Chapter 13

Caleb instinctively took several steps toward Blackboot but stopped when Blackboot pressed a pistol to Eleanor’s temple.

“You seem surprised, Captain,” Blackboot said in a voice that held an unexpected undertone of culture. “Don’t you know there’s nothing that goes on in my town that I don’t know about?” Blackboot turned to face Jeffers. “Isn’t that right, Inspector?”

“Release her,” Caleb demanded, although he knew his words fell on deaf ears.

“Well now, which one, Captain? Lady Grattling? Or the murdering Sophie?”

Caleb shifted his gaze to where Sophie had been standing. She was being held by one of Blackboot’s men.

“I’m not nearly as evil as you’ve been led to believe,” Blackboot said, motioning for his man to bring Sophie close to him, “See? I’m willing to let one of the ladies live.”

“You’ll let them both live, or you die right here.”

“Ah, Captain. You abuse my generosity.” Blackboot twisted his pistol against Eleanor’s temple, making her cry out. “The choice is yours to make. Either the murdering little wench goes free,” he said, waving the gun’s barrel toward Sophie, “or the lovely Lady Grattling goes free.” He brought the pistol roughly back to Eleanor’s temple, poising his long, manicured finger ruthlessly close to the trigger. “But not both.”

Blood rushed through Caleb’s head and crashed against his ears like violent waves against the rocks. He let his gaze rest on Eleanor. Her face had lost all color, yet her eyes told him she trusted him to save her.

He couldn’t let her die. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t survive if she died. Nor would he ever be able to live with himself if he let Sophie die. She’d offered to help him. He’d promised he’d keep her safe.

But he saw no way to save them, unless he could draw Blackboot’s fire so Inspector Jeffers could take his shot.

Caleb kept his gaze focused on Eleanor. He tried to pierce her fear with a message that he loved her. That he could never live his life without her. That he would take her from harm’s way.

Caleb shifted his glare to Blackboot. “Or,” he said through clenched teeth, “I could put a bullet through your forehead, and you’d never know my choice.”

Blackboot laughed. “You’re not that good, Captain. No one is from that distance.”

Caleb locked eyes with Blackboot and leveled a chilling smile in his direction. A momentary flash of apprehension filled Blackboot’s eyes.

“You’ll take care of the men with Blackboot, won’t you, Inspector? Especially the one holding the lady Sophie.”

“You can count on it, Captain.”

“This is your last chance, Blackboot. Turn yourself over to Inspector Jeffers . . . or die.”

Blackboot laughed again. “Nice to see you, Jeffers.” He waved his gun, and Jeffers stepped into the street. His gun was trained on Blackboot as he drew even with Caleb and took his stance.

And then a slow, ominous grin spread across his face, and Caleb knew, even as the gun barrel slowly turned away from Blackboot and aimed directly at his own chest.

Jeffers was the traitor.

He’d brought with him the one man in the world who would make sure he didn’t have the ghost of a chance to walk away.

There was only one way now to save Eleanor. If it didn’t work, they’d both die right here, right now, and the children would be lost to a world of painful nights and desperate days.

Caleb drew himself to his full height, slightly lowering his pistol to the side as he raised his left hand in surrender. And just as he saw the smallest hint of relaxation on Blackboot’s face, he triggered the knife that he’d hidden at his wrist.

In one fluid movement he gripped the knife that had snapped forward to his palm and let it fly toward Jeffers. Without looking, he knew it would hit its mark, even as he raised the pistol to take the only shot he could.

Before the smile died on Blackboot’s face, Caleb took aim and fired.

Blackboot began to topple as his own pistol slipped from his jeweled fingers.

He was already dead. Caleb swung around to take a second shot at Sophie’s captor, but the man had fled.

“Are you all right?” Caleb gulped as he raced to catch Eleanor into his arms. He pulled her to him and ran his hands up and down her back and arms and shoulders to check for any sign she’d been hurt.

“I’m fine,” she whispered. “Caleb, darling. I’m fine.” She lifted her tear-filled gaze and focused on him. “Oh, Caleb. I was so frightened.”

“I know, sweetheart. I know. But it’s over. You’re safe now.”

She tightened her hold around his waist and pressed her cheek to his chest. “Safe now. Yes.”

Eleanor answered his desperate hug, then brought her hand to his cheek as she lifted her head to look into his eyes, which spoke the same message that was in her heart.

“I love you, Caleb,” she whispered.

Perhaps it was relief, or perhaps she merely meant it at the moment. Caleb didn’t care. She’d said the words he’d longed to hear, and now he knew that she felt some kind of affection for him. And he would answer it with his own affection, which plumbed the deepest reaches of his heart.

“I know, Eleanor. I know.”

Caleb held Eleanor several long moments before she stiffened in his arms.

“Sophie?” Eleanor pushed away from him. “Is Sophie all right?”

“Sophie’s fine. She’s fine.”

Caleb turned Eleanor so she could see where Sophie had collapsed to the ground with her back against the warehouse. Eleanor rushed to Sophie and knelt beside her, but Willie already had his arms around the shivering girl.

“I never seen nothin’ like that in m’life, Captain. Never!” Willie gushed as he nodded toward the dead inspector who lay in the gutter with Caleb’s knife gleaming wickedly in the center of his chest.

Caleb looked to where Blackboot lay sprawled on the ground with a bullet hole in his forehead. “I got my share of target practice during the war. Accuracy came in handy.”

“Don’t know ’bout acc’racy, Captain, but that was just plain perfect.”

. . .

Eleanor had admitted that she loved him. She’d said the words out loud, and it was too late to take them back. Now sitting in the darkening alley which was finally free of Blackboot’s threats, she wondered what she’d done.

She knew it was wishful thinking to hope that he hadn’t heard her. She knew he had. And she couldn’t deny that she’d said the words. Because he’d answered her. He’d said he knew.

Eleanor pulled her legs up to her chest and rested her forehead on her knees. The damp of twilight was already settling across her shoulders, and she shivered. Sophie sat not far away, but the young girl didn’t need her. She had Willie to rely on.

He had his arm around her shoulders and held her close to him. He cared for her, and she cared for him—a bond forged years earlier and never forgotten. Eleanor didn’t even scold the two. Propriety could be well and properly damned in light of what they’d just survived.

Willie was convincing Sophie to come to Southern Oaks and stay a few days. Hopefully, she’d feel comfortable enough that she wouldn’t want to leave.

Eleanor smiled to herself, wishing her own emotions were as transparent as theirs. The simplicity of their lives was enviable. They weren’t encumbered with the many concerns that she felt sure would make a future working side by side with Caleb uncomfortable. Awkward. How could it be anything other than that now that she’d admitted she loved him?

Just a few feet away, Caleb’s men began to straggle in. They’d been overwhelmed by Blackboot’s men who—thanks to the traitor Jeffers—had been lying in wait. They’d bloodied their fists getting through to cover Caleb.

“Take the bodies to the precinct,” she heard Caleb say. “Tell them the Countess of Grattling will be testifying to Jeffers’ betrayal.”

Eleanor closed her eyes and struggled to come to grips with how her life had changed. She’d resigned herself to a life surrounded by the children she’d so desperately wanted but was unable to have. They were her joy, her world, her life’s fulfillment. She’d resigned herself to the fact that she would never marry again, because what man didn’t want a son to carry his name into the future? Nobility had no monopoly on lineage.

Between every heartbeat she heard his voice from across the street, counting heads and reassuring his men. His tall frame rose above the others as time and again he would turn and the chiseled features she longed to touch were silhouetted in the early evening lamplight.

She squeezed her eyes shut as she fought the tears that spilled down her cheeks. How could she have been so foolish? How could she let herself fall in love when she knew nothing could come of it? How could she allow Caleb to chip away at the defenses she’d nurtured so carefully? Defenses that thus far had allowed no man to make a place for himself within her heart?

She took a deep breath and told herself she had no choice but to repair the breach and prevent him from taking possession of her very soul.

She wiped the tears from her cheeks, then noticed the boots that stood close to her. She lifted her gaze and focused on Caleb’s outstretched arm.

She looked at his hand, knowing how her hand would feel engulfed in his. She felt him even before their fingers met. Warm currents raced up her arm and swirled around her heart. She knew he felt the same. The intensity of his gaze told her so.

“Let’s go home,” he said as he pulled her to her feet. “Willie, bring Sophie with you.”

Caleb wrapped his arm around her waist as if he were afraid she wasn’t steady enough to walk on her own—which she wasn’t. The severity of her situation became a reality, and Eleanor understood how close she’d come to being killed. And she was terrified when she thought how close the children had come to being homeless again. She had to make arrangements so that if something happened to her, someone would take her place. Someone would keep Southern Oaks running.

The magnitude of that responsibility caused her knees to give out from beneath her. Caleb felt her sway and gathered her into his arms to carry her to the carriage. Eleanor couldn’t argue. She was afraid she might lose consciousness. She wrapped her arm around Caleb’s neck and pressed her cheek to his chest.

“We’ll be home soon, sweetheart. Take deep breaths. I’ve got you, duchess.”

Eleanor squeezed her eyes shut to keep the tears from falling. If only his words were true. If only he did have her.

But she could never allow him to.