Saving Grace (Victorian Vigilantes Book 1)

by Wendy Soliman

  To her credit, Mary didn’t balk. ‘That lady who spoke to me in the park. You sent her, didn’t you?’

  Eva nodded. ‘Yes. I wanted to let you know that I was close, planning how to get you and Grace away from here.’

  ‘My prayers have been answered,’ her faithful nursemaid said with feeling.

  ‘Give me five minutes, ten at most,’ Eva said, patting Mary’s hand.

  ‘They are bound to send for your husband.’

  ‘I know that, but he’s at the warehouse and even he cannot fly.’

  Eva gave Grace one more kiss and forced herself to leave the child in Mary’s care.

  ‘Mama,’ she said plaintively as Eva headed for the stairs. ‘Gracie come, too?’

  ‘No, darling, stay with Mary. I will come back very soon. I promise.’

  Eva didn’t dare to turn back for fear of seeing Grace’s lower lip wobbling. She absolutely couldn’t afford the distraction.

  Back on the first floor, Eva headed for her bedchamber. Her maid hovered in the doorway, eyes agog, but Eva dismissed her. She had never liked the girl who had been hired by William to wait on her, and whom she suspected of tattling to William every chance she got. Worse yet, she had noticed one of William’s loyal men stationed outside the door to his study as she passed it. He eyed her with suspicion and didn’t acknowledge her.

  Surrounded by people loyal to her husband, the only way for Eva to gain access to his study was through William’s bedroom. She had made it a rule never to invade his personal space but at least Rose had confirmed the key’s hiding place. The cologne William used lingered in the air as she entered his chamber. She was repulsed by the recollections it engendered but didn’t permit her mind to linger on them.

  ‘Focus,’ she said aloud. ‘Five minutes and your life will change beyond recognition.’

  Unfortunately the key to William’s study wasn’t where it was supposed to be.

  ‘Damnation, where can it be?’

  She wasted precious time searching for it, but it simply wasn’t there. Oh well, there was only one thing for it. Lord Torbay’s crash course in breaking and entering was about to be put to the test. She extracted the long, thin implement he’d given her for that purpose from her stocking purse and inserted it in the keyhole. As expected, the key was in the lock on the opposite side. Her hands were shaking so badly that she had trouble manipulating the tool—one of Lord Torbay’s own design, apparently. It was necessary to press a lever that opened claws on the far end and then catch the key between them. That was relatively easy.

  Turning the key was not. It was too heavy and she didn’t have the strength to manipulate it. She took several deep, calming breaths and forced herself to concentrate. She had no idea how long it took—too long surely?—but eventually the lock clicked open. Unfortunately the key also tumbled from the lock, hitting the wooden floor with a clatter loud enough to rouse the entire household. She paused, her heart hammering in her ears, waiting for the alarm to be raised. Astonishingly, no one appeared to have heard it.

  Feeling mildly euphoric, Eva dashed into the room and up to William’s desk. She located the lever to open the secret compartment without difficulty, but was surprised by the amount of documents concealed within it. How many lives had been ruined by the information contained in here, she wondered. Hopefully, Lord Torbay would relieve William of his blackmail material and return it to its rightful owners.

  Doing her best not to become distracted by all the papers she found, Eva tried to think where he would have kept those relating to his most ambitious crime yet.

  ‘They must be here somewhere,’ she muttered, anxiety about the time making her clumsy and less cautious about making noise.

  In the event, it was so well hidden that she almost missed it. Standing back to push stray strands of hair away from her eyes, she caught sight of the edge of something wedged right at the back of the compartment, hidden beneath her brother’s latest promissory notes. Presumably the gesture was symbolic. It was a small ledger, filled with William’s precise handwriting. She flicked through it, her excitement increasing. It was written in some sort of code but Eva was in no doubt she had discovered the incontrovertible incrimination she required. Better yet, the documents Lord Torbay had hoped to find relating to the reception at Buckingham Palace were tucked inside it.

  William had signed his death warrant with his own hand.

  Eva was so buoyed with success she failed to hear the commotion in the hallway immediately outside until it was too late to hide. The door flew open and William stood in the aperture, a noxious smile playing about his lips.

  ‘Welcome home, my dear,’ he said in a silky tone that set her teeth on edge and sent a fine tremor through her entire body.

  Chapter Nineteen

  ‘Damn it,’ Isaac said for the twentieth time. ‘What can be keeping her?’

  ‘I very much doubt if she went straight to her husband’s study,’ Olivia replied. ‘Her maternal instinct is too strong for that.’

  ‘Yes, she would have gone to her daughter first,’ Isaac agreed, feeling only slightly mollified. ‘Let’s hope that accounts for the delay.’

  ‘Have patience, my friend.’ Jake slapped Isaac’s shoulder. ‘And faith in Lady Eva’s abilities.

  Isaac harrumphed. ‘I have no doubt about her abilities. That’s not what concerns me.’

  Time ticked by agonisingly slowly. The carriage made the short journey around the square, passing the house every few minutes. Each time Isaac hoped desperately for a sign Eva was ready to leave.

  ‘It’s taking too long,’ he complained when they drove past for the tenth time. ‘Something isn’t right.’

  Even Jake started to look less than composed. ‘Give it just a little longer.’

  ‘She’s in danger, I can sense it.’ There was an urgent edge to Isaac’s voice. ‘We need to do something now.’

  Jake leaned out of the window and called to his coachman. ‘Stop the carriage in Cadogan Place.’

  They had barely reached that spot when they noticed Woodstock’s carriage travelling at a dangerous rate down Sloane Street.

  ‘Damnation!’ Isaac thumped the seat with his clenched fist. ‘I knew this was a foolish plan.’

  Jake said nothing as he watched a cart pull up behind Stoneleigh’s carriage and half a dozen men fall out of it. Four of them arranged themselves in front of the house, with the obvious intent of discouraging unwanted callers. The rest disappeared inside with Woodstock.

  ‘He knows we’re close,’ Jake said softly, ‘even if he doesn’t know who we are.’

  ‘Now what are we supposed to do?’ Isaac asked.

  ‘Get in there and save her,’ Jake replied with infuriating calm.

  Easier said than done, Isaac thought with desperation. One of the men Jake had sent around the back of the property, accessed via Pont Street, reported a similar number of armed guards had been deployed at the rear of the property.

  ‘We would be able to overpower them,’ Jake mused, ‘but in broad daylight we’d not only attract unnecessary attention but would also give Woodstock too much notice.’

  ‘Yes, but we must get in somehow and will be less conspicuous around the back,’ Isaac replied sharply. ‘We can’t afford to delay. There’s no telling how Woodstock will react if he catches Eva raiding his desk.’

  ‘Perhaps there’s a third way,’ Olivia suggested.

  Jake focused his attention on her. ‘You are thinking of a distraction?’

  Olivia offered him a slow, impudent smile. ‘As you so often remind me, I excel at distractions.’

  ‘And a direct, frontal assault is often more effective,’ Jake replied, sending her a probing gaze.

  Isaac tried not to resent the time they spent discussing their plan. Damn it, first Eva, now Olivia, taking all the risks. Isaac yearned to storm the place and rescue Eva. He needed to do something, anything, to feel useful and rid himself of the desolation that crept up on him at the thought of losing Eva
. In the event, he and Jake could only watch as Olivia left the carriage and sauntered along Sloane Street, directly past Woodstock’s house, the exaggerated sway of her bustle deliberately provocative. Olivia was a voluptuous and sensual woman. The men outside Woodstock’s house would have had to be blind not to appreciate her tight bodice, trim waist and lack of a male companion to protect her from their leers.

  Isaac, Jake and Parker left the carriage in her wake, catching sight of three of their men collected together on the other side of Woodstock’s house. Olivia just made it past the gaping guards when her heel appeared to give out beneath her and she fell to the ground with a startled oath. Two of the guards didn’t hesitate to leave their posts and run to her rescue. Olivia stabbed one in the thigh with the dagger concealed beneath her jacket and gave the other a sharp jab below the belt with her elbow. Before the others realised what had happened and could react, Jake and Isaac approached them from behind and wrapped arms around their necks.

  Jake’s men worked fast and in accord with one another. His carriage pulled up and all four of Woodstock’s guards were dragged into it, where they were disarmed, bound and gagged before they could raise the alarm.

  ‘Get rid of them,’ Jake said in a tight voice to his coachman, ‘and then come straight back here.’

  The men would be dumped some distance away. By the time they freed themselves and returned to Sloane Street, the matter would have been settled. Isaac knew Jake wouldn’t risk delivering them to the police. There was no time to explain what they had done. These men weren’t important and, as far as Isaac was aware, hadn’t actually committed any crimes.

  ‘Right,’ Jake said, flexing his hands. ‘Now all we have to do is get inside and rescue Lady Eva.’

  ***

  William kicked his study door closed behind him, shutting out the curious faces of the servants who had found excuses to loiter just outside it. Alone with his wife, he regarded her with a combination of satisfaction and feelings of deep betrayal. Once he learned Eva had wanted to visit Rose badly enough to venture into Whitechapel again, it wasn’t hard to conclude what her true purpose must have been. Someone was using her to get at him. The only evidence he was anything other than a fine, upstanding member of the middle-classes was carefully concealed in his desk.

  William had always known it was dangerous to keep such records, but he was nobody’s fool and needed to protect his own interests, especially when dealing with such a slippery character as his current master. Rose was the only person who might conceivably have known how to access those records. Distracted by her rather obvious charms, William hadn’t always been as cautious in her presence as perhaps he should have been, and had no idea what she might have accidentally seen.

  Suspecting his wife of duplicity was one thing. Seeing Eva before him now, dressed in an exquisite gown he hadn’t purchased for her, almost destroyed him. He glowered at her, wondering what service she had provided in return for that gown. Damn it, all he had ever wanted was to love her and be loved, respected and looked up to in return. Well, she’d had her opportunity. William had had enough of being considerate. From now on she would do as she was damn well told.

  Eva returned his glare defiantly, a slight tremor in her limbs the only indication she was afraid of him.

  ‘How kind of you to remember where you live,’ William said caustically.

  ‘I am hardly likely to forget that.’

  ‘Really.’ William raised one brow, wondering why she wasn’t trembling more violently. She must have known what was in store for her. He would take great satisfaction in stretching her face down across his desk, pulling up those expensive skirts and thrashing her backside until she begged for mercy. Then he would claim his marital rights. It didn’t matter that he had more important matters to deal with that day. Eva’s punishment needed to be as severe as that which would be delivered to Franklin once William returned to the warehouse. He couldn’t abide disloyalty in any form. ‘Where have you been?’

  She shrugged. ‘With friends.’

  ‘Whom you will never see again.’

  She sent him a look of withering contempt. ‘You can’t keep me under lock and key every moment of every day.’

  ‘I can do whatever I wish with you, my dear. You are my wife and the law is on my side.’

  ‘You have more pressing concerns about the law at this precise moment.’

  William didn’t ask her what she meant. ‘In your haste to return to your lover,’ he said instead, ‘have you forgotten you have your daughter’s welfare to consider?’

  For the first time she showed uncertainty. ‘You would use my daughter to ensure my compliance?’ Eva had the temerity to lift her chin and look down her pert nose at him. ‘What sort of man does that make you?’

  ‘Ah, so you don’t deny you have a lover?’

  ‘Whatever I say, you will make up your own mind.’

  William stepped forward and grabbed her arm. The ledger she clutched against her breast tumbled to the floor. It was the most incriminating book he owned and would see him hanged if it fell into the wrong hands. He was so infuriated by his wife’s attitude—by the rebellious light in her lovely eyes—that he barely gave it a second thought. Instead he looked more closely at her eyes and scowled. There was something different about her. She glowed with an inner awareness—sexual awareness. William silently seethed, trying to convince himself that he had got it wrong. Eva hated intimacy. Even if she had given herself to some aristocrat in return for his protection, she wouldn’t have received any pleasure from the act. William puffed out his chest. He knew all there was to know about giving women pleasure. He’d certainly had no complaints over the years, and if Eva hadn’t been so damned frigid he would have made her tremble for very different reasons long before now.

  He released the breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding. No, he had definitely misinterpreted the changes in Eva, he decided, and the reason for them.

  ‘You will obey me, madam, or spend the rest of your days living in a cellar, surviving on bread and water and never knowing your daughter’s fate.’

  She sneered at him, her indolent gaze suggesting he was as insignificant as something she had scraped off the bottom of her shoe. Damn it, who had taught her to be so defiant? He would have the man’s name and see him in hell for his interference.

  ‘It would be preferable to submitting to your vile advances,’ she said.

  ‘Such spirit.’ He flexed a brow, both aroused and infuriated. ‘My advances would have been more enjoyable for us both if you had displayed similar enthusiasm in the bedroom.’

  She turned her head away. ‘You disgust me.’

  Why wasn’t she more afraid of him? ‘Don’t imagine your friends will ride to your rescue, my dear. They will never get past the guards I have posted outside.’

  She blinked, seeming a little less sure of herself, giving William’s confidence a much-needed boost. ‘When I heard you had visited Rose, I knew why that must be. Similarly, when news of your return home reached me, I had to assume it wasn’t because you were pining for your legal husband’s company.’ He spread his hands, enjoying the fear she could no longer conceal. ‘And so I brought reinforcements with me.’

  ‘My friends know of your plans to steal the Koh-i-Noor diamond. You will never get away with it.’

  William tried not to show his surprise and merely shrugged. ‘If they knew, they would have stopped me before now.’

  ‘It’s not you they want. I hate to disappoint you, but you are just a small cog in a very large wheel.’

  ‘That is precisely what people are supposed to think.’

  ‘I find it astonishing that you are so eager to discredit the monarchy but also anxious to be accepted by English society.’ She tilted her head and cast him a chilling glance. ‘Do you not see the irony in that attitude?’

  Her defiance inflamed William. He pushed her against the wall and tore at her bodice. The fabric ripped easily but she fought so hard he barely
had a moment to enjoy the sight of her partially revealed breasts. He moved his face to within mere inches of hers, keeping his lower body away from her flailing legs.

  ‘You are mine, Eva, mine. Do you hear me?’ William was showing more passion and determination than perhaps was wise, but Eva had always had that effect on him. ‘In the eyes of the law, in the eyes of your family and, most importantly of all, in my eyes. I will never let you go. If I can’t have you, no one will.’ He slipped his hand into his pocket and withdrew a dagger which he flashed beneath her eyes, keeping her pinned against the wall with one arm across her chest. ‘Do we understand one another?’

  ‘If you intend to kill me, then go right ahead. It is the only way you can hold on to me.’

  ‘You little slut.’ He slapped her face so hard that her head snapped back against the wall and blood trickled from her lip. ‘You have no right to—’

  The door burst open and several strangers stood on the threshold. William was so impassioned that he barely spared them a glance. He wasn’t sure how they had managed to get that far, nor did he especially care. He had twenty strong and ruthless men in and around the house. They would deal with these three.

  ‘Stoneleigh,’ he cried, almost casually. ‘We have uninvited guests.’

  ***

  Eva had been scared by the extent of her husband’s determination to hold on to her. Another moment and he very likely would have killed her. She could see now that she had played it all wrong with him. Instead of defying him she should have pretended to be meek and apologetic. That would have given Isaac and Lord Torbay time to break through the cordon of guards outside. More than the agreed half hour must have elapsed and so she was confident that they would soon find a way to rescue her.

  But, by God, it had felt good to stand up to him and see the confusion and anger flitting across his face. And now her beloved Isaac was here, the determined set to his features making it obvious he was ready to commit a few murders of his own.