Chapter Thirteen
Tobias had gone unnaturally still, ever since the loud noise had interrupted whatever had been going on between them.
Grace wouldn’t call it flirting as such, but it hadn’t been a casual conversation between friends.
She had been enjoying herself far more than she ought, given that she had been alone with a gentleman after the rest of his household were abed.
Now, she might as well have ceased to exist. Tobias’ body was still facing hers, but his head had turned in the direction of the loud noise.
The tendons on his neck stood out, and his jaw was tight.
‘Stay here,’ he said, making to step away from her.
‘Wait.’ She grabbed his arm, the situation too strange to fully register that she was grasping at a duke in a very unladylike way. ‘What was that?’
‘It was someone in the house.’
‘Someone who is not meant to be here?’
He nodded briskly and tried to pull away from her, but her fingers had twisted in the fabric of his jacket, not letting him go.
‘You cannot mean to go after them.’ Her heart was pounding, her stomach writhing.
He glanced back at her then. ‘What would you have me do? Let them walk through my home and take what they want of my things?’
‘At least go and get your brothers.’
He snorted.
‘A groom. Anyone. Just do not go after them alone. There could be more than one of them and…’ And something might happen to him, something awful and he would be gone from her life before she had the chance to know him properly.
‘There could be twenty. It does not matter. If they are after money, they can have it. But what if they are after Charlotte?’
Fear trickled like ice through her veins.
Surely someone could not be after Charlotte.
The two of them had left all that behind in America.
Grace loosened her grip and he pulled his arm free.
Without another word, he marched into the darkness.
Grace followed him. He came to an immediate stop and she ploughed into his back.
She had a moment to enjoy the rich scent of him before he was turning and gripping the tops of her arms. ‘What are you doing?’
‘I am coming too.’
‘Do not be ridiculous.’ His dark eyes bored into her, fury in their depths. ‘Wait here. Or better yet, go and fetch some help.’
‘And let you get killed while I run about being a helpless ninny? I do not think so.’
‘No. You will not come with me.’
‘There is little you can do to stop me.’
‘I can throw you over my shoulder and put you wherever I want.’
‘But you will not. We are wasting time having this argument.’ He was vibrating with fury, but she was not afraid of him. ‘I did not do enough to keep my sister safe. Let me do this for her daughter.’
‘No,’ Tobias ground out. ‘I will not put you in harm’s way.’
‘Then I should come with you. If you leave me there without your protection, then how do you know something will not befall me without you?’
She knew she had won the argument when he did not immediately reply.
‘Very well,’ he said, his voice dark. ‘You can come with me, but if I tell you to run, you will do so without question.’
‘Yes,’ she said, although she already knew that she would not leave him if he were hurt.
He must have sensed her wavering because he added, ‘You must promise. I know that you always hold yourself to those.’
Drat the man, he was right. ‘Very well. I promise I will run if you tell me to, but only once we have assessed the situation.’
‘Fine.’ He did not sound happy, but she would deal with that later.
She may be dressed up in all her finery, but she was no shrinking violet.
She had seen things that would shock Tobias and she meant what she said: if something needed to be done to protect her niece, then she would do it.
Also, a small part of her, a part that she was trying to ignore but that was there nonetheless, did not want to leave Tobias alone either.
Granted, he was at least a third bigger than her, with one arm nearly as wide as her two put together, but she did not want him to be alone in this.
The two of them made their way through large rooms Grace had not visited before.
In the darkness, it was impossible to make out the purpose of each one, but she had the sense that they took up more space than the apartment she was renting.
Grace stuck close behind him because it was impossible to see more than a hand’s width in front of her.
For a large man, dressed formally, Tobias moved quietly.
If she hadn’t known he was in front of her, she would have thought she was alone.
They came to a closed door. Grace’s heart was pounding so fiercely, it was incredible to her that the space was not echoing with the repetitive boom of it.
Behind the door, a floorboard creaked.
Some of Grace’s bravery deserted her.
Before she could ascertain Tobias’ plan, he flung open the door and strode into the room. It was too dark to see much, but she heard him moving forward, followed by a grunt of pain and the sound of someone falling to the ground, before Tobias said, ‘Who are you and what do you want?’
‘Please,’ said a man’s voice. ‘Do not hurt me.’
‘That will depend on what you are doing sneaking about my study.’
‘Please,’ said the voice again. ‘I meant no harm. I… I was told to. Paid, you see.’
‘Explain,’ barked Tobias, sounding far from his normal refined manner. If Grace had been on the receiving end of this command, she would have told him anything he wanted to know.
‘They told me to get in, so I did.’
‘Who are they?’
‘I… I do not know.’
‘You had better start making sense or…’ There was the sound of scrabbling and another grunt of pain, which did not sound as if it came from Tobias.
‘I do not mean any harm,’ said the voice again, higher and more panicked than before.
‘Mrs Wilmott,’ said Tobias calmly. ‘Would you light the candle on my desk? There is a tinderbox in the top drawer on the right.’
Grace’s mouth was dry. She could not have formed words if anyone had promised her deepest desires in return.
On legs that had turned to water, she made her way further into the room, her hands outstretched.
When she was inside, she realised that some light was coming through an open window and she could just make out the shape of a large desk.
It took far longer than she could have anticipated to locate the drawer in question and even longer still to get the candle to light because her hands were shaking violently.
‘Are you alone?’ Tobias asked the intruder, as Grace tried and failed to light the candle.
‘Yes. No.’
‘Which is it, man?’
‘I am not alone. If I am not back outside in a few minutes then… then…’
‘Your imagination ran out, did it?’ asked Tobias, sounding supernaturally calm. ‘Could you not think what the others would do should you not return? I do not believe anyone would miss you, would they? Regardless, I think you are by yourself, otherwise you would not be the only one in here.’
The man groaned.
‘Do you know,’ said Tobias conversationally, ‘that I have three brothers, all as focused as me on keeping this house safe from intruders?’
The man whimpered as the flame finally flickered into life.
The single candle did not provide much light, but it showed one man, his long legs twisted uncomfortably on the floor, and Tobias squatting down beside him, holding him in place, with both hands holding the captive’s arms and pressing them down on the man’s back.
‘Mrs Wilmott, would you be so kind as to wake the other members of my household?’
‘No,’ said the man, squirming in the duke’s grip. ‘I will tell you everything. I am by myself.’
‘Be that as it may, I am sure my brothers would not wish to miss this excitement.’ Tobias looked up at her, his expression impossible to read in the shadows of the room. ‘I believe I have this situation under control, Mrs Wilmott. If you would be so kind as to do as I asked.’
Grace glanced at the prone man and then to the slightly open window.
‘Ah yes. If you could close and lock that before you leave, I should be grateful.’
Grace did not know how Tobias could sound so serene, but his complete lack of terror made it somehow easier for her to walk to the window and pull it to. ‘It is broken,’ she said. ‘I cannot lock it.’
‘Very well. I shall have someone come along and fix it later.’
Grace found herself nodding, as if it were perfectly reasonable for Tobias to be talking in such a formal way when there was a man lying crumpled on his study floor. ‘I shall go and fetch your brothers then.’
‘Excellent. That would be wonderful.’
Grace stumbled from the room, her knees trembling violently.
She’d thought herself prepared for confrontation, but all it had done was rake up memories of a past when she had been vulnerable and there had been no one to protect her.
She had been worse than useless, a liability even, and although she had a task to perform now, she wasn’t entirely sure how she was going to complete it.
There were so many doors in this house, that she could be knocking for hours before she found someone, and all that time, Tobias would be on his own with a criminal.
She picked up her skirts and began to run.