He and the other men had just begun a quick walk around the house to assess potential exits and means of escape when a woman’s terrified scream sounded from one of the rooms on the ground floor. Theo stood near the window as the scream split the otherwise calm dawn, and once his attention was drawn, he noted that there were lights on in that room.
“We have to get inside,” he called to his fellow Runners, then dashed around to the front of the house. His mind worked to find an explanation for the light and the scream. Giles must have been up all night searching for what they needed, and either his sister found him and was shocked or, more likely, from the tone of the scream, Pennyroyal had caught her and Giles and had threatened them.
No one threatened his love, as far as Theo was concerned. He would wring Pennyroyal’s neck if so much as a hair on Giles’s head was harmed.
By the time Theo and the other Runners reached the front door, Theo’s heart pounded in his throat. His hands were already balled into fists when he raised them to knock.
He got no further than one knock before the door flew open so hard that it crashed against the wall as a terrified girl of about twelve—one of the ones Theo had spied at the top of the stairs the day before—gasped and leapt out of the way.
“Hurry,” another girl, a few years older, right behind the first one said, weeping. “Father caught them in the study.”
That was all Theo needed to hear. He charged into the house with so much haste that he knocked over a hat stand as he went. Matthews, Fleet, and Waterstone followed behind, and the older of the two girls grabbed the younger one to pull her out of their way.
Another shout sounded from the room at the end of the hall, which made Theo pick up his pace. When he turned the corner and entered what appeared to be a fussy study, he saw Pennyroyal brandishing a fire iron as Giles stood in front of the third girl, one arm raised protectively. Giles’s sleeve was torn, and a gash split the side of his head, darkening his angelic curls with blood.
It was beyond what Theo could tolerate. As Fleet shouted, “Stop at once,” behind him, Theo tore into the room, heading straight for Pennyroyal.
Pennyroyal had barely registered the other men’s presence in the room and had only started to turn away from Giles and his sister when Theo reached him. He grabbed the man’s wrist and jerked his arm so hard that Pennyroyal dropped the fire iron, then Theo yanked the man off balance to get him away from Giles and his sister. He then punched Pennyroyal across the face so hard that there was a resounding crack as the man’s nose broke, and blood splattered his shoulder.
“Don’t you dare raise a hand to him,” Theo growled, dragging Pennyroyal farther away from Giles and his sister, then striking him again. “You will never lay a hand on him again.”
To emphasize his point, Theo twisted the man’s wrist sharply until there was a snap. Pennyroyal cried out and sank to his knees.
“Brunner, you must stop,” Waterstone said, striding forward to separate Theo from Pennyroyal.
Theo let go with a nod for the other Runner. He had more important things to see to than some cowardly, depraved demon anyhow.
He strode back to the corner where Giles and his sister had been cornered and pulled Giles straight into his arms. “My love, are you hurt?” he asked as he closed Giles in a hug that was likely far too constricting for the abuse Giles had just suffered.
“I am well,” Giles panted, leaning heavily into him all the same. “I am well.”
Theo closed his eyes and clasped Giles close for a few moments as his mind, heart, and body became convinced Giles truly was well. Once he was satisfied, he opened his eyes to assess Giles’s sister.
“And you, miss,” he said. “Are you well?”
The girl nodded, trembling, tears streaming down her face, and swayed toward the desk to lean against it.
“What is the meaning of this?” Pennyroyal demanded, pain in his voice. “Why have you invaded my home without warning or license?”
Theo turned to give the man a piece of his mind.
He stopped short when the scene he discovered was not what he’d expected to see. Waterstone stood over Pennyroyal, who knelt, shaking and favoring his broken wrist, as if he would stop the man from fleeing, should he try. But Waterstone had a strange look in his eyes…for Theo. Fleet and Matthews watched Theo with suspicion as well.
A moment later, dread pooled in Theo’s stomach as he realized what they’d witnessed and heard. He let Giles go, but it was too late to erase what the other Runners had seen.
Giles jumped in to attempt a rescue by saying, “My father is the shipping conspirator that the Bow Street Runners have been searching for. You will find all the evidence of his activities here.”
He moved toward the desk and took up handfuls of letters and papers to show to the other Runners.
Rebecca did the same. “These letters outline his activities explicitly,” she said, picking up a few letters in particular and presenting them to Fleet as the man stepped forward to have a look. She glanced to Pennyroyal, nothing but contempt in her eyes, and said, “I will also stand as witness. I have heard my father in this very room, speaking of his plans to blackmail Mr. Vansittart, and several members of his staff, in order to gain charters for his business.”
“How dare you, insolent chit!” Pennyroyal snapped. He tried to stand, but Waterstone clasped a hand on his shoulder to keep him where he was. That didn’t stop Pennyroyal from growling, “Who will believe the testimony of awomanat any rate?”
Fleet ignored him. Matthews, too, as he joined Fleet at the desk, looking over the papers and ledgers it contained. Giles presented them with particular documents, an eager look in his eyes, but the whole time, he favored his right arm, and a drop of blood from his head splashed onto the corner of the desk when he leaned over it to reach for another bit of correspondence.
In spite of the knot of dread in his stomach over what the other Runners had seen, Theo reached for Giles, more gently this time, and pulled him away from the desk. He moved Giles to the growing light coming in through the window and tilted his head to get a better look at his wound.
“What happened?” he asked, taking a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbing at the blood running down Giles’s jaw.