“Yes, m’lady.”
Lydia nodded and, suddenly too exhausted for any more words, buried her face in Jeremy’s chest again. As he carried her off the ship and onto the wharf, she didn’t look up once as approving voices thanked and congratulated him. He may not have set out to become a hero, but he’d become one just the same.
And this didn’t surprise Lydia at all.
WHAT IS WANTED AND WHAT IS DESERVED
“Are you going to carry me all the way to Mayfair?” Lydia asked after they were some distance away from all of the excitement and activity on the ship.
“My carriage is at my office.” He was a little out of breath by now, but he also sounded… terse.
Studying his profile in the moonlight, Lydia winced. “Are you angry with me?”
“Livid.”
She wasn’t sure if his short answers were intentional or due to the fact that he had carried her nearly half the length of the docks.
“I’m sorry I broke the contract.” She tightened her arms around his neck, thinking to make his task easier.
“You could have been killed.”
“I know.”
He grunted.
“It was a stupid thing to do,” she added, and then a shiver ran through her.
“You’re cold.” He halted his footsteps. “Let me give you my jacket.” He moved to set her down but Lydia simply clung to him tighter.
“Just hold me—please.” She looked down, unable to meet his eyes but, at the same time, unwilling to be separated from him, even for a moment. “I was so stupid today. I nearly got you killed.”
“No.” Agony roughened his voice. “You nearly gotyoukilled. Don’t ever do that again.” The look on his face was bleak. “I couldn’t live… God, Lydia, I couldn’t live if...”
His arms tightened and he buried his face in her hair.
“Arthur was a traitor, Lydia.” He sounded pained, wounded. “My brotherwas in Farley’s employ. His actions cost the lives of five other men. Possibly more.”
Lydia squeezed him tighter. It was the only thing she could do to hold this proud man together.
“I wanted him to be innocent. I was so sure…”
“You did everything you could. You were the best brother he could have asked for.” And then she pulled away to stare at him. “You brought Blackheart along with you to save me.” Her statement was really a question.
Jeremy resumed walking and she waited patiently for his answer.
“I blamed him and Lucas. I made Lucas the enemy simply because I didn’t want to believe it could be true. But Arthur’s name was among those who’d been paid off.”
“He didn’t want to work for Farley,” Lydia said. “He simply ran out of choices.” She went on to tell him all that she’d learned from Farley and Buck. About how they’d trapped him with his debts and then how, after the ambush, Arthur refused to do their bidding again.
Jeremy didn’t say anything, he simply kept marching along the walk as he listened to her.
“So you know, then.” He finally said.
“There wasn’t anything you could do,” she pressed. He had to know this in his heart.
“I could have helped him with those debts. I could have paid them off myself.”
“And then what? Knowing Arthur, he likely would have racked up new ones quicker than he did the first.”
