That red haze was back, clouding Ethan’s vision until he could hardly think straight.The need to end this overriding his common sense, he lunged forward, determined to take the weapon from him.
Before he could reach him, Copper jerked the gun up, arm straight, not a hint of shaking in his limb now as heleveled it once more on Heloise.
Ethan froze.“Let her go!”he roared.
Copper let loose a chilling, manic laugh.“I don’t think so, Sinclaire.If it was your own life on the line, I’m certain you would do something stupid.”His lips twisted.“Mrs.Marlow, on the other hand…”
Ethan’s blood congealed in his veins as Copper turned his head slowly to her.“Yes,” he said, almost to himself, “with Mrs.Marlow’s life on the line, you’re more likely to behave.We all know you’re in love with her.”
A small sound escaped Heloise.It took every ounce of Ethan’s control not to look at her.He should refute it, tell Copper he didn’t give a damn about Heloise, that she was a good fuck and nothing more.It could quite possibly save her life.
Yet he couldn’t give voice to the lie, no matter how hard he tried; the thought of Heloise believing he didn’t care for her, and one of them dying before he could tell her the truth, seized his tongue.
But no, neither of them would die.He would make certain of that.To do so, however, he had to draw Copper’s attention from Heloise and her friend as quickly as possible.
It was as his mind worked feverishly, trying to think of some way, any way, that he could get Copper to redirect the gun to him, that a light suddenly appeared in the hallway behind him.On the heels of that came angry male shouts bouncing off the walls, Teagan’s and Parsons’s and Isaac’s voices mingling in a cacophony of fury.He saw it the moment Copper realized it was over.He hissed a curse, spinning to face the new threat, gun turning with him.Before Ethan could so much as tense to spring forward, however, there was the flash of silver in the lamplight.In the next instant a blade buried itself in Copper’s hand.Thesound of the gun clattering to the floor mingled with Copper’s screams.And then all hell broke loose, a mass of huge bodies pouring into the room, tackling Copper, who was clutching his bleeding hand to his chest.
But Ethan didn’t care if the world burned down around his ears; all he could think of was Heloise.He looked at her, barely noticing her wild eyes, her arm extended toward Copper from throwing the blade.The only thing he could register was that she was safe.In the next instant he was around the desk and dragging Heloise into his arms, feeling as if his world was finally whole.
30
Miss Marlow here to see you.Again.”
Heloise pursed her lips to keep from smiling at the disgust in Strachan’s voice.Putting aside the blade she’d been polishing, she took up a rag and wiped her hands.“Thank you, Strachan.I’ll be in momentarily.”
The other woman scoffed.“As if I’m your messenger, Mrs.High-and-Mighty,” she grumbled as she turned to leave the smithy.
“I can hear you,” Heloise called after her, not bothering to subdue her smile.
“You were meant to,” Strachan snapped back, storming off.
Heloise chuckled as she removed her leather apron and tidied up.But her humor was short lived.As it had been these past two days, ever since she’d said goodbye for the last time to Ethan.
She had a flash of memory then, quick and sharp, but it was enough to grab tight to her lungs and prevent her from drawing breath: Ethan’s face when her blade had struck Mr.Copper, the stark relief in his eyes as he’d rushed to her.And then his arms about her, so tight she’d thought he would never let her go.No matter how busy she kept herself, how much she poured into her work, how focused shewas on her duties, that memory would insist on surfacing, tormenting her, making her want to run back to him and beg for a chance to remain by his side.
Shaking her head to dispel the idea that their story had a happily-ever-after—especially as, following the events at Dionysus, she had not seen or heard from him once—she finished cleaning up and headed out of the forge and to the main house.
She found Julia in the drawing room, but she was not alone.No, it seemed the whole of the Wimpole Street house had come out to see her.
“I do hope you don’t mind,” Sylvia said with a smile, passing Julia a cup of tea, “but we have all decided to join you this afternoon.We’re anxious to learn what the outcome was of the return of the jewels.”
Not long ago Heloise would have minded, very much.She felt the echo of sadness for her former self when she thought of how clearly she had drawn the line between personal and business with the Widows.Now she saw these women for who they truly were: a group of dear friends who genuinely cared about her.She would not close them out again.
“Of course not,” she replied, taking a seat beside Julia.“In fact, if you had not come, I would have called you here.It is all our triumph, after all.”
“Indeed,” Sylvia murmured, eyes shining with emotion.She turned to Laney at her side then, taking up her hand and pulling it onto her lap, wrapping her fingers about it as if she would never let her go.“And it gives my darling Laney a chance to be about people instead of locked up in our room with only me for company.”
“I will never complain about being locked up with you,” Laney said, smiling at Sylvia before wincing, hand coming up to gingerly touch her lip.A split lip, however, was theleast of her injuries, the fight from the other night having been a brutal affair.There was not a place on her face that did not have some sort of cut or bruise.And her injuries did not end with her face, as was proven as she shifted in her seat and tensed, the hand that had been at her lip dropping to cradle her ribs.The smile she gave Sylvia, however, belied her physical discomfort.
Julia leaned forward, eyes wide in her face.“But Mrs.Finch, you were incredible.I have never seen two women fighting before.”
“You didn’t see Laney’s fight, either,” Heloise drawled with a grin.“What little time we spent in the boxing venue, I rather think you watched the floor much more than you watched Laney.”
“Yes, well,” Julia said, giving her a sheepish look.Her eyes, Heloise noticed, were clear, and dancing with wry mirth.“That, however, does not negate my admiration.”
“Nor mine,” Iris piped up, leaning forward, eyes wide with excitement.“It was quite fascinating.I wonder,” she mused, largely to herself, as she fiddled with a small triangle of sandwich on her plate, dismantling it in her inattentiveness, “what prompts the human species to pummel each other in such a manner for mere enjoyment.”
“I do wish I had been able to witness it myself,” Euphemia grumbled.“I missed everything.”
