“Will yer shut up, Barley?” he snapped. After a second, he turned back to Grace. “And now, it’s yer turn.”
Without hesitating, Grace reached up her sleeve and pulled out the letter opener she had stolen from the police station. Holding it up before her to defend herself, both men began laughing.
“Is that supposed to frighten us?” Bill asked, reaching for it.
But Grace was too quick. She slashed at his hand when she was suddenly rushed by Barley.
“HELP!” she shouted at the top of her lungs as a pair of meaty hands wrapped around her neck.
The fingers tightened and the air she struggled for wouldn’t come, but for the briefest of moments she could have sworn she heard someone calling her name.
Chapter Twenty-One
James had exitedLady Belle’s home just as the constable arrived, having been summoned to investigate Grace’s disappearance. Evidently, the constable had a soft spot for Lady Belle and had come as a personal favor. Although James didn’t speak to him, the two men were quick to climb onto their horses and take off down the street in an effort to reach Rabbit House as soon as possible.
The fury that had surged through James’s body at the idea of Grace going to such a place alone was only dampened slightly by the existential dread that consumed him as he hurried his horse to move faster. Ducking around corners and cutting off pedestrians and carriages alike did not bother him, though he did hear the faint call of the constable behind him. It was dangerous to ride at breakneck speeds through a city, but James did not care. His only concern was for Grace, who he would promptly put over his knee the moment he reached her for daring to do something so foolish.
He and the constable arrived in Gallowgate quicker than he ever had. Without hesitating he jumped off his still moving horse and ran directly to the front door, banging on it with ire.
“Open up!” he demanded, as the constable climbed off his horse. “Now!”
“We’re full up!” a muffled, female voice called out.
“It’s the police!” the constable called back.
But James’s hands were already holding onto either side of the doorjamb. Bringing his knee up, he kicked the front door open with the booted heel and marched into the small entrance.
“Now see here—”
He grabbed the person, a woman as it were, by the collar.
“Where is she?” The woman snarled and barely let out a word when someone from above called out for help. Dropping her, she fell to the floor as he glanced upward. “GRACE?”
“Quick! She’s upstairs!” the constable yelled, but James was already two steps ahead of him.
He climbed the staircase two steps at a time only to find a dozen doors in a narrow hallway. He held his hand out to stop the constable and upon hearing a scuffle behind the first door, he took a step back and rammed his shoulder into the thin wood, bursting through the room. There on a straw bed was Grace, eyes bulging from her head as she reached out toward James while two men hovered above her.
James’s vision went black. In an instant he was grabbing both men by the collars, tossing one to the floor as he attacked the other with a series of blows to the abdomen. When the other man stood back up, a bald man, James threw the other at him, knocking them both down before he leapt on top of them and continued his shower of fists and cursing to rain down on them like a monsoon of fury.
“James!” Grace’s voice called out, but he could not stop.
It was as if the devil himself had come to possess James and he would not end his reign until both men were dead.
“Hall! For the love of Christ, you’re killing them!” the constable yelled, and it was only after the police chief wrapped James’s arms up and yanked him backwards, causing the doctor to fall on him, was he stopped.
After several minutes of heavy breathing, James rolled to his side and, upon seeing Grace, hair tussled, neck red with fingermarks, and tears streaming down her face, did he finally go to her. He grabbed her, holding her in a painful hug, pressing her body to his and he kissed her forehead, cheeks, ears, and mouth, every inch he could.
“You foolish,” kiss. “stupid,” kiss. “outrageous,” kiss. “damning,” kiss. “woman!” Kiss. Kiss. Kiss. He held her back by the shoulders, shaking her. “Have you any idea what could have happened to you? They were going to murder you!”
“I know,” she cried, nodding as she leaned forward, accepting his biting words with humility. “I’m so sorry.”
“What would I have done without you, Grace? What sort of world would you have left me in?” He kissed her again, this time softer before stopping again. “When I think of what else they might have done to you…” He turned, almost ready to start his campaign of vengeance again, but at the squeezing of Grace’s finger’s he stopped.
“Please, James. I have to tell you. And the constable,” she said as the chief of police looked at her. “The missing persons in Gallowgate. These men were killing them, by strangulation. They said Mr. Roberts was paying them twelve pounds a body. On top of the graves that they robbed at the necropolis.”
The constable’s eyes widened.
“Is that so?” She nodded vigorously. “Would you mind coming down to the station to give a testimony?”
