She’d given him a medicinal dose along with willow bark to take the edge off the pain. Leave it to Pearl to be prepared for any eventuality. He had no idea how she’d managed to fit medical supplies into the small valise she’d brought along.
“Even so, I’m surprised that you’re not cold.”
He furrowed his brow. “Why is that?”
“Because I drove us here to the inn. That means hell froze over, does it not?”
It took him a moment to register what had just happened.
“Mrs. Peabody.” Despite his foul mood, he found himself fighting a grin. “Did you make a jest?”
“It happens from time to time.” She lifted her head, her beautiful mouth twitching. Then she reached for a strip of clean linen that she’d cut from a petticoat, winding it expertly around his biceps and securing it with a knot. “There you are, right as rain.”
“Thank you.” Moving his arm, he found it sore but tolerable. “I am in your debt.”
“I couldn’t very well leave you bleeding at the side of the road.” She tidied up her supplies, turning to him with a pleated brow. “Why didn’t Lady Fayne warn us that this mission might be dangerous? Do you think that the parcel we’re delivering is valuable? That our attackers were after it?”
They’re after something all right. Me.
A vein throbbed at Hawker’s temple as he tried to sort out what to tell her. To buy time, he strode barefoot to the table and poured himself another brandy. What was the best way to keep Pearl safe? Before the attack, he’d planned to use their trip as an opportunity to explore their attraction. To see, once and for all, if there was a possibility of a future together. He’d contemplated sharing his past with her…but in a gradual fashion so that she wouldn’t get spooked.
But now should he lay his cards on the table, tell her everything? The state of affairs between them felt as fragile as a butterfly’s wing. He didn’t want to scare her away…yet he couldn’t live with himself if she got hurt.
At the very least, I must warn her. Alert her to the danger.
Turning, he said to her, “The bastards were after me.”
Pearl lowered her straight brows. “Why?”
Because I couldn’t run forever. After sixteen years, the Reids have finally hunted me down.
“A long time ago, I was involved with some bad people,” he said after a moment. “People who did terrible things.”
His muscles tensed in reflex at the memory of his sire’s brutality and the bullying aggression of his uncles and cousins. He remembered his last glimpse of his mother, the bruises on her beautiful face which the undertaker’s art could not conceal. He heard Christine, his adolescent sweetheart, sobbing at their last meeting.
“I love you, but I cannot see you any longer. Your family will never permit you to marry me, a mere miller’s daughter, and I cannot risk their wrath. They are too powerful and ruthless…”
“I once belonged to a gang as well.” Pearl’s emotionless voice dispelled his past. “I know what it is like to live surrounded by violence and brutality.”
Her revelation didn’t surprise him; she didn’t gain her fighting skills from working as a milkmaid. He felt nothing but respect for her ability to survive. He didn’t correct her assumption about him being part of a gang because she wasn’t entirely wrong. While titles and wealth bought the Reids a veneer of respectability, they were no different from a band of criminals.
The roots of his family tree were steeped in blood. For centuries, his kin had used violence and aggression to build their fortune, each generation bred to be more callous than the previous one. The titles swung from branch to branch as members schemed, fought, and aye, killed for the ultimate family heirloom: the right to be called the Duke of Ryedale.
Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.Shakespeare’s Henry IV referenced the heavy responsibilities of holding a position of power, yet those words had an added meaning when it came to the Dukes of Ryedale. No duke had lived past the age of fifty, all dying under suspicious circumstances. Hawker’s sire and two older brothers had apparently fallen prey to the family legacy, and now the crown had landed upon Hawker’s unwilling head.
“It took too long, but I finally got away from them. Made a new life for myself. But now they’ve found me,” Hawker said starkly.
Pearl canted her head. “What do they want?”
For me to shuffle off this mortal coil.
The eldest son of Hawker’s deceased uncle, Claude was next in line after Hawker to become the duke. Hawker’s last encounter with his cousin left no doubt in his mind that the sadistic bastard was capable of anything.
“Your turn, cousin.”Claude’s mocking countenance flashed in Hawker’s head.“Don’t be a pathetic weakling. Prove you’re worthy of the Reid name.”
Claude and his cronies had chained a stray dog to a post. They’d been baiting the starved animal with sharpened sticks, leaving bloody punctures in the beast’s matted hide. Claude had wanted Hawker to deal the death blow.
Hawker had fought them all. He’d managed to free the dog; the cost had been his eye. He could still recall shaking with pain and terror after the physician had removed the irreparably damaged orb, and his father had entered the chamber.
