“Are ye certain, milord?” Jem asked from the ground. “Was a rough place, mighty interested in Callisto here. Don’t trouble me none to go back.” He patted the whip slung round his neck, then lifted his coat to show he’d armed himself further since their return.
“On second thought, climb on. Think I’ll spell Calli, swing b-by and harness Jupit-ter instead.”
“Sounds a right idea.” Swift John jumped on the seat beside him when Daniel motioned for the footman to join him, the coachman pulling himself up on the back.
“Lord Tremayne,” Swift John began formally once they were off. “I surely regret this morn. Know you’d never forgive me if something had happened to—”
“You’re d-damn right I wouldn’t have!” Daniel exploded. Then just as quickly calmed himself. No sense getting angry at the wrong person when the right person waited at the end of a carriage ride. “She was d-determined to go. Remember that d-day she got lost? Before I sent you to her?”
“John’s complained more than once he’s missing out on all the fun. Today was anything but. Scared me, it did, seeing that filthy scourge attack her.” He swallowed audibly. “Shouldn’t have happened. Not on my watch. Would understand if—if…you sacked my soddin’ arse.”
“Don’t talk nonsense,” Daniel barked. They rolled along in silence, his tense grip on the reins conveying his agitation to the mare who picked up speed. “I’m thankful you were with her, Swi…” He trailed off, deciding to try something new. “Glad you were there, B-Buttons.”
After mangling the man’s preferred name, Daniel glanced over. His footman beamed, noting the change.
Then a haunted look came into his valued servant’s eyes. Buttons leaned in, pitched his voice low. “Yer lordship. Godalmighty! You shoulda seen it. ’Twas a tiny hovel in the worst part o’ the stews. She was blame near sleeping on rags!”
It took real effort to keep his expression bland, to not let on how much that news affected him.
“Since I d-don’t want any of us d-dancing on air with a knot around our n-n-necks, and I’m liable to kill him in truth if I get in more than one rammer—hell, one might d-do it, the way I’m feeling—we’re stopping to p-pick up Tom Everson.” The long-winded explanation surprised Daniel. He never explained. He never talked, not when he could avoid it.
But still, the words kept gushing forth, the memory of the dried blood on Thea’s neck, the torn dress, the way she burrowed into his chest when she finally admitted what happened… It all made him want to rip limbs from the lecher, and damned if talking didn’t ease the rage. “He’s ab-b-out your age, a fighting enthusiast without much experience. B-but with loads of heart.”
“Happy to have another set of fives,” Button said, rubbing his together. “’Specially if yours are sitting out.”
Daniel’s hands flexed upon the reins. “I’m d-det-t-termined to teach this Grimmett b-bastard a lesson, though. For Thea and anyone else he’s harmed. And…Buttons”—Daniel shot him a grim glance as he pulled around the back of his townhouse, heading to the mews for a fresh horse and a less attractive carriage—“’t-tis your and Tom’s job t-to make sure I conduct myself in a manner that won’t have Thea tearing off my b-ballocks for a rat snack.”
They picked up more than Jupiter, though, when Daniel’s regular driver Roskins learned of their mission.
“I’m from there, milord. Still know my way around. Might just come in handy.”
“Jump on.”
As he’d hoped, Tom made an eager addition and, once the lanky redhead came aboard, the five of them were soon abandoning the parts of the city they frequented in reluctant favor of the slums.
Where the streets were narrow, the houses crumbling, and the smells atrocious.
“That’s it.”
“Here ’tis, milord.”
Jem and Buttons spotted their destination at the same moment.
Leaving the two coachmen with the carriage and Buttons stationed at the door to prevent an escape should Grimmett think to attempt one, Daniel and Tom went in search of the louse-riddled landlord.
The whiny, grease-faced Grimmett proved easy to find, for he’d made no friends in the area and more than one tenant was eager to give up his location—even before Daniel offered a coin.
All too soon, the wretch sagged to the floor. And with very little effort extended upon either of their parts.
Tom roared forward for another swing, ready to defend the honor of the lovely woman he’d met the night he came looking for Daniel. But he was too late. With a feeble cry, the sorry-arse excuse for a man scrambled drunkenly out the door.
Buttons popped his head in. “Want me to run him down? It’d be a right pleasure.”
Daniel considered a moment before answering with a slight shake of his head. On the drive over, he and Roskins had devised a plan whereby his coachman’s cousin, who still lived in the area, would keep an eye on the beetle-headed recreant. Satisfyingly, Grimmett was already in half mourning when they’d found him, thanks to the chop Buttons had landed earlier. Or possibly it was Thea’s boot swinging that had blackened the bastard’s eye (his footman had regaled them with details of the morning’s encounter on the way).
“Just m-m-make sure he stays gone while we’re here.”
“Aye, your lordship.” As Buttons crossed back into the hall, a ragged cat streaked inside.
Hissing at Daniel and Tom, it raced to a corner and ducked beneath a ratty-looking chest of drawers.
“C-c-c-c-can’t believe anyone wwwwould want to-to-to live here that bad.” Tom followed the flash of dirty grey. “Hey, b-b-boy, don’t you want-t-t to-to come on out?”
Daniel looked around. There wasn’t anything worth salvaging. The brush Thea had come for had cracked, splintered wood snagging on his coat pocket when he tucked the halves inside.
The walls might have been relatively clean, a swipe of his gloved finger across one told him, but no amount of washing could disguise the pallor that permeated the room. The squalidness that surrounded it just steps away. He couldn’t believe Thea had been relegated
