“All right,” the man said. “But you give a yell if he tries anything.”
He turned and hurried out of the door, shooting a last glare at Gareth over his shoulder.
“Constables?” Bridget repeated.
“Of course,” Reeves said. “You didn’t think I would come here without any backup, did you?”
“Well… I suppose I thought Norman was your backup.” She looked over at the tall man standing in the corner of the room. He hadn’t moved since they came in, but now he gave her a small smile. “I wasn’t expecting constables. Not to mention this other man. I certainly wasn’t expectinghim. When I saw Norman, I thought he was the one you had chosen to rely on.”
“He is,” Reeves said. “But he’s not my only backup. I wouldn’t have brought him inside if he were. I couldn’t show all my cards. By bringing him in, I made Gareth believe that this was the whole of my plan—bringing Norman along as my bodyguard. He didn’t like that, as you saw, but he was able to accept it because he believed he was still going to walk away with what he wanted.He assumed that Norman was here to protect me, or even to protect you. But it was clear that Norman wasn’t going to try to attack, or to prevent the exchange from taking place, and once Gareth saw that, he let his guard down again… just as I predicted he would.”
Bridget looked over at Gareth once more. He was panting for breath, clearly struggling to remain conscious. His face had gone gray. She looked away quickly—this was painful to watch.
The door opened once more, and two constables came into the room. One of them made his way over to Gareth’s side and knelt. “He’ll survive,” he announced after a moment. “The blade didn’t damage any vital organs. There’s a lot of blood, and we need to get him seen to quickly, but he’ll walk away from this.”
“Well, that’s a bit of a shame,” said the man who had done the stabbing. “I suppose I aimed poorly. I was going for the spleen.”
“Whoishe?” Bridget whispered to Reeves.
“A companion from my time at war,” Reeves said. “He was known for his blade work—a bit of an assassin. We’ve been in touch since the war, and I knew that he was the right person to turn to for help today. Of course, it helped tremendously that under that cloak he could pass for Emma.”
He was slightly larger than Emma, Bridget realized now. It had taken some luck for everyone to assume that he was Emma in the first place, and she wondered what Reeves would have doneif Gareth had demanded that the cloak come off at once.Thank goodness that didn’t happen.
The constable tied Gareth’s arms behind his back now. “We’ll take him in and have a physician stabilize him,” he said. “But having been caught in the act like this, Your Grace, I feel safe in saying that he’ll be locked away for a very long time. You won’t have to worry about this fiend anymore.”
“Thank you,” Reeves said gravely. “All I want is for my family to be safe, and I no longer count him as a part of that.”
Bridget let out a long sigh of relief as the two constables dragged Gareth from the room. Reeves’ war companion followed behind, leaving her with Reeves and Norman. “I didn’t think you were going to come,” she said.
“Of course I came,” Reeves said. His hands were on her arms, bracketing her, holding her. “I would never leave you to the devices of that man. I never considered it even for a moment.”
“I didn’t want you to come,” she whispered. “I didn’t want Emma to be in danger.”
“She was never in danger,” Reeves said. “I would never have put her in danger, Bridget. I know neither one of us could have lived with ourselves if she had been sacrificed. You wouldn’t have wanted to get away from this situation like that.”
“No,” Bridget said fiercely. “I wouldn’t.”
“And I love you for it,” Reeves said softly. “You love my daughter, and I love you for that. I love you for your courage and for the way you have dared to place yourself in harm’s way to help her find her freedom. You would have done anything to protect her. I’ll never forget that.”
Bridget’s heart soared at his words. He had said he loved her.
She wanted to say it back to him. She wanted to come up with a long and passionate speech that would let him know exactly the way she felt about him, everything she had been thinking and struggling with since the moment the two of them had met.
But words failed her.
So instead, she rose onto her toes and kissed him, the way she had sworn to herself she would do if she was lucky enough to get a second chance at life.
Reeves’ arms tightened around her. In that moment, she forgot her fear and the horror of everything that had happened today.
All that mattered was him.
CHAPTER 36
When they got back outside, the snow had stopped, and the moon shone brightly overhead.
Emma flung her arms out to either side and spun in circles. “Can we stay for a while?” she asked. “I love the snow so much.”
“There will be snow at home,” Reeves told her, his voice firm but kind. “Get in the carriage, Emma. We aren’t going to stay out here in the middle of nowhere.”
