Tempted

by Jess Michaels

  “Does Lady Woodley know?” Juliet whispered, praying she did not. Certainly the dowager could not want such a lowly match for her son and Juliet didn’t want to lose the kindness, the friendship she had found in their hostess.

  “She cares for you so very much, Juliet,” he said as an answer. “I doubt she would be unhappy.”

  Juliet didn’t reply and her father allowed her silence for a time. Then he cleared his throat. “If you love this man I hope you won’t let whatever you think keeps you apart ruin things.”

  She faced him with a gasp. “What are you saying?”

  “I loved Susanna so very much and yet I allowed myself to be guided away from her. I lost so many decades, regretted so much. I would never wish that on you.”

  Juliet swallowed hard. “Papa, do you…do you regret being with Mama?”

  His eyes went wide. “No! That is not at all what I meant, Juliet. I loved your mother. Truly and deeply. She gave me such a joyful life, she gave me you, and I adored her with my whole heart. When I say regret, I don’t mean I regret what did happen. But I sometimes look at Susanna now and I wonder about what didn’t.”

  Juliet swallowed past the sudden lump in her throat. Her mind spun images of her own future, one without Gabriel. One where she sat in her loneliness and ruminated about what she had felt, what she had lost. She’d convinced herself that those memories would keep her warm in the dark nights, but what if her father was right and she would instead be made colder by visions of these times with Gabriel?

  “But Papa,” she said. “I tell you it will be different for me. Gabriel likes me…but there is no lost future between us that I will walk away from. He hasn’t said he wants that. So I will go home and he will forget me. I’ll work in the village again and there is great satisfaction in that.”

  She heard the strain in her tone. The soft desperation as she tried to convince herself more than her father. And judging from the sudden pity in his eyes, he recognized that fact as much as she did.

  “And he has said he will forget you once you leave?” he asked.

  She shot him a look. “Of course not. To say it out loud would be most ungentlemanly.”

  “Then you are putting those words into his mouth, making a decision for him.”

  She threw up her hands. “What are you suggesting I do, Papa?”

  “Talk to him. Give him the opportunity to know all the facts and give yourself that same opportunity before you walk away back into your old life. If you care for him, talk to him.”

  She bit her lip. What her father was suggesting was a huge risk. Gabriel was so insistent in his thoughts on emotion, so driven by his goals in finding Claire that she knew full well a confession might drive him away from her forever. It was such a risk.

  But was staying silent the greater risk? What if her father was right that there might be another future than the one she had convinced herself of, and that her silence would destroy it forever? That she would look back in her dotage and whisper, “If only…”

  “I will think about it,” she said softly.

  He reached out and took her hand. “Good. I only want you to be happy, darling.”

  She nodded. “And I want the same for you.”

  He touched her face. “If you are happy, I will be.” He cleared his throat. “All right, enough of this. I am going up to my room for a rest. Lady Woodley has shown a great deal of interest in constellations. So I promised to give her another lesson tonight.”

  He blushed as he said the words and Juliet couldn’t help but smile as he stammered and stuttered from the room. But once he was gone, she sighed. Tomorrow she was to meet with Gabriel to discuss his search for Claire. But perhaps she should do as her father suggested and bring up another topic entirely.

  “I could go early,” she murmured to herself. “Reveal my heart. What is the worst that could happen?”

  She let out a flustered sigh. The worst thing that could happen was that Gabriel could look utterly horrified and never speak to her again.

  But if he didn’t do that…if he didn’t…it might be worth the risk. And at least she would know she had given herself the best chance at love.

  “No regrets,” she whispered as she departed the parlor and went up to her own chamber. “No regrets.”

  Chapter Twenty

  When Juliet’s carriage pulled into the now-familiar drive at Gabriel’s home the next day, her heart pounded. She had been running what to say to him over and over in her head. What were the right words to say to explain that her heart was now involved? Would he care? Would he even understand? Would he look at her with pity or even disgust?

  “Oh God,” she muttered as a footman opened her door and helped her out.

  “Something I can do, miss?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “No, thank you. But my father will need the carriage later this afternoon, so please return to Lady Woodley’s. I’ll arrange transportation back with Lord Gabriel.”

  The footman nodded and climbed back up next to the driver. As the vehicle moved away, Juliet’s heart sank further. God, now she was trapped. If Gabriel rejected her, she would then have to beg him for a ride away from her humiliation.

  She drew a breath. “No need working yourself up, Juliet,” she said, straightening her shoulders as she turned toward the townhouse with the bravest smile she could manage. “You will survive one way or another.”

  She somehow managed to navigate the stairs in her state and her eyebrows furrowed. The front door was open. Not particularly odd, since often Gabriel’s butler Anders greeted her on the step. But the servant was not standing in the doorway to welcome her in or comment on the fact that she was almost an hour earlier than she had been expected.

  She stepped through the door, but there was no sign of Anders in the foyer either. She even peeked behind the door, but there was no one there.

  “Hello?” she called out into the eerily quiet hall. “Anders? Gabriel? Anyone?”

  There was no reply, and she gripped her hands at her sides. She might have assumed Gabriel was simply not at home, except that didn’t explain the lack of servants coming to meet her. Or the utter quiet that greeted her even though the door was wide open.

  In the distance she heard a sound. Banging and then things being shuffled around. It was coming from the direction of Gabriel’s office, and she gripped her fists tighter. Had he discovered something? Was he standing at that desk with his timeline before him, slamming and banging things around because he was upset?

  She rushed down the hall toward the noise, eager to offer help or comfort if Gabriel was, indeed, in the throes of some kind of distress. His office door was open and she skidded inside and came to a sudden halt.

  It wasn’t Gabriel in his office, but two men. Two very large men. They stopped as they saw her enter, both turning on her. What happened next could not have taken more than a few seconds, but it felt like it occurred over an eternity.

  She caught her breath and stared around her. The room had been ransacked. The chairs had been thrown around, every drawer in the desk was stripped open, the contents strewn about the table. Gabriel’s meticulous sketches were torn from the walls and his timeline was ripped and destroyed.

  Her attention flicked back to the intruders, and they both lunged at her at once. She tried to scream, but the first one to reach her clamped a huge hand over her lips and bit the sound off before it could crescendo. She struggled, but it was like she was a tiny butterfly fighting against a huge net. She had nowhere to go and no way to stop him as he dragged her inside the room.

  “That’s the one from yesterday!” said the other man as he peered at her. “The one who kissed Claire’s brother.”

  Juliet stopped struggling both at the mention of Claire from these men and the realization that she had been seen kissing Gabriel at Lady Woodley’s home. But these weren’t servants of her hostess, that much was very clear.

  And since they had ment
ioned Claire, there was no other deduction she could make except that they worked for Aston. Had they been following her?

  Or…

  Her gaze darted around the room quickly. No, they had been following Gabriel. Likely because of his questioning of Aston’s man Howe. And he had no idea, which meant he was in grave danger.

  “Let me go,” she ordered against the hand that muffled her.

  The two laughed and the one holding her glared down at her. He had a massive scar across his face and looked menacing.

  “Now look, missy,” he said. “You scream and it won’t help you. No one can hear you, or least no one can help. But it bothers me. So don’t do it or you won’t like how I shut you up next time.”

  The other goon laughed and looked her up and down. “I can think of ways to keep her mouth busy.”

  “Shut up,” the one holding her growled. “Howe will decide.” He looked at her. “Will you stay quiet?”

  Juliet nodded and he uncovered her mouth. She drew in a deep breath. “Let me go,” she repeated. “I’m nothing, no one.”

  “Not true if you’re kissing Lord Fancybritches,” the man who wasn’t holding her said.

  She bit her lip. She wasn’t about to admit to what they said, even though it was true. Doing so could only put her in more danger.

  “Actually, this works out,” the other said, shifting her in his arms to look at her more closely. “After you reported to Howe about the kissing, he said she could be used against him. We’ll take her back and let him see our prize.”

  Juliet’s lips parted. “You—you intend to take me?”

  “You wouldn’t like the alternative,” the man with the scar chuckled. He tossed his head toward the other. “Grab the rest and let’s go.”

  Juliet began to struggle again, twisting against her captor’s big arms. The man twisted at the back of her gown to hold her steady and the fabric ripped, sending a scrap of pale blue silk fluttering to the ground and baring her shoulder.

  “Pretty skin,” he said, stroking a rough thumb over what he had revealed. “Howe will like that.”

  Her stomach turned and she tried to twist away again, but it was hopeless. He laughed as he hauled her from the room, down the long hallway and out the back servants’ entrance, where a carriage was waiting. He threw her inside and shoved in next to her, pinning her with his weight against the opposite wall. She lunged to get across from him, but he caught her with one hand and slammed her hard against the wall a second time.

  “Knock it off or I’ll break your nose,” he growled.

  She sucked in a breath and stopped moving. It was clearly a pointless struggle anyway. He was too big, and as his partner climbed in and shut the door behind him, they began to move, which limited her odds for escape even further.

  She cowered away from them as her mind spun. Where were they taking her? What did they intend to do? Where were Gabriel’s poor servants? And most importantly…where was Gabriel?

  “Have I mentioned how angry I am that you did this yourself without involving Evan or me?” Edward asked, glowering across the carriage toward Gabriel. Evan did the same.

  Gabriel rolled his eyes. “I told Jude.”

  “Thank you,” Jude said from his position next to Gabriel. “They weren’t angry enough already. Please keep reminding them.”

  Gabriel shot his brother-in-law a look. “I don’t understand why you’re all so angry. What would you have had me do? Roll into Howe’s neighborhood in the carriage with the Woodley crest on it and unload the entire family? Why not include Audrey and Mama and Juliet as well?”

  Evan’s eyebrows lifted. “Since when do you include Miss Gray in your accounting of the family?”

  Gabriel waved him off. “The bloody point is that Jude and I uncovered facts, I followed them up and now I am including you. You’re all coming to my townhouse, aren’t you?”

  He frowned. All of them coming to his townhouse wasn’t exactly what he’d had in mind when he met with his brothers and Jude a few hours before to update them on his progress. But that meeting had quickly disintegrated into a finger-pointing session. Eventually it had led to Edward’s insistence that they all return to Gabriel’s home where they could go over all his evidence and plan their next move together.

  “I’m just astounded,” Edward said, clenching his fists, “that you would include Juliet Gray in this, but not me. Not Evan. Not Audrey.”

  “Well, I hope that doesn’t mean you will be impolite to her,” Gabriel said, folding his arms.

  “She’ll be there?” Evan asked, that same tone to his voice as had been there when he inquired about Juliet a moment before. Surprised. Judgmental.

  Gabriel looked out the window. “Juliet has been a great help to me in the time she’s been in London. Without her help, I don’t think I would have obtained any information from Ursula. Hell, I wouldn’t have thought to speak to the maid a second time at all. She has helped me navigate the emotions of this situation and she deserves to be praised, not…” He looked at Edward. “Not browbeaten.”

  Edward threw up his hands. “I have no intention of browbeating anyone—”

  “Except me,” Gabriel interrupted.

  “You deserve it,” Edward muttered.

  “Gabriel, you know everyone in this family likes and appreciates Miss Gray,” Jude said, his even tone calm and soothing for the benefit of all the men in the carriage. “You needn’t protect her against us.”

  Gabriel said nothing. Protect her? Yes, that was what she inspired in him sometimes. He looked at her and he wanted to put his arms around her and block out anything in the world that would hurt her.

  An odd notion, really, but one he didn’t seem to be able to shake.

  The carriage turned into the drive and Gabriel didn’t wait for the door to be opened. He pushed through his brothers and all but tumbled out into the air. He drew big breaths for a moment before he tilted his head.

  There were no servants running to greet them. Edward’s driver and footman stepped down to aid the rest in their exit, of course, but there was not so much as a stir from the house. He glanced up the stairs and froze.

  Behind him, his brothers and Jude were still talking, but he held up a hand to silence them.

  “My door is open,” he said.

  That brought the conversation to a halt as the other men followed his motion toward the front door.

  “No servants,” he said. “Not from the house, nor the stables.”

  Jude leaned down and pulled a gun from his boot. When the rest looked at him in wonder, he shrugged. “I’m always prepared.”

  “Go around the back,” Gabriel ordered. “The servants’ entrance. Evan, go with him. Notice everything. Edward, come with me.”

  The group split up and Gabriel let his eyes dart around as he approached the stairs. There was a drop of blood on the very top one, and he flinched. His butler Anders was a creature of habit and always stood in almost that exact spot when he answered the door, especially to people he didn’t know. It was possible the butler had been attacked there. Injured.

  Gabriel and Edward entered the foyer and both men looked around. To the untrained eye, nothing looked out of place, but Gabriel saw the slight tipping of a painting above a table there, the way the vase of flowers had skidded across the surface, leaving just a drop or two of water in its wake.

  “There wasn’t much of a struggle,” he said. “But a bit of one.”

  Edward shook his head. “I forget you are damned good at this. Come on, let’s go down the hall.”

  Gabriel led the way, peeking into the parlor along the way. He frowned at the sight of one of the maid’s feather dusters, left in the middle of the floor. He couldn’t quite yet see the entire picture of what had happened here, but he knew in his gut that it wasn’t good.

  The door to his office was open. He frowned. He had not left it that way. He never left it that way. He and Edward turned into the room an
d his heart sank.

  The chamber had been turned upside down.

  “This is what they came for,” he murmured as he took a step into the chaos.

  Edward nodded. “Indeed it was. And it doesn’t take much of a deductive mind to think that if whoever did this ripped this room apart, they must have been related to Aston, Claire and this Howe you encountered.”

  “They took my notes,” he said, leaning over what was left of the papers on his desk. “Everything I had collected in the past few days about Howe and Aston’s associates. Every sketch I ever made of every face.”

  “They knew you were watching them,” Edward said.

  Gabriel cursed beneath his breath. “They probably put a watch on me the moment Jude and I left the tavern four days ago. Possibly they’ve known I was tracking them all along.”

  “And now they came here.”

  “God,” Gabriel said, moving toward the door. “My staff!”

  He raced through the hallway toward the kitchen just as he heard Jude’s voice from the pantry in the back of the room.

  “Gabriel!”

  He tore past the supper preparations, left in piles as if frozen at some awful moment in time, and skidded into the pantry. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw his small staff, all seated on the floor, bound and gagged but unharmed save for a cut across Anders’ nose and a black eye on one of the larger footmen.

  “God,” he said as he rushed forward to help Jude and Evan as they untied the half dozen terrified servants. “I’m sorry, so sorry.”

  When Anders was free and ungagged, he rose to his feet. “It’s my fault, sir. I never should have opened the door for such a thug.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Jude reassured the shaking butler. “Tell us what happened.”

  Anders straightened his spine and Gabriel saw the servant collecting himself. His voice no longer trembled as he said, “At noon there was a rap at the door. Since I was not expecting Miss Gray until two, I was surprised, but went to answer it. This giant monster of a man was there and just as I asked him what he required, he struck me. I was taken off guard, my lords, and he grabbed me, shook me and hauled me back toward the kitchen.”