“Possibly but as you should not have left the house alone, it hardly matters. Plus, no one knows I am here. Now, talk.”
Her chin rose. “I have nothing to say.”
“You won’t say or have nothing to say?” he demanded.
“Your Plunge is slipping,” she said instead of answering his question.
“Iris, answer the damn question.”
“Don’t speak to me like that.”
“Do you realize what could have happened to you had I not found you?”
“We have already discussed this,” Iris snapped back. “I’m not a fool, and I am also not your business. Now I thank you for what you did and how you protected us, but you may leave.” She said the words with excruciating politeness.
“I’m not leaving.”
“Go away.” She looked to the wall where a clock hung. The hour was late. “I want you to leave, because suddenly I feel the need to do something I haven’t in many years.”
“What?” he questioned her calmly.
“Lose control!” She slipped around him, and then, picking up her skirts, she fled.
It wasn’t dignified nor rational, but in that moment, she wanted the sanctuary of her bedroom. There was a lock on the door, and she would turn it.
“Dammit to hell!” She heard his curse, and then the thud of his feet. “Stop, Iris.”
She didn’t stop; she ran. Up the stairs, along a hall, and down another. He didn’t know her home like she did. Iris just prayed her staff were all sleeping soundly and would not hear them.
“Stop!”
She was close now, her room just ahead. Reaching the door, she pushed it and ran inside, shutting it behind her. He had it opened before she could turn the key.
“I am trying to help you!” He slammed the door behind him. “Your son’s name will be blackened alongside his father’s if what information I have is released to society. He could be kidnapped, again,” he added with a bite to his words. “Violated or murdered if I do not catch who is behind this. If we are dealing with the same people who ruthlessly took the lives of my parents too, then I want to know!”
She backed away from him. He was no longer calm; now his anger filled the room. Plunge was a man who could inspire fear in no one, and this man was not he.
“My son is not his father,” Iris said slowly. She needed to calm down. This was Theo; he would not hurt her. He’d just rescued her.
“It matters not. The same stench will taint him. I believe there could be a link that draws all these things together, including the murder of my parents, Iris. I must pursue it for your safety and my sanity.”
She studied him, all fight leaving her body at his words.
“Did you suffer, Theo?” Iris whispered.
She’d spent long hours as a young girl wondering what was going on in the large house she could see from her bedroom window. Was he being comforted in his grief?
“It was long ago.” He brushed her words aside.
“I tried to get to you. You must know that I tried.”
Something shifted in his face. Subtle and small, but she saw it softening.
“You were ten. I doubt you could have changed my uncle’s mind.”
“My parents tried too, but he turned them away.”
His eyes dropped to the floor for the first time.
