Page 22 of A Raven Repents

“I didn’t send any money.”

“Oh?” She gestured around the room. “I suppose the house redecorated itself then.” Her anger was mounting and tears stung her eyes. She always cried when she was angry, and she hated it. “Everyone around you says what a kind man you are.” A tear escaped down her cheek and she slapped it away. “But all I’ve ever seen from you is vitriol. You’ve never been anything but horrible to me.”

“Well then, perhaps you trapped the wrong man!”

She picked up a throw pillow and hurled it at him. With an outraged sob, she stormed from the room, slamming the door behind her. Perhaps she had married the wrong man, and she was stuck with him now.

But then she remembered the alternative. Lord Chilton. This was still the right choice, but how was she going to live this way? Never knowing when he might show up and shower her with more of his acrimony.

After a few minutes, she heard him march down the stairs and out the front door. Wiping her tears with trembling fingers, she sat down to write Lavinia a letter. She was not going to sit idly by and wait for him to come back.

Chapter

Six

“Bloody Ash!” It had taken him a minute to figure it out, but that’s who had sent it. That’s what he’d done with the money Giles gave him. A piece of gravel stabbed into the bottom of his foot. “Ouch!” He hadn’t bothered to put his shoes on, and they weren’t doing him a damn bit of good in his hands. Lifting his foot, he removed the rock and threw it as far as he could manage. He brushed off the rest of the gravel and straightened his sock before slipping on his shoe. He repeated the same with his other foot and crouched to tie them.

“That was uncalled for, Giles.”

He’d forgotten Isaac was even there. “What are you still doing here, Isaac? I don’t need a nanny.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. You certainly behaved like a child in there with your wife.”

Giles stood up and swung, but Isaac blocked his punch. He shook his head. “I’ve sparred with every man on your security team, and your cousin, so trust me when I say I can hold my own. And you’re not my employer, so I will fight back.”

Giles turned his face up and roared his frustration at the sky. Why couldn’t he do anything right anymore?

He could not go back to Michael’s right now, so using his own carriage, he went straight to the station.

The train ride back to London probably should have cooled his ire, but instead, it was all the hotter by the time he entered Raven House and stormed into Ash’s office. “You sent that money to my wife?”

Ash looked up from his desk, his brow raised just a bit, but he spoke quietly. “Close the door, Giles. We don’t need to make a scene in front of the ladies.”

Giles huffed and pushed the door shut behind him. “There, it’s closed,” he said angrily.

“Now sit down.”

“Why are you like this? Why can’t you ever just shout back?”

Ash sat there, silently waiting. But Giles didn’t want to be calm. He wanted to hit something, or someone. He wanted to throw things, curse, bellow, and stomp his feet.

“Why?” he asked desperately, but Ash still just waited.

With a groan, he finally lowered himself into the chair. “Why did you send that money to my wife?”

“What do we do here, Giles?”

“Oh, bloody hell, not this again.”

“This is all there is. What do we do here?”

“My wife isn’t on the streets, Ash. She’s living in a lavish home with her every need seen to. I even sent a dressmaker.”

“What do we do here, Giles?”

“For Christ’s sake.” He closed his eyes and breathed out a cleansing breath. There was no winning against this man. “We bring in women and give them safety.”

Ash nodded. “That’s step one. What comes after that?”