Her bottom lip quivered, and tears streamed down her cheeks. “I do not know… where to turn,” she murmured. “I am so…” She broke off as her tears claimed a path towards her chin.
“You and the child will come with me,” he said. “You are obviously near exhaustion, and I shan’t have you suffer. Should I take the child?” he asked as it began to stir and fuss.
“Just the basket,” she instructed.
He slid his arm about her waist so he might support her steps while claiming the basket from her grip. “My coach is along the street, where it was the last time we met.”
“But you had… something… for which… you searched,” she protested.
Benjamin suspected he had found for what he had been searching, but he said, “I will return again to finish my careful inspection of the Lyon’s Den’s grounds. If what I was searching for is actually here, it has been so since early March. It will remain in its hiding place until I return.”
“Thank you,” she murmured as she sagged against him.
Benjamin had tightened his hold about her. The lady reminded him of how his mother had clung to her brother after her husband’s funeral. Mrs. Helen Thompson had been strong until she could no longer take another step. “I have you,” he told her, directing Miss Whitchurch along the brick path circling the right side of the building.
When they reached the street, his footman spotted them and came running to assist him. “Take the basket,” he told Brunswick, “and go ahead to set down the steps.” With his hands free, Benjamin swept her up into his arms, taking special care not to harm the child. His was an awkward grasp, but all he had to do was keep his balance until he reached the coach.
Somehow, he managed the coach’s steps with her still in his arms and only losing his hat, which Brunswick quickly recovered. He sat awkwardly on the bench seat. “Home, Brunswick,” he instructed, and within seconds, his coach pulled into the limited traffic in Whitehall at this time of day.
Her head rested against his shoulder. She was asleep. “Likely completely exhausted,” his mind announced. He looked down to the child, expecting it also to be asleep, but the babe was staring up at Benjamin with what could only be described as “curious” eyes. The child must have approved, for it closed its eyes again. The woman and child bothslept in Benjamin’s arms, and he knew satisfaction in its truest form.
A half hour or more later, they arrived behind his house. Thankfully, his coachman had anticipated his needs. With Brunswick’s assistance, Benjamin managed to disembark with the woman still in his arms.
“The entrance to my study,” he told Brunswick, as he strode towards the double glass door, leading to the small garden at the side of the house. Brunswick scrambled ahead to open the doors for his master.
Once inside, he kept Brunswick a few steps ahead of him, opening doors and motioning people from his way as Benjamin carried her upstairs to the first guest chamber along the hall.
He laid her, with the child still strapped to her, on the bed before claiming a nearby blanket to spread over the pair. The fact she had not awakened, no matter how much he had juggled her, spoke to her complete exhaustion. He claimed a chair where he might watch over her.
“My lord?” his butler said in question.
“I do not yet know, Mr. Patterson. I will present my instructions when I do.”
