“This time I won’t be in the back watching. That wasn’t as fulfilling as I’d hoped. This time I’ll do the honors.”
Maddie felt her belly churn with nausea, but she pushed it down. As Bleven removed his tailcoat, she slowly drew the blade free of her pocket, keeping it hidden behind her skirts.
Her hand closed tight. Come and get me.
Bleven dropped his tailcoat, and then, with a leer, he was on top of her. Maddie’s arm was pinned and she could feel the dull blade dig into her hip. Bleven ripped at her bodice, and she brought her knee up sharply, hoping to dislodge him and free her hand.
He grunted and moved slightly, but it was enough. The letter opener free, she slid it from her skirts. Bleven had torn the material of her dress, and she could feel him fumbling with his pantaloons. One minute more and he would rise up. That was her chance.
Outside, she heard something bang against the door. Her head whipped in that direction and her hand froze.
Jack.
She closed her eyes, and could all but feel his presence.
Jack.
It had to be. Please God, let it be.
There was a sound like a grunt or the thump of a man falling, and her heart stopped. If Bleven heard . . .
He glanced that way, then reached a hand under her skirts. He flipped them up and, to her shock, arched up to free himself from his pantaloons.
His throat was bare, his neck at the perfect angle. One quick thrust and she could kill him. She knew it. She saw it so clearly.
She heard the door slam open, heard Jack call her name, and using the distraction, thrust the blade up hard. But Bleven must have seen the movement. With a roar, he knocked it out of her hand.
The letter opener clattered to the floor. It tumbled away, and with it, her perfect strike was gone.
Bleven rolled off her, rising to face Jack.
Maddie turned her head and her heart swelled at the sight of her husband standing in the doorway. His dark eyes blazed, and his black hair fell over his forehead. His face was sooty and his clothes were covered in ash and blood, but in that moment he was the most beautiful man she had ever seen.
She opened her mouth, tried to warn Jack that Bleven had a pistol, but no sound emerged from her bruised throat. It didn’t matter anyway.
Jack had already raised his own pistol. “This is for my mother.”
The warehouse reverberated from the loud burst of gunpowder, and Bleven’s body jerked back.
As Bleven spun around, Maddie caught the duke’s expression. He looked surprised as he fell. There was a soft thud as he hit the floor, and then Jack was beside her.
His warm strong arms came around her and he gathered her close. She clung to him, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I love you, Jack,” she croaked. “I love you.”
Chapter Twenty-three
He’d almost lost her. That one thought dominated his mind, making it impossible to think of anything else.
It was Maddie, in her raspy voice, who had suggested they go to Lord and Lady Valentine’s town house. It was Maddie who told him they should hire the first hack they saw, and Maddie who gave the jarvey directions.
All Jack could do was hold her, stroke her glossy hair, touch the soft skin of her neck, now marred by the red imprints of Bleven’s fingers.
“I’m fine,” she told him over and over. “You saved me.”
But Jack couldn’t believe it. He needed to hold her, to kiss her, to have her beside him, and then maybe, in a dozen years, he would believe she was actually safe.
When they reached the Valentine town house, Maddie’s cousin took one look at them and whisked them out of sight. Jack found himself in a moderately sized bedchamber with clean linen and a small bathtub.
But he refused to be separated from Maddie so that she might bathe as well. Instead, he ordered another tub and more water, and when he finished washing himself, he assisted with her bath.
