With his hands in his pockets, he watched Phillip being shackled. “I always seem to get my timing off.” He shook his head, then offered a hand to help her stand. “I hope you’ll forgive me, Miss Pelton. I had to stall for time until the officers stationed inside could reach us.”
Lydia stared at his hand and considered biting it, but first, she needed to deal with the dratted gag. Pulling out the wadded material as it stuck to her tongue and the roof of her mouth sent a shudder through her body. Never again would she shove something into her characters’ mouths. A neat and tidy strip of material tied at the back of the head would be much more palatable.
Ignoring his hand, she pushed from the ground. “I don’t know whether to thank you or to slap you. It’s your fault that they’re hunting me.”
Some of his swagger disappeared. “I thought a stint at Longview Insane Asylum would be the worst they’d do once they discovered you were a woman. I never expected this.”
“The worst they’d do?”Slap him. Definitely slap him.
She drew back her arm, but he deftly caught it and tucked her arm around his. “Allow me to escort you back to Miss Plane’s. I have a hack waiting around the corner.”
She stiffened and dug a boot heel into the space between cobblestones. “How do you know where I’m staying?”
“I’m a reporter. I have eyes everywhere, especially on you. You’re the story of the century.”
The notion he’d been watching her more than unsettled her; it downright sickened her. “I want an officer to escort me and my family home. Not a reporter.”
“Especially not this reporter?” He quirked a brow and offered a knowing smile. “While I understand your hesitancy, I promise you, I’m not the fiend Detective Hall paints me to be.”
“It’s your own actions that declare you one, sir!”
“You must admit that, at the moment, I’m more hero than fiend. If it had not been for me, Phillip and Mrs. Keaton would have you in the back alley, breaking those beautiful fingers of yours. Or worse, killing you.”
“All the same, I’d rather someone else take us home.”
Mr. Clemens nodded, though his displeasure was clear. “Then allow me to deliver you into Officer Lucian Atwood’s capable hands. You might not trust me, but I won’t chance someone else whisking you away.”
Lydia refused to respond to that. Shedidn’ttrust him, and one act of heroism wasn’t going to change that. However, she couldn’t help but be thankful for his consideration once she met Officer Atwood. He was the perfect officer to soothe her fears. He assured her of his protection and never moved more than a few feet away.
It took longer than expected to give her statement, see Phillip and Mrs. Keaton taken away, and to have Madelyn and Momma retrieved. But eventually, Officer Atwood escorted them to Plane Manor in an open-air hack. With the cool breeze and his smooth words, he managed to calm Madelyn’s hysterics, stop Momma’s berating herself, and fill the drive with easygoing chatter. Despite his jovial personality, however, Lydia couldn’t relax. A trembling anxiousness held her in its grip, muddling her brain and icing her veins, though it eluded her how, on such a baking day, she could feel so cold.
The hack pulled directly in front of the portico, and Theresa opened the door to greet them with a half-eaten bouquet of flowers.
By the grim set to her mouth, these flowers weren’t a simple casualty from Tipsy.
“Billy Poe sent you these and another note.”
Lydia pressed a hand to her throat, trying to quell her rising fear. “He sent themhere? To your house for me?”
Theresa nodded. “They were left on the steps not ten minutes ago. Tipsy found them first when …”
Whatever else Theresa said was lost to Lydia.
Ten minutes. He’d been here, at this spot, ten minutes ago.
Oh, Lord above! What am I supposed to do?
There was no doubt in her mind that he watched her. Wherever he stood, his eyes bored straight into her. How long would it be until looking wasn’t enough?
CHAPTER19
“ABDUCTED? WHERE? HOW?” ABRAHAM RAMMEDa hand through his hair. Lydia had been here not two hours ago.
Lucian stood in uniform at Abraham’s door even though this section of town wasn’t his beat. “Her mother insisted on attending church service, and Keaton’s father and mother were waiting for her.”
Were all the Pelton women without sense? “Tell me all.”
After a brief report, Lucian shook his head. “We always talked about becoming detectives, but I’m not so sure I’m interested anymore.”
