“I’ll send for the physician,” the butler said.
“No,” Reeves said firmly. “I’ll be all right.”
“Your Grace, if you were wounded…”
“I said no. The last thing we want is for word to get out about what happened here. That intruder, whoever he was, must have no information about the impact his little visit has left on anyone in this house. He should be left to wonder. If he thinks I was so affected that I needed a physician, he’ll feel a sense of success—he’ll think he ought to try again. Right now, for all we know, he’s licking his wounds and thinking of this as a massive failure, and that’s the way I want him to feel. We’ll do nothing to indicate otherwise.”
“Your Grace …”
“That’s my final word.” He sat up slowly and opened his eyes. His head was still spinning, but he gripped the bedding and felt a little more stable. He looked over at Emma, who had tears streaming down her face.
“Did he say anything to you?”
Another head shake. Reeves let out a long sigh and cradled the back of his daughter’s head. Then he turned to the butler. “Fetch the housekeeper,” he said. “I’d like her to take Emma down for a cup of tea to calm her nerves before she tries to get any more sleep.”
Emma clung to Reeves and buried her face in his chest, and Reeves understood her to be indicating that she didn’t want to be separated from him.
“You’ll be all right,” he told her. “The staff will keep a careful eye on things.” He looked at the butler. “Two guards with them at all times.”
“Of course, Your Grace. We won’t let anyone get near her, I can promise you that.”
“I don’t know how this man slipped through tonight, but I want a much tighter patrol around the house. As many men as can be spared, walking the perimeter at all times. This can never happen again.”
“Yes, Your Grace. I quite agree,” the butler said. “Shall I get the housekeeper now?”
“Emma, you go too,” Reeves said. “Get some tea. Everything will be all right. And then try to get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”
He kissed her forehead. She looked as if she were beginning to relax a bit, and with one last hug for Reeves, she allowed the butler to take her hand and lead her away.
Reeves let out a sigh. Then he got out of bed and made his way slowly to his study, his head still pounding ferociously. He certainly wasn’t going to be able to get any sleep tonight. Not now that this had happened. He knew that if he even tried to close his eyes, he’d be haunted by the vision of that man standing over Emma’s bed and the question of what might have happened if he hadn’t come in when he had.
She can’t be alone,he realized with a sinking feeling.Not even for a moment. I thought this was over, but it isn’t. Whoever took her that night they aren’t going to stop. They’re going to keep coming for us, disrupting my life, and harming my daughter. I can’t ever let her be unguarded. Not until this is finally over.
If only she could tell him who had been responsible for the kidnapping! Now, more than ever before, he ached to push her for an answer. But he knew that he couldn’t. He had come to accept that Bridget was right about the wisdom of allowing her to speak in her own time, about the folly of pushing her too hardbefore she was ready. To do that might break her altogether and make things worse than they were.
Maddening though it was, he was just going to have to wait.
And in the meantime, he would do all he could to make sure no one outside his circle of trust had access to his daughter.
He was determined—and at the same time, he knew he had failed tonight, and failed significantly. And that failure weighed on him like a millstone around his neck.
He had to do better. He was the only one who could protect Emma—but so far, he had nearly lost her twice. That couldn’t happen again.
Not ever.
CHAPTER 19
“Is she all right?” Norman asked, leaning forward the following morning as he and Reeves conferred over the night’s events.
They sat in the sitting room. Reeves would have liked to retreat to his study, as he so often did, but he couldn’t bring himself to shut doors between himself and his daughter any more than he had to. Currently, she was across the hall in the conservatory, and he could hear the sound of her fingers on the pianoforte. The hesitant music served as a steady, constant reminder that she was still here. For now, everything was fine.
“She’s all right,” he told his friend. “I don’t know what might have happened if I had gotten there even a minute later, though. It would have been very bad, I’m certain of that. I’m sure I would have lost her again, although in what manner…”
His voice drifted off. The possibilities were too dreadful to contemplate, too horrible to speak aloud. By doing so, he would have felt as if he were giving them a foothold in reality.
Norman dragged a hand across his face. “It sounds like you narrowly avoided a disaster.”
“Disaster isn’t the word for it,” Reeves growled. “This was an attack. Someone is coming for my family, and I’m not going to rest until I find out who it is and have my revenge on them.”
