His heart raced at the sight of them. His stomach rolled, bringing up bad memories from the evening before, when his life had begun to spin out of control. Sweat pooled at the base of his spine, as if he were marching toward the guillotine and not simply striding the length ofCampania’spromenade deck.
“You best not lose Herbert’s money playing cards,” warned the larger of the pair.
“It’s not Herbert’s money—not yet, at any rate.” Giles kept a steady pace, praying he remembered how to get back to his stateroom. He didn’t wish to find himself stuck at a dead end with two bruisers, for he’d heard tales of broken fingers and shattered teeth where unpaid debts were concerned. “Whatever I have belongs to my wife.”
“Then perhaps we’ll discuss repayment with her…”
“You will never approach Lady Granborough!” He couldn’t imagine Louisa being shaken down by these two brutes. She’d be terrified. God help her if they endeavored to extract an alternative method of payment.
Giles couldn’t allow her to come to harm. He’d promised her the protection of his name and would sacrifice his fingers, his teeth, and even his eyes to keep her safe from Herbert.
The realization knocked him backward, and he stumbled against the paneled wall as if he’d been kicked in the gut. But he hadn’t been struck. No one dared touch him in the first-class corridor, where there were no shadows in which to hide. The truth was out in the open, for any passerby to witness.
Hecaredabout his wife.
“The settlement of my debts shall be negotiated between the Herberts and myself,” said Giles, fighting for composure. He smoothed his waistcoat and tugged at his cuffs, erecting that icy façade from behind which he spoke to creditors, pawnbrokers, and other underlings. “It is no one else’s business, certainly not a woman’s.”
He dared not let them know he’d developed a weakness where his wife was concerned.
“Wasn’t it a woman that got you into this mess, guv?” asked the man. “I reckon Lady Venia might like to know what you’ve been getting up to, swanning your young bride ‘round the ship.”
“I don’t see how that’s any of her concern.” Venia had been married for eight years and bore Herbert three children. Not once had she allowed Giles to feel jealous of the things he’d been denied simply because she’d chosen someone else.
He wanted a family and financial security, a home that wasn’t in danger of falling in on his head. He wanted to walk the lanes of Granborough able to look his tenants in the eye. He wanted not to worry about Herbert’s hired toughs harming his wife.
One could argue that Lady Veniahadgotten him into this mess, and now he had no idea how to safely extricate himself from the web in which she’d snared him.
The men reached the reception area. Giles didn’t believe they’d follow him down the grand staircase in full view of the ship’s officers and first-class passengers, yet the thugs descended at his side, as brazen as if they’d belonged there.
Moonlight filtered through the skylight overhead to mingle with the candlestick sconces, illuminating each tread and riser as the trio ventured downward. They reached the main deck reception area, which led to the stateroom suites, lavatories, and the purser’s desk. Surely, Herbert’s henchmen would not follow him further.
Giles jammed his hands in his trouser pockets and turned to them, asking, “What is it you want from me?”
The one who’d bloodied Giles’ lip the night before spoke. “Herbert is worried you’ll skip out on your debts like your mother did, or that you and your missus will be in no hurry to reach London. We’re here to ensure you stay the course.”
“I never shirk a debt, your employer knows that. I shall deliver a cheque as soon as the funds clear. There can be nothing done before then, certainly not while steaming across the Atlantic. You hardly need to follow me to bed.”
“Who’s to say we ain’t got the parlour suite next to yours,” the other man said. He cupped his ear and grinned. “Up all night listening through a crack in the wall.”
The thugs fell into guffaws of laughter, earning them a stern look from a dowager in silks and furs. Giles felt his face grow red.
How had these men managed to get to him? Was he not above their reach, safely ensconced in this first-class world? He ought to complain to the master at arms and have them detained. Of course, they’d be released in Liverpool, free to stalk and harass the Granboroughs until Herbert was satisfied.
With a fortune owed, and these hired thugs breathing down his neck, Giles feared there was no escaping this shameful business. He felt raw, defenseless. His nerves were on fire as though he’d been flayed alive, and he was screaming.
Screaming, yet silent.
Stoic, as his parents had forced him to be, for there was never anyone to help him. No one he knew was ever truly on his side, as they’d all had their greedy motives for birthing him, raising him, loving him, and leaving him.
Only one person had chosen him, and he had no idea what to do with her.
Giles turned his back on the pair of thugs. He walked the corridor to his stateroom, not checking whether they followed him, but sensing that they hadn’t. They’d terrorized him enough for one night and would catch him out some other time, when he least expected it.
That was the trouble with fear—some nights, it sat on his chest like a millstone, weighing him down, pressing him flat, squeezing the life out of him. Other times, it barely registered, sneaking up on him, a thousand times more devastating in its surprise.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Louisa lay curled up on the sofa in their lamplit stateroom. She read a novel, as was her custom to pass the time, yet barely comprehended the words on the page. She was drowsy from her bath and cozy, clad only in her silk wrapper and nightdress, for she’d taken Madame de Roubernon’s advice.
