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The duke bent, picked up the pistol, and tossed it towards Felicia, who smiled at him, retrieved it, and went back into the coach.
“Here is what you are going to do,” the duke told both men. “And mark me, this is a warning I would heed if I were you. Get out of London. After I see to our ladies, I mean to bring the beadles to this neighborhood and canvas it for both of you. Are we clear?”
“No one will tell ye where we are hiding,” Styles said doubtfully.
“Won’t they? I have plenty of the ready, and I am willing to give it freely. So you tell me, won’t they lead me right to you both for that a nice purse?”
“Aye, then, we’ll get out of town, we will,” Styles said. “I’ll just see to his hands … and off we’ll go.” Beside him, his friend was groaning and bleeding freely.
“Now—you will go at once. You haven’t time to see to his hands until you are out of London. And I am going to give you just one warning never to come back. If you do, I will shoot you both quite dead. Understood?”
“Aye, Oi don’t like London, never did. We prefer the highway,” Styles said as he helped his friend to his feet. “We’ll be off now … aye, that we will … ye’ll have no more trouble from us.”
“Oh, I know that. You have to ask yourself how I found you so quickly. Ask yourselves that and remember, I have eyes everywhere. If ever you bother me or mine, you will wind up dead. I have half a mind to shoot you both dead here in the street and be done.”
Lew’s eyes got big as blood dripped to the cobblestone from his open wounds, and he said, “We be going, aye … right now.”
“Indeed, and as soon as you are out of London, get those wounds cleaned, or you won’t see the next day—gangrene, you know,” the duke said with a show of pleasure. “Remember, within the hour, you had best be out of town, for I mean to return here with the beadles and ferret every corner of Blackburn.” The duke and Scott then watched the two slink away.
“Why did you let them go? We should have taken them in!” Scott said angrily.
The duke sighed. “Scott, our first duty is to our ladies. The scandal regarding this incident, if it becomes known, would be rife with speculation, and it is to us to spare our ladies that sort of gossip. We don’t want their names bandied about, or rumors started about them … being handled by such scoundrels. Come on then, Scott. We had better get them home now.”
“Aye, but are we coming back with the beadles?”
“Yes, but we shall tell them that they tried to rob us near Kensington, and we chased them down, got off a couple of shots, and—” He grinned at Scott. “—you beat one senseless. We shall keep Felicia’s and Becky’s names completely out of this.”
“Aye … right then,” Scott said and climbed inside. At the sight of his Becky trembling, her poor face once again battered, he hugged her close and spat, “I should have beat him to death. Aye, that I should have.”
Felicia agreed, “Yes, I think we should have just shot them both dead.”
The duke, relieved to find his Felicia, although bruised, dirty, and with her fine clothing black with soot and torn, still in spirits, began a low rumbled chuckle that set them all to laughing.
PART TWO
~ Twenty-Four ~
All on that magic list depends:
Fame, fortune, fashion, lovers, friends:
‘Tis that which gratifies or vexes.
All ranks, all ages, and both sexes.
If once to Almack’s you belong,
Like monarchs, you can do no wrong;
But banished thence on Wednesday night,
By Jove, you can do nothing right.
—Henry Luttrell
LADY DEPHNE ATTEMPTED to explain the importance of the vouchers she had obtained to Almack’s for both Rebecca and Felicia.
They sat having their after-dinner sherry near the fire and were, thought Felicia, so wonderfully comfortable with one another. She smiled to herself. It had been such a natural and easy progression, and the attachment to Daphne that she felt was sisterly.
