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25
Leo stood on the deck of the ferry, careful to keep his gaze from the churning dark water rushing past him. At least there was the wind outside. It was worse below decks. Too warm. The smell of so many bodies together far more foul than the crush at one of London’s largest balls.
He took deep breaths, something he’d been told would help, but the hasty meal he’d had earlier today still threatened to spill over his boots.Christ, he hated rivers. Oceans. Ponds. The slightest bump of the water and his stomach would pitch. The gathering unease in his mid-section was like a spill of grease upon a napkin. It kept spreading.
He’d never in his life felt such fear.
Leo had stopped at Georgina’s house on the way to the ferry, praying the prickling sensation against his skin was wrong and she’d already returned with Daniel, hoping the two of them would be sitting calmly in her lovely parlor wondering why he was so upset.
But Georgina wasn’t home. Her housemaid, Emily, stammering and refusing to meet his eyes, not unexpected after she’d caught sight of far more of Leo than she should have last night, assured him that Mrs. Masterson had left for the ferry some time ago.
“She sent me with a note for Mr. Cooke.” Stella, Georgina’s lady’s maid stood at the top of the stairs and had come rushing down. “Right after a visit from Mr. Harrison.”
William Harrison. Her brother-in-law.
“She was unsettled after his visit,” Stella said. “I thought perhaps he’d come about Mrs. Harrison, but Mrs. Masterson assured that was not the case. She was worried, though,” Stella confided.
Stella had given him directions to Lilian’s house, explaining what he would need to do once the ferry docked in Brooklyn. Leo knew Georgina wouldn’t have sent for her cousin unless something was wrong, though Stella couldn’t tell him anything more. She’d been unable to find Mr. Cooke as he’d been gone on an appointment, so she’d left the message with one of his clerks.
The ferry rolled, and Leo nearly lost his footing. He’d tried to light a cheroot earlier but had thrown it out immediately after lighting it. The smell hadn’t helped the nausea making its way up his throat.
“George did say you aren’t good on the water. I believe that was her reasoning as to why you wouldn’t chase her to New York. I’m not sure how you’ll manage to get up the Hudson to inspect the stone for your fancy hotel.”
Leo didn’t want to move his head too quickly, because it would worsen the feeling in his stomach, but he got a good look at the man next to him. It would be poor manners to cast up his accounts on the boots of Benjamin Cooke, though it could only improve his appearance. Georgina’s cousin looked as if he’d been in a fight. There was a bruise on one cheek, and his coat was torn.
A mongrel.Even knowing who he was to Georgina, Leo’s opinion hadn’t shifted.
“Benjamin Cooke.”
“Leo Murphy.”
The two sized each other up for a moment before Cooke said, “Don’t ruin my boots.”
“Bugger off.” But Leo was relieved to see him all the same. It meant Cooke had received Georgina’s message. “You look like hell.”
“Hmm. George told me you were charming. Frankly, I don’t see it.”
“Is that what you call her?”
“Since we were children. It suits her.”
“Well, stop it.” Leo’s worry made him curt. “You received Georgina’s note.”
“I did. I would have been on an earlier ferry but was delayed by an inept footpad who tried to beat me senseless. He was supposed to stab me and then throw me in the river, but he didn’t quite get to that. And before you ask, I know because the idiot told me. Harrison hired him.”
“Lilian’s husband?”
Cooke nodded. “He went to George today to convince her to allow him to place Daniel with a family. Give him away. As if she would ever do such a thing.”
Bile rose up in Leo’s throat, and it wasn’t from the ferry, though the pitching waves were certainly not helping. “No, she would not.”
“I’ve always found Harrison to be weak. He’s a coward. Couldn’t even do the job himself.”
“Yet you placed my son in his care. I’m beginning to understand why someone would want to toss you into the river.”
“BecauseWilliam has always been afraid of me. The situation was only meant to be temporary. I knew you’d eventually cross the big terrifying ocean to fetch George.”
Amazing, since Leo hadn’t been entirely sure after his father’s death that he would.
