“All right then, Mrs.H.?” he said in his big voice. “I’m that glad you sent for us. We was ready to rush inside, but the coppers came, and we decided to step back and let them pass. Daniel was with them, so I knew you’d be all right.”
Mr.Grimes made to clasp my hands, but I pulled them back fearfully. Mr.Grimes sent Daniel a questioning look, and Daniel opened my palms to show him the blistering skin.
“She burned them,” Daniel said grimly. “Preventing dynamite from going off.”
Mr.Grimes gazed at me in awe. “She’s right brave, ain’t she? Better marry her, Danny, me boy, so she can look after you proper.”
“Oh, I intend to,” Daniel said, to my amazement, then he waved for a hansom, bundled me into it, and took me away.
* * *
We did not go directly to Mount Street, but to a small house in Kensington that lay not far from its gardens. There, Daniel doctored my burns as competently as any surgeon, rubbing my skin with a greasy balm that quickly soothed me.
He bound my hands in bandages, while the quietness ofthe little house, which was one of Daniel’s hideouts, did me more good than medicine.
“Did you mean that?” I asked softly as Daniel tucked in the ends of the bandages. I’d have to find some means to explain my injury to Mrs.Bywater, and poor Tess would have to assist me until I healed.
“Did I mean what?” The flush on Daniel’s cheekbones told me he knew exactly to what I referred.
“That you intended to marry me.”
Daniel finished the last bandage and put his fingers under my chin so I’d look directly at him. “Yes. I did mean it.”
“I see.”
I could think of nothing else to say. Too many distressing things had happened to me in the past few days for me to grasp the entirety of his declaration.
I glanced about the sitting room, with its paneled walls, comfortable chairs, small collection of books, and fireplace that would snap with a cozy blaze in the winter.
“Can we live here?” I asked.
“We can live anywhere you like.” Daniel caressed my cheek with his calloused thumb. “That is, if you cease throwing yourself at villains. Kat, my love, when I saw you leaptowardthe dynamite, my world stopped.”
“It’s a mercy I did,” I pointed out. “That dreadful man would have killed every one of us.”
“Why the devil did you go to Belgrave Square at all?” Daniel demanded. “When your message reached me, I feared the worst. I couldn’t race straight to you—I had to put together a team of constables and fetch McGregor and Monaghan. And instead of waiting for us, you charged directly inside.”
I eyed him in indignation. “He had Hannah bound up in a room, where he meant to leave her to die. Her poor son wasscared to death, and rightly so. Lady Fontaine was in danger as well. Waiting would have possibly been the worst thing I could do. Lord Downes might have fled with Lady Fontaine and lit his slow match, blowing up the house with Hannah in it, and taking down much of the street. I kept him talking to give you plenty of time to reach us.”
“Logically, I agree with you.” Daniel pressed a fist to his chest. “Inside, I’m surprisedthisis still beating.”
“When you marry me, if you mean to keep me sequestered at home instead of out helping others, I will say no.”
Daniel stilled. “When?”
“Indeed, I had a husband who thought to enforce obedience, and I will not go through that again.”
He gazed at me with unreadable eyes. “Kat, you saidwhenI marry you. Notif.”
I started, realizing I’d spoken without thought.
I hadn’t needed to think.
“Of course I did,” I said softly.
Daniel let out a sound like a groan. He carefully lifted my bandaged hands and kissed my fingertips. “You love to torture me. Do you really mean to let me marry you?”
I sent him an impish smile. “You have to do it proper, you know. On one knee and everything.”
