Chapter 29
Riverside
“Faster!” Leo screamed at his driver, hitting the wall of his carriage.
“Your Grace, there is congestion. It is impossible to pass through,” his driver said.
“We need to be at the East Docks. Now!”
“I am sorry, Your Grace, but there must be shipments arriving today.”
Leo cursed through tight teeth when he looked out the window of his carriage. His driver was not exaggerating. The streets were an immovable river of carriages and mail coaches, as they were every time that ships arrived.
He wouldn’t sit around and wait while Prim was somewhere out there in danger. The thought of Prim in the hands of men paid to harm her was enough to spur him on. He flung the door open, got on the street, and ran.
“Your Grace!”
He ignored the cries of his driver, the shouts of startled coachmen as he darted between wheels and horses. He couldn’t stop, not when Prim was out there alone, facing grave danger.
His boot hit the gravel, and everyone was looking at him as he ran. It wasn’t every day that you saw a Duke in a velvet coat, soil his boots in the mud of the streets, running like a madman, hat forgotten and his cravat loose.
He ran not with the grace of an athlete but with the desperation born out of true terror.
Each step was a prayer. Don’t be late, don’t be late, don’t be late.
Prim’s safety was measured in minutes, and he was wasting each minute away from her.
His heart was a frantic drum against his ribs, not just from the physical exertion but from the fear that his mind’s ear offered.
His dread conjured the image of her being dragged away by vile men, far from his reach, her in their mercy. No! He would not allow it. This was not something that would come to pass, not as long as he was around, not now, not ever.
“Prim, I am coming,” he exhaled.
This was his punishment. For all that he had done to her, for all that she had to endure because of him, for all the pain he had caused her, he was sentenced to run helplessly in the streets of London with one dreadful realization in the worst possible moment.
Leo loved her, he loved Prim, he loved his wife with an all-consuming, bone-deep love that rattled the very foundations of his existence. And his punishment was to realize that the moment she was in danger, and not when she was safe in his home, in his bed, in his embrace.
Finally, he turned to the East India Docks and was faced with the chaos of ships loading and unloading. He gazed upon this in despair. There were people everywhere, like ants over sugar, a constant river coming and going, yelling, shrieking.
His eyes raked over the crowd, the crates, the dark mouths of alleys between warehouses. He was looking for a single woman. In this madness, she could be two feet away, and he would never see her.
What was she wearing this morning? Did he notice?
He raked his fingers through his hair. An image came of her, boarding the Duchess's carriage, while Mrs. Byrne laughed with her.
And Prim laughed back, that bright smile that was once his privilege.
She was radiant in her lilac dress. And the matching hat. Lilac.
“Come on, Prim. Come on!” He rushed into the crowd.
Leo thought hard. They talked last night. She gave him a report of her movements for the day, like she did every dinner. She said East India Docks, but where specifically? Why was he focusing on that stray curl that bounced on her shoulder?
“Where are you, Prim? I am coming, please, where are you?”
He thought hard once more. He was watching her from across the table, admiring how the candlelight caught her golden hair and how he missed touching her, when she asked for additional funding. He agreed without arguing. It was for the…
“The Foundling Orphanage!”
It was on the far side of the docks, but it could be on the other side of the world, and he would still run with all his power.
Leo headed to the main entrance but found it locked.
Hopelessness got hold of him, and then he heard it.
Over the clatter and the noise of the docks, he heard it. It was Prim’s voice.
“Let me go!”
Leo rushed to the side alley of the building. The Duchess's carriage was there, the driver and servant incapacitated by two thugs. And two more were dragging Prim further into the dark maze of the docks.
“Prim!” Leo shouted.
For a moment, the whole world paused. The four thugs looked at him, stunned, but Leo's focus was all on Prim.
He saw the filthy hands of those animals on her precious skin, and what rose inside him couldn't even be described as anger.
It was uncontrollable rage that surged through his veins like wildfire spreading.
“Let her go!” his voice was low, rumbling, threatening.
He would give these animals just one opportunity to let this go, and then he wouldn't be responsible if they didn't heed his warning.
And it just so seemed that these thugs thought that they were a match for Leo.
They saw his expensive clothes and mistook him for a civilized man, perhaps a little too soft.
Leo spared one moment to glance at Prim. Their eye met in the alley, and he saw relief in hers, the dread of the abuse, dissipating in his presence. He just nodded at her and then turned his attention to the men standing between him and his wife.
“Very well,” Leo said and dropped his coat.
He didn’t wait. He launched himself at the nearest man, the one holding Prim’s arm, and punched him hard.
A crack, a grunt, and the grip on Prim’s arm went slack.
Leo didn’t wait for him to fall. He spun and drove his elbow into the gut of the second man who lunged at him.
The man folded in half, Leo raised his knee, and threw the man on his back, clearly unconscious.
Leo turned his attention to the men who kept his driver and his servant captive. Those two managed to find two brain cells to rub together, and they realized that the real threat was this strange man standing in the alley. They disappeared.
Behind him, Leo felt a movement. He turned just in time to see the first man that he had attacked with something shining in his hand. A knife. Leo raised his arm in defense, and the knife cut his flesh.
That was not enough to stop him. His other arm was raised, he put all the strength of his body from his toes to his hand and he punched the man with all his might. The thread that kept the thug’s consciousness together was cut short, and the man fell into a heap in that dark alley.
Leo looked around, heaving from the exertion, still on high alert for any threat.
When he realized there was none, he turned his attention to Prim.
She was standing pinned on the spot with an incredulous look on her face as if she didn't believe what she had just witnessed.
Her body was in shock, and Leo saw her trembling.
“I'm here. I'm here. I got you,” he took her in his arms.
At first, she was stiff and rigid. Leo felt a sting in his heart. Did she hate him so much that his touch was not comforting anymore? But after a few seconds, her body responded, melting into his, abandoning its weight in his arms, trusting him.
“I am here, don't worry. I'm here. It's safe,” Leo kept repeating.
His hand caressed her back in slow, tentative circles. For a while, he just held her there, his hand on his back, his cheek in her hair, inhaling her scent and allowing her to realize that she was indeed safe. Then she pushed her a little and looked down her body with frenzied urgency.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
Prim had trouble focusing, looking around in the alley at the men at their feet, still shaking.
“Look at me, Prim. I'm here. Did they hurt you?”
He tried very hard to be gentle in this moment, but if he saw one little hesitation, if she even winced in pain, these men unconscious at his feet would remain very much unconscious for the rest of their wretched lives.
“I am…” her voice was small and timid, and yet firm.
His Prim was not a flimsy flower to break this easily.
“Please tell me if you are hurt,” Leo begged her.
“I am not hurt.”
“Let's go back home,” Leo said and lifted her in his arms.
He made his way to the carriage, and he made sure that his men were not hurt either. Luckily, they were both shocked, but they had minor injuries. The servant was hit on the head when he tried to stop them from taking Prim. The driver was safe but was held at gunpoint.
He gave the order to go back to the estate as fast as they could, and the crew managed to find a quick way out of the craziness of the docks.
They were soon on their way to the estate, silence reigning in the cabin of the carriage.
Prim was so shocked that she just clung to him and didn't say a word.
Such was her exhaustion that not long after, she fell asleep in his arms.
She was still asleep when Leo saw the towers of his house. Very softly, he picked her up, and he went through the entrance. He ordered a bath to be drawn, and he made his way to her chambers. The moment he left her on the covers of her bed, Prim opened her eyes and sat up.
“We are back home. You are safe.”
She nodded, still shaking her hands tight in fists.
“They just...” she tried. “They just came out of nowhere. And they said my name. They asked for me by name.”
Leo hugged her and pulled her face into his chest so she could feel his warmth, his protection, his presence.
“I know.”
“How? How did you know where to find me?”
“It was Aaron. He paid them to attack you.”
“Aaron? He went this far?”
Leo felt drained. The danger was over, the excitement in his body dissipated, and all that remained was shame. Shame for his family and what they had done to her, and most of all the shame for him that treated her abhorrently, that had put her in harm's way.
“I am so sorry, Prim. This is all my fault. All of it.”
He withdrew a little, still unwilling to let her go despite his feelings.
“I should have protected you better. I should have treated you better.”
He dared look up at Prim. She earned the right to look him in the eye and tell him that he didn't deserve her.
“It was all Aaron,” he explained. “I finally found the proof and confronted him, and you were right. My mother had nothing to do with it. Even if she did, it was unfair, no, it was cruel of me to talk to you like that when all you wanted to do was help me.”
Prim just looked at him as he was pouring out his heart.
It was for him something quite novel. He always kept everything bottled up inside, allowing only the emotions that people expected from the rakish Lord of Mildenhall.
But today he almost lost the woman that he loved, and suddenly everything else seemed ridiculous.
“I hated my mother for so long, Prim, or so I thought. Because again, you were right. I didn't hate my mother. I hated the injustice done to me. I was sad about the abandonment I witnessed so early in my life. and I was angry with the world for what was taken from me.”
Prim finally moved. And if there was any doubt that his wife was the real strong person in this room, it completely dispersed when, gently, Prim cupped his face and made him look at her.
“I am so sorry, Prim.”
“I know.”
Her sweet tone and her soft look made Leo just break down. He tied his arms around her waist and let his head fall on her shoulder, her supporting him this time. After so many days, after this long, Leo felt that he was finally home.