Chapter 28

"What's going on in here?" the impressively mustachioed leader of the constables called out, casting a wondering eye over the chaos of broken glass, prone bodies and mismatched people around the hallway and staircase. "Where's the Duke who reported a kidnapping at this address?"

"I'm here," Aaron called and then nodded towards the Talbots. "This man and woman, Mr. George and Miss Lauren Talbot, are responsible for holding my wife prisoner and attempting to blackmail and extort me. I believe they have also unlawfully invaded this property belonging to Admiral Bigelowe up there and committed various financial crimes against him and others."

"Here here!" Bigelowe boomed. "Take the scoundrels off my property, officers!"

"Did Talbot hurt you?" Aaron asked Dorothy in a low voice. "If he did, I have not finished with him yet…"

Dorothy shook her head, her heavy chestnut-brown hair now tumbling over her shoulders. "No, my dress was torn as I was trying to escape. I fought Lauren, hit her with a chamberpot, and climbed down a drainpipe while her brother chased me… You didn't think I would just sit quietly and let you be blackmailed, did you, Aaron?"

The brief synopsis of her captivity made his eyes widen with shock, concern and admiration. Dorothy might be small and pretty in form, but the fire he had seen in her eyes from their very first encounter clearly ran through her whole being.

"I have been too worried about you to think straight at all," Aaron admitted and then felt his wife press herself into the arm that had wrapped itself instinctively around her body.

It gave him a sense of warmth and relief to feel her close to him again, and his anger began to subside. It was the indication of her trust in him that soothed and gladdened him as much as her physical presence.

An ache in Aaron's knuckles reminded him that hitting a man in the jawbone always had consequences, however well-deserved the blow. He glanced across at the dazed George Talbot, still lying stunned from his onslaught and the rapid overturning of the wicked plans he and his sister had cooked up between them. A constable poked at the man with a shoe, checking whether he was conscious or unconscious.

"Dawford assaulted me!" George blustered, dragging himself up from the floor for the second time in the last ten minutes. "He has a history of violence, right from when we were at school together. Ask my father, Lord Frampton. That bloody wife of his pushed me down the stairs too, and the old maniac up there tried to kill me with a chandelier. They're all mad!"

Even now, caught red-handed, beaten by his enemy in both senses, and likely to lose all respectability and prospects regardless of whether any legal case was brought against him, George Talbot was trying to find a way to spin and warp the story, to deflect blame onto someone else and find a way to avoid responsibility. Aaron felt nothing but contempt for him.

"An unlikely story, Sir," the senior constable said with a disbelieving expression.

"What do you expect when you break into a man's house and threaten young ladies on the premises?" Admiral Bigelowe added indignantly. "You're damned lucky the chandelier missed you and this lady's husband only broke your nose and not your neck."

"Indeed, count yourself lucky, Talbot," Aaron concurred grimly, fixing his enemy with a look that made the other man take an unsteady step back, even on the other side of the hallway. "I could have done far worse to you today, and no court in the land would have seen it as more than my right and your due."

"I'm a witness," Maisie piped up, before curtseying to the constables. "The Admiral speaks the truth. I saw everything that they did to the Admiral and the Duchess too."

"I can also give a full account of all I have seen, heard and experienced today," Dorothy said vehemently. "The Talbots here are both rogues of the first order."

Aaron continued to hold her close, still appalled at the dangers she had been exposed to today, but even more impressed by her resilience and strength. They were together again, regardless of any stupid past arguments and misunderstandings, and nothing had ever felt so right in his life.

The lead constable let out a thoughtful sigh, twirled his thick brown mustache, and looked around the room.

"Take the Talbots in for questioning," he ordered his men. "There have been numerous reports linked to that family, although nothing has been proven yet in a court of law. I'll arrange for us to take statements from the Duke, the Admiral and any witnesses. Does this house need to be secured, Your Grace?"

All the Talbots' uniformed footmen had now vanished, presumably deserting their employers once they saw which way the tide was turning. They had, in any case, been no match for Aaron and his well-chosen, armed men.

"Yes, until Admiral Bigelowe is in a position to appoint new staff of his own. If you can spare a man today and tomorrow, I shall also leave two of my own manservants here temporarily as reinforcements and put my agents at the Admiral's disposal to aid him in renewing his household."

"Very good of you, Your Grace," the Admiral said, smiling happily as he watched the bruised, bloodied, and sulky Talbots being escorted off the premises by the constables. "I only hope I can get everything back in place here before my ship sails. Can't let His Majesty's fleet down…"

Everyone else frowned or raised eyebrows at this unlikely assertion.

"Your ship sailed a long time ago, Admiral," Dorothy revealed gently, exchanging a glance with Maisie. "You can rest now and trust others to lead His Majesty's fleet. You've earned your leisure."

For a moment, the old naval officer looked surprised, but then something seemed to click and he nodded, sagging slightly as he finally lowered the blunderbuss.

"I suppose I have, Your Grace," he murmured, although still looking slightly lost. "I have, haven't I?"

"You have," Aaron agreed, adding his voice to Dorothy's. "I hope to make your acquaintance properly in the near future, Admiral, and hear all about your long career. I'm sure it was an illustrious one."

"And I'm going to cook you a fine dinner tonight, Admiral," the red-haired maid declared, tearful but smiling. "Those scoundrels stocked the larder well enough for themselves with your money. You shall at least have the benefit of it."

"Take care of my two men here and any constables," Aaron said, pressing a gold coin into the woman's hand. "Rogers and Hurley are armed and will make sure none of the Talbots' ruffians come back to bother you or Admiral Bigelowe."

"When can you give a formal statement about what occurred here, Your Grace?" interjected the chief constable, who was still busy walking through the glass and examining the traces of blood, buttons and gunshots scattered about the place.

"Tomorrow morning," Aaron replied decisively. "There are still things I must put right today, and it could take some time."

Looking at Dorothy, he smiled inquiringly, hoping she understood that his priority was putting matters right between the two of them, not simply in matters of law or business. In response to his silent question, she wrapped both of her arms around his waist, resting her face on his chest despite their present company. He took that as a very good sign.

"Very well," the constable agreed. "That will give us a chance to examine the scene here and speak to the Admiral and his maid before we call on you. Thank you for all the information and evidence you've already provided in this case, Your Grace. They're slippery customers, those Talbots, and there's not many men willing to stand up to them as you have done."

"Thank you for attending so promptly," Aaron responded and then looked around at his men. "Jessop, would you take Toby and Jack back to the house and deliver them to Miss Hughes for their meal? They might also need to let their mother know where they are. Everyone else, apart from Rogers and Hurley, can also return home. You will all be well rewarded for your support today."

In the hallway, Aaron hung back until his men had gone on ahead and somewhat dispersed the small crowd that still lingered in the street outside. The Admiral had seated himself on the stairs and launched into a full and colorful account of his dealings with the Talbots, to the great interest of the constables.

"There's still a few people out there," Maisie reported a few minutes later. "Everyone wants to know what happened to the lady on the balcony, and I think one of those men might be a reporter, with his notebook and pencil all ready. You'd better take the back entrance, Your Graces, unless you want to talk to them."

"No, we just want to go home," Dorothy said, looking up and finding Aaron's agreement as she spoke.

Maisie showed the Duke and Duchess to the back door while retrieving Dorothy's cloak on the way. She left them there with another curtsey and quiet thanks for their intervention, assuring them that she would do her best for the old Admiral, her mother having apparently been his housekeeper for many years until her recent death.

Finally alone in a quiet corner of the garden, Aaron wrapped the cloak around Dorothy's ripped dress and tied it carefully at her neck. Was it wrong that the sight of the slightly torn neckline and the swell of her pale breasts below sent a pang of desire through his body, reminding him of their bedroom games a few days earlier?

As though to reassure him that his desire was welcome, Dorothy rubbed her face against his wrist and then kissed it briefly, turning the pang Aaron had felt into a rush of erotic pleasure that quickened his pulse. Still, there were things to be said and understandings to be confirmed before he could act on such instincts.

"I don't know what I would have done if anything happened to you, Dorothy," he said sincerely. "I'm so sorry that I didn't listen yesterday. I was very much at fault and can only hope you'll forgive me."

She smiled at him and reached up to caress his face briefly but tenderly. "You are more than forgiven, Aaron. What would have become of me at the hands of the Talbots without your courage and strength in storming into this house? I must confess that I am sorry too. My impulsiveness put your name and fortune at great risk. Our tempers are both too quick to ignite."

"Far too quick," he agreed, taking her hands into his larger ones and caressing the pads of her fingers lightly with his thumbs. "We must learn to direct our passions into more appropriate channels, Duchess."

He immediately saw her eyes flash at the mention of the word passions.

"Take me home, Aaron," she said with a heartwarming smile.

He nodded, drawing up her cloak's hood, tilting his hat over his face, and looking warily around before they swept out of the tradesman's gate onto the pavement and crossed the road. Glancing back from there, they saw that the remaining onlookers were focused on the hired carriage still waiting outside the house.

"The driver has already been well paid," Aaron told Dorothy with a grin. "It does not matter how long he waits there for passengers who have already departed."

Dorothy leaned into him and sighed as they strolled onwards, away from the scene of recent troubles. "It does not matter as long as you take me straight home, Aaron, with or without a carriage."

"Are you greatly fatigued?" he asked, wondering whether her sigh had been one of relief and contentment or something of greater concern. "Or do you have other injuries you haven't told me about? We have had little chance to talk…"

"I'm a little bruised and scraped from climbing around drainpipes and balconies and wrestling with Talbots," Dorothy admitted. "But I am not fatigued in the slightest. On the contrary, Aaron, I am…"

She looked up at him, her sweet face dimpling into a smile that was at once innocent, beguiling and inviting.

"I am longing for you," she admitted in a whisper. "I am longing for your body. I want it to be entwined with mine. Is that strange? That I should want you so very much at this moment after all that has happened today?"

"I believe it is perfectly natural," Aaron replied, his voice thickening and his breathing now audible. "I feel it too."

With the advancing hour, a good number of people were now walking the streets around them, bound for work, taking the morning air, or out on errands. Ignoring them entirely, Aaron pulled his wife into his arms and kissed her full on the mouth.

"Well, really…" a respectable-looking woman in a grey walking suit huffed. "Utterly shameless!"

Breaking apart for a moment, Aaron and Dorothy both laughed.

"He is my husband." Dorothy giggled, waving her wedding band at the lady.

"Even so," the lady said, walking away while shaking her head with a deeply disapproving air. "At this time in the morning! Young people today have no sense of propriety…"

"She's right about one thing." Aaron smiled, letting his hands lightly trace the contours of Dorothy's curves beneath the cloak. "I am utterly shameless about kissing my wife, about desiring my wife, and about everything I intend to do with her once we are behind closed doors."

"I am shameless too in longing for my husband in every way," Dorothy murmured, regarding him with desirous, smoldering eyes. "Your lips, your hands… all of you."

"You are everything to me, Dorothy," Aaron admitted then, kissing her lips very gently with this realization. "I hadn't really understood that until you were in danger, but now I do."

Dorothy made a low sound in her throat and looked up at him again. "Am I?" she asked uncertainly, and Aaron nodded.

"I love you, Dorothy," he confessed. "Every kiss, every touch, every time we couple, it is love. I need you to know that. In time, I hope you will come to love me too…"

Now there were tears in Dorothy's eyes, but they were tears of happiness followed by some laughter.

"I think I have always loved you, Aaron, in spite of yourself at first and because of yourself in the end… Oh!"

Aaron kissed her once more, long and lovingly, regardless of who might see them, and then took her hand firmly in his before setting off at a run towards home.