Chapter 7 #2
"If we didn't keep the peace in the meanest corners of the rookeries, our own operations would be threatened.
Bullies cannot be tolerated, and that includes the people who think it's all right to threaten vulnerable families.
" He paused for a moment, turning his intense gray gaze on her.
"Keeping violence at bay throughout the streets of our domains is nothing more than good business.
If we were to let bullying gangs run rampant, we'd have the Bow Street magistrates pushing their noses into our businesses before nightfall. "
Beatrice smiled in the dark. This rugged man who was the terror of the docks didn't want her to know he was a caring man at heart. She shook her head slowly in the darkened street. What a convoluted way to have to explain oneself.
"Oomph--" Hera's toes...he'd stopped abruptly, and she'd slammed up against his broad back.
She'd been so lost in her thoughts and trying to figure out the enigmatic thief, that she'd lost track of the length of time they'd been walking.
They'd finally arrived at the Black Eagle Wharf, main docking and anchorage area for Rowe Shipping's huge merchantmen.
He whipped around and silenced her voice by covering her mouth with a deep kiss.
Her first reaction was terror. What if someone found out how they'd been spending the countless hours in her office, ostensibly looking for clues to the identity of the thieves who were attacking her ships?
And then she realized no one could see them in the dark, especially from the rear position they'd taken behind Warrick's crew of men.
"Our secret's safe," he reassured her, but she could swear she noticed a sly smirk on Gordy's face when they joined him behind an overturned shore boat near the quay where all the rest of Warrick's gang members awaited the command to stop the thieves and rescue the five small sweeps.
Warrick gave Beatrice a long look and a wave of his hand to stay hidden where she was before duck-walking closer to the edge of the quay where he flopped down flat behind two barrels of salt.
He'd no more than pulled a pile of heavy rope over himself for more coverage than a dark, familiar figure crawled next to him.
Damnable woman. She covered his lips softly with her hand to forestall any argument and wriggled close to his side so they could both hide beneath the flaked, circular coils of rope.
He gave out a heavy huff of displeasure before settling in to watching...and waiting. Her scent of roses and citrus intoxicated him. Gods give him strength to maintain focus on the job at hand.
The thieves had boarded a lighterman and headed out into the center of the pool at the Wapping curve of the Thames.
When he turned his neck a bit to give Beatrice a questioning look, she nodded slowly.
Confirmation that one of her ships recently returned from the East was anchored out in the deeper water in the center channel of the river.
They didn't have to wait long. The lighterman's return coincided with a night watchman's slow stroll along the quay.
The thieves would want the man to see them and assume The Horsemen were the culprits.
The watchman quickly ducked behind a stack of empty wooden crates and waited unwittingly alongside Warrick's crew.
A man with a riding crop jumped onto the quay first and tied off the lighterman. The five small sweeps bent under the heavy weight of bales of cargo. When one of the smaller boys dropped his burden, the man with the crop began beating him.
Warrick jerked to standing and gave the signal for his men to follow. He used the flat of his boarding axe to fell the man with the whip. He didn't bother to warn Beatrice to stay hidden, because he'd realized by now she was the least biddable woman in Christendom.
The depth of his feelings for the maddening woman was proof that not only did he not care a whit that he was making a complete fool of himself, but he could not care less who else knew.
It was only a matter of time before his brothers would call him to task and beat him senseless for making such a public addle pate of himself.
Beatrice strode ahead of him, her sensible boots tapping on the cobbled quay. She did have the sense to stand back whilst his men did their work and took control of the other three thieves on the deck of the lighterman. She moved forward as if to comfort the small boys, but he got there first.
He knelt on the hard stone surface and carefully embraced each of the slight children as they stumbled from the boat onto the quay.
He whispered into each child's ear before ushering them back toward the cart they'd ridden to the quay.
"You're not going back to your old quarters.
You'll spend the rest of the night with us at our warehouse in Wapping, and then in the morning, you'll be issued clean clothing before going to your new homes with The Horsemen's dearest friend, Mrs. Kamish. "
Although some of the boys seemed unwilling to let go of the miasma of fear that surrounded them, the smallest boy walked to Warrick's side and placed his tiny hand into Warrick's large, meaty paw.
"He's not a bit afraid of you," Beatrice whispered, awe in her voice.
At that moment, the boy gazed up and said in a cracking voice, "We're ready, Mister Dyer."