He grabbed Vivienne and pointed a gun at her head. “New deal. Sign that document, and I won’t shoot your wife, which would be a shame, considering I was her physician.”
Vivienne struggled in Murdock’s grip, her face reddening. Captain Jackson moved closer to Samuel, and Bernard put a hand on his forehead from where blood trickled.
Samuel had been wrong. His worst nightmare wasn’t seeing Murdock again—his worst nightmare was a gun at his wife’s temple. There was no choice.
He picked up the pen. “Let her go.”
Captain Jackson repeated his words.
“Sign first.” Murdock pressed the gun harder against Vivienne’s skin.
Samuel did as he was told.
Murdock gave her a shove hard enough to cause her to fall to the floor.
Samuel ran to her. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, yes.” She shivered. Her pupils were so dilated the blue of her irises vanished.
Bernard was tottering on his feet. The poor butler must have received a hard blow to the head.
Murdock snatched the document and checked it. “You lost everything, Lion Boy. You should have accepted my first deal.” He clicked his tongue. “Now you’ll never know who your parents are.”
He moved towards the door but didn’t have the chance to step out of it.
Armed with a frying pan, Mrs. Foster lunged at him from the corridor. The loud bang of the heavy pan hitting Murdock’s head rang out.
Captain Jackson, Samuel, William, and Bernard all moved at the same time and jumped on Cade and the other brute. Dobkins wielded a poker and stood next to Mrs. Foster. Richard joined the fray, and the quiet dining room became bedlam in a moment.
Chairs were upturned. Dishes were smashed on the floor, and vases were broken.
In the chaos, as fists and kicks were thrown around, Potter came into view, but he wasn’t alone.
Two police constables were with him.
“It’s here.” Potter pointed in the general direction of the middle of the room.
Samuel leapt back from the brute he was wrestling with to shield Vivienne as the police seized the two thugs and Murdock who groaned on the floor, a hand on his head.
“Thank you, officers.” Captain Jackson wiped his forehead with a napkin. “Who warned you?”
“Mr. Potter came to the station to tell us there were intruders in the house,” an officer said.
Holding Vivienne tightly, Samuel turned to Potter, surprised that his cook had left the house alone to warn the police.
Bernard pointed at the bells behind him. “I warned Mrs. Foster with the silent bells.”
Mrs. Foster nodded. “I saw the thugs, and Potter volunteered to go to the police.”
The whole household had fought back. Samuel had doubted them, thinking they wouldn’t be able to defend themselves.
Vivienne took his face in her hands. “I told you your people would protect us.”
“I will never doubt them again.”
It took a few hours for Samuel to explain to the police what had happened with Murdock, the document he’d signed to save Vivienne, and the fight in his house, but in the end, Murdock was arrested, charged with a list of crimes longer than Potter’s shopping list.
When he went to bed with Vivienne after the chaos had finished and the dining room was tidy again, he wrapped his arms around her and waited for her to fall asleep before drifting off.
No nightmare bothered him.
