He went over and kissed her head, then turned to the door.
“And until then? Will you be my gaoler and nothing more?” she asked. “That seems an unnecessary cruelty, considering the future I face.”
She surprised him. Only a scoundrel would take to bed a woman who knew he planned to ruin. There would be the devil to pay when this ended, in his conscience if nothing else.
He decided he could live with that. He went back, lifted her in his arms, and carried her into the bedchamber.
Chapter Seventeen
“Another early visit, Langford. At least you waited until eleven this time.”
Gabriel found Brentworth in his study, pen in hand. The papers arrayed on the desk looked important and official. Since Brentworth held no title in the government, Gabriel wondered what those papers contained.
With a practiced move, Brentworth gathered them with one hand into an impenetrable stack.
Gabriel sat in a chair to one side of the chamber. He’d be damned if he sat across that desk like an employee or supplicant, although he was something of the latter today.
“I have come to ask a favor,” he began.
“You have only to name it.” Brentworth set his pen in its holder. “I expect you want to borrow the dagger.”
His guessing that was hellishly annoying. And a bit worrying. “Yes.”
“I will not ask why. I am sure you have a good reason.” He stood and aimed for the door. Gabriel followed.
In the gallery, Brentworth opened the case and drawer and lifted out the dagger. “We will find a box for it. You cannot ride through town with that in your coat. It will tear the lining.”
“I expect so.”
Brentworth called for a footman and described the box he needed. They went to the library to wait. “I heard Brougham speaking favorably about that bill. The revision of the criminal code regarding capital crimes. He has never cared for all these death penalties that, due to good conscience, are never carried out. It creates unfairness in an area where the government should be very fair.”
“And the penal reform.”
“It is difficult to make people care whether criminals are well cared for.”
“The two bills go hand in hand. If the prisons remain as they are, avoiding hanging will only delay death a short while for many of these people.”
“Perhaps, but I doubt you will get both bills passed.”
Probably not, since his own attempts at persuasion promised to be curtailed for the foreseeable future. Potentially forever.
Considering what he planned to do for Amanda, it would be better for his name to be removed from those bills. If he were found out, it would look like he only supported them to protect a certain woman in the event she was caught at her crimes.
The footman brought in a shallow wooden box with a simple clasp closure. Brentworth wrapped the dagger in his handkerchief and placed it inside. “If you should think of any more details about that auction, such as who else attended, please let me know,” Gabriel said.
Brentworth snapped the box cover shut and handed it over.
Gabriel took it. “No questions?”
Brentworth shook his head. “A reminder, however. You have friends if you need them. Do not forget that.”
* * *
When Gabriel returned to his house, he found Stratton handing his own horse to a groom. “It is good I came no earlier, Langford. I would have been told you were not at home and assumed you cut me.”
“I have been rising earlier than normal these days.” Since there was no way to keep Stratton out without in fact insulting him, he accepted his friend’s company as he entered the house.
Stratton, through habit, aimed for the library. Falling back a step, Gabriel made frantic gestures to the butler from behind Stratton’s back. The man understood, and hurried ahead of them both.
