“ ’Is name is Rooters,” the boy said beneath his breath. “Nevil Rooters.”
Lily winced, realizing that gundiguts was a gutter-cant insult.
The man’s sneering laugh cut through the sound of the roaring crowd inside the makeshift arena “We got more than two hundred men in there,” he said, “and they’s already paid for the sight o’ blood. Keep yer mumper’s brass, milady. I’m taking the bear.”
Lily glanced quickly around the area. Her gaze lingered briefly on a length of heavy chain piled on top of some stacked crates. “If you say so,” she murmured, and let the money pouch slip through her fingers. It fell to the ground with a rich-sounding clink. “Oh, dear, my gold and jewelry!” she exclaimed.
Rooters stared at the pouch with patent greed. “Gold, is it?” He licked his lips and bent low to the ground, reaching a meaty hand toward the pouch.
There was the brief clatter of metal and the muffled jangle of a heavy blow. Rooters gasped and dropped neatly to the dirt, his mammoth form unmoving. Lily dropped the massive chain and dusted her hands together with satisfaction. The boy’s jaw dropped as he regarded her in amazement. Swiftly Lily scooped up the pouch and gave it to him. “Take that home to your father. It will more than compensate him for the horse and wagon.”
“But what about Pokey—”
“I’ll take care of him,” she promised. “He won’t be mistreated.”
The boy’s eyes glittered, and he gave her a wobbling smile. Daringly he reached out and touched a fold of her fine woolen cloak. “Thank you. Thank you.” He scampered away into the darkness. Lily watched him go, then hastened to tie her Arabian to the back of the bear wagon. Aware of the activity outside the iron bars, the bear mustered a half roar sending the horse into nervous fidgets. “Quiet, Pokey,” Lily muttered. “Don’t ruin your own rescue.” Gingerly she climbed into the wooden seat of the rickety vehicle and reached for the reins.
She started as she felt something close around her ankle. Looking down, she saw Rooters’s enraged, bristled face. Clasping her leg in his meaty hands, he dragged her bodily from the wagon. She fell on the hard ground with a shocked cry, her rump smarting from the impact.
“Steal my bear, will ye?” He stood over her, his face crimson with rage, flecks of spittle falling from his mouth. “Come here from yer high-kick mansion, riding on your fine horse, looking for trouble…Aye, you’ll get it, milady!” Dropping over her, he began to paw roughly at her bodice and pull at her skirts.
Lily screamed and tried to wriggle free of him, but he had pinned her down with his bulky weight, crushing the breath from her. She felt her ribs compress from the pressure of his body, and she thought they might break. A curious ringing began in her ears. “No,” she wheezed, struggling to breathe.
“Fancy thieving West End bitch,” he said viciously. “Ye gave me a frigging hard knock on my head!”
A new, eerily calm voice interrupted the scene. “A bad habit of hers. I’m trying to break her of it.”
“Who’s this—her pimp?” Rooters stared at the newcomer threateningly. “Ye’ll have her when I’m done with her.”
Lily turned her head. With disbelief she saw the blurred shape of her husband. But it couldn’t be. It was an illusion. “Alex,” she whimpered. She heard his low, deadly voice through the dull roaring in her ears.
“Get the hell off my wife.”
Chapter 11
Rooters stared at Alex as if trying to assess how much of a threat he presented. The bear moved restlessly inside his cage with grumbling whines, stirred by the palpable fury in the air. But the animal’s disquieting noise was nothing compared to the odd, frightening snarl that came from her husband as he lunged at the man on top of her. Suddenly the punishing weight was gone, and Lily gasped in relief. Pulling in lungfuls of air, she clasped her hand to her sore ribs. She tried to comprehend what was happening.
The two men grappled and fought a few yards away, moving so quickly that all Lily could detect of Alex was the flash of blond hair. With murderous grunts, he smashed his fists into Rooters’s face and sank his fingers into the bull-like neck, closing off his windpipe. Rooters’s jowls puffed with scarlet rage. He reached up to grab Alex’s collar and kicked up with his legs, flipping Alex over his head. At the sound of her husband hitting the ground with a heavy thud, Lily shrieked and tried to scramble over to him. He was up before she could reach him. Ducking underneath a swinging fist, Alex seized Rooters and threw him against the stack of crates. The wood cracked and splintered beneath him.
Lily’s mouth fell open. Her eyes were dark and round as she watched Alex. “My God,” she breathed. She hardly recognized him. She would have expected a little civilized boxing, some articulate insults, the brandishing of a pistol. Instead he had turned into a bloodthirsty stranger, intent on tearing his opponent apart with his bare fists. She had never dreamed he was capable of such violence.
Staggering to his feet, Rooters lunged at Alex again, who sidestepped, twisted, and buried his fist beneath the man’s ribs. He finished him off with a solid blow to the back. Rooters collapsed to the ground with a bellow of pain. He spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, tried to rise again, and crumpled with a moan of surrender. Slowly Alex unclenched his fists. He turned his head and looked at Lily.
She fell back a step, half-frightened by the savage gleam in his eyes. Then the harsh lines of his face seemed to soften, and she ran to him without thinking. She flung her arms around his neck, trembling and laughing wildly. “Alex, Alex—”
He folded her in his arms and tried to soothe her. “Take a deep breath. Another.”
“You came just in time,” she gasped.
“I told you I’d take care of you,” he muttered. “No matter how difficult you make it.” Pressing her close against his large, sheltering body, he murmured against her hair, alternating between curses and endearments. His hand pushed beneath the muddied cloak to the tense line of her back, and he kneaded her rigid spine. Lily was more overwrought than he had ever seen her. More wild laughter bubbled up from inside her.
“Easy,” he said, afraid she would fly apart in his arms. “Easy.”
“How did you know? How did you find me?”
“Lady Lyon wasn’t at home. I went to Craven’s and discovered that although the carriage and driver were still there, you were gone. Worthy admitted that you had left unaccompanied for Covent Garden.” He nodded to the open end of the alley, where the driver, Greaves, waited with a pair of horses. “Greaves and I have been combing the streets to find you.” He eased her head back, his gray eyes penetrating as they stared into hers. “You broke your promise to me, Lily.”
“I didn’t. I took outriders a-and a groom to Craven’s. That was all you asked of me.”
“We’re not going to play at semantics,” he said grimly. “You know what I meant.”
“But Alex—”
“Hush.” Alex stared over her head at a pair of burly men who had just come from the arena. They glanced from him to Rooters’s unmoving form on the ground.
“What the bloomin ’ell…” one of them exclaimed, while the other scratched his head in befuddlement. “Get the bear—the dogs’re near done with the badger.”
“No!” Lily cried, jerking around to face them. Alex kept his arm around her front. “No, you f-frigging butchers! Why don’t you throw your-selves into the pit? I’m certain the dogs wouldn’t stand a chance!” She turned back to Alex, gripping his shirt. “I-I bought the bear. He’s mine! When I saw what they were going to do—the poor beast looks so pathetic—I couldn’t help myself. Don’t let them take him away, he’ll be torn to pieces—”
“Lily.” Gently he cupped her face in his hands. “Calm down. Listen to me. This happens all the time.”
“It’s cruel and barbaric!”
“I agree. But if we manage to rescue this animal, they’ll only find another to take its place.”
Her eyes began to water. “His name is Pokey,” she said thickly. She knew her behavior was irrational. She’d never been so emotional, clinging to a man for comfort and help. But after the shock of seeing her daughter, and the bewildering events of the past days, she seemed to have temporarily lost her sanity. “I won’t let them have him,” she said desperately. “I want him as a wedding present, Alex.”
“A wedding present?” Blankly he stared at the battered wooden wagon. The moth-eaten, rheumy-eyed old bear nosed against the unevenly spaced bars. The damn thing didn’t have long to live, baiting or no baiting.
“Please,” Lily whispered into the folds of his shirt.
With a low curse, Alex pushed Lily aside. “Go to Greaves and get on one of the horses,” he muttered. “I’ll take care of this.”
“But—”
“Do it,” he said with quiet finality. Averting her eyes from his hard, uncompromising stare, Lily obeyed. She walked slowly to the corner. Alex approached the two men. “The animal is ours,” he said calmly.
One of them stepped forward, squaring his shoulders. “We needs ’im for the baiting.”
“You’ll have to find another bear. My wife wants this one.” He smiled slightly, his eyes cold and dangerous. “Do you care to take issue?”
The men looked apprehensively at Rooters’s prone body and at Alex’s threatening stance. It was clear that neither of them wished to suffer the same fate as their crony. “What the bloomin’ ’ell should we give to the dogs, then?” one of them demanded plaintively.
“I have a number of suggestions,” Alex replied, staring at them steadily. “But none that you’d like.”
Faced with his ominous gaze, they backed away uneasily. “I s’pose we could make do with more rats ’n badgers,” one of them murmured to the other.
The other frowned unhappily. “But we promised ’em a bear…”
Unconcerned with their dilemma, Alex gestured to Greaves.
The driver came quickly. “Yes, milord?”
“I want you to drive the wagon home,” Alex said matter-of-factly. “Lady Raiford and I will return on the horses.”
Greaves looked far from happy about the prospect of driving the ursine passenger to Swans Court. To his credit, he offered no protest. “Yes, milord,” he said in a subdued voice. He approached the garish wagon gingerly, made a great show of spreading a handkerchief over the wooden seat, and sat with great care to avoid getting dirt on his fine livery. The bear watched the proceedings with a mild expression of interest. Alex smothered a grin and strode to the corner where Lily was waiting.
Her face creased with a worried frown. “Alex, do you think we might be able to fashion a pen or cage for him at Raiford Park? Or perhaps set him free in some forest—”
“He’s too tame to be set free. I have a friend who keeps exotic animals on his estate.” Alex gave the bear, who hardly came under the category of “exotic,” a dubious glance. He sighed tautly. “With any luck, I might be able to persuade him to give Pinky a home.”
“Pokey.”
With a speaking look, he swung up on his mount. “Do you have another escapade planned for tomorrow night?” he asked. “Or is it possible we might have just one quiet evening at home?”
Lily lowered her head meekly and didn’t reply, although she was tempted to point out that she had warned him she wouldn’t be the usual sort of wife. Glancing sideways at his dark, disheveled form, she tried to suppress the waves of giddy nervousness that swept over her. She wanted very much to thank him for all he had done, but she was strangely tongue-tied.
“Let’s go,” he said curtly.
She paused, biting her lip. “Alex, I suppose you must already regret having married me.” There was an anxious lilt in her voice.
“I regret that you disobeyed me and placed yourself in danger.”
At any other time, the concept of wifely obedience was something she would have debated hotly. But with the memory of his rescue so fresh in her mind, she answered with uncustomary mildness. “It couldn’t be helped. I had to resolve matters on my own.”
“You didn’t owe the money to Craven,” he said flatly. “You gave the five thousand to someone else.” At her slight nod, his mouth tightened. “What are you involved in, Lily?”
“I wish you wouldn’t ask,” she whispered miserably. “I don’t want to lie to you.”
His voice was low and grating. “Why not confide in me?”
She wrapped the leather reins around and around her hand, keeping her face turned away.
Alex paused with his hand on the brandy bottle, staring through the semidarkness of the library. Lily was upstairs, preparing for bed. It was obvious she was afraid of something that no amount of time or patience would make her reveal. He didn’t know how to make her trust him. Each time he looked into her eyes he sensed a shortening of time, a danger that was drawing her deeper into a coil. He knew the problem wasn’t money. He’d made it clear that she could have any part of his extensive resources, and yet that hadn’t helped. Foolishly he’d hoped that after clearing her debt, the panic that surfaced so often in her gaze would magically disappear. But it was still there. What had happened tonight was not to be dismissed as a charming scrape—it was a wild rebellion against some burden that was dragging her down like a millstone. He knew all the signs of someone trying to escape from grief. He’d spent two years doing the same.
He set the bottle down without pouring a drink, and rubbed his eyes. Suddenly he was still, knowing she was there. His senses burned in immediate awareness. The soft sound of his name on her lips made his body hard with a ravening appetite.
He turned to face her. She was dressed in thin layers of white cambric nightclothes, her hair an unruly mass of sable curls. She looked hesitant and small, utterly beguiling. Her dark eyes flickered to the liquor bottles behind him. “You’re having a drink?”
“No.” He raked his hand through his hair, his voice threaded with tired impatience. “What do you want?”
Her breath caught in the prelude to a laugh. “It’s our wedding night.”
The statement diverted him, dispelled all thoughts except the need to have her again. He knew the shape of her beneath the delicate cambric, the feel of her body beneath his, the soft clasp of her flesh around him. Excitement shimmered along his nerves, but he forced himself to stand there with an appearance of indifference. He wanted the words from her, wanted her to admit why she had sought him out. “So it is,” he said neutrally.