Page 80 of The Wager of a Lady
“I wasn’t the least surprised when you showed up in New York. I didn’t expect you at Cordelia’s opera party. She was horrified by your impassioned dance with George. But once she finds out you’re the bastard of a duke, she might take to her bed for a week.”
Leo merely grunted in response.
“And because William is a coward, I don’t think he would have decided to have me killed on his own. He’s a worm. I tried to talk Jacob out of allowing Lilian to marry him, but I was overruled. As I was when he sent George off to Masterson, though there was little else I could do in that situation, except toward the end.” A flash of something vicious crossed his face. “I assume she told you why she was banished.”
Well, that answered Leo’s question as to how the gambler had met his end. “She did.” Last night as she fed him bits of chicken between kisses.
“The thing is, William is an aspiring politician. And he has a gambling problem. He can be bought.”
“You think Harold is behind this.” Leo thought so too.
“I do. He’s stayed hidden, using someone else, William, I assume, to do his dirty work.”
Leo looked out across the river. “I called in his markers. It’s an enormous sum. And he had no access to the money I’d left for Georgina nor Beechwood Court, which he thinks he has a right to.” He had driven Harold, desperate and mad, right to Georgina’s door. Perhaps he was the one who should be flung in the river. “Her garden gate was jimmied. She thought I did it. The men you had posted around her house are worthless.”
“No, they do a fine job. They let you in, didn’t they?” Cooke said. “Why do you think you weren’t stopped? I didn’t know about the gate, though. It must have happened before I posted a guard.” He frowned. “She didn’t tell me.”
“Well, she didn’t tell me about Harold either before she left London.”
“You should know, Murphy. I’m Daniel’s legal guardian. Not William Harrison, though he thinks he is. Or Lilian. I made sure to have the paperwork done before Daniel even left England, then again here.” Cooke turned to him. “Quite frankly, George was so distressed over Daniel and you, I’m not sure she was completely aware of what she was signing. I do feel bad about that.”
Leo mused over the information. “You were in England. You brought him back.”
“I did. Lilian came with me. I also may have taken a trip to London and visited Elysium.”
Against his better judgment, Leo was starting to like Benjamin Cooke.
“Thank you,” Leo said quietly. “For taking care of them when I could not. I am in your debt.”
The taller man next to him nodded. “Just stop being a horse’s ass. She loves you.”
Leo said nothing, just looked out over the East River as the shore drew closer. If anything happened to Georgina or Daniel, the son he had yet to meet, Leo would be a broken man for the rest of his life. He wanted nothing more than to hold them both, protect them, forever.
“There was an incident on the ferry a few weeks ago,” Cooke said quietly. “George doesn’t think I know about it, but I do. And last month while we were walking down the street together after the theater, a wagon suddenly came barreling out of a side alley, nearly running us both over.”
Jesus.It was Harold. “How far from the ferry dock to Lilian’s house?”
“At least half an hour.”
26
Georgina held Daniel tightly to her chest as she ran through the woods, cursing her skirts and cloak which seemed to catch on every bit of bramble. If she could get to Lilian’s neighbors, whose house was somewhere beyond the pond now coming into view, she and Daniel would be safe.
Lilian crawling inside the house, her skirts full of blood.
“Oh, God. Please let her be alive.” She didn’t think William was any longer. Certainly, Nanny Gibbons was dead. A small cry left Georgina at the remembered sight of the nanny’s eyes, staring up at the sky.
William, you fool.
Daniel started to cry, protesting Georgina’s rough treatment as she fled through the trees and rapidly falling snow. His face reddened and scrunched up as he let out a particularly loud wail.
Georgina pulled him close to her chest as he started to wiggle. “Shhh. Please, sweetheart. Don’t cry.”
She’d been worried for so long that Harold would hurt Daniel, but now he needed her son for all his horrible schemes. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill her, just as he hadn’t paused in the least in shooting William and Mrs. Gibbons. Or that poor driver.
Lilian.
Georgina hadn’t heard another shot from Harold’s pistol, which she hoped meant he’d left Lilian alone. She paused long enough to catch her breath and listen for any sounds of pursuit. The woods around her were quiet. Nothing moved as the snow floated down around her.
