A Daring Liaison(37)

“We’ve scarce arrived.”

“Now.” She left him standing on the dance floor and headed down the corridor to the grand staircase.

* * *

Charles caught up with Georgiana as she entered the street looking for a hackney in the crush of evening traffic and late arrivals for Carlington’s ball. Fortunately his coach was still at the corner. He draped Georgiana’s mantle over her shoulders and took her elbow to guide her toward his vehicle. She looked up at him with such deadly cold that he feared she might pull away and denounce him.

He supposed he deserved that. He really had gone too far with that last accusation. Ah, but her denouncements and unwillingness to go through with their charade had reminded him of her jilt so many years ago. He was dismayed to find that it could still cut so deeply.

A prickling of his skin warned him to glance around. Something in the air was not quite right. Again, that uneasy feeling that something was about to happen. But there was nothing in the crowds surrounding them to cause a threat.

He scanned the sea of milling faces across the street and his gaze caught on one. Despite the beard he’d grown, Charles would know Dick Gibbons anywhere. The man grinned and drew one filthy finger across his neck in an unmistakable threat, then pointed it at him.

He released Georgiana’s arm and stepped in front of her. He had not taken two steps before a passing coach cut him off. By the time it passed, Gibbons had disappeared. Or was he still hiding in the crowds? Should he give chase and abandon Georgiana to her own devices? Or get Georgiana home safely and pursue Gibbons another day?

He turned back to her, finding a perplexed look on her face as she, too, gazed across the street, then back at him. “Who was that?”

He returned and took her arm again. She relaxed ever so slightly and without hesitation allowed him to escort her to the coach and hand her up before calling their destination to his driver.

The coach pulled into the street at once, but immediately stalled in the traffic. “Do you know that man, Georgiana?” he asked without preamble.

To her credit, she did not ask which man. “I have seen him before, I think, though I cannot remember where.”

“Outside the Theatre Royal?”

She frowned. “I...do not think so. Everything happened so fast that I only saw shadows and movements, but I have no recollection of faces.”

Had she seen him when she had hired him to kill Booth?

“Who was it, and what did he want?”

“His name is Dick Gibbons, and he wants to kill me.”

Her little gasp was convincing. “Why? What have you done to him?”

“He thinks I killed his brother.”

“Did you?”

He shrugged. “I would have, given half a chance. I suppose I was the cause of his death, one way or another.”

“That is a very mysterious answer, Charles.”

“The truth is that I did not pull the trigger, but I caused it to be pulled.”

The coach lurched, the driver having apparently found a hole in traffic. They moved ahead slowly but steadily. Georgiana gave him an exasperated look, as if she could not trust a thing he said.

“He killed Adam Booth and wounded me, Georgiana. The question remains, why?”

Her eyes widened. “Adam... But he must have had a reason.”

“And I will uncover that reason. The person responsible will pay, and so will Dick Gibbons.”

“But you said Mr. Gibbons is responsible.”

“He is a thief and an assassin. He kills for money. I want him and the person who hired him. I thought I knew who that was.”

Her eyes widened into two pools of unfathomable green. “He is an assassin?”

“Among other things. He is the vilest of the vile. He is the worst sort of scum London has to offer. Dick and Artie Gibbons would do anything for a tuppence. They robbed, raped, pillaged and murdered their way through London. They were known for their filth and utter lack of morals. Artie is dead, thank God, but Dick needs to be put down like the rabid dog he is.”

He remembered his conversation with Wycliffe before this case began and repeated the words he’d spoken then. “If it’s birthed a Gibbons, you’d do the world a favor to exterminate it before it can spread,” he muttered under his breath.

She had gone quite pale and a deep shudder shook her body. To be fair, he could not picture Georgiana seeking out and meeting a man like Gibbons in a back alley to pay him money to kill someone. There had to be another explanation. He took a deep breath and got a grip on his anger.