Page 157 of The Language of Love

Henry stood in the opening, armed men on either side of him, his gaze frantic until it landed on Annis. He pushed past Julia, who was still frozen in shock.

“Are you hurt?” he demanded, dropping to his haunches, and taking Annis’s hand.

“I’m fine,” she said, forcing a smile. “Just a bit shaky.”

He gave her hand a fervent kiss. “Thank God.” He helped her to her feet and slid a steadying arm around her before turning to the other occupants in the room.

“He’s dead!” Martha sobbed and scrambled to her feet, her wild, murderous gaze on Julia. “You killed him,” she screamed, launching herself at the other woman hard enough to knock Julia off her feet.

Henry guided Annis away from the rolling, fighting women.

“I don’t think we’ll need the pistols,” he told the two men. “Mr. Caldwell, why don’t you take the guns and step outside. Please keep the servants from entering the room.” He jerked his chin toward the door, where several gaping people stood, wrapped in robes, slippers, and sleeping caps.

Once the door shut behind the constable, Henry turned to the remaining man. “Mr. Green, please separate the ladies.”

Jonathan Green glanced at the slapping, scratching women rolling on the floor and hesitated.

“You’d better get in there,” Henry advised him, humor in his voice.

While the Runner pried the women apart, Henry turned to Annis. “We were watching and followed you here,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but—”

“You wanted my reactions to be genuine?” she guessed tartly.

“Well… yes,” he admitted, his lips almosttwitching into a smile.

But then the humor slid away, and his arm tightened around her. “I’m very sorry they used a gun, Annis. Nothing in their past crimes indicated any propensity for violence and neither I nor Mr. Green anticipated such a thing. I’m afraid I put you in danger.”

“I don’t think they would have actually hurt me,” she said. “Julia startled them, and I think Martha pulled the trigger from fear. I daresay Julia did the same.”

Henry stared at the pillow that had taken the first bullet, and he blanched. “Good God, but that was too close, Annis.”

“I’m fine,” she assured him.

He looked like he wanted to apologize again, but Annis pointed to where the Bow Street Runner was now caught between the fighting women who’d knocked off his spectacles and ripped his coat. “I think Mr. Green might need your help, Henry.”

***

Julia was a pale shadow of her usual self, and Henry could not blame her. He had never killed a man before and imagined that it would be years, if ever, before she would get over what she had done.

As for Martha, she was devastated by Loring’s death, but a lifetime as a criminal had taught her to adjust quickly. Her husband might be gone, but she still had to live. And she’d been caught in a lord’s house with an open safe, a dead husband, and a bag full of counterfeit relics at three in the morning.

“What’s stopping me from telling the magistrate about your wife, my lord?” Martha snarled at Henry when he told her she was going to get in the carriage that was waiting below to take her to Hull.

He smiled unpleasantly. “It is unfortunate for you that I am the magistrate in this area, Mrs. Loring.”

That shut her mouth with a snap.

“Here is what will happen,” he said. “Mr. Green will accompany you to Hull where he will make sure you get on the first packet to Amsterdam. Never come back to England because it will not go so well for you the next time. And one more thing: never threaten my wife again.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “Do we understand one another?”

She gave him a hate-filled look but nodded. And then she turned her venomous gaze on Julia and spat, “What about her?”

“What about her?” Henry asked.

“She killed my husband and deserves to be punished!” Martha shrieked.

“The gun she was holding accidentally discharged and killed a man who was robbing her house, Mrs. Loring.”

“But you know she was—”