Chapter 16

16

“Calliope, how could you do this?”

Nathaniel paced the drawing room, his footsteps knocking against the bare wooden floor in a wild rhythm. He just couldn’t get the image of the man stabbing at his dog, his wife, and his sisters out of his mind.

He’d returned earlier today from the Admiralty, holding the list of sailors on all five vessels, feeling completely triumphant. But the house was empty, and he’d asked Mrs. Nicholson where Calliope and his sisters were, only to find out she’d taken them shopping. Wanting to finally buy something for them himself, he’d followed them to Bond Street, only to see them turning that corner with a strange man on their heels. He remembered the utter horror as he’d imagined what the man could do.

The memories of his mother and that terrible night when he couldn’t protect her clamped him in a cold, sharp vise.

He’d hurried after them, thankfully reaching them in time. But after the man ran away, Nathaniel and Argos hadn’t been able to find him. The poor dog had gotten two cuts, though not deep. Nathaniel had cleaned and treated the wounds.

But that could have been one of his sisters…or his wife.

“How could I?” Calliope demanded. “I didn’t ask that man to follow us.”

“Yes, brother,” said Violet, who had Miss Furrington on her lap. The little beast was curled in a ball and purring loudly, her nose hidden in her tail. “Calliope didn’t ask for a burglar to follow us.”

Nathaniel brushed both of his hands through his hair, some locks falling from the tie at the back of his head.

“Yes, he was a burglar,” said Poppy. “He saw the boxes with our new pretty bonnets and thought we’d be easy targets.”

Nathaniel shook his head in quiet fury. He saw some logic in that, but the image of the dead flowers sent to Calliope asking her to stop digging hadn’t left his mind.

“Well,” said Calliope quietly, looking at her feet. “He actually wasn’t a burglar.”

“What?” Nathaniel barked.

“What?” the girls echoed.

Nathaniel absolutely hated the glint of excitement and intrigue in their eyes. Why weren’t they afraid like he was? How could they not know what men like that could do to women? That it wasn’t a game to play. That they could lie in pools of blood, with their chests and hearts unmoving.

Forever gone.

“He wasn’t a burglar,” said Calliope.

“How do you know?” asked Hazel. “I thought he followed us to the alley with his knife to steal your purse.”

“Well, no regular burglar would do that during the daylight on the busiest street in London. He was dressed like a working man, which was clearly camouflage. A true thug desperate enough to rob ladies next to a busy street would be dressed much worse. And then his knife… It was too sharp, too new. I think he didn’t want money.”

Her blue eyes met with his, and he saw exactly what she was thinking. It was someone connected to those flowers. Someone connected to Spencer’s disappearance.

“It was because you didn’t stay away!” he roared. “I told you to stay away from your damned investigation and you didn’t. And now you endangered my sisters, my dog—and you endangered yourself! All of you”—he moved his arm in a large circle indicating all four females—“are forbidden from taking a single step out of this house. A single step!”

Calliope almost shrank visibly from the power of his voice.

“What investigation?” asked Poppy in a small, but terribly curious voice.

Ignoring her, Calliope raised her eyebrow and straightened her back. “Perhaps. In fact, I think you’re right. But, as you also could see, I could defend us. I had a plan. I know boxing. I would have dealt with him.”

“She really did have him, brother,” said Violet proudly. “We were perfectly safe with her.”

The growl that tore from Nathaniel’s throat surprised even him. With a force he should not have applied, he clutched his hand around Calliope’s elbow and dragged her from the drawing room up the stairs onto the first floor and into the first door he could find.

“You are the most infuriating female I’ve ever met!” he declared. “Do you see the danger you are? Not just you, but my girls? Can you now please stay away from all this and let me deal with it—if not for your own sake, then for my sisters’?”

Calliope crossed her arms over her chest. “I definitely agree about keeping your sisters away, but I will not be stopped, Nathaniel. And if anything, you should stay away from Bartholomew, as well. He really didn’t want you and me to see that ledger. And that ring…” She shook her head. “Something is very wrong about him.”

He scoffed. “If there was something very wrong, he wouldn’t have given me the ledger.”

Ah, the joy of seeing that shock on her face was almost as good as a climax. “He did?” she asked. “Well, where is it?”

He stared at her. “I will give it to you.”

Suddenly, he noticed three vases with yellow irises stood in the room. Three paintings with Mediterranean seascapes hung on the walls. “Is this your bedchamber?” he murmured.

“Yes,” she said, suddenly sheepish.

It was beautiful. The walls still needed fresh paint, but somehow, she’d gotten new curtains hung in a mossy green, the color of autumn. And the rug on the floor was woven with red and orange and yellows. He could see how pretty this room would be once Calliope finished with it.

He could imagine how grand this whole house could look from her touch, from her very presence.

He stared at the bed. They were alone. He had the papers. He remembered the taste of her lips last night when he’d kissed her, the wonderful feel of her small body in his arms.

“I will bring you the ledger,” he said, taking one step closer to her. “Do you remember that you said you would let me bed you once I do that?”

Her face flushed so deep a red he could light a fire from it.

“Yes,” she whispered.

He stepped so close he could smell her…delicious. Flowers and something herbal and sweet and hers. He picked up a strand of hair that fell from the array of curls she had framing her face and returned it to its place. “Yes, you remember, or yes, I can bed you?”

He watched with satisfaction as her perfect pink lips parted and reddened.

“Yes, I remember,” she said.

“And yes, I may come to your bed?” he asked.

She swallowed and nodded.

A groan was born in the depths of his throat, but he suppressed it.

“Good,” he said. “I already looked through the ledger and didn’t find anything resembling Spencer’s name, but you surely want to look at it yourself.”

She nodded again.

He cupped her face. “Do not be afraid, Calliope. I’ll make sure you enjoy every moment of it.”

She breathed quickly in and out and said nothing.

He left her proximity and turned around at the door. “I was just very afraid for you and the girls. You already received a threat. Today was the next step to execute it. I simply want to protect you, but you make it very difficult.”