Cass shook his head. “I don’t know her people at all.” Then he shrugged. “Clearly my reputation precedes me where your lady is concerned. No matter. I’m quite used to the distrust of others. It is how I’ve accumulated so much power.”
“Well, I don’t like that she doesn’t like you,” Sirius said. He’d have to find a way to correct her thinking where Cass was concerned. Sirius’ friend would never hurt her. “Hopefully, this dinner will help her set aside her worries.”
“What do you think she knows?” Nick asked.
Sirius shrugged. “Likely something heinous.”
“Likely something true,” Cass countered. “I never let it trouble me. Milly’s acceptance is more than enough, but I’m happy to have finally met her. She’s as pretty as you claimed her to be and perhaps just as wise if she fears me.”
Sirius rolled his eyes at Cass’ compliment. “She shouldn’t fear you at all. She almost didn’t come to dinner. This is likely why.”
Nick cringed. “Well, whatever she heard must have been terrible if she thought Cassius would attack her at such a public place.”
“Hm.” Cass looked over at her again. “Maybe I should inquire into what she knows.”
Sirius moved toward the women. He needed to speak with Pia.
Glass broke. A whizzing sound gave him pause, but then it came again. There was a shout as the window crashed in.
Gunshots.
Sirius felt one nick him in the arm and cursed.
“Get down!” Cassius cried.
Sirius lunged for Pia and his mother, taking them down with him, cushioning Pia’s head with his hands and crushing her chest with his arms. Milly had already gotten down before Cassius gave the warning.
This was not her first time in the heat of danger.
The door in the room crashed as footmen rushed in. Sirius’ mother screamed as the footmen returned fire.
Sirius counted the shots that came from outside, even as a bell in the distance began to toll.
A horse gave a cry and then the shots ceased as the sound of riders getting away faded.
“Get the women downstairs,” Cassius said to the servants.
Sirius looked over at Milly just as her footman Allen lifted her into his arms and carried her away. Two more came for his mother and Pia, but neither woman seemed willing to let him go. “Go,” he told them. “I’ll be with you shortly.”
“Adam… Sirius.” His mother was so worried she’d called him by his real name. “Come with us.”
There was no time for tenderness. He didn’t know if the riders would return. “Go!”
The footmen took them away. He had one final look at a pale-faced Pia before she vanished.
Sirius started from the room. “I need to go check on my girls.” He met a footman at the stairs.
“The children took the back stairway to the basement already. They are safe. No one was hurt. They don’t even know they have reason to worry.”
That calmed Sirius enough that he returned to the sitting room where Cassius spoke to the servants who’d gathered.
Nick walked over to him. “The bell sent word for the equerry in the woods to be alert. Hopefully, they catch one of the riders responsible for this attack.”
Sirius ran a hand through his hair and pulled in a breath. He hissed and remembered the bullet that had grazed his arm. “Was anyone else hurt?” He took off his coat. Blood soaked his sleeve.
“Only you and Cassius. I think there was a bullet aiming for me as well. I felt it flutter my hair.” Nick’s eyes glowed menacingly. “They were trying to kill us.”
“They knew we were all together.” Sirius looked at Cassius again.
The duke held a handkerchief to his shoulder. Sirius’ eyes widened.
They’d almost been killed.
Sirius glanced around the room. There were holes in the wall just where the men had been standing.
Cassius turned to Sirius and Nick. “We need to speak. Now.” He walked ahead of them and they followed him into his office.
Nick shut the door behind them. “You need the doctor to see you.”
“I’m fine.” Cassius pulled the handkerchief away and then eased out of the jacket. Nick moved to assist, but Cassius held up a hand to stop him. “It went through. I’ll have the doctor look at it in a moment.” He kept one on staff at the estate. “Are you all right?” he asked Sirius.
“My first gunshot wound. I’ll wear it with pride.” It burned but not as much as being stabbed with a blade. His life as a Collector had not been easy.
They took off their shirts, and Nick examined both their wounds. “You’ll live, but you need stitches.”
Cassius eased himself into his chair. His expression shifted, and Sirius watched the pain fade into nothing. A calculated coldness filled the duke’s eyes. “I’ve been kind, haven’t I? Compared to Gregory’s reign, I have been a gentle duke.” His distant gaze said he searched his own thoughts for the answer. “Perhaps, too gentle.”
Sirius balled his shirt up and pressed it to his wound as he waited for Cassius to finish his speech.
Nick frowned, and Sirius was surprised when he said nothing. Nicholas was usually ready to talk Cassius down from his more violent nature.
Would he not do so now?
Sirius had a sudden premonition.
Things were about to get really bad.
It pleased him just as much as it worried him.
He was angry. His mother and Pia had been in the room. They could have been hurt. Had his daughters been in the room… They loved to stand by windows. They’d have easily been injured or worse.
He could only imagine what Cassius was going through. If he lost Milly, he lost everything. His wife. His child. His moral conscience. The world would never be the same.
“How do we respond?” Nick asked in a cool tone. “Blood?”
Cassius nodded. “But there is only one way for me to take it while keeping the body count low. It is an idea I had while Boris was around.” Lord Boris Utkin of Russia had owned most of the child fight rings in England. He’d taken young boys and made them fight to the death for the pleasure of himself and those who admired him.
Sirius said, “It was safe to assume that many of the people who’d aligned themselves with Boris were your enemies.” The Duke of Van Dero had allowed them to live without consequences since more of them had taken to following him anyway.
“But there are those who’ve yet to make up their mind about you,” Nick said. As a leader of the Foragers, he knew the whispers better than most.
“Or maybe they have,” Cassius said. “Perhaps, this is their answer.”
Sirius narrowed his eyes. “How do we handle this?”
Cassius stood. A small stream of blood rain down his arm, yet he seemed unaware of it. “They almost took my wife from me today. They almost took my child.”
Nick and Sirius shared a look.
This did not sound good.
Sirius was all for taking the lives of those who wished him or his friends dead, but Cassius’ mind had drifted into darker territory.
Finally, Nick spoke to the duke. “We don’t hurt the innocent. You don’t want to do something that Milly cannot forgive you for.”
Cassius tilted his head. “If I don’t do this, Milly will not be safe.” His voice had taken on a remoteness as he allowed logic to rule his mind.
Nick and Sirius had spoken to one another about what they would do if Cassius took a turn for the worse. They’d have to put their friend down if he became Gregory, a real monster.
Cassius turned to Sirius. “You control the Collectors. I need you to collect something for me.”
“What?” Sirius asked.
“The first sons of my enemies.”
Nick cursed.
The door was thrown open and the doctor came in, but he stood behind Milly. She rushed over to her husband and took his head between her hands. She was worried. “Cassius. Look at me.”
“You’re supposed to be in
the basement.”
“I’m supposed to be wherever you are,” she countered. “You are my first priority. Do you understand that? I need you to look at me.”
“I am looking at you,” he said in a near mechanical tone.
“I’m alive,” she said. “The baby and I are fine. Do not react in a way we will regret later.” She knew her husband. She knew him well. “Are you listening to me?”
Cassius blinked. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered, stroking his cheek. Tears fell from her eyes. “Cass, you are my beating heart. You are everything I ever wanted.”
Cassius’ face shifted. Then he touched Milly’s cheek. “I can’t live without you. I won’t live without you.”
“Let the doctor close your wound. I’ll stay right here.”
“Milly.” Cassius buried his face in her neck. He repeated her name over and over again. His hand went to her hair and gripped it tightly.
Milly turned and looked at Nick and Sirius in desperation, even as she continued to coddle Cassius and hold him close.
They understood the look. She would need help to calm her husband, to keep him from doing something he couldn’t go back from.
Stealing everyone’s firstborn son was something of Biblical magnitude, yet Sirius couldn’t say he wouldn’t have done the same if someone had killed Adalina or Babette. Everyone would feel his pain.
Cassius lifted his head and looked at Sirius. “They have a month. I want the traitor presented to me by then or I will respond in the way I promised.”
“What did you promise?” Milly asked him.
Cassius didn’t answer her. He didn’t look at her. He only looked at Sirius and then Nick. “Spread the word. There is nowhere they can hide that I will not find them.”
Nick said, “Twelfth Night is in a month.”
Cassius looked at Milly. His thumb stroked her trembling cheek. “Then let us hope is it a happy one for all.”
∫ ∫ ∫
2 9
* * *
Pia jumped when she heard the sound of footsteps coming down the stairwell. She’d been staring at an iron door on the other side of the basement. The footman had warned her not to go in there, but she couldn’t help but wonder what the Duke of Van Dero kept in there. Equipment intended to torture his victims? Bodies?
She’d heard horrible things about him. She’d been warned to stay away from him. She’d been told he was a thing of nightmares.
Yet as she sat in his basement in a room that had been designed like a drawing room without windows and its only exit the stairwell that had brought them here, she couldn’t help but think of the nightmare that someone else had brought to him.
There he’d been, standing in his drawing room about to host a dinner with his friends. His wife who adored him spoke adamantly about his best attributes. She glowed and that glow had begun to change Pia’s mind when the bullets came.
Who would dare to shoot into a room full of women? Full of innocence?
They’d been taken to the basement, but Milly had fought to return to the first floor, telling the staff that if she didn’t see Cassius, very bad things would happen.
Pia could only imagine. A man with that much power would not let something like this stand. He had every right to see it never happened again.
The younger girls sat in a corner. They’d been given ice cream to calm them. The story they’d been told was that it hadn’t been bullets but firecrackers. They’d been anxious to see them and disappointed when they’d been told the show had already ended. Now they were happy.
Georgiana, however, sat rocking in a chair in the corner. She was wrapped in a blanket and shook as though she were cold even though a brilliant fire blazed on both sides of the room.
Pia had a blanket around her as well but for a completely different reason. She was covered in Adam’s blood.
Georgiana had called Sirius Adam. The fear of losing Sirius must have reminded her of the real son she’d lost. Pia understood that because she’d been thinking the same thing as the footmen took her away from Sirius.
Adam had sworn they would see each other again. He’d broken that promise. She could not bear for Sirius to do the same.
It was Sirius who finally appeared at the foot of the stairs.
He kissed his daughters before going to his mother and giving her a comforting hug.
“Sirius,” Georgiana whispered over and over again. She stroked his hair and back, as if checking to make sure he was all right.
Sirius’ eyes connected with Pia over Georgiana’s shoulder. “Are you all right?”
Pia nodded and bit her lip to still the trembling. “Has anyone checked on Gillian?”
“I’m certain she’s fine,” Sirius said. “Still, I sent a footman to go find out.”
Georgiana continued to cling to him as he came over and sat on the couch next to Pia.
“What happened?” she whispered the moment he was close. “What is going on?”
Sirius’ brows furrowed. “I’m sorry. I hate that this happened while you were here.” He took her hand. “I’m supposed to be keeping you safe, but I put you in danger.”
Pia stroked his forearm, being mindful to stay away from where she knew he’d been wounded. She was trying to hide the blood on her dress from Georgiana. The woman had already been frightened enough. She didn’t seem to realize that Sirius was wearing a completely different jacket and shirt than he’d arrived in. “Are you all right?”
He nodded. “You don’t look at pale as before. Have you been in a situation like this before?”
She shook her head.
He frowned. “Then how can you be so calm?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure. I think… knowing you’re alive calms me.” The moment she’d seen him appear in the basement, everything had become right in the world.
His fingers tightened around hers, and he smiled at her.
“What is going on, Sirius?” Georgiana asked again.
He turned to his mother. “There are people who feel Cassius doesn’t deserve his title, because he had no life amongst the ton before he assumed the position.”
“But he’s the rightful heir, isn’t he?” the woman who was all but his mother asked.
Sirius nodded. “The ton detest him because he was poor and now he is not. He was powerless and now he is powerful. He is a threat to their way of life, especially those who wish to cause pain to others.”
“What do you mean?” Pia asked. She’d never heard any of this before. Sirius made Cassius sound more vengeful than someone who went out and sought to terrorize others first. Hadn’t Cassius started this war in some way?
Sirius’ thumb stroked the back of her hand. “For years, Cassius tried to close these fight rings.” He lowered his voice. “Children were put up against children and often they fought to the death.”
Pia pulled in a tight breath, but Georgiana didn’t react. She knew.
“The child fights have ended, haven’t they?” Georgiana asked.
Sirius nodded. “Mostly, but it’s impossible to wipe out all wrongdoing. Only God could do such a thing.”
“And your friend does not believe himself to be God?” Pia asked. She’d been told otherwise.
Sirius looked at her. “He knows he’s a man. He never claimed there to be no corruption within him, but he also knows he’s powerful. Nick, Milly, and I are there to make sure his power isn’t misused.” He sighed and shook his head. “This was a terrible night. Bad things are coming.”
“For who?” Pia said.
“Anyone who stands against him,” Sirius said. “And to all who stand behind the men who pulled those triggers tonight.”
Pia shivered. She knew men who didn’t like him. Could they have been behind this? Until tonight, she hadn’t known this amount of violence existed outside of war. The paintings of brutal English victories that hung in galleries now seemed so real to her.
“I’m sorry, but I am planning
to leave you all here,” Sirius said. “Cass is bringing in more men to protect the manor. You’ll be safer here while Nick and I travel for business.”
“Business?” Georgiana asked. “How could you even think about it at a time like this?”
Sirius looked at her and then understanding came over her. She understood his work. “I’ll make sure the children are kept safe,” Georgiana said before she kissed his cheek and moved to sit with the younger girls.
“Does this business have anything to do with what took place tonight?” Pia asked him once she was gone. “Is this the army you spoke of? Are these the Englishmen you claimed were the enemy?
“Yes.” He stood and offered her his hand. “I need to speak to you.”
She grabbed the blanket and slipped her fingers into his.
He led her over to the corner of the room. He took the blanket from her hands and spread it open.
There was not a great amount of blood, but against the yellow gown, it could hardly be missed. Sirius closed the blanket back. “I’m sorry I stained your dress.”
She huffed. “It isn’t as though you spilled your wine on me. You were injured. Does it hurt?”
He opened his mouth and then closed it. She watched him consider his reply. “Yes, it hurts,” he eventually said. “Terribly.”
“I’m sorry. I wish there were something I could do to help you.”
Using the blanket, he pulled her an inch closer. “Perhaps, there is. I know you don’t like Cassius or trust him, but I want you to give him a chance while I’m away. He’s a good man. Mostly.” He grinned.
Pia’s cheeks stung. She lowered her gaze. “I’d heard things about him. I’m sorry for being such a terrible guest. I will be more agreeable, I promise.”
“Good, because it’s important to me that you become friends.”
“Friends with the duke? Why?”
He pulled her another inch. He was all but breathing into her mouth. “It just is.”
Pia’s heart raced.
“Are you going to kiss her?” Adalina asked. “Because, you said if a boy kissed me, I’d be ruined.”
“And then he said he’d ruin the boy who kissed you,” Babbette added.
Sirius let her go and his hand cupped the back of his neck. That gesture was so much like Adam.
The Secret Pleasures of an Earl: (The Valiant Love Regency Romance) (A Historical Romance Book) Page 15