“He has a tattoo,” Ellen whispered in his ear. “Brownly is the naked man, Gray.”
He looked at her, and she nodded.
He leaned in close and whispered in her ear, “I love you.”
Her smile was blinding, and for now, that was enough. When they stopped at the Watch House, he got out and took his prisoner and cousin with him.
“I will talk to you tomorrow,” he said to the woman standing in the carriage doorway. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Alex called.
“I don’t,” Leo added.
Gray then stood there grinning like an idiot as Ellen rolled away from him in her family’s carriage.
“Wipe that smile from your face, it’s sickening,” Ramsey said. He then nudged Brownly, who was glaring daggers at them, but as he still had the handkerchief in his mouth Ellen had put there, he could only utter a few garbled, indiscernible words.
“Now, cousin, what is it I will need to do in there?” Ramsey said as he reached the building. “Hold the prisoner. Vouch for his villainous activities. Explain my heroic actions tonight?”
“Nothing. They know who I am in here, so I will explain the situation, see Brownly put behind bars for the night, and then we are leaving because I’m unsure how much longer I can stand.”
Every ache and abused muscle in his body was throbbing now that Ellen had left him. He no longer had to worry about her, therefore he could feel pain.
Love is a strange thing.
Ramsey huffed out a breath of disappointment.
Twenty minutes later, he walked out and found his cousin asleep in the small waiting area.
“Ram, wake up.” He nudged his foot. “I want to go home, and you need to make that happen.”
His cousin groaned but was soon standing.
“Come along then, Detective Fletcher, I will, in my duty as your assistant,” he said in a voice loud enough to carry to all corners of the building, “see you safely home.”
Gray grunted but said nothing. Even talking hurt now. But he could still find a smile as Ramsey climbed into a hackney. Because Ellen loved him, and that was a wonderful thing.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-EIGHT
Ellen knocked on Gray’s front door the day after they’d found him in that room.
“I’ve not even had my morning meal,” Alex muttered from beside her.
“I saw you drink tea and eat a fruit bun.”
“Nowhere near enough food for a man such as I, and why did you have to come?” he asked the large dog sitting at his feet patiently waiting to be let inside.
“He likes Gray,” Ellen said. And he’s not the only one.
She looked her brother up and down. “You appear healthy enough and not in imminent danger of fainting.”
He made a tsking sound. “One hopes when you and Gray come to your senses, we, your family, are not called to leave their homes as dawn breaks just to bring your lovelorn self to his doorstep,” Alex snapped.
Looking to the sky, she saw the sun was above them. Ellen said, “It is well past dawn, as you very well know. Stop being dramatic. And I am worried for Gray. He was hurting a great deal more than he let on last night.”
“As are you still, sister dear.” He reached around her and pounded on the door again.
“Stop that infernal banging.” These words were followed by Ramsey now standing in the open doorway, glaring. “What are you two doing here?”
