Page 17 of Lord Gabriel’s Undoing

His heart did its customary dip at the memory, but he gave her the explanation that had lodged itself in his head. “My mother told me on her deathbed. She wanted me to know the truth, you see. Perhaps she thought that one day I might want to be able to find the woman who’d given me life. She explained it very carefully, for I was only a child.”

She nodded. “And that is why you want to help other children who live as you might have lived had you not been saved?”

He nodded.

“But stealing for it? Did you not think to ask people to make donations? I’ve always thought the rich liked to donate to help those less well off than themselves. They like to feel as though they’re doing good.”

He shook his head. “I thought so too, but when I explained I was offering succor to the children of dead prostitutes and those of people so destitute they can’t feed their children, they turned their backs on me. There is a good man, the Reverend Andrew Reed, who does something of what I try to do.”

He let his sleeve slide down again to cover his angel’s kiss. “He’s a nonconformist minister who lives in Shadwell, which itself is not a good area, from where he runs something called the East London Orphanage Asylum. You would think it would make a point of taking in the sort of children I’d like to help. But those on the board of governors, and the sponsors, have a preference for children in need from hard-working families who’ve fallen on hard times. Not children from the gutter, whose parents, if they ever knew them, were likely the worst sort of criminals.”

He paused. “For that, the good Reverend Reed has royal patronage and funding, and those who give him money pat themselves on the backs for their generosity.” He snorted in disgust. “I don’t begrudge them the help they receive, but I do begrudge the fact that none of these benefactors is interested in saving what they see as the undeserving dregs of society. No matter that they’re blameless children.” He gave a shrug and winced. “I was a blameless child when my mother took me in. Just like the children I’m trying to help.”

“So instead you’re stealing?”

“Yes, and I only steal what we need, never more. I have a house where those I’ve managed to save live, and I’m opening a second and hopefully a third. I don’t want a grand institution for these children. I want them to grow up in something that feels like a family. So not too many children in each house. Three women work in the first house, mothering them, but the costs are high and my aim is to expand. That second house will have more children, more kind women to care for them. Later on the third house and maybe even another after that.”

“And what happens to the children you help?”

He had her hooked. “Right now they’re just fed and looked after and shown love until they reach four or five years of age. Then they can be educated and I’ll need a teacher for them. Despite their start in life, none of them are stupid. They can be taught to read and write, to work with numbers if they have the bent for it. Then, when they’re older, we plan to find them work as servants or in shops, or even apprentice them to craftsmen. I like to think that if we have a boy with the intelligence, we could send him to a good school and perhaps on to university, but that will take even more money. However, we’ve not been going long, and all the children are young, as yet. The bridge to a good school and university is one we will have to cross in the future.”

She nodded. “So that’s why you wanted my pearls.”

He nodded. “They’re exquisite, and worth a lot of food and coal, not to mention good shoes and clothes for growing children. Maybe even enough to send that clever boy to Oxford one day.”

A frown darkened her brow. “Was that then the only reason you asked me to dance? So you could get a closer look at my pearls?”

Of course she would logically think that. What to say? He swallowed. “Yes and no.” He held up his good hand to prevent her interrupting. “I saw you from across the room, doing what I do, although I doubt for the same reason. I was scanning the crowd to pick out my next mark. You, I think, were just curious.” He paused. “And frightened by what you saw. I was more than curious about you. I wanted to find out more.”

“And weigh up my pearls.” Was that gentle mockery in her voice?

“I only spotted them when I drew closer to you.” A small white lie, but one that was required. He managed a wry grin. “An added bonus, you might say.”

She looked him up and down. “I have decided not to scream.” Her lips twitched in a half smile. “In fact, I have decided to help you.” She got up and went to the head of the bed. A quick rummage under the covers and she pulled out her jewelery box. “Here. You may not have my pearls because my mother’s grandfather brought them back from his travels for my great-grandmother as a gift. Then they were my grandmother’s, then my mother’s, and now mine. But I have in here some costly jewelery of which I’m not so fond. I don’t wear it, so no one will ever miss it. Here.” She held out several glittering pieces to him. “Take these to fund your orphanage.”

Gabriel hesitated. Now she was offering, he felt a decided inclination to refuse. Why? Because he liked her very much and it felt as if he were using her. “I can’t,” he said, aware of unaccustomed heat rising to his cheeks.

She huffed. “Please don’t tell me you have scruples and can only profit from goods acquired in dead of night without the owner’s consent? Because that would be silly. Consider me one of the benefactors you would like.” And she took his left hand and placed the jewels in it, pressing his fingers closed with her own. “There. They’re yours now to do with as you will. As I said, no one will ever miss them. And I will be helping those children I never knew existed.”

Gabriel wasn’t an idiot. He kept hold of them. “Thank you.” On unsteady legs he rose to his feet. “I’d best leave now.”

She eyed him up and down. “By yourself? I think not. I shall accompany you and make sure your arm receives the proper treatment. After all, I owe it to you as it is thanks to me it’s broken.”

He would have argued, but something told him it would have been useless.

“Good,” she said. “That’s decided then. Pray wait outside the door while I dress myself.”

He did as he was told.

Chapter Six

It didn’t take long for Phoebe to struggle into her clothes. Before Papa died, when she’d been living at Coakham, she’d frequently risen early to wander about the estate either on foot or on her pony. The fact that Papa had thought this unwise had never mattered to her. If she fell off, she was more than capable of getting back on by herself. And besides which, she liked time on her own when she could relax out of the sight of people she knew would be watching her every clumsy move. She was indeed a lot less clumsy when completely alone.

Once dressed, and with her boots in one hand and the candle in the other, she pushed open her bedroom door and slipped out into the corridor. Gabriel was leaning against the wood paneling, his face ghostly white, but he straightened up when he saw her and gave her a taut smile. His arm must be hurting him a lot. She remembered how Cousin Toby had cried the first time he broke his. Not so much the second time because he’d been older.

“Milady,” he said, with a slight bow. “Lead on.” But it was noticeable that he kept his voice to a whisper. You never did know in a house this size that someone might not be up, even if it was only one of the servants. The thought that they might bump into Bowles, the butler, at any moment had her stifling a nervous giggle. It would most certainly not be funny.

She led the way down the stairs, moving slowly and keeping a sharp look out for anything she might bump into. The last thing she wanted was to cause anything to crash to the floor and bring people running. Even if he wasn’t in her bedroom, her companion would be hard to explain, and so would the fact that she was fully dressed.