Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 112133 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112133 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
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.