He almost smiled. “You do have a way with words, madam, I will give you credit for that.”
Purely to vex him, she smiled back, despite feeling utterly broken inside. “It’s Portia, Leo, and not “madam.” Unless you want to go back to being called your grace,your grace.”
His blue eyes narrowed slightly, but only with feigned irritation. “Just take the compliment without the lecture, woman, as I can assure you they will be thin on the ground in the future.” Then his gaze hardened as the carriage turned onto the quay. “I see we have arrived at the scene of the crime.”
Despite his determination to remain angry at her, he still helped her solicitously out of the carriage, even if he did treat her hand like a snake that he was quick to let go of. Then he quietly followed her down the overgrown path to the back of the warehouse.
The first thing Portia noticed was the state of the door; the old wood splintered as if somebody had gone at it with an axe. She could hear movement inside and so as not to alarm anyone, announced her arrival as she pushed what was left of the door open. “Hello.”
“Portia!” It was William’s voice. “Thank goodness you are safe!” He came to greet her, then stopped dead when he saw Leo. “And I see that you have brought your new husband along. It is a pleasure to meet Portia’s rescuer, you grace. I am William Stowe, Sir William for my sins although we don’t bother with all that here.” He held out his hand and, to her surprise, her new husband took it and shook it.
“I didn’t exactly give her a choice not to bring me, sir.”
“Is this official business then, your grace?”
Leo shook his head and left it at that, so an awkward silence descended until Portia filled it. “How bad is it?”
William ushered them both in. “Come see for yourself, dear girl, but I’ll warn you it’s not a pretty sight.”
And it wasn’t.
If the offices ofEquitashad looked shambolic before the constable had arrived, it looked like a rampaging Viking army had pillaged it after. Thousands of sheets of the large blank paper they printed the newspaper on covered every inch of the floor, as the wrapped bundles they were usually stacked in had been torn open. Every single tiny typesetting block was scattered like seed. All their research books had been yanked from the shelves, ripped to pieces, and trampled all over. Every desk was smashed. Every chair shattered and poor Bessie the printing press was reduced to a pile of mangled parts on the floor. To add insult to injury, Nolley’s men had poured all their printing ink over everything to ensure nothing could be reused.
Jim, who had been rifling through Bessie’s twisted metal for bits that could be salvaged, paused to give her a smile.
“I’m glad you’re safe, Portia. I thought you were done for.”
“So did I.” She still might be, but that wasn’t a conversation for now. Any more than asking how he had managed to evade capture was when a magistrate was standing not six feet away, albeit one of the good ones. “I’m glad you’re safe too, Jim.” She gestured to Bessie’s remains. “Can she be fixed?”
“I’ll do my best.” But even with his skill as a mechanic, they both knew that the ancient heart ofEquitaswould likely never beat again. “But be prepared for the worst.”
Leo’s eyes were everywhere. The only indication of any emotion was his intensely furrowed brows, but if they were from disgust at this wanton destruction or for the newspaper or for her involvement in it, she could not decipher.
“The constable kept us here to watch while they did this,” said William. “He went for Bessie with the sledgehammer himself, but had to hand it over to his men because she put up quite the fight.”
“We should have offered him a bribe.” That came from adisgusted Jim, who was staring levelly at Leo, not caring if he was friend or foe. “Word is he’s partial to one.”
“Only if your face fits,” added William. “We could have offered him a king’s ransom and he still would have done this to us.”
“Ay, and pocketed the money regardless.” Jim folded his beefy arms. “He’s an upstanding fellow, our constable.”
If their plan was to bait Leo, he took it all in with silent indifference.
Portia gestured to the mess. “If this is what they left, what did they take?”
“Everything with anything written on it,” said William in resignation. “Every letter, every note, every single piece of correspondence. Our entire archive of back issues. Basically, anything and everything that they thought might be incriminating. But we are all resolute—Equitaswill continue.” Now it was William who stared at Leo, defiant. “It will rise like a phoenix from these ashes and come back stronger. Just as soon as we can secure new premises and beg, borrow, or steal a new printing press. The truth needs to be told and all of us here and in the wider reform movement are committed to telling it.”
Portia had to ask. “Including Edgar?”
“That backstabbing Judas hasn’t yet shown his face,” said Jim with a snarl. “Just as well, because I am determined to rearrange it for him.”
“You will have to stand in line after me.” That came from William. “If the blabbermouth coward has any sense, he will realize that he is no longer welcome here after the way he hung you out to dry. There was no excuse to implicate you when you weren’t even here when they raided! His malicious treachery is unforgivable.”
It was, but after a great deal of soul-searching, she understood Edgar’s motives even if she did not condone them. “We all know thatEquitaswas raided because of me.” She wasn’t afraid to say what they were all too kind to. She had brought this dreadful calamity straightto their door. Because she had played with fire with the handsome duke who had tempted her so much that she hadn’t been able to muster the willpower to resist. “I cannot tell you how sorry I am about that. I should have known that the constable would have me followed after my first arrest. But instead, I came straight here the very next day and this is the result.” Tears of guilt and shame pricked her eyes. “I played with fire, just as Edgar warned, and you all got burned.”
“My dear girl,” said William wrapping a comforting arm around her. “My name features in our seditious rag every single week and always has, so who says he didn’t follow me here? Or Percy or Jim or Edgar himself?”
“Because it is too much of a coincidence.” She swiped her self-pitying tears away with impatience. “I should have gone back to London after my first arrest just as he wanted and, selfishly, I didn’t.” Of their own accord her eyes flicked to Leo and his locked with hers, curious, until she tore them away. “I loathe myself for it.”
