found any evidence of when Roberts becameune flamme. I believe Roberts killed my aunt, thinking she was my mother, though it may have been on the order of my grandfather. My father said my grandfather was a cruel man, and thinks he ordered Roberts to make my mother disappear by any means necessary in order for him to pave the way to marry Miss Waycott.”
“Oh, how awful. How could your grandfather act so terribly?”
James shrugged his shoulders. “The marriage to Miss Waycott must have been of utmost importance to my grandfather. I asked my father, and he told me she was the daughter of a wealthy local baron who married a French aristocratic woman whose family had been displaced during the French Revolution. He suspected the baron’s family benefited from the wars with France through smuggling, but he never pried and turned a blind eye. As I come to know my father, I’m realizing he prefers not to look for trouble.”
James ran his hand through his hair. “I have a nagging suspicion that there is much more to the story.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
