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“You have a lot of explaining to do!”
Drake looked up from his desk to find a seething little ball of blonde pregnant fury standing in his doorway. Allison O’Brien looked as though she’d like to murder him with her bare hands, and Quinn, who stood glowering over her shoulder, looked just as angry.
He sighed and scrubbed his hand over his face. Now that he’d had a little while to calm down, and he’d spoken to Ness about what Heather had told him, he realized that perhaps he’d acted a bit precipitously in arresting her.
“Come in,” he said in resignation. “Shut the door behind you.”
“Drake!” Allison cried as she took the seat in front of his desk. “What are you thinking? Heather is as much a victim in all of this as you were. I thought you wanted to protect her!”
“What charges are you holding her on?” Quinn demanded, remaining standing protectively behind his wife.
“She’s safe in jail,” Drake said, though that wasn’t the only reason he’d done this. “Lindon is still out there. He can’t get to her here.”
“You never should have taken her to your house to begin with,” Allison snapped. “Heather was perfectly fine with us.”
He sank a little lower in his chair, knowing she was right. He hadn’t been thinking clearly where Heather was concerned since the moment he’d found himself in that cellar with her.
“You either have to charge her with something or let her go,” Quinn said, as though Drake didn’t know that. “Do we need to get her a solicitor?”
“I could charge her with a lot of things,” Drake snapped back. “Conspiracy, kidnapping, even as an accessory to murder.”
“She didn’t know they were going to blow up that building,” Allison cried. “All she did was stand watch. Surely you know her well enough to believe that!”
“I don’t know what I believe,” Drake fired back. “She made me believe she was a prisoner too. I probably could have escaped sooner if I wouldn’t have been trying to protect her.”
“She was a prisoner!” Allison’s blue eyes, which he suddenly realized were so very much like Heather’s, were snapping fire. “They took advantage of her. They threatened her life. She was frightened out of her mind, but her feelings for you weren’t a lie.”
He shot to his feet and paced behind his desk, tension coursing through him until he thought he would snap. Because the thought of Heather sitting in a jail cell was driving him mad with guilt and worry, even though he was the one who’d put her there. He gave a sigh of resignation, knowing that he couldn’t continue down this path. “I’ll release her into your custody as long as you promise you’ll keep her safe.”
Quinn nodded. “Of course, we will. We won’t let her out of our sight.”
Drake met Quinn’s eyes. “I can’t be seen to be going easy on her. She’ll have to testify against those bastards when we find them.”
“I’m certain she’ll be happy to,” Quinn said, his manner finally gentling. “I heard that your meeting with the magistrate didn’t go well.”
“They won’t prosecute Danbury,” Drake snapped, still furious. “There’s not much else we can do.”
Quinn sighed and shook his head. “Ness and I were afraid of this. We’ve been working on a plan, but I’m not sure you’re going to like it.”
“Tell me,” Drake demanded. “At this point, I’m willing to try anything.”
Quinn gave a nod in his wife’s direction, and Drake realized he didn’t want to talk about it in front of her, which didn’t bode well. “Why don’t the three of us get together later at your house? We can talk then.”
“All right,” Drake agreed, hoping whatever they proposed would be something he could actually direct all this anger into. He needed something else to focus on before he went mad.
“So Heather’s not being charged with anything? We can take her home?” Quinn verified, as though not certain Drake had meant it the first time.
Drake gave a sharp nod. “But I’m counting on you to protect her. With Lindon still out there, it isn’t safe for her.”
“Sebastian and Jocelyn’s house is as secure as it can possibly be,” Quinn assured him.
Allison had been quiet for a while, but now she gave a brittle laugh. “You seem to care quite a lot about her safety for someone who had her thrown in jail for no reason!”
“There were plenty of reasons,” Drake fired back. “But I never said I didn’t care about her.”
For some reason, Allison gave a triumphant smirk at that. “You need to decide what you want, Drake. Before it’s too late.”
With that, she swept out of his office, leaving him to share a bemused look with Quinn before the man trailed obediently after her.
* * *
TWO HOURS LATER, HEATHER was back in her room at Jocelyn’s, soaking in a luxuriously hot tub, trying desperately to scrub away the memory of jail. She didn’t know if it was possible. Though she’d only been held there a few hours, the stench of fear, rot, and piss seemed to have somehow permanently ingrained itself in her skin.
She’d been so afraid that she was going to be locked in that cell for years. It seemed a bit surreal that she’d been let go so easily, although Quinn had explained that her release was dependent on her testimony against the other members of the Citizens Committee.
She hated to be disloyal to anyone, but she didn’t think she could live with herself if she remained silent after what they’d done. Jacob needed to be stopped and perhaps that was how she could atone for her part in the bombing.
A wave of intense emotion washed over her, but she wasn’t even certain what she was feeling. Was it anger or relief? Guilt or regret?
She still couldn’t believe that Drake had refused to listen to her, that he’d been so quick to believe the worst of her. In the end, she supposed that she’d just proven she was as worthless and low class as he’d first thought her.
Whenever she remembered the look of betrayal in his eyes, she was filled with despair. She hated that she’d disappointed him. He’d given her his trust, something she knew he didn’t do often, and she’d completely destroyed it.
Part of her wanted to go to him, to beg him to give her one more chance to explain herself, but could anything she said really change things now? Once trust was broken, it was nearly impossible to get back again.
Dunking her entire head underwater, she told herself she should just be glad that she’d gotten through this with her freedom and her life. Drake had never truly been meant for her, so she needed to just let him go.
At least she had a few beautiful memories to take with her into spinsterhood.
Hopefully, that was all she took with her...
She pushed herself back to a sitting position and her hand strayed to her flat belly. She didn’t want to bring another bastard like herself into the world.
He’d said he’d take care of her and any child she bore, even offered to marry her, but that was before he knew who she really was. If she tried to foist a child off on him now, he might even doubt it was his, and she couldn’t blame him.
With a sigh, she reached for a towel and got out of the tub, only to be startled by a soft knock on the door that separated the bathroom from the bedroom.
“Yes?” she called, expecting Jocelyn or Allison.
“It’s Maggie,” called the young maid who had watched over her the day she’d arrived at Jocelyn’s. “Lady Jocelyn sent me to ask if you wanted some food sent up and to help you get ready for bed.”
Hurriedly drying off, Heather slipped on her robe and opened the door. “Surely there’s been a mistake. I don’t need any help. And I definitely don’t feel like eating anything.”
All she really wanted was to cry herself to sleep in the big, soft bed that beckoned from across the room.
Maggie bit her lip, her big brown eyes filled with worry. “But I’m to be your lady’s maid, Miss Heather. It’s a great honor that Lady Jocelyn picked me. I’ve only ever been an upstairs maid, but I’ve watched the lady’s maid here, and I think I can do it. I’d really like to try.”
“I’m to have a lady’s maid?” Heather bit her lip, unsure whether to laugh or cry. This was too much. It was all too much. But she also knew that this truly was a huge promotion for young Maggie, and she didn’t want to ruin the girl’s chances to make a better life for herself.
Maggie frowned, obviously sensing her hesitation. “If you’re not happy with Lady Jocelyn’s choice, I’m certain they’ll find you someone else,” she said dejectedly.
Heather sighed in resignation. “I’m certain you’ll be perfect.”
* * *
NESS AND O’BRIEN ARRIVED at Drake’s house for the agreed-upon meeting to discuss their next steps to deal with Danbury just a little before midnight. It had been a long, stressful day, but he’d been glad when they arrived because the house already felt too empty without Heather in it.
He ushered them into his library, where a fire burned in the grate but seemed to do little to dispel the chill in the air. It seemed as though summer would never come.
The two men were somber as they took the pair of chairs in front of the fire and Drake poured them a drink. “Thank you for coming,” he told them as he handed them their glasses. He hadn’t wanted to go to Ness’s house, given that Heather was now residing there along with the rest of them.
O’Brien nodded as he accepted the glass. “Heather is fine,” he told Drake with a hint of a smile. “In case you were wondering. She had a bath and settled in for the night.”
Drake turned his back and returned to the sideboard to pour his own drink, not wanting them to see how glad he was to hear that. He cleared his throat and finally went to join them, taking a chair that was a bit apart. “Let’s get to the matter at hand. You said you had a plan regarding Danbury?”
“We do,” Ness said, twirling his drink idly in his hand and staring down at the amber liquid. “We just don’t know how you’ll feel about it.”
“At this point, I’m willing to listen to anything,” Drake said with a sigh.
The two men exchanged a glance, and then O’Brien set his glass aside and leaned forward. “We’d like you to talk to your father about committing Danbury to an asylum.”
Drake sucked in a surprised breath, his mind racing. Danbury was a monster and needed to be locked away, but after talking to the magistrate today, he didn’t believe his brother would ever see the inside of a prison cell. He wouldn’t wish the madhouse on anyone, but when he thought of Evelyn Lindsay’s mangled body, he knew that his brother truly was insane. He couldn’t get the system of law to work against a member of the aristocracy, but what did it matter where his brother was locked up, as long as he was?
His momentary elation dimmed almost immediately as he thought of his father and what the marquess would say if he even suggested that he lock up his heir, the one he’d set all his hopes and dreams on. But surely, even his father must know what kind of a man Danbury had become.
“It will be difficult,” he finally admitted. “My father will fight against it with every breath in his body.”
“We were afraid of that.” Ness shrugged, looking defeated.
Drake shook his head. “I just said it would be difficult. I didn’t say I wouldn’t try.”
“Good.” O’Brien gave a sigh of relief. “It seems the only way we’ll ever be able to eliminate the threat he poses to the people of this city.”
“I’ll try and impress upon my father the scandal that could be brought down upon our name if Danbury gets caught. He would do anything to avoid that.” With a pang, Drake remembered the conversation he’d had with Ness about how the scandal of his own marriage to Heather would be eclipsed by his brother’s arrest. He supposed he needn’t worry about either of those things now.
He could go on being the perfectly respectable member of the ton he’d always been.
So why didn’t that give him any comfort at all?