Page 31 of The Dandy Lyon

Her head came up. “Marcus! Thank God!”

Then she was in his arms, pressed against him so tightly she finally grunted, and he eased his frantic grip. Tipping her head back so he could peer into her face and assure himself she was all right, the lack of light in the alley frustrated his efforts. “Are you all right?”

“Now I am.” She wound her arms around him and he enfolded her again, his racing heart beginning to slow at last.

“Joanna!” Lord Longford tore her out of his arms and reluctantly he let her go. This was not the time nor place for another row. They needed to get Joanna back to her brother’s house as quickly as possible. “Are you alright?”

“I am fine.” She shook herself loose from her brother’s grip and pulled the cloak more closely around her. “That ruffian may need assistance, however.” Joanna nodded to the man Marcus had completely overlooked as he lay in a particularly dense patch of shadow. “I shot him.”

“You what?” Lord Longford’s shocked voice echoed down the alleyway.

“I shot him.” She looked expectantly at Marcus. “Can you see if I killed him? He hasn’t moved since I fired.”

“Where did you get a pistol?” Her brother seemed totally flummoxed by the notion that she’d defended herself.

“From your office,” she answered matter-of-factly. “As you’d left orders I couldn’t take the carriage, I thought it prudent to have a means of defending myself if I had to walk to Marcus’s club.”

“I had expressly forbidden you to leave the house!” Longford seemed ready to box her ears.

Perhaps a little distraction would defuse the situation. He knelt beside the fallen man and heard quiet breathing. “He’s alive at least.” Although not for long. The scoundrel obviously had accosted Joanna and as far as Marcus was concerned, deserved to die. It was quite likely the single point on which he and Lord Longford would agree wholeheartedly. “You didn’t kill him.”

“Pity. I was aiming for his heart,” Joanna piped up. “Where did I hit him?”

Marcus checked his chest for blood but found none. He felt the man’s shoulder, then ran his hand down the arm and a groan issued from the wounded man. “Give over, mate.” The man stirred, trying to sit up. “The doxy shot me an’ it hurts like hell.”

Instinctively, Marcus cuffed the man for his insolence. “Watch your tongue, maggot.” He glanced toward Joanna, who seemed to have recovered completely from an ordeal that would have sent most maidens into a swoon. “It looks like you may have grazed his arm.”

“I would certainly have had better aim had I been allowed to continue my lessons with Marcus,” Joanna said. Her sorely aggrieved voice seemed to aggravate her brother to no end.

“You had no business taking my pistol, much less firing it.”

“You’d rather I lost my virtue to some ruffian?”

With a groan, the man in question came to a sitting position, a beam of the chancy light striking his face.

“Bartlow?” Astonished, Marcus rose glancing over at Longford and Joanna, although they certainly wouldn’t know his old nemesis. “What the devil are you doing here? And why the hell did you accost Lady Joanna?”

“Settling an old score with you, Dandridge.” Slowly Bartlow got to his feet, staggering as he did so. “Last time you and me had at it, you left me with a little something to remember you by.” He moved away a few steps, revealing a severe limp in his left leg. “Surgeon says it won’t get no better, thanks to a cracked bone that didn’t heal right.”

“What is he babbling about, Dandridge?” Lord Longford had turned from Joanna, his face a study in anger. “I need to take Lady Joanna back home. This ordeal has left her distraught.”

“Nonsense, Geoffrey.” Joanna peered around her brother at Bartlow. “What happened?”

“Mr. Bartlow here suddenly went berserk in one of my gaming establishments. Wreaked havoc throughout, smashing every glass in the place, and some of the walls. Terrorized the patrons and the staff until I felled him with a tackle and a cuff.” Marcus neglected to mention the final kick. That had been rather unsportsmanlike, kicking a man when he was down. But damnation, the repairs had cost him a packet he was still trying to recoup.

“And now I got a limp.” Bartlow managed to sound pitiful, even though he certainly deserved no pity at all after what he’d done to Joanna. “So I thought I’d get even with you, Dandridge, some other way.” The man took a step backward, trying to put distance between him and Marcus. “I’d heard your family was in Essex, so I went there thinking to make the acquaintance of one of your female relatives.” Bartlow winked and laughed, a grating sound. “You know how those meetings can occur when you least expect it.”

Marcus’s hands clenched into fists instantly. “Dastard.”

Bartlow stumbled backward, favoring his leg. “Now, don’t go acting like a rum-cull. That house was locked up tight as a tick. Couldn’t get close ’cause of the flash men you had posted there. Didn’t want to tangle with them and come out the one the worse for wear. So I come back to London and took up around these parts, near to The Dandy.” He leered at Marcus. “Figured you couldn’t last but so long without a nice bit o’ skirt, and I’d wait and watch and tear off me own piece o’ the goods.” Bartlow licked his lips. “Finally, today I saw you puttin’ her in a carriage. I tried to follow it, but couldn’t keep up. Still, I figured she’d be back. All I had to do was wait near enough to your club and then I could pounce on her and have my way.”

“If you had touched one hair on her head, you’d be dead on the ground this moment, Bartlow.” Marcus ground the words out between clenched teeth. He snapped his head toward Longford. “My lord, I suggest you take Lady Joanna away now. She’s no need to hear this filth speak.”

“I’m not some missish schoolgirl, Marcus—” Joanna brushed past her brother, making for him.

“Go with him, Joanna.” He’d never spoken so harshly to her before, nor used her given name in front of her brother, but he had to make her see sense. Not that he thought Bartlow a threat now, but she shouldn’t be exposed to such vulgar language.

She stopped mid-step, so his tone must have done the trick. A glance at Marcus’s face and she nodded and turned back toward Longford. “Come, let’s go, Geoffrey. I’m certain we will have much to talk about.”