by Laura Landon
“I would like to go home, Jack. Now.”
“Lily, I—”
“No.” She held up her hand to stop his words. “Take me home at once.”
Jack slapped the reins against the horse’s rump and urged it to a jolting trot. He very much wanted to talk to Lily. He was desperate to make things better but he didn’t know what he could say that would lessen the harshness of his parents’ reaction.
It was clear that Lily understood what his parents were telling him by their abrupt departure and his father’s brutal words. Without calling Lily a whore, that’s what their reaction implied.
The drive to Goswell Road was the longest and most uncomfortable drive Jack had ever endured. How much worse it must have been for Lily.
Once more he tried to apologize for his parents’ rudeness, but Lily stopped him before he could utter a single word.
At last they reached Liam’s town house. Before the carriage came to a complete stop, Lily had the door open and was starting to dismount. Jack reached out to pull her back.
“Wait, Lily, or you’ll fall and break your neck.”
“At least I will have been able to do something to please your parents.”
“Don’t pay any attention to what they—”
“Don’t you dare tell me they didn’t mean what they said. Or, that they weren’t implying that I was lower than the dirt you scraped me from. You must be sure to scrub yourself clean of my stench before you call on your father, Jack. And be sure to tell him that you don’t know what came over you. You can tell him that I threw myself at you and that you’ll never associate with anyone as loathsome again.”
“Stop it, Lily!”
He saw in her eyes the depth of his betrayal. He had not defended her. He had allowed his parents to have the final word. It was worse than betrayal. It was—
He drew the carriage to a stop and Lily flung the door wide and jumped to the ground. Before Jack could dismount, Lily had reached the front door and was inside the house.
Jack watched as the door closed on him and he knew that this was the last time he would ever see Lily.
A knot twisted painfully in his side. He hadn’t known her all that long. Only a matter of weeks. Yet he wasn’t sure he could live with the hole in his heart her absence had just ripped.
BEHOLD THE THIEF by Laura Landon
Chapter Eleven
Remorse was a new sensation for Lily, but she was sure that’s what she felt. Regret for having introduced herself to Jack’s parents so boldly. Regret for wanting to shame Jack for his lack of defense of her.
She sighed. Regret made her weary, and today she had no time for it.
Today she was Calista Cavendish. She had to look smart, carefree, and just a tad flirtatious.
Lily checked that her feathered hat sat at an appropriately jaunty angle. She’d be able to retire the Calista Cavendish disguise soon. Her network was settling nicely into place, and soon it would function quite perfectly without need of Calista. Or Lily, for that matter.
“Captain! Oh Captain Thorndyke!”
Lily called and waved to the captain of the Titan’s Trove. He stopped and turned toward her just in time to receive her flirtatious smile. She’d been watching him for the past two days and was satisfied that she’d given him time to do the things a seaman had to do in the first hours of getting his feet back on solid ground. He’d been to the pub, had his fill of meat pie, checked the bills of lading with his first officer, spent a night at Lady Love’s Landing, and now was moving toward his quarters. She’d learned the hard way never to approach him before he’d made it to the Lady Love. Grappling on the street with a wench-starved seaman was not her idea of time well spent.
The captain cut such a swashbuckling figure as he turned toward her that for a moment Lily felt her heart tumble into quick-time. But it quickly settled. The only time a woman was safe from Captain Thorndyke was the few months he was at sea. Besides, the man had wives in three ports.
“Ah, Miss Cavendish.” He doffed his hat in the charming way he always did. “Your man has been safely deposited on the eastern coast of Australia. I doubt he will create any further problems for you.”
“Thank you, Captain. I can always count on you.” She smiled, backpedaling slightly to regain the bit of space he always seemed to invade. “Here is your payment, and the names of two fellows who will be joining you next. Send a message to Murk Matthews as usual with your expected departure time.” She handed over a small pouch of silver coins and two cards, each bearing the name of a brute who’d refused her second and third chances to remain on British soil. The appreciation of their wives still rang in her ears.
“Consider it done, madam.”
As he counted the money he closed the space and lowered his voice. “You still have not come to see the modifications I’ve made to my cabin, Miss Cavendish. Perhaps—”
Lily laughed and kept her elbow free enough that she might deliver a satisfying jab if the need arose. “Far too busy, captain, but I assure you I can scarcely wait to see what you’ve done with the place.” She sidestepped cleverly and with her right hand hailed a hansom cab.
“A pity,” he smiled, and swept the half-door open to help her step up into the carriage.
Lily was fairly smug thinking of how cleverly she’d evaded him this time, but he bounded up, pulled the door closed and made himself comfortable beside her.
“Whitechapel Road?” he asked.
“No, I, that is, Goswell Road today, thank you.”
“Goswell Road, driver,” Thorndyke called, and with that he began to chatter about his exploits in the various ports he’d explored since last they’d met.
Lily found it easy to listen with half an ear as she organized her schedule for the remainder of the day. She was so distracted by her inner thoughts she scarcely realized when they had arrived at Liam’s home. In a flash, Captain Thorndyke jumped down, crossed behind the carriage to her side, and flung open the door. As she stood, he grasped her by the waist, swung her away from the carriage, and planted her on the walk. Just before he planted a moist, loud kiss on her mouth.
“Captain! Really!” Lily was taken aback and pushed his chest away.
“My apologies, Miss Cavendish. Your beauty got the better of me.”
He swept an apologetic bow. “Join me for dinner, Miss Cavendish. I insist you allow me to atone for my behavior.”
Lily adopted a flirtatious tone and stepped further away. “That, my good man, will happen when pigs fly.” With a mischievous wink she turned to escape into the house.
But her way was blocked. By a man bearing an impossibly lush bouquet of flowers. He stood on the top step, hat in hand, watching her and clearly trying to keep the shock from his face.
“As you wish, Miss Cavendish!” Thorndyke swept a dashing bow and hopped back into the cab and was gone.
But Jack Broadmoore still stood there, confusion visible on his scrunched brow.
“Miss Cavendish?”
Jack spent a restless afternoon trying to reconcile Lily’s explanation for what he’d witnessed on the front walk of Liam McGregor’s home. It didn’t hold water. She had to see a friend off on a voyage across the Channel, she said, and the friend—who had a penchant for chicanery—had mischievously introduced her to the sea captain as Miss Calista Cavendish.
But that didn’t explain the rouged lips.
Business did little to distract him, and each time he passed the discarded bouquet of flowers he’d intended for Lily, his mind tumbled back to the puzzle she presented. She’d done nothing but defy conventions at every turn. She boldly exposed her familial roots in a less than desirable part of London. She traveled unaccompanied. At night, no less. She let a man kiss her on her own front walk. In broad daylight.
It was as if she were two different people.
Truthfully, he decided, he didn’t care what she said her name was. Cavendish or McGregor mattered little to him. She could weave a tale as fanciful as any storyboo
k and he doubted he’d care.
Dash it all, whatever her name was, he was fairly smitten with her.
That didn’t mean he wouldn’t expect her to clarify what he’d seen.
And it wasn’t just the way she’d let that man kiss her that bothered him now. There was her defiant introduction to his parents. And worse, the ease with which she’d recovered the Qings. How could she have done it so quickly? Unless—
Jack halted that line of thinking before it could go any further.
Lily couldn’t possibly be the thief who switched the vases.
Countless sleepless nights after leaving Jack fuming on her front porch, Lily stared at the food on her plate and pushed the eggs from one side to the other. She cut her sausage into smaller pieces and stabbed one with her fork, but she couldn’t quite force herself to raise it to her mouth.
She’d really bollixed things up with Jack. Why had she let Thorndyke accompany her home? It was a stupid mistake, and she knew that Jack hadn’t bought her feeble explanation.
She placed her fork back on her plate and fiddled with her teacup.
“Are you at least going to manage to drink your tea, Lily?” Liam asked from across the rim of the cup he’d raised to his mouth.
Lily reluctantly took a swallow of her tea and set her cup back on its saucer. She coughed slightly when the tea refused to go down her throat on her first attempt. It was as difficult to swallow the tea as it had been to swallow the shame she’d felt in Hyde Park.
“Congratulations,” Liam said. “I thought maybe your throat forgot how to work since it’s been so long since you’ve used it.”
“How amusing,” Lily said in an accusing tone.
“I wasn’t trying to be amusing, Lily. I’m worried about you.”
“There’s no need to worry. I’ve just been a little under the weather. I’ll be fine as soon as—”
“As soon as you agree to see Jack and you work out your difficulties,” Liam finished for her.
“That’s not possible, Liam. The difficulties between us are too massive.”
“If you’re talking about your pedigree, you should speak to Millie about that. She seems to have conquered all my worries in that regard.”
Lily gave him a piercing look and shook her head. “I’ve no need to talk about it. Maybe in time. But not now. Not yet.”
“Just remember, Millie and I are here for you, Lily.”
“I will,” Lily answered past the lump in her throat. She wasn’t sure what she would do without Liam and his wife. They were her bulwark in the storm that gathered around her.
Before she could compose herself, a footman stepped into the room. “Mr. Jackson Broadmoore to see Miss McGregor.”
Lily squeezed her eyes shut and released a heavy sigh. “Tell Mr. Broadmoore I’m not—”
“Refusing to see Jack won’t solve anything. He’ll only keep coming until you see him.”
The scathing look she gave Liam silenced him, but not before she realized that he was right.
For as much as she didn’t want to see Jack, or talk to him, she knew that eventually she’d have to.
She had practically sleep-walked through three rescues since she’d last seen Jack. Her heart was in saving the women, but her mind was simply too distracted. They had deserved better from her, but at least she managed to separate them from the abuse they’d been suffering. She’d get her wits together and see to their welfare before the day was done.
Her network was now fully in place. It worked on its own, like a well-oiled machine. Perhaps it was time to retire her disguises once and for all. Before they completely destroyed the new life she was beginning to love.
“Thank you, Watkins. Tell Mr. Broadmoore I’ll be there in a few moments.”
“Shall I serve tea, Miss McGregor?”
“No, Watkins. Mr. Broadmoore won’t be here that long.”
“Very well.”
Lily rose and left the room. Her heart pounded in her breast and the blood echoed in her ears. She dreaded the next few minutes more than she’d dreaded anything in a long time. But pushing it off wouldn’t solve anything.
She reached the library door and walked in. Her eyes were instantly drawn to Jack’s stalwart figure. He stood by the window looking out at the scene beyond. He was deep in thought from the looks of it, for he hadn’t heard her enter.
“Good morning, Jack,” she said softly.
His head swiftly turned, revealing the face that had haunted her dreams with its soulful eyes and lips set in a hopeful grin. Then, without shifting his gaze from her he turned his body to face her. “I was afraid I’d never see you again.”
“Liam made me come to greet you.”
“Then I owe him a debt of gratitude.”
“Why are you here?”
“Because…”
He hesitated, then swallowed hard and it was almost Lily’s undoing. His voice wavered, nearly breaking with emotion.
“There are more reasons than I can put into words, Lily, but they all boil down to the fact that I…I can’t live without you. I’ve tried since that day on the front stoop, but I can’t do it. I miss you too much.”
Lily pressed her hands to her breast in an effort to keep her heart from breaking, but nothing she did made it hurt less. “Don’t Jack,” she pleaded through the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. “You heard your father. You saw your mother’s reaction when she realized where I came from.”
“That doesn’t matter to me. I don’t care where you came from. I know the real you. I know how perfect you are.”
“The real me?” Lily’s laugh sounded strangled even to her own ears. “I don’t even know the real me!”
Lily started to argue with Jack but halted when a maid entered with a tea tray and pastries.
“Mr. McGregor said to tell you that he and Lady Millicent are leaving to go to the fabric warehouse and won’t be back for several hours,” the maid said.
“Thank you, Mary.”
Blast the tea. Now Jack could dawdle over it and she’d have no recourse but to wait him out.
If Lily weren’t so close to tears, she might have laughed. Her brother couldn’t have been more obvious if he had hired an army of guards to keep her and Jack in the same room and work out what was keeping them apart.
“Would you care to sit?” she asked, then pointed to the chair that flanked the sofa. Lily poured two cups of tea, then sat on the sofa. But Jack remained stubbornly standing.
Neither of them spoke for several moments until Lily bravely introduced the subject they both wished to avoid. “I know we both entertain feelings for the other, but your mother and father’s reaction when they met me made it evident that whatever we thought we felt for each other could never continue.”
“No, Lily. Nothing was that evident. At least not to me. They simply need to get to know you. Once they do—”
“Jack, listen to yourself. You’re pretending that there’s a chance they will come to accept me, when we both know they never will.”
“You don’t know that. And I refuse to give up on us. I…” Jack swallowed hard. “I…can’t.”
He turned and took a challenging stance. “And I refuse to take my cue from my misguided parents. Their opinion has no relevance to me.” He took a step toward her. “I will listen only to my heart. And my heart is yours, Lily.”
His words poured into her heart and stoked the fire that had never waned. She wanted to tell him, but struggled to know how.
Neither of them broke the silence until at last Jack cleared his throat. “I’m having another auction on Monday. May I count on your help?”
“Oh, Jack…”
“Please, Lily. Come as Miss Cavendish if you like. Just come. Please.”
She was stunned. He had stood on the front step that awful morning, with hurt and distrust in his eyes, and then she’d shut the door in his face. But now he was willing to look beyond her disguise because he loved her.
“Jack, lis
ten, I—”
He put up his hands to stop her but she wouldn’t allow him to interrupt.
“I lied.”
He stopped with his hands still reaching for her. As his face slowly changed, he swept his hands through his hair and then rested them on his hips, challenging her to explain.
“Sit down, Jack.”
She watched as he sat and knew that this time she was going to tell him the truth.
Most of it, anyway.
Twenty minutes and a hundred questions later, Lily had given Jack a sketchy idea of the mission she’d carved out for herself. She’d explained how Bonnie, Mrs. Downey, and Calista Cavendish had been born of her desire to come to the aid of women who desperately needed her help. They were part of her ruse as she presented herself to people in ways that they would be most receptive to. And it seemed to be working. Perhaps it had been a clumsy design at first, but Jack seemed to understand that the result was worth every misstep along the way.
“Can you forgive me for not telling you?”
Jack moved toward her, shaking his head. “There’s nothing to forgive.”
Carefully she searched his eyes. He dared not trifle with her. She couldn’t stand that. But hard as she looked, she saw only acceptance, bolstered by something that stirred her deeply.
He took her hand and pressed it to his lips, then covered it with both his hands.
“I mean it, Lily. Absolutely nothing. You managed all this, all on your own. I was a cad to think I had any right to question your comings and goings. It’s you who must forgive me.”
Lily’s heart tripped. The sincerity she heard in his voice moved her beyond anything she’d known before.
“How can I possibly forgive you, Jack Broadmoore, when it’s only gratitude I feel for you? For the way you’ve accepted me, welcomed me.” She placed her free hand atop his.
A smile spread across his face almost as quickly as her own did.
“You’re sure then.”
“What? Sure of what?”
He laughed. “You’re sure there aren’t some other characters you might want to introduce me to? In case I should run across one of them in the street?”