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A scream pierced the air, chilling Nick’s blood.
Alice had handled the situation so well, calm and collected, not flying into a rage or shutting down with fear. Not many ladies would have accepted a strange girl with sunken cheekbones, a shorn head, and a haunted look in her eyes, with barely any questions asked.
“Where should we plant the cloak?” he asked Lear.
Lear pointed away from Yellow House, across the open fields to a barely discernible ribbon of darkness. “Along Regent’s Canal. Leads straight south to the Thames at Limehouse. We drop her cloak at the edge and make it appear that she lost it while climbing down into the canal.”
Bodies were found floating in the Thames nearly every day.
One would be identified as hers if they were lucky.
“I’m sorry, Nick, I know you didn’t want to involve your wife. But what was I to do? Hawkins said the girl was too delicate—said she would die if we left her there.”
“You did the right thing.”
“Did you at least have a bit of fun before I ruined everything?” Lear asked.
“Was about to when you pounded on the door. Thank you very much.”
Lear chuckled. “Sorry, old boy, you know I had to bring the delivery to you. Nowhere else she would have been safe.”
“I know. But she can’t stay. I never harbor females. Not in a house full of disreputable ruffians.”
“You have a respectable wife now.”
“She’s leaving, Lear. She’s off to India on a grand adventure. She has no more desire to stay here with me than I have for her to stay.”
Were those words still true?
He’d wanted her to leave, so he could resume his hedonistic life. But his mind shied away from thinking of the actual day of her departure.
Watching her slim back walk away, climb into a carriage, board a ship.
“That’s what you tell yourself, eh?” Lear asked.
“It’s the truth.”
“I saw the way you looked at her. There’s something between you. Even I could see it, and I’m notoriously thickheaded when it comes to romantic matters.”
“Why are wives so much more complicated than mistresses?” Nick asked.
Lear laughed. “Like I said, you’re in trouble, my friend. But you don’t know how much trouble yet.”
Nick sobered as they neared the bank of the canal. “We must find the truth about Jane, Lear. If she’s someone of consequence... if her presence puts Alice in any kind of danger, I’ll find somewhere else for her immediately.”
“Maybe she could go to the charity house the Duchess of Harland runs for young females in distress.”
“Maybe.” Nick lifted his head toward the pearl-streaked sky. “It’s nearing dawn. We should finish this swiftly.”
He needed to return home. There was a lady waiting for him with accusatory eyes and twenty questions.
He hadn’t liked the hurt in Alice’s eyes, the mistrust.
As soon as he knew the particulars of Jane’s situation, he would offer Alice a full explanation.
He never wanted her to think ill of him.
