Epilogue
Well Close Square
Wapping, London
Warrick crossed his booted feet and relaxed back into the overstuffed chair Bea had forced him to buy when she'd redecorated his study.
The chair had become his favorite place to think.
..and have a bit of his favorite Irish whiskey.
He usually came here at the end of a day at the docks to relax and forget for a few moments the responsibilities of helping his brothers' ever expanding Horsemen operations.
And then he also supported the, erm, legal side of his life with Bea's ever-growing enterprise, Rowe Shipping.
The only irritation looming on the horizon was the endlessly annoying, argumentative young sod sitting on the floor and wrestling the his pet wolfhound.
"If you break one of those porcelain shepherdesses on the mantel your mother collects, I'll not intercede when she slaps you senseless."
The startling blue eyes the boy turned on him were full of impertinence and attitude. "Mother would never miss one of the hundred or so little statues up there. She's too busy trying to rule the docklands."
"Don't let her hear you say that."
"Don't let me hear what?"
Warrick laughed and threw his son a wry look. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
Beatrice stood in the doorway, looking as beautiful as the very first time he'd seen her, all those years ago when she'd come to The Angel to accuse him of high crimes against Rowe Shipping.
"Has he told you his latest wild scheme?"
Warrick swung his head around to his son Sebastiaan, but the elusive whelp had his head buried in the fur of Lugh's grandson.
"Now what is he plotting?"
"He wants to be a sea captain."
"And just who is crazy enough to hire him?"
"Willie. He said Rowe Shipping needs more good captains."
"Pah--. He's no captain."
"But he will be, after he serves under one of my senior captains."
"And just which of your captains is crazy enough to take him on?"
"Captain Jarlsson. He's thinking of retiring in a few years, and offered to take Sebastiaan on as his first mate for a few voyages."
"Bea...Captain Jarlsson would do anything for you."
"And?"
"What if I don't want our son to go larking off with one of your captains. What if I had plans for him?"
"That's great. Are you going to let me work with uncle Fam and Ban?"
Warrick leapt to his feet and began to pace. "You're taking what I say and twisting it around. There's no way I'd let you work with my crazy brothers."
Bea suppressed a grin. "Wait till I tell them the next time we get together with your family.
He looked into the two similar sets of blazing blue eyes against which he'd never had the courage to say 'no.'
Finally he relented and sat back down. "All right, but only if I can talk to Jarlsson first."
Bea rolled her eyes, and Sebastiaan leaped to his feet and raced down to the kitchen to tell Elias the news...and to steal some ginger biscuits.
If you enjoyed the story of Warrick and Beatrice, don't miss our next installment of the Bow Street's Most Wanted Series - The Four Horsemen. Order Ban - Lord of Death here:
Banshee Dyer fears nothing and no one.
Abandoned as an infant to one of London's most notorious baby farms, apprenticed as a child to a murderous Seven Dials gang leader, and left to die at the age of seven in a St. Giles cemetery, Ban now leads the rookeries' most successful den of thieves.
He and his gang steal treasures from the wealthiest homes in Mayfair.
When some of those treasures disappear before Ban's men can remove them, he's determined to find out why and by whom.
Those who dare to cross Ban Dyer soon discover why he is called Death.
His concern for the lives of others and his loyalty are reserved for his three brothers.
Life has hardened his heart to everyone else.
Isadore Fitz-Wilton, widow of banking family scion Gregory Fitz-Wilton, is desperate.
Her fourteen-year-old son, Jeremy, heir to the Fitz-Wilton banking empire, has been missing for over a year.
She suspects her brother-in-law, George Fitz-Wilton, is responsible.
When she catches a thief ushering two ragged children out a window of her Grosvenor Square home, she follows him back to his lair and strikes a bargain at pistol-point.
If he helps her find her son and evidence of her brother-in-law's perfidy, she won't reveal the location and secrets of his den to the authorities.
Banshee Dyer is a cruel, heartless wretch who may well murder her, but her son is her only concern.
Ban races to find Isadore's son before her fierce mother's love and steely determination breach the cracks in his heart. Isadore could never love a man as cold and ruthless as Ban. He's nothing she needs and everything she desires. The longer they work together, the closer their destruction looms.
A faint whiff of trust is all that Ban and Isadore share. The physical fire between them, however, is a raging blaze. A love that wins over death is the last thing either one of them wants.