Page 4 of Heartbreaker

Of course he took offense to that. Honestly, it was surprising the whole of the South Bank hadn’t gone up in flames when the Duke of Clayborn arrived like the angel of judgment.

She’d barely had time to roll her eyes at him before they were off again, out of the warehouse and into the street beyond, Adelaide quickly ducking behind a pile of rubbish and slipping her knife back into the pocket of her skirts, where a scabbard was fastened tight at her thigh.

Clayborn watched her and she ignored the heat that somehow came from his cool gaze. “The Duchess of Trevescan’s cousin, are you?”

She hid the surprise that flared when he identified her. For a woman who was practiced at remaining unnoticed and invisible, the Duke of Clayborn’s undivided focus proved unnerving, especially since it was clear her secret was out, and he was fully capable of returning to Mayfair and telling the whole of London that she was nothing close to an aristocrat’s cousin. Still, Adelaide brazened it through. “What, you don’t have remarkable fruit on the family tree?”

He watched her for a moment, and then said, “None so remarkable as you.”

Oh.She’d return to those five words at a later time.

But now, Adelaide had somewhere to be. “This is as far as I take you, Duke. They won’t come for an aristocrat in daylight, but you’d best hurry if you want to avoid meeting Lambeth’s finest.”

Before he could reply, she was off, disappeared into the afternoon throngs knowing that ifshewere caught, there would be no quarter.

For Adelaide Frampton, née Trumbull, daylight in Lambeth was cold comfort, as her father and The Bully Boys ran all of the South Bank, and she would find no help anywhere here—not because she didn’t have supporters, but because they lacked the strength to go up against London’s largest gang of street thugs.

She understood that truth intimately; she’d only gainedthe strength to fight The Bully Boys once she’d left the muck of Lambeth, so she didn’t blame those who had no means to do the same.

Within minutes, the felled brutes in the warehouse would turn into half a dozen outside, so Adelaide turned north, aiming to disappear into the narrow labyrinthine streets of the South Bank—the maze she’d learned before she’d learned her own name.

Unfortunately, her pursuers had received the same lessons.

She’d made a half-dozen turns before she was trapped, somewhere between St. George’s Circus and New Cut. One of Alfie’s men stood like a silent, massive sentry on one end, and two more approached, blades out, from behind.

The big one tilted his chin at the cube beneath Adelaide’s arm. “You’ve taken something that don’t belong to you, gel.”

She touched a hand to her cap, hoping it would keep her from being recognized. Five years away didn’t make a new face, and didn’t change the color of one’s hair. “More than one thing, but who’s counting?”

His companion growled.

Adelaide would wager all she had that these two had no idea what she carried. She had no idea herself, and she was surely the cleverest of the assembly.

Before she could say as much, however, the brute behind her spoke. “Set it down, girl, and no one gets hurt.”

She definitely wasn’t giving it back now. Adelaide extracted her watch, checking the time. Damn. She was going to be late. “I think that if I set this down, someone will absolutely get hurt.”

He grinned, showing several missing teeth, no doubt knocked out. “Why not try it and see?”

The trio closed in on her, their lack of hesitation leaving little time for a body to calculate its next move—but Adelaide was no ordinary foe. Within seconds, she knewhow hard she would have to swing to knock out Teeth, how long it would take for the others to reach her, and what she’d have to do to bring them down. Angles were measured, force calculated, timing predicted.

She lowered herself to one knee. Set the oak cube to the ground.

“That’s it, love,” Teeth said, closer now. Her hand moved, searching for the false pocket in her skirts, aiming for the blade strapped to her thigh. And then... “Hang on...” he said, softly, the tone shifting. No longer full of disdain and loathing.

Now full of something else. Something far more dangerous.

Recognition.

“You’re—” he began, but before he could finish the thought, all hell broke loose.

Teeth’s attention shot over her head even as Adelaide turned to look at the commotion behind her, the two brutes who’d been heading for her suddenly locked in a battle with the Duke of Clayborn.

Dammit.This was a man who had a home in Mayfair and a seat in Parliament. Did he have nothing better to do than follow her through Lambeth?

Returning to the situation at hand, she reached down for the block of wood at her feet, clasped it in two hands, and brought it up sharply to knock Teeth back. Adelaide was running before he cracked his head against the cobblestones.

A shout sounded behind her.

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