Duke of Midnight (Maiden Lane #6)(96)

He set a fast pace, nearly running toward the docks. They emerged to find a scene of chaos. Gentlemen and ladies were standing on the dock, screaming for the boats, some piling into already full barges. Footmen ran back and forth, while others were clearly still trying to keep up the futile bucket brigade to put out the fire. Artemis saw Hero, Miss Picklewood, and Isabel, and breathed a sigh of relief that they had escaped.

Lord Noakes shoved to the front of the docks and pointed his pistol to a gentleman about to hand a lady into a boat. “Move aside.”

“Are you insane?” sputtered the gentleman.

Lord Noakes grinned. “Probably.”

The gentleman’s eyes widened as his lady shrieked.

“Get in,” Lord Noakes ordered Artemis.

Gingerly she got into the boat. The boatman was watching, wide-eyed.

Lord Noakes descended and pointed his pistol at Artemis’s head. “Head for Wapping,” he told the boatman.

They were pulling into the river when a shout came from the dock. Maximus was there and by his side was Phoebe. Artemis smiled, her sight blurring. At least Phoebe was safe.

Maximus shouted obscenities at a boatman. She’d never seen him so angry. He had a pistol pointed at the boat they were in, but since Lord Noakes had made sure to sit Artemis in front of him, Maximus couldn’t fire without fear of hitting her.

“Do you think it’s driving him mad?” Lord Noakes asked with clear amusement. “To’ve spent his entire adult life hunting me, to come so close to catching me, and then to see me simply sail away?” He chuckled in her ear. “I should’ve killed him that night along with the duchess and duke, but he was hiding, see. Like a little rabbit. The great Duke of Wakefield. Oh, you needn’t shiver, my dear.” He stroked a hand over her arm because she had indeed shuddered. “There’s no need to be afraid, for I doubt I’ll hurt you. Much.”

“You,” Artemis said very quietly through gritted teeth, “are a loathsome man who will never be even one-hundredth the man Maximus is, and besides that, you don’t know me at all.”

And so saying she dived over the side of the boat and into the black waters of the Thames.

THE MOMENT ARTEMIS’S body disappeared under the murky waters of the Thames all thought stopped for Maximus. He was aware in a dim sort of way of shouts, of the fire still raging behind him, of his sisters screaming, and the boat carrying Noakes away, but that was all at the back of his mind.

He dropped the pistol he held. He reached into his coat pocket for the dagger he’d taken off Old Scratch and placed it between his teeth. He tore off his coat and shoes.

Then he dived into the Thames.

A small, calm voice at the back of his brain was counting off the seconds since she’d disappeared, was pointing out that she hadn’t resurfaced, and was calculating how fast the river was moving.

He struck out, heading to a spot a little downstream from where she’d gone in.

A shot rang out, followed closely by another.

He dove into darkness.

At arm’s length he couldn’t see his hand. He felt about frantically. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

His lungs began spasming.

He kicked to the surface and drew his lips back from his teeth clenched around the dagger to gasp.

He dived again.

Nothing. Nothing.

Nothing.

His eyes stung.

He tasted death on his tongue.

She couldn’t end like this. He wouldn’t allow it.

He went deeper.

Nothing.

His chest was screaming.

He saw no point in rising to the surface.

He looked up a last time and saw a white hand.

One beautiful white hand.

He clutched at her and pulled until she was in his arms and they began sinking under the weight of her sodden skirts. He took the knife from his mouth and inserted it under the neckline at the back of her dress, yanking out hard. The thin silk split under his knife all the way to the waist. He slit the sleeves and tore them from her lifeless arms, before dragging the dress over her hips. Then he kicked hard, and as they rose, she slipped free from the garment, like a selkie shedding its skin.

They rocketed to the surface.

He broke the water, gasping, and looked at Artemis. Her face was white, her lips blue, and her hair trailed lifelessly in the water. She looked dead.

Arms suddenly seized him and he nearly fought them off before he realized that it was Winter Makepeace and Godric St. John hauling him into a boat.

“Take her first,” Maximus managed.

The men pulled Artemis into the boat without a word and Maximus clambered in after, falling gracelessly to the bottom of the boat. He immediately took her in his arms and cut off her stays. She didn’t move.

He shook her. “Artemis.”

Her head flopped back and forth limply.

Makepeace laid a hand on his arm. “Your Grace.”

He ignored the other man. “Diana.”

“Your Grace, I’m sorry—”

He swung back his arm and slapped her face, the sound echoing across the water.

She choked.

Immediately he flipped her so that her face was over the gunwale of the boat. She coughed and a great stream of dirty water fountained out of her mouth. He’d never seen such a wonderful sight in his life. When she’d stopped coughing, he hauled her back into his arms. St. John took off his coat and handed it over.