“True,” Sebastian conceded. He still felt the sting of his anger toward James, but he could not deny the sense ofthe suggestion—nor that it was James’s quick action that had brought the truth to him at all. “We will summon one at once.”
Hackneys were easy to hail in this part of town. Sebastian raised his hand, and within moments a coach rattled up to the pavement.
“Stannard’s,” Sebastian said, distaste thick in his voice.
The driver nodded without comment. “Threepence, my lord.”
Sebastian paid, and they climbed in. The coach lurched forward, racing through the slick London streets.
The scenery changed swiftly—gracious buildings giving way to crowded, darkened tenements, then to sagging hovels. Smoke hung so thickly it seemed perpetual twilight. Children, barefoot and muddied, darted through the filth. A gaunt man hurled a bottle into the street and laughed, drunk beyond sense.
“Whereisthis club?” Sebastian breathed. The thought of Evelyn anywhere near such suffering and danger twisted something deep inside him.
“Down this road,” James said briskly. “It is not the worst part—but close.”
The hackney turned onto a marginally cleaner, cobbled street and drew up before a low, dark building. Through the haze of smoke, Sebastian made out the painted sign.
“Stannard’s,” he read aloud.
His heart surged painfully. Evelyn was in there. He felt it. Heknewit.
James climbed down beside him. Sebastian turned toward him.
“Let’s go.”
James’s face was chalk-white. Sebastian remembered suddenly: Stannard had threatened to kill him. Fury rose afresh, but he pushed it aside.
“Two are more dangerous than one,” Sebastian said lightly—an attempt at reassurance.
James managed a thin smile. “Best pray there are only two of them, too.”
For a fleeting instant, the familiar spark in James’s eyes reminded Sebastian of Evelyn. Wit, courage, a resilience beneath the fear.
His chest tightened.
I love her,he realised with sudden, startling certainty.
Why did I not realise that sooner?
The truth struck him like cold water. His parents had never loved one another—and had claimed it made life easier. But he loved Evelyn with an intensity he had never imagined possible. And he would not let her story end as theirs had. He would not fail her again.
He straightened and nodded to James.
“We go in together,” he said. “Through the front. Reinforcements will come.”
He hoped Nicholas would reach them in time—Nicholas, who never failed him.
James, pale but resolute, nodded. Side by side, they strode toward the door.
They would find Evelyn.
They would bring her home.
No matter what waited for them inside.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sebastian struck the door with his fist. Nothing happened. For a brief moment, he wondered if he had chosen the wrong approach—perhaps slipping in through the back would have been wiser. He raised his hand to knock again, but the door flew open so abruptly he might have pitched forward had he been leaning any of his weight upon it. As it was, he lashed out at the hands that lunged to seize him.
