“Adrian, I swear I—”
“Stop.”He didn’t care if he hurt her feelings by being harsh.Not when she was the one willing to risk the trust they’d been working so hard to rebuild.“All I want right now is for you to be blunt.Tell me what you hoped to accomplish and how you got hurt.”
“Fine.We’ve been wondering whether Wrengate might be the person who caused Evie’s death.When you received that note last night and concluded it must have come from the same individual, I thought I’d retrieve a sample of Wrengate’s writing.So we could establish once and for all if he’s the one pulling the strings.”
Adrian stared at her.While he hated the way in which she’d handled the matter, her reasoning was sound.Still…
“You should have waited so we could devise a plan together instead of racing off, ready to save the world on your own.”
“You’re right.It was foolish of me.”
He respected her for admitting as much, but he needed to make sure she understood her position now.“We’re married, you and I.For my part, despite the tumultuous start to our relationship, I’d like us to work as a team.It’s my belief that will serve us both best.So you have to promise you’ll never be this reckless again.Not only because it threatens the trust between us but because it would kill me if anything bad happened to you.Understand?You didn’t just head to the shops without letting me know.You ran off to face a duke whom we know ordered Wycliff killed.”
“You’re right and I’m sorry.”She gave him a weak smile that nearly made him fall to his knees before her.“My capabilities made me arrogant.I thought it would be a quick errand.”
He sighed, allowed the tension in his body to dissipate.“From the looks of things, it wasn’t as simple as you imagined.”
“A servant spotted me after I entered the house.She alerted Wrengate to my presence.”
“You fought him?”
A quick nod confirmed what he already knew.“I managed to knee him in the groin then escape through the window.Not entirely empty handed.”
She reached inside her shirt and pulled out a fistful of crumpled paper.
“These are mostly invoices written by other people,” Adrian said while leafing through them, “but there is a list here for various items he probably meant to purchase.It may prove useful, but you still should have told me you planned on going.You should have let me help.”
“Getting in and out of his house would have been harder if you’d been with me.”
“I would have talked you out of doing it your way, Samantha.”He held her gaze with every intention of making her see reason.“There are other means we could have applied if you’d only waited.Murdoch has people in most of the upper-class households, if not all.I’m sure he could have gotten a better sample of the duke’s writing if we’d asked.”
“That would involve putting someone else at risk.”
“And you not getting hurt.”Why didn’t she understand that she might not have returned home?If Wrengate had managed to catch her…
He dared not contemplate what would have happened to her had that been the case.
“We’ve got bigger concerns than Wrengate,” she said, as though reading his mind.
He narrowed his gaze, not liking the caution with which she spoke.“What do you mean?”
“I was delayed while returning home.A couple of men ambushed me.”
A massive weight bore down on Adrian’s shoulders.He clenched his fists.“Did you fight them too?”
“No.They caught me off guard and…”
“And what?”Lord help him he wanted to shake her for putting herself at risk in this way.She was too bloody daring for her own good.
“I took a punch to the stomach.”
“What?”He stared at her in open-mouthed disbelief.“A man punched you?”
“To be fair, I did threaten him with a dagger first, but that’s not—”
“Promise me this is the last time you leave home alone.”
Her eyes widened.“Adrian, I’ve been—”
