He looked at me, that way he often did, as if he’d read my mind. “I’m not taking you back to the Croome household tonight. They may be watching Nineteen Fournier. My grooms are there observing.”
I was afraid for my family, my boy, but I knew what Wycliff said was right. I nodded.
“Good. We won’t provoke the fight tonight. I’ll not bring trouble on your family. I have to be smart.Wehave to be.”
His words reached through the fog that had begun to fill my mind. I’d hit someone. I’d defended Wycliff with my own hands.
I’d been strong for him, and that made my soul rejoice.
But the look on Wycliff’s face seared my conscience. It was as if these spectacles had collected strong sunlight and burned me.
He was in agony.
I felt the heat of his reddening face. The man was enraged.
The nightmare I had lived these four years was new and fresh to him.
“You didn’t need to come out here, you know. I would’ve believed you if you’d explained.”
“I couldn’t talk about it. I wanted to pretend it wasn’t my story. I needed you to hear Madame’s testimony. I needed to make sure that I hadn’t jumbled things. She’s my proof.”
He rubbed at his skull, like he’d rubbed my temples.
I felt the pressure of his fingers, as if he’d touched me. I missed that. It had only been two days since the theater, and I missed him.
“You knew they were watching. I understand better your precautions. I guess you’re not crazed.”
“No, I’m not. I wish I’d been crazed sooner. Then you would have never suffered.”
I felt the weight of what he’d put upon his shoulders. I shuddered. How could he survive this every day?
He moved from me to the other side of the carriage.
I stretched and touched his knee, but he didn’t look at me. I wondered if he still could. Was I too damaged to him now?
Small talk.
We’d always been good at that. “Lord Wycliff, did Mrs. Johnson set this attack in motion? She came to Nineteen Fournier.”
In the lantern light, I watched him untie his cravat that now had dirt stains and sweat. “I don’t know. I think she’s easily manipulated. She’s grieving. She has a baby to come and her husband committed suicide in debtors’ prison.”
“But she stole the book.”
“She knew the trunk from taking this ledger book. She sought an advantage. Crafty but not malicious.”
He swallowed like his throat was raw. “I think she’d use anything for an advantage but not plot for a murder, and definitely not yours.”
Wycliff stretched out, but the sjambok was by his boot. He looked like a frustrated warrior.
The knowledge we’d just escaped didn’t make me feel any better. These acts of revenge weren’t done. Soulden and Nicholas Wilkinson would try to hurt us again.
I wanted to be told that everything would be all right now, but Wycliff was quiet.
Another hour went by. It was pitch-black outside, but the blurry trees highlighted by the stars were gone.
Wycliff shifted between folding his arms, clutching the seat, and checking the windows. It was an odd dance, but I understood. I understood him.
The outlines of the city could now be seen.
