Meredith gave the girl a patient smile. Behind it, he could tell she was chewing a mouthful of unspoken remarks. Rhys wished he could look forward to going to bed with her tonight, just to hear all the thoughts she was so obviously keeping to herself.
Of course, that wasn’t the only reason he wished they were sharing a bed tonight. Nor even the main reason.
“Leo took me round the corner. He started talking very sweet to me. What a lovely girl I was, and how lucky a man would be to enjoy my favors.” She laughed a little. “I told him he didn’t need no luck with me, just a shilling or two. He laughed and kissed me on the cheek and promised to give me three. Well, I thought he meant to just duck into a dark corner and lift my skirts, like most of them do—but no. He said he wanted to take me home with him, and would I be lovely to him there? A real bed, he wanted!”
“Fancy that,” Meredith murmured.
“Leo sent a boy to call the hack. While we were waiting there, a gent called out to him from the shadows. Leo seemed to recognize who it was. He told me to wait right under the streetlamp, and he’d be just a few paces away. The two of them went round the corner to discuss.”
“Discuss what?” Bellamy asked.
“I don’t know, do I? Couldn’t make out the words. But they were discussing it angrily, I could tell that much. Then it got very quiet, and I started to prickle all over. Thought perhaps they’d forgotten me, and I’d be lost all alone in Whitechapel. All I had to my name was the half-crown sewn into my stays for emergencies.” She drained the rest of her cordial, as if for courage. “Seemed like ages I stood there, not knowing whether to follow after them or not. And then suddenly I heard sounds. Horrid sounds. Punches, blows, cries. Worse than the boxing match.”
She gave a little shudder. “Were it anyone else, I would have run home that instant. But I’d grown so fond of Leo, and I was ever so scared … I turned into the alley and let loose with a scream.”
Everyone went silent. Rhys supposed, like him, the others were waiting to see if she’d demonstrate.
Fortunately for Meredith’s cordial glass, the girl didn’t.
“It took a few moments before I could make out a thing, what with the dark and shadows. But there were two big, coarse-looking men standing there. And at their feet, Leo and his friend were moaning on the ground. I screamed some more. The two men took off running the other direction, disappeared at the end of the alley.”
“Could you recognize them if you saw them again?”
She shook her head, and a blond ringlet bobbed against her cheek. “They ran away so fast. All I know is that they were big and brutish and fearsome, like …” Her gaze darted toward Rhys, then quickly away. She cleared her throat. “Oh, and one was bald—I remember his head gleaming in the moonlight. And the other … well, I heard him shout to the first as they ran away. Sounded Scottish. That’s all I know.
“Besides, all my cares were for Leo. I went to him. He was knocked cold. His friend looked to be in bad shape, too, but he could speak. He told me to go for a hack, and then he gave me an address.” She looked to Bellamy. “Your address.”
Rhys and Bellamy exchanged a look.
She sniffed. “So I ran back to the street, and as luck would have it, Leo’s boy had just returned with the hack. I made the driver come help me. Told him there were two gents as needed a doctor and quick. But by the time we rushed back to the alley, the dark-haired man had vanished. Only Leo was there.”
She sniffed again, and a tear streaked down her cheek, trickling through the fine dust of face powder. Bellamy pulled a square of white linen from his pocket, and she accepted it wordlessly.
“We brought him to the cab, and I tried to keep him warm. He was shivering and so pale. His breathing was all rattled. ‘Don’t die,’ I told him, over and over. ‘Don’t die, Leo, please don’t die just yet.’” She sobbed into the handkerchief. “But he did. He died right there in my arms. And I kissed him, I couldn’t help it. I tell you, it broke my heart clean in two. Only a few hours, and I was half in love with the man.”
She cried noisily.
Rhys averted his eyes. Perhaps it was all the lingering arousal and emotion from their encounter at the pool, but he was strangely moved by Cora’s story. He was glad Leo had some tenderness as he went, even if from a stranger. Charm and fine looks helped him to the end. Most men who died by violence weren’t so fortunate. How many times had his own wounded, broken body been dragged from a tavern floor or battlefield? And never once had he awoken to find a little blond angel hovering over him. Hell, Cora couldn’t even look at Rhys without flinching. The thought of her weeping over his battered form … it made him laugh.
The laugh stuck in his throat, and he harrumphed around it.
He risked a look at Meredith. She caught his gaze, and her knee grazed his beneath the table. Then stayed there, lightly pressing against his leg.
It could have been an accident. But he didn’t believe in accidents.
“Oh, yes,” Bellamy said. His suspicious expression was at war with red-rimmed eyes. “You were so in love with Leo. But you didn’t neglect to strip his pockets, did you?”
Cora wiped her nose. “Well, I needed coin for the hackney. And he had promised me three shillings, and …” She shrugged away a great portion of her sentiment. “I’m just a whore, aren’t I? Alive or dead, he could spare a few coins.”
“Except,” Rhys said, reaching into his coat’s breast pocket, “one of those coins wasn’t a coin at all.”
From his pocket he withdrew one of the brass tokens that represented membership in the Stud Club. He laid it on the table, then slid it toward Cora with one fingertip. “You recognize it?”
“Of course.” She picked it up, peered at it, laughed at it a little. “Queer little thing, isn’t it? At first, I didn’t know what to make of it. Didn’t figure it was worth anything. I just held on to it in my purse until Jack offered me a guinea for it in trade. I grabbed at the chance, took the next coach home to see my mum in Dover. That’s where your friend found me again.”
Jack d’Orsay wasn’t precisely a friend, but neither Rhys nor Bellamy argued the point.
“After that night with Leo …” Her gaze fell to the token, and her voice went soft. “I wanted a change from that world, you know? Working as a Covent Garden girl … it wasn’t how I planned my life to be.”
All four of them stared at the table in awkward silence.
Finally, Rhys said, “That’s the way of things. Fate laughs in the face of all our plans.”
Bellamy banged the table with the side of his fist. “We have to find that man who took Leo into the alleyway. Obviously he was lured into an ambush.”
“You don’t know that. Sounds as though this stranger and your friend were both victims.” This came from Meredith. “They were both injured.”
“He was clearly feigning,” Bellamy said. “And culpable to some degree. Otherwise, why would he have disappeared?”
“I don’t know,” Meredith replied, unintimidated. “I agree, you’d best find him and ask. But I doubt you’ll find him here on Dartmoor.”
“I doubt it, too. That’s not why I’m here.” He turned to Rhys. “I’m going back to London to see what I can learn. I need a place for Cora to stay. A safe place.”
“You mean here?” Rhys asked.
Bellamy nodded.
“Now wait a minute,” Meredith said. “I run a respectable establishment. The Three Hounds isn’t that kind of inn.”
“I’ll pay all her expenses,” Bellamy said. “She won’t need to ply her trade. She just needs a place to stay. If Leo’s killers knew she was a witness, she could be in danger.” He turned to Rhys. “I thought the inn would be ideal, unless you have someplace else in mind. Have you a personal residence?”
“She’ll stay here.” Meredith rose to her feet, suddenly every inch the welcoming landlady. “Come along then, Cora. You must be fatigued. We’ll find you a room and leave the men to their conversation.”
Cora rose from the table, and Meredith beckoned her with a motherly hand. “Mr. Bellamy, will you be needing accommodations as well?”
“Just for the night.”
“Very good, then. The Three Hounds is delighted to welcome you.” The tone in her voice, however, was not a very convincing rendition of delight. “I’ll prepare a room for you, too.”
“He can have mine,” Rhys said. To her confused frown, he added in a low voice, “I’ll be camping out on the moor from now on. To discourage a repeat of this morning’s events.”
“Which events?” she whispered. “The ones at your building site, or the ones …” Her eyes flashed up toward the bedchambers.
“Both,” he said simply.
Her frown deepened.
After the ladies left them, Bellamy shot Rhys a strange look. “You’re marrying? After Leo’s death … when we discussed Lily’s future, you said you didn’t want to marry.”
“I didn’t. Not then.” And he still had no interest in marrying Leo Chatwick’s grieving twin sister. Lily was a refined, elegant lady—in the royal line, if he correctly recalled. Rhys wasn’t the man for her.
Neither was Julian Bellamy, a fact that explained the man’s persistent ill humor. If ever there was a man who discussed his childhood less willingly than Rhys, it was Bellamy. No one knew where he’d come from, and Rhys himself couldn’t have cared less. But where a lady of Lily Chatwick’s rank was concerned … even Rhys knew such things mattered. Greatly.
“So you’re telling me that in the past week, this widowed landlady has somehow changed your mind?”
“Aye.”
Bellamy riffled his unkempt shock of hair. “Don’t get me wrong. She’s a comely enough bit of goods, but … a trifle hard around the edges, don’t you think?”
“What makes you say that? Because she challenged you?” Rhys chuckled. “She’s a strong woman.” And sweet, and soft, and secretly vulnerable, and like hot silk between her thighs. But he preferred to keep those sides of Meredith to himself. “She works hard, and she won’t brook any nonsense.”
“I could see that.”
Rhys flexed his hand until his knuckles cracked. “A man like me has no use for delicate porcelain types.”
“Point acknowledged.”
“How’s Lily?”
Bellamy sighed roughly. “Delicate. As porcelain. Leo’s heir will arrive from Egypt in a matter of months, and she’ll have to vacate the house. I don’t know what Lily expects to do then, but she refuses to discuss it. Says she’ll deal with it on her own.” He finished off his brandy with an angry draught. “On her own. What is the world coming to, with these modern women? A man can’t tell them what to do.”
“Don’t I know it,” Rhys muttered, still thinking of Meredith’s frown. If she was unhappy about his decision to stay on the moor, she could easily change it by marrying him. After that incident in the pool, he knew he’d never make it through another night under the same roof without bedding her.
“Lily’s after me to cease hunting for Leo’s killers. Says it’s useless.” Bellamy shook his head. “There’s no way I’ll stop. Not until I find the men responsible and see them hanged. Or worse.” He looked to Rhys. “That’s where you come in.”
“Let me guess. I’m the ‘worse.’”
He nodded. “I’ll admit, these past weeks have been fruitless. I’ve been searching for two nameless, faceless brutes … not an easy task. Cora’s story has given me new hope. It’s much easier to find a dandy than two common ruffians. There are fewer of them, to start, and gold embroidery does stand out in a crowd. I’ll find him, mark my words. And when I do, I’ll send word to you. We’ll need to get the truth out of him. And you promised to lend muscle, if you recall.”