“If I had to, if it was what she wanted or what was best for her, yes.” His hands tingled and he shook them out at his sides. “I’d walk away.”
A long silence stretched between the men and then Ripley stepped aside and motioned his head toward Esme. “Go on, then.”
Finn blinked in surprise, but moved toward her regardless. She shifted to stand a little straighter as he came near, and he felt her reading him in that scant distance that separated them. She saw through him, too, for the first words out of her mouth when he reached her weren’t about why he was there or whatever had happened between him and Ripley.
“What’s wrong?” she asked instead, reaching for his hand.
He swallowed hard. “You may be in danger, Esme,” he said, and watched how her eyes went wide, flashed with a fear she immediately tried to control. “Will you come with me?”
Esme hadn’t argued when Finn asked her to go with him. She hadn’t fought him as they loaded into his carriage and rumble off away from the boxing club and back toward…well, she assumed his home. Where else would he take her?
She stared across the vehicle at him where he sat watching at her, his fist lifted to his mouth. She could bear this no longer. “Tell me what happened.” she demanded.
He nodded. “Yes. Yes. Earlier this afternoon I went to meet with your cousin.”
Her head began to spin as she tried to digest that information. “You what? Why? And why didn’t you tell me that this was your plan?”
“Esme.” His tone was even.
She blinked as reality became clear. “Because you thought if you did that I might follow. What happened to being trustworthy, Finn? What happened to not keeping me out of a situation that involves onlymywell-being in the end?”
He caught her hand as she’d done his in the club and held it gently. He leaned forward, his dark eyes bright with earnest concern and…and something else she feared to see in them.
“I was never going to keep it a secret for long,” he said. “Look into my eyes and know that’s true.”
She did and she could see it. God help her, she believed him. Because she wanted to or because he was really true…well, that was something likely still up for debate.
“You said in the club that I was in danger,” she whispered. “How?”
“Francis invited me to join him, said he wanted to renew the friendship between my house and your father’s,” he said. “But when I didn’t respond immediately to his offers to join in his financial…well, no one could call them less than schemes, he moved to a different mode of convincing. He moved to blackmail. He’s been watching my house.”
Her lips parted and she felt like her throat was closing. “But…but I’ve been coming to your house.”
He nodded. “He’s seen you do so.”
“No!” she almost screamed, and pushed herself back on the bench of the seat like she could escape the horrible words he’d just said. All her fears rose up in her chest like demons and words fell from her mouth in a jumbled mess. “No, no that cannot be true. It can’t, not after all this time. He can’t know I’m in London, he can’t know where to find me. No, no, no-”
Finn lunged toward her and fell to his knees on the floor at her feet. He cupped her cheeks gently, smoothing his thumbs over her skin. “Please, please listen to me. Please, Esme. Please breathe.”
She fought to do so and blinked at the tears that stung so strongly that she knew she couldn’t keep them from falling.
“He doesn’t know that the lady he’s seen is you. I’m almost entirely certain because I don’t think he’d be able to keep that to himself when he spoke to me about it. He thinks I have some lover, a lady based on the way she holds herself.”
She continued to shake, but her heart rate started to slow with that information. “He thinks…he thinks you’re bedding some innocent debutante or friend’s wife, then?”
He nodded. “Yes. It’s not that I don’t think he’d pursue the matter, try to determine who she is…youare. But the lover is only a means to an end for him. Still, I don’t want you out of my sight while he’s got this on his mind. I don’t want you endangered if he starts to follow the threads he’s uncovered.”
“Oh God, Jane!” Esme burst out. “If he finds out where I come from, he’ll find Jane.”
“We’ll send word to her,” he soothed gently. “And if she needs a place to go I’ll provide it.”
Esme worried her hands before her. “Send word to Ripley,” she suggested. “Jane won’t go anywhere unless someone forces her. Ripley can do it.”
“I will.” He cleared his throat. “Though I expect a punch in the face the next time I see him for dragging him into all this.”
“Idragged everyone in all this,” she corrected, and sucked in another shaky breath. “And I know the person damaged by it most is you. What about the danger toyou?”
He shrugged. “He threatened me, yes. But it’s not something I can’t handle. In truth, he revealed a great deal about himself, and about your father’s relationship toward him in the process.”
