Chapter 39

Thirty-Nine

HASKET HOUSE, LONDON - JUNE 28, 1816

CELINE

I left Rycliffe Place fully intending to return home and prepare for a dreary whist party at some lady or other's house. But when I rounded the corner that would take me home, I spotted Gabriel's resting place ahead.

I slipped in through the side gate and found him much the same way I left him last. My fingers found my lips for a kiss before I recognized that I was not quite interested in offering that kiss today.

I dropped my hand with a sigh and settled onto my bench with the folder beside me.

"I'm unbearably cross with you right now. Did you know?" A warm breeze rustled through my hair.

"Of course you did. It's been seven years, Gabriel. It's been seven years and I'm lonely. I found a man who loves me. He adores me. And I ruined it because your senseless schemes are still haunting me. I have it right here," I said, lifting the folder at him. "You ruined him. You promised me you were done with all of it, but you couldn't help yourself. One last bet. Look where that got you. Banknotes hidden in a drawer for seven years. Was it worth it?"

I sniffed pathetically. "I love you. I wanted to find justice for you. I put William in danger too. He's in danger right now, because of me."

A little blue butterfly flitted over from the irises, surprisingly still in bloom, and landed on my knee once again.

"It's enough now. I know, and that has to be enough. Because I can't lose him too.

"So I'm going to burn these. Find some way to let Mr. Parker know they're gone—I'm finished. And I'm going to beg William for forgiveness.

"Because I love him. I'm in love with him. It's not what you and I had. It's different, softer, steadier. But I'm different now.

"You died that day. You were the one who died, but I've been acting like I died too. I didn't. I'm still here and I deserve to live. If that means the truth never comes out, that you never get justice, then so be it."

The sun dipped below the horizon when I stood on spindly legs and walked over to him, then dropped the belated kiss on his stone. The breeze returned, rushing through the tree again, leaves chittering above me. The folder blew to the ground, scattering the documents every which way.

"You're an arse, you know that?" I muttered to the wind as I bent to gather the papers and froze. My veins turned to ice.

Not a one of these documents were the ones I took from Gabriel's bedside table. Instead, they were from one of Davina's exploits. I took the wrong folder.

Surely Will or Xander had noticed by now. My plan lay in shambles at my feet. Neither of them would let it rest, I was certain.

Picking up the pages, I had every intention of yelling at Gabriel more when I heard the distinctive two-note chirp of the great tit.

He flew at me, squawking his song with greater urgency than I'd ever known. He flitted around me, agitated. His circles constricted tighter and tighter until he was right in front of my face.

Then he flitted away, darting back to check on me, and flitting toward the gate once more.

The chirps, so frantic, so repetitive, began to form a single word.

"William, William, William."

The race to his office was a blur. A blur of desperate attempts to convince myself that this was insane. Will was fine. There was no world in which a bird was the spirit of my late husband, warning me that the man I'd fallen in love with—quite against my will—was in danger.

I had almost managed it, to believe I was insane, when I heard the thwack and grunt.

Will's grunt.

The bird stopped midflight just before I rounded the corner alley beside the office, and I nearly crashed into it. Another thunk -grunt. I tried to pass the bird, but it wouldn't allow it. Instead, it flitted toward my leg.

All confusion, I tried once more but it flew back in front of me, blocking my path, before returning to my skirts, tugging at them with its little beak. My dagger.

"Thank you," I whispered, then winced at another grunt while I crouched to pull the knife out. Armed now, I was allowed to turn the corner, the knife tucked tight against my skirts.

And once again, I walked into hell.

Will was broken and bleeding on the ground as a man kicked him in the ribs. Another watched with a long wooden board in hand. And to make the situation worse still, a small pillar of smoke rose from straw bundled against the building.

The man rained another kick on Will, this time to his stomach, and I couldn't hold back my startled gasp of his name.

Will turned toward me, blood streaming from a cut on his brow. Too much blood. His head drooped, crashing to the pavement as he lost consciousness.

My outburst hadn't been missed by the other men. They turned, advancing toward me. A chirp at my side drew my gaze to the broken milk crate. The very one I stood on, listening outside William's office all those weeks ago. I grabbed a sharp piece in my free hand. It wouldn't be much use against the longer, heavier plank, but two weapons were better than one.

The first man had reached me and a sick sense of familiarity crashed over me. The taller man from that horrid night.

"Not so brave without your umbrella are you?" The scent of his breath, far too close, sent a wave of nausea through me. Unfortunately, I needed him close, closer even, if I was to use my weapons.

"Where is your friend? Still recovering from that umbrella?" Another step. I kept the wall at my back. It left no retreat but no room for an attack from behind either.

"You killed him, you spiteful shrew."

"Oh dear… Did you want to join him?" He pulled his arm back, ready to swing the board and I ducked, thrusting my piece of crate toward his privates with all my strength. He turned at the last moment and it glanced off his hip, but his blow missed too.

With my knife hand, I slammed down into his foot, cutting through his boot with ease. His shout echoed through the alley. Could no one hear this? Why was no one coming? I yanked it out, earning another yell.

Just as I heard a shaky groan behind the men.

Will stumbled to his feet. He distracted the other man, who turned his attention back to Will's prone form. No!

A fist found my throat and squeezed hard enough to bruise when the man yanked me up, up, up, off the pavement. My feet kicked uselessly, half a foot above the ground. He tightened his hand. My breath grew weaker by the second.

Black dots filled my vision, I was so close to unconsciousness that it had to be a delusion—the flit of wings past my ear.

Suddenly, the man dropped me and I crashed to my knees with great heaving gulps.

The damn bird.

The ridiculous little bird attacked the man's face with a ferocity it shouldn't have been capable of, pecking and diving and squawking. The man flailed at it, swatting furiously.

I stumbled to my feet just in time to see a hit land and the little bird flung to the ground. Frenzied violence ripped through my chest at the sight, and I reared back to slam my shin into the man's groin.

He collapsed in a moaning, whimpering heap, and I gave another kick to his prone form for good measure.

The sound of Will's gasp drew my attention, and I saw the other man advancing on him. Worse still was noxious black smoke and flames blowing up from the straw.

"Fire! Fire! Fire!" The scream ripped from me on instinct as I clambered on the other man's sweaty back, knife to his throat, still shouting.

Seconds—it only took seconds for the people, the very ones feigning ignorance of the fight in the alley, to respond to my cries. They swarmed with buckets and water like cockroaches.

Their presence was enough. A burly man pulled me off William's assailant while another grabbed the man, the other still groaning on the ground.

I wrestled free from the unfamiliar grasp and collapsed next to a barely conscious William while men, women, and children filled the alley and passed bucket after bucket, tossing water on the flames.

Desperately, frantically, I dragged his body away from the flames. One of the men paused to help me pull him farther to safety.

I fell against the wall, William's head cradled in my lap and his hand clasped tightly in mine. I watched in horror as the flames grew higher, hungrier. Tears clouded everything, and as I blinked them away, my eyes landed on the still form of my bird.

And I choked on a sob.