Violet’s eyes popped open.Her shoulders straightened.“Yes.Yes, he is.I will not let him hurt me any longer.”Her hand went to her belly to lay against the rose-colored velvet of her dress.“I just need something to barter with.If I can find information to blackmail the duke with, I could get him to give me one of his many estates to live on.I could insist that Stuart stay away from me.”
Rhys studied Violet with new respect.It wasn’t a terrible plan.“What about your family?Can’t they take you in?”
She shook her head.“No, they told me to go home and try to be a good girl.To not anger him.As though it is all my fault.”She rubbed her eyes.She looked so very pale.
The clatter of her carriage came down the street.It pulled to a stop in front of them.Rhys held out a hand.“Allow me to escort you home?”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Indulge me.”
After a long moment, she slipped her hand into his.Rhys led her to where the footman had lowered the stair, and he steadied her as she climbed inside.Turning, he strode down to where his horse was tied.Taking the lead, he led the horse over and looped the reins securely to the back of the carriage.Then he climbed into the carriage and settled next to Violet on the bench.
Violet leaned back with a sigh as the carriage began to roll forward.
“Have you eaten today?”Rhys asked.
“A little earlier.I cannot keep much down these days.”
“How far along are you?”He eyed her midsection, but it was impossible to ascertain any sort of bump under the voluminous skirts of her dress.He was pressed to imagine her swollen with child like her friend, Lucy.Violet had always reminded him of the pretty china dolls he’d seen as a boy in the window of a fancy shop on Borough High Street, with their features delicately painted and pretty dresses trimmed with lace.Totally out of reach on the top shelf, and something he would never be allowed to touch.
“Four months, maybe.”
Rhys nodded.Not too far along.As they made their way across town, he seethed silently that Violet would be at the mercy of a bastard like Sommerset.That any man dared mar her skin.“I could kill him for you.”
Violet jerked to face him.“Pardon?”
“I can make him disappear.”It would be easy.A pleasure.
Then Violet shocked the hell out of him.She laughed.Low and cynical, the bark of laughter echoed inside the plush carriage.A bit insulted, he glared at her.
Her lips quirked up at one side.“My own father wouldn’t stand up to the duke when I needed him, but a total stranger”—she waved a hand at him—“would kill to keep me safe.Life is strange.”
The sadness in her eyes pierced his chest, just as it had the night he had seen her through the window.Sommerset would pay.“No woman should be afraid in her own home.”
Violet stared at him.Her searching gaze unnerved him, and he refocused his across the carriage.The benches were richly upholstered in dark blue and trimmed in gold braid.He approved.Blue was his favorite color.
“Please don’t kill him,” she said.
He gave a small nod.It would be the most expeditious way to solve her problem, but the choice was hers.“I can help you find the information you need.”
“Why would you help me?”
“Don’t think it’s chivalry or anything.I am no hero,” he warned.“I also need to find out what the duke is up to.”
“Why?”
“I made a promise to stop him from doing whatever it is he’s doing.”
Her head tilted in question.
“I don’t know what it is I am supposed to stop, but I will find out.”
“All right.Partners, then?I can be…what do they call it?The inside source.And you will be the expert.But don’t kill anyone, for goodness’ sake.Unless you were just jesting?”She looked so hopeful.
Rhys couldn’t keep his dry chuckle inside.“I won’t kill anyone as long as you agree to not do any snooping on your own.Let me do the dirty work.Promise?”
Violet nodded.She held out a slim, gloved hand.Rhys took it in his and they shook.Everything about her was delicate, even the fingers that wrapped around his.He rubbed his thumb across the soft skin of her wrist between the glove and her sleeve.Her pulse jumped at his touch, and he felt the jolt all the way up his arm.He let go of her hand, but Violet’s gaze did not leave his face.Sharp and assessing, he was held captive by her gaze.
