in the lock, she caught his arm. “Mr. Roth?”
“What is it?”
Her voice came in a quaver. “You’ve always been a good sort. A kind man. That’s what they say below stairs. Not too high and mighty to care what happens to the likes of us.”
He felt a stirring of pride, but pushed it down at once. It was true that he did what he could for the people who worked at Hilliard House, but servants flattered when they wanted something. It was one of the few tools they had. “I’m glad you believe so, but why does that matter right now?”
Grace tightened her grip, as if he were a handhold against a raging wind. “I’m in terrible trouble, you see.”
She gave a faint nod, as if that admission cost far more than he could guess.
“Oh, Grace,” he said softly. There was no need to tell her she had been foolish. That painful awareness was written in every line of her body.
“That’s not the half of it, Mr. Roth.” Tears were starting to trickle down her face. Those beautiful eyes crumpled shut, as if holding her misery in. “I’m afraid.”
Tobias caught her hand and squeezed it. “Of what?”
“Not just for me, but for my poor baby, too.” She squeezed back so hard that his fingers ached. This was no dainty miss, but a hardworking girl.
Now he was alarmed, forgetting his own troubles as she started to weep in earnest. “Whatever for?”
She lifted her chin, forcing her eyes open. Tears shone on her cheeks, reflecting back the distant streetlights. It made her look as if her tiny, pointed features were washed in liquid silver. “Us girls got to takes their chances where they find them.”
“What?” Tobias felt like an idiot, unable to put the pieces together.
Suddenly, she was sobbing. “I agreed to do something for some bad men. I didn’t hurt anyone, I promise, but it was wrong. I didn’t know it at first, I just went back and forth for them, but I saw what they were doing tonight! And now I know why he wanted me.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I can’t stop, or they’ll hurt me. I can’t keep on with it, because sooner or later, I’ll be caught. And now there’s a baby to think of!”
Tobias was losing the thread of the conversation. “Why did you do—whatever it was—at all?”
“I loved him, I did. What a foolish, foolish girl I am.” She pressed her knuckles to her mouth, her shoulder shaking in silent grief.
He could feel it all the way to his guts. “You need to go far away from here.”
She nodded, eyes wet. “But I’ve never been more than a few miles from home.”
“Are you brave enough to try?” he asked. “For the baby?”
She nodded.
The Penners had an estate up in Yorkshire. If he asked, Bucky would find her a place up there—somewhere to be until the child was born, and then a position on their household staff. There were any number of young widows with babies in the world. Who was to say Grace wasn’t one of them? “I’ll get you away from here. Someplace good and safe.”
“Do you really mean that?” She sounded like a small child herself. In truth, she was barely older than Poppy, who was still in the schoolroom. He tried to imagine his youngest sister with child, and his stomach turned.
He managed a smile. “I might be a rascal, but I’m not a liar. Now come inside and get to bed.”
She grabbed his arm again. “Promise me you won’t tell anyone about the baby!”
He stopped. “I’ll have to tell something to the people in Yorkshire. Not much, but enough to make them understand.”
Tears filled her eyes. “But no more than that. I’ve my parents to think of. If I have to go, let them keep a clean memory of me. I never meant to bring them shame.”
That was simple enough. “Of course.”
He opened the side door and ushered Grace inside. The door was just down the hall from the cloakroom. The stairway to the servants’ quarters was next to the kitchen, far to his left, the stairway that led to his own bed to his right.
They stopped in the hall, suddenly awkward. “Thank you so much, Mr. Roth,” she said. “You’ve saved my life.”
He felt suddenly confused, as if he’d glimpsed the edge of something far darker than he fully understood. Maybe she was taking advantage of him, playing on his sympathies, but every instinct said her distress was genuine. Suddenly, the entire escapade at the opera house seemed like a surreal nightmare, insubstantial and ludicrous.
He cleared his throat. “Good night, Grace. I’ll find you tomorrow and we’ll talk again.”
“Good night.” She gazed into his face a long moment. Now he could see her eyes were a luminous pale blue, the color of a hazy sky. Grace truly was a beautiful girl.
She turned and walked toward the servants’ quarters, her hips swinging slightly under her skirts.
Chapter Five
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Nick tolerated the cage of filmy bed curtains for all of a minute. Those sixty seconds on Evelina’s bed were enough to conjure a lifetime of fantasies—what with the fine, embroidered linen and distinctly feminine scents— but with no female to complete the picture, it was pure frustration.
Besides, there had been no more screams or pounding on doors. Either everyone was dead or the crisis was over, and he was doing no good hiding among the mountain of pillows that crowded Evelina’s bed. How did anyone find room to sleep in all this fluff?
He slid out from the lacy bower, feeling his boot heels sink into the plush carpet. A Siberian tiger could not have felt more out of place. The dainty, fussy, and obviously expensive room was nothing like the caravans or railway cars he usually slept in. The silver hairbrush on the dressing table was worth more than Nick’s entire stash of coin, and he was a good saver.
He ghosted about the room, careful not to make a noise. Evelina was right—he had taken a risk coming here. A stupid one. No one would believe he was there just to ensure his childhood sweetheart was safe and happy—or maybe, just maybe, hoping that she had missed him. Anyone sensible would take one look at his rough clothes and dark skin and assume the worst.
And maybe they wouldn’t be entirely wrong. There was no mistaking the fact that little Evie was a woman now, and he wanted to feel her curves under his hands. He wanted to hear her murmur his name, to cry it out in
