Tony put up a hand. “Lucinda, stay away. There is no need for you to see this.”
“No, but he needs to see this. You all do,” she said, taking off her ring and opening one of the compartments. “This is what you wanted. This is what you are now dying for. You stupid old man.” She turned and threw the ring through the doorway and into the Thames beyond.
In the silence, the sound of it splashing through the surface of the water seemed extremely loud. All the men gasped in shock.
“What have you done?” Stafford yelled, still clutching his belly. “I knew you had it, you bloody bitch,” Stafford groaned out as he collapsed on the floor.
“As you said, the Thames has a way of getting rid of evidence. It was not a message but a recipe for a deadly gas. Something no one should have. My father knew it. I know it, and now you will know it. I only did what my father should have done. I found it two days ago. Tony wanted to give it to you. I refused because I knew it was the type of information that would make a man do the unthinkable. The formula is gone. The world is safe. I am tired and wish to go home.” She lifted her outer skirt and ripped some material off her chemise. “But first we had better stop that bleeding.”
Tony took it from her, but his eyes were haunted. “No amount of your chemise is going to save him, Lucinda.”
She looked down at the man, who was now staring up at the ceiling of the ramshackle hut.
He was dead.
She flung herself into his arms, crying. Her whole body was shaking.
“You are all right now,” Tony soothed. “I am here, my beautiful, brave Lucinda.” She shivered in his arms, and Tony wrapped his coat around her and sat her down in the chair from which they had recently untied her.
“You are in shock,” he told her. “A perfectly normal response to this unnormal situation.”
“There is so much blood. Is he really… dead?”
“I’m afraid so,” Dunstan said as he crouched over Stafford’s body.
Lucinda looked up at Tony. “Are you angry with me for throwing the formula away?”
He shook his head. “No. I could not be prouder.” He took her back into his arms and kissed her. “You were right about Stafford. You were right about no one having it. I should have listened to you.”
“You trusted him. You both did, and he betrayed you,” she said.
Dunstan dropped to his knee in front of her. “I’m sorry for my part in this sorry mess. He promised me this would be an open and shut job. I never meant to hurt you or lead you on to think…” He looked around. “We better get out of here.”
As they shuffled out of the shack, Lucinda said, “I am sorry too. I was never going to marry you. So, I guess I led you on as well. You taught me a good lesson. I should always trust my heart.” She looked at Tony.
Dunstan shook his head. “I should have known. Shall I stay here with Stafford? You should take Lucinda home.”
“No, we will leave him here for now and send some of the runners to collect him. We need to speak to my brother.”
“You should distance yourself from this, Ashton. I shot him after all.”
“You were defending us. You had to shoot him,” Tony said.
Lucinda, still shaking, simply said, “Can we please leave this place now?”
“Yes, let’s go before the locals come to see what all the noise was about.” Tony led her out and to their waiting horses. They rode back to London in silence, Lucinda secure in Tony’s arms.
Dunstan handed her something small wrapped in wax paper. “A lemon drop. Something sweet will help with the shock.”
“Thank you,” was all she said as she unwrapped the candy and put it in her mouth. He was right. The sweet and sour combination was comforting and soon her trembling stopped.
As they rode back towards town, Tony was lost in thought, not sure how he should process the betrayal and ultimately the death of the man he had so admired. The man who he had looked up to as a father figure. The person who had given him back his sense of purpose when he had lost all hope. It had all been for nothing. What else had he done for their enemies in exchange for money? It felt wrong. It was wrong. The problem now was, who else knew about this other side of Stafford? Who else in the Ring could he truly trust?
“Are you awake?” he asked Lucinda.
“Yes. Are you all right?”
“I think so. When I got to the safe house, and you were gone… I have never been so afraid.” He buried his head in her neck as he held her in front of him on his horse.
