“Yet, you each still married your husbands?” Freya declared in disbelief. “Despite these attacks on your person.”
“I love Richard Orson with every ounce of blood streaming through my body. He saved me again and again from danger and from myself. He never abandoned me,” Lady Emma declared proudly. “He stands between me and the evils of the world, and I do the same for him.”
Lady Theodora waited but a heartbeat before adding, “I promised to marry Alexander when we were still in the schoolroom together. Unfortunately, we came close to destroying each other, and I was not always kind to Annalise, even after I learned she was Alexander’s lost sister and not a threat to my relationship with Marksman. I was jealous and petty, for I feared sharing Alexander’s love. I mean to earn her forgiveness by cherishing her brother.” There was a long silence that Freya did not completely understand, but after an extendedpause, the two ladies nodded to each other in some sort of unity of purpose.
“What of Miss Whitchurch?” Freya asked, momentarily forgetting the lady’s new title.
Lady Annalise again took up the tale. “We have come to believe this unknown assailant has not taken his failures well in settling some sort of grudge. Such has proven so with our Victoria. The woman who first assisted Victoria with young Ethan was violently killed in a close near Mr. Sustar’s shop. Before the murder, a man, dressed all in black, bumped into Victoria on the street and knocked her bag from her hands. The culprit later drove a set of long needles that he stole from Victoria’s bag into the older woman’s eyes, after he had killed her. Graham believes it was a warning to all of us not to become complacent. Duncan’s shooter is still out there. He has not abandoned his revenge.”
“Do you believe the shooter today is the same man?” Freya asked in disbelief.
Lady Emma said, “How can we not? I am confident those in the other room recognize the similarities.”
“Could today’s stranger not simply be committing a crime based on opportunity, rather than some sort of revenge?” Freya asked.
“Think upon it,” Lady Theodora said with a frown of apparent disapproval. “How often do we hear of a masked man robbing a carriage in the middle of the day on a busy road leading to London?”
In truth, Freya had already considered what Lady Theodora asked. She simply wished someone to prove her wrong.
“What we are saying, my lady,” Lady Annalise declared with a lift of her chin in the form of a challenge, “is you must decide whether your admiration for our dear Lord Graham is strong enough for you to stand beside him in the worst of times.Graham means to protect you from danger by denying himself the pleasure of knowing you as his wife!
“Each of us were rescued by our husbands, but we proved ourselves worthy by bringing hope for a future—a better future than any of them thought they deserved,” she emphasized. “Lady Emma bravely confronted the man following her in Buckinghamshire. I shot the girl who I once thought to be my cousin to prevent her from killing Beaufort. Victoria physically fought with the man who killed her sister, while Theodora held Lord Almano at gunpoint in order to protect herself, her maid, and her father. What are you willing to do for Lord Graham? Our husbands have already known the emptiness of being a single in a world meant by God to travel two by two. Their parents were killed when they were just boys or they were abandoned with only Lord Duncan and his wife left willing to take them in, protect them, and raise them in a manner to serve their fellow man and the government. The Duncans addressed their fears, provided them with love and discipline and a plan for their futures. It amazes me how Lord Duncan managed not only his estates, but also those of his sons, until they were old enough to inherit.”
“I can say honestly, you must be prepared for moments of madness,” Lady Emma declared with a chuckle, “but, if you have been sincere with us and desire a home, you shall find one in this family, but that means you must devote yourself to loving Aaran Graham and even each of us. I am quite pleased with the idea of having each of these women as my sisters. Of our raising our children together—lots of children all around.”
Her Ladyship’s hand came to rest upon her midsection.
“Are you with child?” Lady Annalise squealed.
“We are not confident,” Lady Emma said with a look of longing at Lady Annalise’s expanded girth. “Yet, we have hope. I owe you a debt of gratitude, Annalise, for explaining what allyou learned from your grandmother and the two midwives you visited. I feel our prayers will soon be answered. Orson and I will call on the woman you recommended when we return to London to learn whether our hopes to be true.”
Lady Annalise rose quickly to embrace Lady Emma. “I shall say an extra prayer for you.”
“None of you may say anything, not even to your husbands,” Lady Emma warned with a laugh. “I promised Orson I would not speak of this until we knew with certainty.”
“Of course,” they all chorused, but as Freya looked on, she readily knew she wanted these women to be the ones she told of her own child when she learned such blessed news. “Tell them of Aaran Graham’s child,” her mind announced. If she proceeded along this path, she would lose her legal family, but she would gain one whose ties were deeper than any she had ever known. Duncan’s motley crew was where she wanted to be.
Chapter Eighteen
“Then we arein agreement,” Duncan summarized, “Hartley and I will escort Lady Freya to London tomorrow, with Kepper riding beside the coach. If Lord Cunningham has returned to his home in Town, he will not be pleased with my doing so, but both the lady and I will repeat the tale of how Mr. Turner’s broken ankle kept him from escorting his niece to her father’s home. I came along as it would not be proper for Lady Freya to travel with Hartley without a chaperone.”
Aaran did not like this solution one bit, but his earlier objections had been overridden by Duncan and his brothers. Cunningham would still object to Lady Freya being with Duncan, but the Scot would be made to see reason. Or as much reason as Cunningham ever practiced. However, Aaran had no taste for being left behind. The others had readily agreed, but Aaran could not quite swallow the compromise, for, like it or not, he would be expected to part with Lady Freya forever. Moreover, in Aaran’s estimation, returning the lady to her father would not keep her safe, and he wanted her safe above all else.
“Beaufort, Marksman, and I will attempt to locate the trail made by the highwayman who approached the coach today,” Orson stated firmly.
“And what of me?” Aaran demanded.
“You must pace the floors until we return,” Orson declared with a knowing nod of his head, for his brothers all knew Aaran’s nature as well as he knew theirs.
“I do not pace,” Aaran protested.
“Then you will learn a new skill,” Orson countered.
“You must not be anywhere about when Lady Freya steps down before Cunningham’s home,” Duncan instructed. “If anyone views you near and reports it to His Lordship, Cunningham will beat his daughter.”
Aaran’s fingers curled into a fist. He knew in that moment he would forever be Lady Freya’s protector. Whether it was Cunningham or Sir Patrick who raised his hand to her, Aaran would see that hand hacked clean away. Some way he would make it so. One thing about his role in the Home Office of which the others could not claim, Aaran often spent days and even weeks in London’s most notorious prisons, associating with the worst of the worse. Those men had taught Aaran their lessons well. He now knewcreativemeans to do away with a person and even morecreativeways to be rid of the body. Permanently. Inside the walls of England’s jails and debtors’ prisons, Aaran had become “friends” with both the infamous and the poor, and he would do whatever was necessary to protect the woman who he now knew owned his heart.
“I understand my role in this farce,” Aaran growled, “but such does not mean I like it any better than did any of you when you were made to do what Duncan says is necessary.” He looked up to his adoptive father. “No disrespect intended, sir.”
