Rebecca swallowed noticeably and nodded. “We’ve nowhere to go, but I am of age. We have Mrs. Hayes and Mrs. Lytton in the house with us.” She glanced from Fleet and Matthews to Waterstone. “Surely, you would not remove my sisters and I from the only home we have ever known simply because the men of our family are under suspicion.”
Again, Theo had to fight the instinct to grin. Rebecca was as clever as her brother and just as good at painting the picture she wanted people to see. His fear about leaving her and the girls to their own devices for a time diminished.
“You have done nothing wrong,” Waterstone said in a surprisingly gentle voice. “You have had great wrong done to you, I suspect, and have been treated poorly by those who should have protected you, but that is no reason to be subjected to any further mistreatment.”
“Do you have a female relative who might take responsibility for you while the investigation into your father’s misdeeds proceeds?” Fleet asked.
There was a shift in the mood of the room from the sharp intensity of discovery and capture to the more mundane task of organization and sorting loose ends. As much as Theo wanted to linger so that he might learn more of Pennyroyal’s crimes, and his wealth, every second that ticked by gave the other Runners more time to turn the law against him and Giles. He had to act to save both of them.
“Gentlemen,” he interrupted Rebecca as she began to tell them they had no female relatives, “I ask that you excuse me.”
The other Runners glanced to him in surprise.
Theo grasped Giles’s hand and started toward the hallway. “Please give Baker my regrets,” he said as he moved. “I hereby resign my commission as a Runner.” He paused at the doorway to say, “I would ask only that you allow me to disappear without further pursuit for something you see as a crime, but which I see as essential to my life and happiness.”
The other Runners exchanged quick looks, then Waterstone said, “We have pressing matters to deal with regarding Mr. Pennyroyal’s guilt and the thwarting of an odious conspiracy. These things will take our full attention this morning. All other criminal matters must wait until this business is finished.”
Theo nodded in gratitude, though Waterstone’s expression made it clear he felt nothing but contempt for him and Giles. It was too much to ask for acceptance, but at least Waterstone and the others were allowing him and Giles to flee.
“Thank you,” he said, then tightened his grip around Giles’s hand and rushed out of the house.
ChapterTen
Like the name of his father’s first ship, Giles was a whirlwind of emotions as he and Theo walked away from his childhood home.
On the one hand, the thrill of finally bringing his father to justice coursed through him, giving him energy and a sense of vindication. His father would not face the magistrate for his most egregious crimes, but he would most certainly be brought low because of his audacity in attempting to blackmail someone so high in His Majesty’s government. While he hadn’t had much time to peruse the documents condemning his father, he had had enough to feel certain that the proof was irrefutable and that his father was a condemned man now.
On the other hand, as happy as he was to see his father thwarted, Giles was racked with guilt for leaving his sisters behind once again.
“Do you think they can manage?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder one last time as he and Theo reached the intersection with Great Titchfield Street. They drew looks from a few passersby, but Giles ignored them. “Rebecca has grown into a clever and capable young woman, but in the short time we were able to converse together, she intimated that our father has kept her and the other girls secluded in that house for far too long.”
“She seems excessively competent for her age,” Theo reassured him. He steered Giles out of sight of his old home and hurried him in the direction of St. James’s. “You will still be able to maintain contact with them, I am certain,” he went on. “Just because Waterstone, Fleet, and Matthews suspect what we are to each other, that does not mean they will forbid you contact with your family. Especially if your father’s business and accounts become your responsibility.”
Giles stopped halfway down the street, facing Theo with wide eyes. “Do you think they will be?” he asked. “Is that how these things work? My father will be incarcerated and much of his business dealings will be scrutinized, if not seized outright.”
“But not all of them, certainly,” Theo said with a shrug. “You yourself said that one ship,Whirlwind, was purchased long before the blackmail began.”
“What if the crown demands everything as payment?” Giles asked, walking on at a slower pace as thoughts and possibilities filled his head.
“What if they do not?” Theo asked in return. “As your father’s heir, I would imagine that what was once his would become yours and your sisters’, in practice if not in actuality, should your father be sent to prison.”
“I hope he rots there,” Giles said, scowling and picking up his pace. “If I were the king, I would never let him see the light of day again.”
“Assuming the court finds him guilty of such an audacious crime, I would imagine he won’t taste freedom for the rest of his days,” Theo said.
It was only right and fitting. The rest of the world may never know the crimes of which his father was actually guilty, but if the man’s punishment for his public crimes was to end his days at His Majesty’s pleasure, then Giles would not complain.
The possibilities of what might happen to the man’s business and other property was more intriguing to Giles. Whether the bastard was his natural father or not, in the light of the law, Giles was the heir to the Pennyroyal fortune—him and the girls. He was twenty, which made him old enough to assume legal responsibility for it all. He might have been forced to flee his family’s house to avoid arrest on charges of sodomy—though how the other Runners would have hoped to prove those charges based on the little they saw was questionable—but the girls were still his responsibility. Everything was his responsibility now.
“I don’t think I can go back to Perdition,” he said with a sigh after he and Theo had reached St. James’s and were within sight of the club.
Theo stopped. “I beg your pardon?” he asked. “You don’t want to return to your home?” he glanced at the club with a frown.
Giles caught his misunderstanding and laughed. “No, I do not mean I’ve no wish to set foot in the building again. I would very much like to return to the sanctity of my own room, have Rose or one of the other maids draw me a warm bath, and spend the rest of the day tucked in bed, both asleep and very much not asleep.” He arched an eyebrow at Theo.
Theo blushed, and the two of them continued on toward Perdition.
“No,” Giles continued, smiling wistfully, “what I meant was that I do not think I can resume my former profession at Perdition. Not when I have so many other responsibilities heaped upon my slender yet beautiful shoulders.”