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CHAPTER1
Edinburgh
November 1826
For the space of a few breaths, Braden Kendrick contemplated the idiocy of taking unnecessary risks.
Should have listened to Logan.
He shifted his leather satchel to his left shoulder and pulled a knife from his right pocket. It was a dandy little blade, but laughably inadequate for facing two hulking brutes, one armed with a club and the other with a machete.
Only yesterday, his older brother had lectured him on taking proper precautions in Edinburgh’s Old Town. “What you need is a pistol. The criminals down there will gut you without hesitation, because it’s a damn sight easier to rob a dead man. You’ve got to properly arm yourself.”
Braden had pointed out that he’d never once been robbed while attending an emergency call. Logan had tartly replied that he’d be damned if he had to explain to the family why he’d allowed their little brother to get himself murdered in some backwater alley. Braden had just rolled his eyes and not given the matter another thought.
Well, regrets wouldn’t save him now, when he had to think his way out of an ignominious death.
“Gentlemen,” he said, adopting the tone he used on fractious toddlers and nervous patients. “Violence is completely unnecessary. I am more than willing to allow you to rob me. I’ll just extract my billfold and you can—”
“Shut yer yap,” snapped the one with the machete. He carried a small lantern in his other hand. When he raised it high, it cast a dim, ghoulish light on his face. “It’s other business we have with ye tonight.”
With full cheeks and a rounded chin, the man looked somewhat cherubic—but for his nose. That mangled feature resembled a grisly chunk of beef.
“I’ve got a good memory for faces, especially ones like yours,” Braden said. “But I don’t believe we’ve ever met.”
“Nae, but we knowye, Kendrick,” snarled the other man in a guttural rasp. “Bloody interfering bastard that ye are.”
Nowthatvoice was familiar. The rasp was a result of a childhood injury, according to the man’s wife.
Braden’s odds of survival grew slimmer by the second.
“You’re Dougal Parson, Naomi’s husband. Or, former husband, should I say?”
“Thanks to ye,” the man bitterly replied. “Ye put ideas in her head, ye stupid nob. She were satisfied with her lot until ye told her to kick me out of my own bleedin’ house.”
“Actually, it was her father’s house. And I don’t regret suggesting that Naomi divorce you, since you beat her and shoved her down the bloody stairs. You almost killed her.”
Tragically, though, the evil bastard had killed Naomi’s unborn child. While Braden had been too late to save the unfortunate babe, at least he’d been able to save the mother.
And though he’d been unable to convince Naomi and her elderly father to go to the police—both were too frightened—Bradenhadconvinced the girl to obtain a divorce made possible by Scotland’s more lenient marriage laws.
He’d also made a point of hunting down Parson, finding him hiding out in a tavern near Tanner’s Close. That time, Braden had armed himself with a pistol. He’d told Parson that if he ever bothered Naomi again, he would ensure that Clan Kendrick would mete out their own brand of justice for the lass, the kind that didn’t involve courts or tidy prison cells. The threat had done the trick, and Parson had disappeared.
Or so Braden had thought.
Now, the unrepentant thug aimed a gob of spit at Braden’s boot. Thankfully, it fell short, since Parson’s dental hygiene left much to be desired.
“Clumsy little bitch fell, is all. She was always fallin’ and hurtin’ herself. But ye wouldn’t listen, now would ye, doc?”
Braden’s fingers instinctively tightened around the handle of his blade, and he fought the impulse to charge. “I don’t make a habit of believing wife beaters and liars.”
“I can’t get no work in Old Town, ’cause everyone’s too scared of ye and yer bloody family. I’m flat broke.”
“How sad. Frankly, I’d rather see you dangling at the end of a rope than sneaking around Old Town like a diseased rat.”
Mangled Nose elbowed Parson. “Oy, ye gonna let him talk to you like that?”
“Of course not, ye stupid shite. I’m gonna kill him.”
