Dominic tucked his pistol back into the waistband of his trousers and cast a glance around the narrow alley, its walls slick with grime and its air still thick with damp rot. “Shall we get out of here?”
Alcott chuckled. “I thought you’d never ask.”
They stepped out of the alley and onto the cobbled pavement. The misty night wrapped around them, but it felt less oppressive now. The danger had passed. For the moment, all was quiet.
As they walked, Dominic let the silence stretch, each footstep marking a strange, unfamiliar sensation—peace. The threat to Dorothea was gone. The men who had plotted against her were in custody. She was safe.
For now.
Was Mr. Haverleigh right, after all? Could Dominic truly protect Dorothea if he went through with the annulment?
Beside him, Alcott broke the silence. “You’ve gone rather quiet,” he observed.
Dominic didn’t look at him. “I’m thinking.”
“If I had to guess, you are thinking about your wife.”
“I am.”
Alcott shook his head with exaggerated dismay. “Women. Burdensome creatures, the lot of them. You can’t live with them.”
Dominic’s brow creased, half-amused, half-weary. “I believe the quote you’re butchering is by Desiderius Erasmus: ‘Women, can’t live with them, can’t live without them.’”
Alcott snorted. “No, no. I maintain you can live without them. Happily, in fact. They spend our money, test our patience, and tangle our lives into knots.”
He grew silent, retreating to his own thoughts once more. Dorothea wasn’t simply a woman. She was his. His wife. His responsibility.
And he was beginning to fear that letting her go might not protect her after all.
It might, in fact, destroy him.
Dorothea sat in the drawing room, her hands folded neatly in her lap as she waited for the dinner bell to ring. The day had passed slowly—too slowly—and she had spent most of it in a state of restless anticipation. Though she had tried to rest, her thoughts kept returning to one person: Dominic.
When they had first met, she hadn’t been looking for love. She had long since convinced herself that she didn’t need it, that it was a foolish notion meant for others, not for her. But Dominic had come crashing into her world with that intense gaze and wounded soul, and suddenly all of her carefully laid beliefs had begun to unravel. He hadn’t asked for her heart, but somehow, he had taken it anyway.
How was it fair to love a man who seemed so determined to push her away?
And yet… she did love him. Fiercely. Unshakably.
Her head turned at the faintest rustle, and her breath caught in her throat. There he stood, leaning casually in the doorway, dressed in his fine clothes and a crooked grin playing at the edges of his mouth. Just the sight of him made her heart swell.
Why did her heart feel so at ease with him? Little by little, without even realizing it, she felt more drawn to him.
“Good evening, Thea,” he said.
A soft smile curved her lips. “Good evening, Dominic.”
He pushed away from the doorframe and stepped into the room. “You’re safe now. I made certain of it.”
Her brows lifted. “How?”
“The footman is no longer a threat,” he said. “He’s in Newgate now. And if justice prevails, he’ll be transported soon enough.”
“You found him that quickly?”
“I have experience in such matters,” he said, lowering himself onto the settee beside her. “I used to work as a Bow Street Runner. I know how to find people who would rather not be found.”
“Thank you,” she said, her words filled with gratitude. “Did the footman tell you why he tried to kill me?”
