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“… so grateful,” Phoebe was saying when Artemis became aware that the other two women were still talking. “I do appreciate you lending her to me.”
“Well, just as long as I get her back eventually,” Penelope said, sounding like she was regretting her beneficence, and Artemis realized with another horrid pang that she might never go back to Penelope. What did Maximus want with her? Would she become his mistress, or was he interested in only one night?
Blackbourne shifted, and one of the boxes in her arms began to slide.
“But I’d better go,” Penelope said, eyeing her purchases like a hawk. “The crowds are awful today, and I was forced to leave the carriage two streets over.”
They said their farewells, and Artemis watched Penelope retreat, chiding poor Blackbourne over the packages all the while.
“We’d best hurry,” Phoebe said, laying her hand on Artemis’s arm.
Artemis raised her eyebrows as she carefully guided the younger woman away from the noisome street. “To where?”
“Didn’t I tell you?” Phoebe grinned up at her. “We’re meeting Hero for tea at Crutherby’s.”
“Oh.” Artemis couldn’t help a small jolt of pleasure. She quite liked the elder of the Batten sisters, though she didn’t know her as well as she knew Phoebe.
Another block further, just past an elegant millinery shop, Crutherby’s ornate sign loomed up ahead. A smiling maid opened the door, and Artemis immediately caught sight of a flaming head of hair sitting in the corner of the little shop.
us had thought the tales of the murder scene exaggerated, but the beast before him looked quite capable of tearing a man’s head from his shoulders.
“Apollo.” Artemis started around Maximus.
He caught her arm and drew her to his side.
She shot him an irritated glance.
The one her brother gave him was much more murderous. He stared at Maximus’s hand tight about his sister’s wrist and then raised angry eyes to meet Maximus’s gaze. Maximus was relieved to see that Kilbourne didn’t share his sister’s eye color. His eyes were a muddy brown. The madman opened his mouth and made a choking sound before closing his lips. A low rumble came from deep in his chest and it was a moment before Maximus realized that Kilbourne was growling at him.
The hairs stood up on the back of his neck.
“Let me go to him,” Artemis said, pulling against his grip.
“No.” One thing to let her into the room when he thought her brother still weak. Quite another to let her near this animal.
“Maximus.” Both Craven and Kilbourne swiveled their heads to stare at her when she used his Christian name. She ignored them. “You may come with me, but I will touch and talk to my brother.”
Maximus swore beneath his breath, earning himself a disapproving stare from Craven. “You are the most stubborn woman I know.”
She merely stared at him with an implacable look that would’ve done justice to the most severe of society dowagers.
He sighed and turned to the madman. “Show me your hands.”
Maximus half-expected no response at all, but Kilbourne immediately shoved his great paws in front of him.
Maximus lifted his eyes to the animal’s and saw sardonic anger in the muddy brown.
Not such a beast after all then.
“I am Wakefield,” Maximus said directly to the man. “I don’t believe we’ve met before. On the request of your sister I took you out of Bedlam and brought you to my own house.”
Kilbourne lifted one eyebrow and glanced about the long, low cellar.
“You’re under the house,” Maximus said. “I was forced to take you out at sword point. The governors of Bedlam would very much like to have you back.”
Kilbourne’s eyes narrowed speculatively, then he looked at Artemis.
“You’re safe here. He won’t make you return to Bedlam,” she said. Maximus felt a tug on the grip he still had on her arm. “Will you?”
