Page 69

“He was there?” Bram’s vaunted calmness turned sharp.

She tried to smile. “He didn’t see me.”

He closed his eyes.

“And I have this!” Clara waved the key at him again.

He opened his eyes again just in time to see the latest blackmail note, which she had tucked into her cuff to inspect later. It touched his boot, and he bent to pick it up before she could stop him.

It had, of course, landed face-up.

Five thousand pounds or I share your secret. Devil’s Night by the lion fountain. Leave it and walk away.

Bram straightened slowly. His face turned to cold, impassive stone, but his eyes burned. If she had thought he was angry before, it was nothing to this. Dark waters seethed and boiled below his surface. “What is this?”

She tried to smile again, as if it was all perfectly normal. “It’s nothing.”

She reached for the note, but he would not let her have it. It crinkled as his grip tightened. He visibly forced himself to loosen it. “Someone is threatening you?”

“I’m sure it will come to nothing.” She realized immediately that making light of the situation was the wrong tactic. Entirely. She knew what he looked like now, when the battle was upon him. Fierce, terrifying. Though it was not aimed at her, she shivered nonetheless. This was a man who would do whatever it took. Rules and decorum meant nothing to him. He was a protector through and through, and he had been woken without warning.

“You didn’t tell me,” he said evenly. Too evenly. “You’re being blackmailed and you didn’t tell me?”

She swallowed, lifted her chin. “I am handling it.”

“How?”

She wrinkled her nose. Here was where her argument fell spectacularly apart. Because she had not been handling it at all. She was ignoring it and hoping it would go away. “I’ve been busy.”

“You’ve been busy?” He prowled even closer. There was no other word for it.

“Yes,” she said stubbornly. “You may recall we are trying to find two missing ladies. Four, if Sybil’s letter is correct.”

“And why are they more important than you?” he asked quietly, all deadly menace. A storm cloud waiting to break.

“They just are.” She shrugged helplessly.

“They are not.” He closed his hands around her elbows, dragging her closer so that she had to tilt her head back to meet his gaze. It was fire and stone and iron.

“They are more urgent, then.” She blinked at his icy fury. “I’m fine. They might not be.”

“Clara, this man threatened you. He knows where you are. And then you went traipsing through the house without me, against my express orders.”

“But I’m fine.” She was a little warm, actually. She’d never had anyone defend her so staunchly, even from herself. “Truly.”

“Not good enough. Who is he?”

“Don’t you think that if I knew that, I would have done something about it already?”

His eyes closed briefly. “Alone.” It wasn’t a question.

“I suppose.”

He blanched. “Tell me this is the first message you’ve gotten.”

She winced. “One at my house, one delivered to me on the street a messenger boy. Another here at the Hall.”

He did not reply for a moment. His jaw clenched so hard she was half afraid he would crack it right off. “I really will turn you over my knee.”