He jumped, almost like he’d forgotten she was there. His face had gone deathly pale and his dark eyes were filled with tangled emotion. Her heart leapt, but this time it wasn’t from desire at being near to him. It was fear for whatever had put him in this state.
“Who is Hannah Beckett?” she asked. “Who is she to make you and Barrymore react so strongly?”
He let out his breath in a scoffing snort. “She is a demon disguised as a woman,” he said, but there was no heat to his words, only worry. “She is someone who agreed never to come here again. She was, in fact, paid a huge sum of money so she would stay away.”
Sarah caught his hand and tugged it against her chest, holding tight and feeling him tremble. “Phoebe’s mother?”
His expression crumpled slightly and his voice broke as he whispered, “Yes. Phoebe’s mother.”
Sarah caught her breath, but she didn’t release Kit’s hand, and for that he was grateful. Right now it felt like she was the only thing anchoring him in this horror.
It was so unfair. He’d been trying, badly perhaps, but trying nonetheless, to tell this woman how deeply he cared for her. To ask her to marry him. And then…this.
And now all he could focus on was Hannah Beckett and the danger she meant to his sister. Everything else had to wait.
“Her mother,” Sarah repeated. “You told me a little about her.”
“I could write books about her,” he grunted. “And how she used my father, seduced him when he was lonely. Phoebe has been a bargaining chip for her from the moment Hannah knew that a child was growing inside her.”
Anger overwhelmed him. Pain. He remembered how upset his father had been when he had to admit that his affair with the woman had gone wrong. How foolish he’d felt when her cruelty was let loose and how fearful for the baby they had produced together.
“That bad?” Sarah whispered.
He nodded. “Worse. I…I was worse, too. I told my father to walk away at the time. To just surrender the baby, told him that she might not even be his. Cruel words, they feel like now, when Phoebe was such a light to his life, is such a joy to my own.” He bent his head, self-loathing overcoming him.
“It sounds like this Beckett woman was not someone you wanted to have holding something over you,” Sarah said gently. “And you wanted to protect your father. He ignored that advice.”
“I’m glad he did. But the fight that ensued was painful to say the least. She hid from him. She lied and said she’d lost the baby. Then she showed up again and demanded he take care of her. Marry her. He almost did it.”
“He was a man of honor,” Sarah said. “What stopped him?”
Kit turned his face. “He found out she was with some new man. That they had a plan to get her married to my father and then take him for even more. They even stole some of my mother’s jewelry.Thatended any warm feelings my father might have been nursing. Hannah had the baby, he offered her five thousand pounds to just…go away. Never see Phoebe again.”
“She took it?” Sarah whispered, her disbelief thick in her voice.
Kit walked away. “She laughed and told him he could have offered her a thousand and she would have done it. She never wanted her daughter. She walked away without so much as a letter to inquire after her in five years. And now she’s here and I can damned well promise you she doesn’t want to hold Phoebe close and form a real connection.”
His fear was obvious in his tone, and Sarah moved forward, her hands coming up to cup his cheeks. The touch was soothing and he was once again sorry he hadn’t been able to complete his ill-said proposal.
But she was here. And that was enough for now.
“Kit, you know what she is,” she said softly. “And Phoebe is safe with Diana and Lucas—there is no one aside from yourself that would protect her more.”
“You,” he said.
“Aside from the two of us,” she corrected. “You aren’t alone. We will face this woman and whatever she’s come for together.”
He stared at her. He knew he should refuse. Protect her from the ugliness that would surely transpire once they entered that room. But he couldn’t. He needed Sarah at his side, her strength at his back. Her advice once he’d heard Hannah’s demands.
“I would like to have you with me,” he said softly.
“Of course,” she whispered, and her fingers traced his cheeks gently before she released him and straightened her shoulders. She was ready for battle, it seemed. And he had to be too.
“Come on,” he said, taking her hand. “We’ve a dragon to slay.”
Chapter Nineteen
It wasn’t a guard at the door so much as one of the footmen, and the young man looked nervous as Kit and Sarah came down the hall together. He glanced into the open room and nodded to them. “She’s just been sitting, Your Grace. Having tea.”
