Another murder.
They would have to free Marietta’s brother now. That was the good news. That the real killer was still running around, and Marietta would be leaving me, was the bad.
I paused at the top of the steps. Should I awaken her or let her sleep? The scene would be gruesome. She didn’t need to see it. I aligned my steps so they went silent on the floor, as I’d been taught as a child.
My silence didn’t matter. She was sitting up in bed, looking rumpled and delicious, the sheets pulled around her.
“What is happening?” Her voice was husky but alert.
I hesitated.
“Gabriel?”
“There’s been another murder. I’m going to the scene. Go back to sleep and I will return by the time you rise.”
“Another murder? Like the others?” Her hand holding the sheet dropped and exposed part of her breast to my lovely view. “Go back to sleep? No, I’m coming with you.”
I wasn’t surprised. Her grit was one of my favorite qualities. Still…“It won’t be pretty. Think of what your brother described.”
She shivered, but shook her head. Her eyes were clear, her expression determined. “I’m coming.”
I nodded. “Get dressed. Call if you need help. We need to leave in ten minutes.”
We left in eight.
The streets were foggy and dark. The early morning shadows from the gaslights cast odd shapes against the buildings and stones.
I watched Marietta stare through the window at the passing streets. Last night had been… Indescribable. Taunting her, seducing her, bedding her—somehow falling into my own trap.
She made me laugh.
She made mewant.
She didn’t hold her tongue. Most women bent over backward to please me. Oh, there had been a few who hadn’t in the past, but none of them had produced a pull, a desire to continue a liaison for the pure joy of it. And even if she went moon-eyed with want like so many others, Iwantedto see that expression on her.
Strange.
My driver pulled up to the curb. A crowd was forming, the watchmen trying to keep them away from the corner. A daunting task with the two streets converging and four directions to oversee. Dresden was roaming the crowd, sharp eyes taking in each face.
“Dresden is here.” I tapped a finger against the window. “If we exit, he will know your identity without a doubt.”
“You said he probably already does.”
“He will hunt you.” I considered confining her to the carriage.
Her shoulders straightened. “Kennen will be exonerated. He will have nothing to hunt me for.”
Would she try to reenter society after her brother was freed? Retire to the country? Find a man to marry who didn’t mind that she would try to be the strong one in the relationship?
Would she consider continuing a liaison? I felt strangely unwilling to let her go.
I had worked with scores of women over the years. I had even been interested in a few. But the attraction fizzled quickly, every time.
This one was still going strong. I had known it before taking her to bed. Unnerving.
What was it about her? She clutched her hands as she looked out at the crowd, nervous and excited to see her brother freed. Not the prettiest or smartest or tallest or bravest. But she was all of those things wrapped together in a package that just seemed to fitme. How utterly terrifying.
I had never imagined Marietta Winters walking in and blowing a hole in my well-planned life.
