Page 39 of Lady Frederica and the Scot Who Would Not
“So you did think you might one day meet a lady you could love!” Blythe said.
He shook his head. “No. I assumed Hawk would eventually tire of waiting and return to simply take revenge on me.”
“You mean to kill you?”
“Yes. He’s shown remarkable patience, but I planned on the day his patience expired.”
“I’m both glad and sad at once,” Blythe muttered.
“Don’t fret for me, Blythe. I’m fine.”
She snorted. “You’re far from fine. You’re a self-made emotional iceberg. But I suspect Freddy will thaw you.”
“Frederica will not thaw me, Sister.” She’d damn well heat him to near incineration, but that would be confined to passion in the bedchamber.
Blythe changed the subject. “Why are you funding the Henderson Home?”
“So that I’ll have somewhere to put Hawk and two physicians willing to sign papers committing him without an exam or question.”
“That’s a good plan,” Blythe said, “except the part where you wait for him to show himself or strike first.”
“I’m not waiting for him to come for Frederica, Blythe. I’ve set dozens of men out in Covent Garden as of the day the bans were read to watch for his return. The minute I hear of it, I’ll find him.”
“Assuming you can. I think a better plan would be to use Frederica to lure him out.”
“No.” The word came out harsh, but the idea of putting her in danger was intolerable.
She smirked. “Ah. Seems to me you’ve already formed an attachment to Freddy.”
“No, no, I haven’t,” he denied, even as his pulse spiked. “It’s my protective instinct, is all. She’s my wife. Protecting her is my duty.”
“If you say so.”
He opened his mouth to say he did say so when a knock came at his door. The door swung open, and Bear stood in the threshold.
Gabe rose. Bear never left his post at the door to the club when the club was open. “What’s the matter?”
Bear strode into the room and held out a folded note to Gabe. “This was delivered for you just now. I recognized the man—Alex Peterson.”
Gabe’s breath caught. If Hawk’s old crony in running underground card and dice games was delivering Gabe a note, there could be only one reason why. Gabe took the paper, unfolded it, and read.
I like your new home in Mayfair, and your new wife is pretty. Too bad she’ll be gone when you return home.
Hawk
“Goddamn it!” Gabe roared, shoving past Bear to get out the door and to Frederica. He’d made a mistake, a terrible one. He prayed to God he wasn’t too late to protect her.
Chapter Fifteen
Freddy punched the pillow for the dozenth time, tried a new position, and stared at the ceiling while reciting old etiquette lessons. When that failed to put her to sleep, she knew nothing would. Huffing, she climbed from the bed and wound her hair into a knot to fan her damp neck, but the meager swoosh of air against her heated skin was not nearly enough relief. She made her way to the window, drew back the heavy silk curtains that she’d pulled shut before getting into bed so that the sun would not wake her in the morning, and she screamed.
Staring back at her was a man with a long, crooked nose, a square chin, and hair dark enough to blend in with the night, except his pale skin showed the inky strands across his forehead. When he drew up a knife and tapped it against the window, she screamed again. She scuttled backward, tripping over the slippers she’d left in the middle of the floor and landing with an air-stealing, arse-bruising thud.
Behind her, her bedchamber door banged open, and she jerked, twisting around, not sure what she’d find, so when Gabriel appeared, she cried out her relief. Before she could even fully inhale a ragged breath to tell Gabriel of the man at her window, Gabriel was there, scooping her into his arms and encircling her body in a protective shield. His dark eyebrows slashed down over his eyes as he swept his gaze over her, then glanced around the room. “You screamed.”
“There was a man at my window,” she replied, curling her fingers into his solid shoulders.
He tensed and whipped his head toward the window. “Bear!” Gabriel shouted, and the man from the Orcus Society who she knew manned the door from seeing him the times Blythe had sneaked her into the club, the one Blythe said never left his post, appeared suddenly beside her, as if conjured by Gabriel speaking his name.
