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In spite of his great height and strength, Theo felt like that child who had been ripped from his mother and secluded in a cold poorhouse ward. He turned to Mrs. Hollis and tried to explain, but his mouth went dry and words failed him.
“Mr. Brunner has been robbed, madam,” Giles explained for him, smiling winningly at the woman. “We’ve just returned from an errand to find all this.”
Giles’s charm was lost on Mrs. Hollis. “That’s the other thing,” she said, narrowing her eyes at Giles before turning that furious, disgusted glare on Theo. “You were heard in your room earlier, sir,” she snapped. “I am beginning to grasp the full story of what was heard now.”
She glanced Giles up and down with a curl of her lip.
“It was not what you might be imagining,” Giles attempted to defend them.
“Oh, I believe it was precisely what I was imagining,” Mrs. Hollis said in a dark voice. She turned back to Theo. “None of this is acceptable behavior for my establishment. If you pack your things and go this instant, I will not report you to the magistrate. I suspect your employer would not take too kindly to the knowledge that one of his own is every bit as much of a criminal as the blackguards who slink through his court.”
“Mrs. Hollis,” Theo began, finding his voice at last.
“Good day to you, sir,” Mrs. Hollis cut him off. She tilted her chin up imperiously, glared at Giles one last time, then turned to march out of the room.
“I do not suppose it would be wise for us to dally,” Giles said with a sigh, resuming his futile tidying of the room.
“No,” Theo said. His shoulders dropped, and any will to fight back against the unfairness of the world drained out of him.
He went to work as quickly as he could, helping Giles to pick up what felt like the scattered pieces of his life and to set the room straight as much as they could. It was shocking and embarrassing to realize how little he truly owned in the world, even after all the time he’d worked to lift himself out of his earlier poverty. By the time he’d thrown all of his clothing and personal sundries into the single traveling bag he owned, the whole thing felt as light as a feather.
“I’ve no idea where to go,” he confessed to Giles as they left the room and hurried down the boarding house stairs and out to the street. “It was difficult enough to convince Mrs. Hollis to give me a room in the first place. I’ve neither the time nor the resources to seek out other lodgings right now.”
Theo thought his situation was dire indeed, but Giles smiled as though he’d won a great prize. “You are in luck,” he said, grabbing Theo’s sleeve and tugging him down the street. “For I know of a place where I am quite certain you will be well received, and where you will have a bed that is both warm and inviting.”
Theo knew at once what Giles had in mind, and dread pooled in his stomach at the thought. But he had no other choice and no one else to turn to for help.
Giles chattered as if they were on their way to a great adventure as they crossed into St. James’s and made their way past fine houses and manicured gardens to Perdition. Theo’s gut roiled more and more with each step they took toward the place. His little angel might have had a sunny view of everything that might await them inside the club, but Theo had far drearier expectations.
As it turned out, he was right.
“Giles, what in the devil’s name have you brought him for?” Simon Beaumont all but shouted as he marched up the hall to the door just as Giles brought Theo inside the house. “Have you gone mad?”
“Most certainly not,” Giles said. His impish smile was back in full force, and with the decadent surroundings of the club around him, he seemed once again like the mischievous sprite that had captured Theo’s heart, and his cock, at first sight. “Mr. Brunner is in a spot of trouble, and I mean to help him out.”
Beaumont crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at Theo. “I trust he can afford to pay for the manner in which you plan to help him out.”
Giles laughed, but Theo detected a hint of frustration in the otherwise beautiful sound. “No, I do not mean that at all,” he said, taking Theo’s hand and leading him deeper into the house. “Where are Mr. Potts and Mr. Black?” he asked, glancing around at the parlors and open doorways they passed. “I’ve much to discuss with the three of you.”
Beaumont shook his head, clearly still not convinced that Theo should be there, and followed Giles down the hall. “They’re in the office,” he said.
A few moments later, their small group rounded a corner at the end of the hall. Theo found himself in a richly-appointed room with bookshelves, fine furniture, and a commanding desk. Caesar Potts, one of Perdition’s co-owners, and Jasper Black, another of the owners, sat on either side of the desk, apparently going over some sort of business. Both men jumped up in alarm at the sight of Theo.
“What is the meaning of this?” Black demanded, his eyes wide with offense.
“I thought you understood there would be no trouble with us,” Potts growled, stalking toward Theo. “I thought I’d made it clear that this establishment is protected.”
“I am not here to cause harm,” Theo said, caught between wanting to fight to defend himself and wanting to flee to avoid the embarrassment of admitting why he was there.
“Mr. Brunner is here as my guest for as long as he requires safe harbor,” Giles said with a bright smile, as though the whole confrontation was a lark.
All three of the club’s owners stared at Giles with varying degrees of amusement and impatience.
“I was not aware that you were at leisure to invite guests to Perdition,” Potts said, his mouth twitching into an almost-smile. “I thought your guests came of their own volition and stayed for a short time only.”
A wicked sparkle lit Giles’s eyes. “My guests always come, sir,” he said with a cheeky wink, then stood straighter and cleared his throat. “But this is a different sort of matter entirely. For you see, Mr. Brunner is in the midst of an important investigation, one that reaches to the very highest levels of the government. He needs our help to thwart a conspiracy and to bring an evil man to justice.”
None of the three club owners looked remotely impressed.
