She nodded. “You are right. We must return to Colemore.” She started from the bed, but Beckett caught her wrist. She paused, one foot on the floor.
He met her eye. “Gwendolyn,I’llreturn to Colemore. I’m sending you back to London.”
“Why?”
“I want you safe.”
“I am safe.” She stood. “I’m with you.”
“And I almost had you transported to Australia. We were lucky to escape.”
“BecauseIwas there,” she pointed out. “Because I helped you.”
“If anything happened to you, your sisters would flay me alive.” He put his legs over the edge of the bed and reached for his breeches on the floor. “Nor would I be able to live with myself.”
She pushed her heavy hair back over her shoulders. “You need my help. You are outnumbered at Colemore.”
“Not completely.” He had risen and begun fastening his buttons. “I have a man there. I’ve already sent a messenger. He’ll be ready.” He picked up his shirt from the floor and started sorting it to put over his head. She grabbed ahold of the garment before he could.
“Will you stop?” she demanded. “You andoneman can’t go against all the family and servants of Colemore.”
“We can. Wagner and I are wily. We will be fine. What I don’t need is you as a distraction. They’ve already used you against me. We are lucky to have escaped.” He released his hold on her hand and tugged his shirt over his head.
Gwendolyn frowned, aware that he was right. They had trapped him using her.
He began putting on his boots.
She pictured the three graves in St. Albion’s cemetery. Her imagination quickly pictured the small one being expanded to contain him. Her chest tightened.
Gwendolyn sat next to him, heedless of her nakedness in the face of his dressing. “Beckett, I won’t go to London. I’ll stay here and not interfere.It will be hard. I’ll be pacing the floor, but I need to be close in case—” She stopped. She’d been about to push again that he might require her assistance, and she knew he would disagree.
He shifted his attention to her. His leather-covered thigh rested along her naked one. “I want you out of this.” He wasn’t angry, just firm. “I must handle this myself, Gwendolyn.”
“What if they discover you are on the estate?”
“They will know I’m there. I sent a message requesting a meeting.”
Gwendolyn rocked back. “Why would you do that? If you can’t prove the title was robbed from you, and you don’t sound as if you want it—”
He nodded. “I don’t need them or their money.”
“—thenwhyare you telling them you are coming? Why even return?”
“For justice, Gwendolyn. I want the truth, whether I take action or not.Wewon’t be safe until it is laid to rest. If what we suspect is true, that they have murdered for the title and all that it entails, they will do anything to keep power. They already have.”
He was right.
She rose and reached for her dress and petticoats. They were folded on the footrail. Beckett must have put them there. “I don’t want to be shuffled back to London.” She faced him. “I’m not afraid to face them with you, Beckett.”
“I know. However, I need to know you are safe. I won’t let harm come to you, and they know that.” His expression was bleak. She was not going to change his mind. She shouldn’t because he was right. Her presence would interfere. That didn’t mean she was happy about leaving.
“You are a stubborn, stubborn man.”
“Then we are well-matched.”
She almost laughed, but the sound couldn’t slip past the sudden tightness in her throat. If she was completely honest, she did fear that Beckettmightforget he loved her. That what they shared was merely one bubble in time, and he’d move on.Like her father had.
The thought startled her. She tried to push it away, but it returned, stronger than before.
