A chain dropped over her head. She got her hands up before it tighten about her neck. Grabbing the man’s wrists, she ducked and twisted.
She came up facing him and slammed the top of her head into his chin. Bone cracked. Clasping her hands, she drove an elbow into his ribs. He staggered back.
She grabbed the chain and whirled. The first man appeared to have passed out in a pool of blood, but the one she’d hit in the face staggered to his feet. Behind her, the third man cursed and groaned.
Madelina swung the chain over her head. It smashed the face of the man in front of her before he could fully regain his stance. He crumpled. She yanked the chain back and spun.
The remaining man backed to the door, hands held before him, palms out. Blood streamed down his chin. Madelina looked past him to see a lean, black-clad form in the doorway. When Madam Dequenne’s man reached the door, the black-clad man hit him on the back of the head. He slumped to the floor. The man in the doorway bowed, his face obscured by a mask.
“Lord Lefthook,” Madelina said.
“Little Hook,” he replied, his voice instantly familiar. “You fight well.”
The chain slid from Madelina’s hand to clatter to the floor. “William,” she cried, and ran to her brother, skirting unconscious bodies. He wrapped his arms about her. She pulled back to look up at him. “How can you be Lord Lefthook? How could you not tell me?” She shook her head, retracting her questions with the gesture. “No, never mind. We must go. We cannot let Jasper marry that woman.”
William let her step back but, even with a mask covering half his face, she read his grave expression. “It’s too late. It’s done.”
Madelina staggered. She caught the wall with one hand. “No. We can’t be too late.”
William shook his head. “Dodger came in before I reached this hallway and told me they left the church together. There’s nothing we can do now.”
Pain surged through her. “There’s something I can do,” she cried. “I can kill her.”
Keen hazel eyes met hers. “Can you?” William’s sweeping gesture took in the room.
Madelina turned back. Three men lay on the floor. Likely, they would never be the same again, but all should live. She could have killed them. Aunt Aubrey would deliver an hour-long lecture when she learned Madelina had shot a man in the thigh when she could have shot him through the heart.
“No, I cannot,” she admitted, misery eating its way up her throat to choke the admission. She didn’t bother to ask William if he could. There was a reason Lord Lefthook didn’t carry a gun. “But I can do something. I can go to him. We can run away together. Cross the ocean. Make a new life.”
Pain darkened William’s eyes. “You can. If that is what you wish, what he wishes.”
“I must at least see him. Please.”
“He doesn’t wish to see you.”
Madelina squared her shoulders. “I don’t care. I wish to see him.”
Silence drew out. Finally, William nodded. “Dodger is outside. He’ll know where they’re headed, although I suspect they go to Mclintock’s London house.” William entered the hall and turned right.
Madelina followed. They passed several still forms. They rounded a corner to a hall littered with more bodies. Decorative tables were overturned. Paintings hung askew. Bullet holes punctuated the walls. A wall sconce lay on the floor, wax sprayed about it and a hole in the plaster where it once graced the wall.
They followed the destruction to the front door. William knocked out a rhythm. The door cracked open and a boy slipped in. William’s adopted son, Dodger, who said he was fourteen but might have been ten.
“Your ladyship.” Dodger offered a bow.
“It’s Aunt Madelina,” she corrected, mustering a smile despite the pounding urgency in her heart. She had to get to Jasper. She couldn’t allow him to settle on a life with Miss White.
“Where did Mister Mclintock go?” William asked.
“He went home,” Dodger reported. “Took the witch with him.”
“Normally, I’d correct you for speaking that way about a lady,” William said.
“If she were a lady, I wouldn’t speak that way about her,” Dodger countered.
William shook his head. He turned back to Madelina. “I’ll go with you. The rooftops will be the quickest way, but you’ll have to work not to be seen. It’s midday.”
“I can manage, and I know the way. Please, could you go to my aunt? She’s bound to be worried.”
