Silas looked at him with his flinty eyes. After a beat, he took the pouch and gave Daniel a curt bow. Then, he wordlessly disappeared into the fog. Adrian had said that the man might look like that, but he was reliable. At the right price, of course.
“Do you understand that you are playing a dangerous game, Daniel?” Adrian asked, before taking a deep breath. “You are dealing with thugs. I’ve left this lifestyle a long time ago because I want to live in peace with your sister. Now, you are embracing it. Gordon won’t be easy to catch. He is aprofessional.”
“Let him try to escape me once more,” Daniel growled. “I need to know what he knows. While he may have set the place on fire, he would not have done it without receiving payment. I want to know who ordered the killing of my uncle and my cousin. I will not rest until I have my hands around his neck.”
He could sense Adrian looking at him with concern. He tried to ignore him. There were things that others might not understand, or they did, but they also understood the dangers that came with his plan.
“And what about Lady Lucy? You’ve not mentioned her name since we left Redmoor Hall. Did you at least send her a note? Ah, I can tell you have not. You should have at least asked Daphne how she was faring.”
There was a reason Daniel did not mention Lucy’s name. In that instant, the memory of her scent, her body heat, and the desperation between them hit him like a physical blow. He could not linger.
No, he could not.
“I don’t have time for anything else, Adrian. Time is of the essence. I may lose the trail toward the murderer.”
“Be that as it may,” Adrian countered, “you are also using this hunt for your relatives’ killer as a shield. You know that acknowledging her is also another kind of danger.”
To his pledge. To his heart. Yes. Several thousand times, yes.
“I am protecting her,” Daniel insisted. He then clamped his mouth shut so hard he wondered if he would ever speak again.
The feeling came with violent intensity. He imagined Moses Gordon and his men tracking Lucy. No, he could not have that. She still had time to pin her hopes on someone else. She could still find someone to marry.
A lump formed in his throat.
“My life is full of fire and dark alleys at the moment. Lucy? She still has a chance to grasp at the light. I can’t drag her into a danger that would ensnare her. That would make me selfish. I also don’t know if she has any regard for me other than curiosity.”
“Guilt is certainly difficult to live with,” Adrian acknowledged. “Don’t drown in it. You still have a life. You are still young. Vengeance cannot be your ultimate purpose.”
Daniel did not respond to that.
Lucy had stayed inside Marsleigh House for a full week. She let its invisible vines coil around her, suffocating her.
Suddenly, her drab dresses felt appropriate. When Joshua left for his gentlemen’s club, she at least had a bit of freedom. Some air to breathe.
Victoria, concerned about her, came to visit. Her arrival was noisy and fussy, and Lucy suspected it was how her friend wanted it to be to wake her up.
“Lucy! It feels like a tomb in here!” Victoria complained, bursting into the drawing room as if she owned it.
Lucy did not mind. It was the way Victoria was—honest and a little loud. She didn’t change even after she married.
Victoria threw her gloves on the table in front of Lucy and started pacing back and forth. Eventually, she looked at Lucy’s pale face.
“Why do you look like you are waiting for your executioner?”
Both women sank onto the sofa. Lucy’s fingers trembled when she poured tea for herself and her friend.
“I—I am just tired.”
“Nonsense. You have been home for a whole week,” Victoria scolded. “Something must have happened during my sister’s ball. Or rather, her husband’s ball. He was so ecstatic about every aspect of it being Scottish. I hope it’s not something a certain brother of mine did.”
Lucy hesitated. She should keep what had happened secret. It looked like Daphne had kept quiet about it. Why could she not? Well, perhaps because she felt burdened by it all. She wantedto tell someone. She wanted to have her friend’s view on the matter, even if it would hurt more.
“Well, something did happen,” she began hesitantly.
“I knew it!” Victoria exclaimed, swinging her arm with satisfaction. “What happened exactly?”
She leaned closer to Lucy, her eyes curious.
