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“Promise me you’ll stay here until I check on Mother. No one else will trouble you and I’m determined to keep you safe. Please.”
She had already made promises that had gotten her into nothing but trouble, but this one was easy enough. She wasn’t afraid of heights, but she wasn’t madly enamored of them. The cliff at the edge of the tor had been more than enough for her. She could wait until Rufus showed her the way.
She had enough sense to know that altruism wasn’t his sole motivation. He didn’t want the scandal, and she suspected he didn’t want Alexander having a wife or even a mistress. Not that either of those seemed a real option, not when he’d gone off somewhere. But Rufus was driven by self-concern as much as anything else, and for that reason alone she trusted him to get her out safely. No matter what tales he was spinning—and they were, on the face of it, ridiculous—it reminded her that she needed to be gone from here. If for some reason the servants were watching, then she’d climb the Alps to get away.
“Promise me,” Rufus said earnestly, and she believed him. Almost.
“I promise,” she said.
Rufus gave her his flashing smile and pressed her hand meaningfully. “You won’t regret it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“SHE’S WHERE?” BRYONY’S USUALLY calm voice was just short of a shriek, and Maddy lifted her head in surprise. Luca and Kilmartyn had just returned from some mysterious visit to the East End of London, and she was staring at the men in shock.
“Why are you so surprised, Bryony?” Maddy said from her comfortable spot on the sofa, catching her husband’s eye and smiling at him before turning to her sister. “Sophie’s just been waiting to kick up her heels. We should have known she’d go after the viscount.”
“Are you sure?” Bryony said. “Are you absolutely positive?”
Luca strolled over to Maddy and gave her a kiss, and she reached up and smoothed his long hair away from his face. She hated staying behind, but Bryony had been too edgy to be left alone, and the four of them could hardly traipse through the London slums.
Luca turned and looked at his sister-in-law. “The Wart never fails me,” he said.
“And exactly who is this Wart?” Bryony’s eyebrows rose.
“One of the captain’s criminal confederates, my darling,” said Kilmartyn, leaning lazily against the door. “I’m sorry you couldn?
?t come with us down to Seven Dials—it was fascinating. Depressing as all hell, but fascinating. It appears Mr. Dickens’s novels are closer to the truth than we realized.”
“Right now all I care about is my sister,” Bryony said firmly, and Maddy had to admire her. In the past few weeks Bryony had blossomed from a quiet, shy recluse into a strong and secure woman, and Maddy supposed she could thank Kilmartyn for it. She held herself like a woman who was loved.
“Of course you do,” Luca said soothingly, moving near Kilmartyn, and Maddy stifled a groan. The two of them got on far too well, and if it ever came to an argument between the women and the men they would be well matched.
But in this case it was their sister, and it was up to Maddy and Bryony to see to things. “She pretended to be a cook, and now she’s in Griffiths’s house over in St. John’s Wood, with no chaperone, under her own name. She’s ruined,” Bryony said.
“It was your idea that we enter service,” Maddy pointed out, perhaps unfairly.
“Do you think I don’t know that?” Bryony said miserably. “We have to get her out of there. That’s the most important thing. Then we have to find out if she wants to marry him. If she does, that will be up to Adrian and the captain to ensure it happens.”
“My pleasure, love,” Kilmartyn drawled, and Luca nodded. Maddy could almost be sorry for Sophie’s Dark Viscount. Did she still think of him that way? Maddy could only hope he’d turned out to be a prince in disguise.
“The one thing I can’t imagine is Sophie actually working for a living,” Bryony said. “She detested any kind of work or exercise.”
“Actually, she changed,” Maddy said. “She suddenly started taking long walks, disappearing for hours, when she’d always hated the outdoors. And her cooking was ridiculously good.”
“I don’t think it’s her cooking that the viscount is interested in,” Kilmartyn said dryly.
Bryony rose. “The longer we wait, the more difficult this is going to be. We need to go get her.”
Maddy was already on her feet when Luca said in a placating voice, “Why don’t you let us go and retrieve her? We’re more than capable of dealing with any resistance, and it might be better if you weren’t seen.”
“You aren’t capable of dealing with Sophie’s resistance if she doesn’t want to come with you,” Maddy warned him.
“She knows I’m married to Bryony, and she’ll take my word that you and the captain are wed. I would think wishing to be reunited with her sisters would trump any infatuation she might have.”
“True enough. Sophie was never infatuated in her life—she thought men were tedious. If she’s developed any affection for the viscount I’d be astonished. Nevertheless, we’re going with you. I, for one, don’t intend to wait one second longer than I have to before seeing her again,” Bryony stated, fixing him with a stern expression.
“But you’ll stay in the carriage,” Kilmartyn said firmly.
