Daniel exploded forward, running to his father, and Jessop jerked around, carrying the knife several inches away from Maddy. He had no time to protest. A bullet slammed into his forehead, and he crumpled to the right, taking the knife with him as Rob Benson, smoking gun in hand, emerged from the brush.
Brynn had Maddy in his arms before she could blink, hugging her against his shoulder while he groped for a handkerchief.
Glenmoor got there first with his. “He nicked you, Madelyn. Not so bad this time,” the duke said cheerfully, wiping her face.
Daniel Kendrick wiggled out of his father’s hands and threw himself at Maddy still wrapped in Brynn’s arms. “I did it, Your Grace. I ran just when you said. How did you know Major Benson was there?”
She hadn’t, of course. His brave Maddy must have set up a signal so the boy would know when Jessop was distracted enough for him to run—at her own expense. Brynn let her go reluctantly when she bent to hug the boy. “You were brave and intrepid. I’m proud of you,” she said.
“What is intrepid?” Daniel asked, looking up at Glenmoor.
“It means you never gave up,” his uncle told him. “It means you are a strong and clever boy.”
Brynn watched Glenmoor lead the boy back to his father.
Daniel glanced up at Glenmoor. “You’re a duke, but what’s a duke’s ‘air’?”
Brynn didn’t hear the answer. He turned to enfold Maddy once more, but she had gone to embrace Rob. Her savior. Feeling useless, Brynn barked orders to the men milling about to clean up the scene and dispose of Jessop’s body, before stalking back the way he’d come, viciously swiping at brambles and branches.
He glanced back to see Benson put an arm around Maddy and lead her toward the stable path, the family resemblance more obvious than Brynn had ever noticed before. He had rushed through the underbrush only to stand helpless and impotent while a monster had held a knife to her throat. She didn’t need Brynn.
She has brothers to protect her, he thought, emerging into the rose garden, frustrated. He stopped short when her voice echoed in his head.“They aren’t you.”
Hope flickered to life.You’re an idiot, Morgan. She might not need your protection, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t want you. What are you going to do about it?
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Rob had Maddybundled up in a coverlet and plied with tea in the drawing room at Clarion Hall with Lucy before shock wore off enough so she could think. Now she glared at her high-handed brother.
“I am quite fine, thank you very much. It wasn’t necessary to carry me off like some fainting maiden. I don’t need to be coddled,” she said. I need to see to Gideon, to thank Phillip, to reassure Daniel, to…Brynn. I need to speak with Brynn. I need…She took a sip of her tea—heavily laced with brandy—and her shaking hand made a lie out of “fine.” She pulled the coverlet tighter.
“Dead bodies, distraught fathers, and chaos weren’t what you needed after what you endured,” Rob insisted. “I, on the other hand, am called to assist. Our brother, officious lordship that he is, wants to deal with this mess quickly. In this case he may be right. Dead Americans can be a nuisance. He plans to call for an inquest at the Willow in the morning with me as a star witness. I better go down there before he browbeats the coroner into it, lines up every man in the shire to testify, and makes a coronation procession out of transporting Jessop’s body.”
“Has Brynn gone there?” Maddy wanted him on the settee next to her, not stomping around, giving orders.
“Yes and in a fine temper,” Rob replied. “He wanted to take down Jessop himself and begrudges me.”
“You had no choice!” Maddy said.
“He knows that. He probably knows he’s being a fool.” The fine lines around Rob’s eyes crinkled when he smiled. “He’ll come around, Maddy. Never doubt it.”
“I have a question for him.”
“Ask it when he comes,” Rob said.
Brynn had avoided her since the enlightening conversation in the breakfast room, him and his overweening pride. She wouldn’t put it past him to flee back to London without coming to see her. “It won’t keep. Wait for me to write a note. There should be paper in that secretaire, Lucy.”
Moments later Rob tucked a folded paper in his coat, winked at his sister, kissed his wife, and left them.
*
Volunteering to rideto Nottingham to alert the coroner probably wasn’t Brynn’s best idea, but he had snatched at it as an excuse to get away. Benson had borne Maddy off to be cosseted and comforted at the hall, leaving Brynn in impotent frustration. Clarion had taken command of the legal ramifications and estate cleanup, leaving Brynn without a role once the military and security issues were no longer an issue. He had no target for his uncertain temper, either. Kendrick and Glenmoor had gone off together to comfort the children, leaving him free of even those concerns for Maddy’s sake, at least for now.
He had considered seeking out Rhys, the only person in this entire troop of traveling players who gave a tinker’s damn about Brynn. Mulling that bit of self-pity, he’d overheard Clarion send Eli to Nottingham. He had volunteered to go instead, freeing young Benson to make arrangements with his father at the Willow. He’d hoped the ride would clear his head, but all he’d gotten were an earful of the coroner’s complaints about Clarion’s high-handed summons and a lungful of road dust.
Now he rode up the coaching road under rapidly darkening skies to the Willow awash in candlelight, its welcoming warmth calling him. He couldn’t force his mount past it, toward the bridge and the road to the hall. A pint of ale to clear his throat and quiet to unscramble his disordered thoughts drew him to a stop.
Instead, he found a taproom full of Benson progeny, cheerful to a man—or woman, in the case of Emma Corbin—busily rearranging the room for the inquest. Even Rob. Brynn endured raucous greetings, backslaps, and commiseration before getting that ale, ensconced in the snug with Rob and his father while Emma oversaw the staff’s efforts to sweep and polish. Eli departed to reassure the earl that all was in readiness, and he said, “Get a good night’s sleep before the entertainment.”
