He grinned and it annoyed Dominic more than it should. “Anytime.”
As Dominic lightly grasped her arm to propel her outside, he was trying to think of where they might go, where she would get in the least amount of trouble and it might pacify this insatiable curiosity she had. He certainly wasn’t going to take her to the Crown & Sceptre. There were too many people who knew Avalon for him to be comfortable with parading about a woman as lovely as Miss Givenwald. Although no one would bother herwith him at her side, it was when he wasn’t around that concerned him.
With a considering frown, they had moved into the open when the first gunshot rang out.
“What—?”
Dominic uttered a curse as he threw his body over Miss Givenwald to absorb any further impact that might be coming. Amos’s door flew back open and Dominic quickly hauled her back inside just as another bullet shattered the wood against the frame and they slammed the panel shut.
CHAPTER 9
Lexie put a hand over her chest where her heart was about to beat out of it. “I suppose that answers my question… about the level of danger I could be in.” She was having trouble catching her breath. But although the experience was terribly frightening, there was a certain… thrill that she couldn’t seem to shake off.
She glanced at the duke, but he was otherwise quite steady and composed, apart from a thunderous expression on his face. She wondered if his anger was directed toward the assailant or her, but there was no time to think on it because it was obvious he was also a man of action.
He kept hold of her arm as he hauled her toward the back of the small apartment. Amos was on their heels. “Amos, go to the Crown & Sceptre and alert the Blue Boys that there has been an attempt on my life.” He paused to glance at him. “You know where to find me.”
Amos nodded and then glanced at her. She thought there was the smallest flicker of empathy in his expression before he opened a window in the hall and leaped over the side.
Lexie gasped, “Did he just?—?”
“He knows what he’s doing,” the duke returned curtly. But she supposed it was rather idiotic of her to refer to him in such a formal manner now, wasn’t it? But Cuthbert didn’t sound right either. What was his given name? She searched her scattered memory and finally pinned it down.
Dominic.
Yes, that was it. It was an intriguing name for an equally intriguing man.
A loud bang sounded behind them and Lexie shrieked in alarm. “They’re after us!”
“You don’t say.”
She glared at his mocking tone, but he kept his attention fixed forward. As he reached the back of the small apartment where Amos’s bedchamber was, he knocked a few times on the wall until there was a marked difference in sound. “We don’t have time to climb down to the ground, so we are going to have to hide here until it’s safe to get away,” he instructed.
She wasn’t sure what he was referring to, but then he slid a couple loose boards aside. Waving a hand, he said irritably, “After you.”
She glanced at the dark interior and rubbed her arms as a sudden round of gooseflesh slid over her skin. “I can’t go in there,” she whispered, suddenly fearful.
“You don’t have any choice,” he snapped. Another bang made her jump. “You either get in or I drag you inside. It’s our only chance if you want to live.”
Lexie swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. She had never cared for cramped spaces, but since she had no choice in the matter, neither had she ever backed down from a challenge. She lifted her simple skirts and stepped over the edge of the wall. Flattening her back against it, the space became even tighter when Dominic squeezed his height and breadth next to her. He slid the boards into place, sealing them inside the wall, just as she heard the front door splinter open.
She couldn’t see her hand in front of her face should she have wished it and although there was enough room for her to lift her arm and set her hand on the wood, she felt as though the walls were closing in on her.
“I can’t breathe,” she whispered, worried that she might start to cry and the strong visage she’d tried so hard to portray would shatter.
A warm hand encircled hers and a gentle voice spoke in her ear. “Concentrate on my breathing and squeeze my hand. I’m not going anywhere.”
His soft assurance helped to ease some of her nerves, but when a commotion came from just on the other side of the wall, she prayed that she wouldn’t have to suddenly sneeze.
Minutes ticked by like hours as she closed her eyes and tried to pretend that she was anywhere else but in this wall and hoping that her courage would hold out long enough until she could be free of this torture. She tried to channel her thoughts to when she’d seen London for the first time. Her enchantment of the city had been evident in the way her eyes had widened with awe as she’d looked upon buildings that were so tall and dramatic that she found it wondrous that anyone could build such an imposing structure.
As she’d walked along the Serpentine at Hyde Park, she thought it amazing that this quiet beauty could be present in such a bustling city.
By the time Dominic told her that the danger had passed for the moment, she had almost calmed herself completely. But the moment he slid the wall back, she nearly collapsed onto the floor in relief. Leaning her head back against the steady part of the wall, she took great heaving gulps of air and ordered her legs to keep her upright, but it was difficult to do since they were shaking so badly.
“Come here.”
Lexie hadn’t realized she’d failed to open her eyes until theypopped open and she faced Dominic’s steady dark gaze. If there had been annoyance or any sign of sympathy, she might have fallen apart but instead, he led her over to the bed and sat her down. Lexie noticed the discarded dress she’d changed out of earlier and blinked, thinking that everything had seemed safe at that point, but abruptly, everything had changed.
