“You’ll need to keep your arm in a sling for a week or more,” he said gruffly. “And no leaping from carriages into moving traffic for a while.”
“Frederick doesn’t need to know the extent of”—she waved a hand—“this.”
He gave a short grunt. “He knows.”
She sighed. The sound was heavy and long. One more thing she was failing to protect her brother from.
Hale was silent as he lifted the strap of her chemise back into place and then her gown before quickly doing up the row of buttons. As soon as the last one was secured, he rose to his feet. Taking up the length of cloth he’d brought up with the poultice, he fashioned it into a sling to support her injured arm. Again, his attentions were surprisingly gentle and efficient.
Once he was satisfied with the makeshift support, he turned away from her without meeting her eyes. “I’ll fetch Freddie. He’ll want to know you survived so much time alone with me.”
Katherine watched him walk from the room with an odd pressure filling her chest.
Chapter Nine
Katherine struggled through the process of tugging her stocking back on with one hand. The swelling around her ankle hadn’t gotten too much worse, but the purple discoloration was disconcerting. Carefully, she replaced her boot but couldn’t pull the laces very tight.
It would have to do. If she’d managed to race through the London streets with the injury, she should be able to get home.
Home and away from Mason Hale.
The man was simply too much. Too big, too blatantly male, too intense with his bold gaze and even bolder manner. Too everything!
“Are you all right, Kit?”
Katherine looked up to see Frederick hovering in the doorway. She gestured for him to come into the room. “Of course. I told you I’d be fine.”
He crossed to sit at the foot of the bed. His nose wrinkled in distaste. “What is that awful smell?”
“A poultice Mr. Hale insisted on applying to my injuries. Hopefully, the smell will dissipate soon.”
With a nod of assurance, Frederick noted, “I knew he’d be the right person to help us.”
“It was a good decision to bring us here,” she acknowledged, “but now we need to be returning home.”
When her brother straightened his spine, she realized they were about to have an argument.
“Maybe we shouldn’t?”
Katherine arched a brow. She had no idea what her brother was suggesting exactly, but she could see by his manner that he was completely in earnest.
“What do you mean? Of course we should go home.”
Her brother’s eyes darkened. “There were a few details about the initial kidnapping I didn’t relate to you. I couldn’t properly fit them into the puzzle, so I left them out until their existence made more sense.”
She’d suspected he’d been holding something back. “And now they do?”
He nodded. “The abduction by the criminal gang was clearly random. But the first pair I encountered that night—the men who locked me in the cupboard—their motive was very different. They had not been part of Bricken’s gang,” he continued. “Their manner of dress, their dialect, their modus operandi...all different, not to mention the distance I walked after escaping them. They operated in a different neighborhood from Bricken. A different territory.” He paused. “I didn’t mention this before, but while I was locked in the cupboard, I was able to listen in on much of their conversation.”
Despite the dread rising inside her, Katherine remained still and patient. Frederick often took his time explaining something, but only because he felt every detail to be important. Most often, it was.
“After they’d gotten me to the inn, they’d sent a message to someone. They were awaiting his arrival when I escaped.” His expression hardened and for a moment he looked a great deal older than his years. “Kit, the abduction wasn’t random. Someone had hired them to take me. Me, specifically.”
In the days since she’d gotten Frederick back and heard his initial telling of what had happened, Katherine had done her best to make sense of it all. Although she’d come to the same conclusion about the encounter with the criminal gang, the only explanation she’d managed for the initial kidnapping was that it had been for ransom. Anyone who’d glanced at Frederick would have recognized his affluence. The two men who’d come upon him alone at night had likely just seized upon the opportunity.
But what her brother just said strongly contradicted that theory. “And today,” she noted, “was another attempt.”
Frederick nodded. “I believe so. But I cannot figure out who would do such a thing and what exactly they’d hope to accomplish with my abduction. Although it could have been as simple as a targeted kidnapping for ransom, there is a possibility my death was their ultimate intent.”
Katherine’s heart dropped like a stone to her stomach before rising again to get caught in her throat. The idea of anyone wanting her uniquely clever, compassionate brother dead was unbelievable. It couldn’t possibly be true.
“Why would they have gone to the trouble of taking you captive?” she argued. “Wouldn’t it have made more sense for them to have taken care of the...task right away if that was their intention?”
She couldn’t believe they were actually discussing such a possibility.
Frederick, bless him, didn’t seem bothered by the subject any more than he would have been by any puzzle he hadn’t yet solved. “I thought of that as well. The only answer is that the person who hired them wanted to be an eyewitness to my demise. Perhaps for assurance...or because the matter is of a personal nature.”
Katherine shook her head in fierce denial. “No one on earth could have such cause.”
Dark solemn eyes met hers. “Our guardian.”
As their late grandfather’s younger brother, the Marquess of Warfield wasn’t only their guardian, he was also the next in line to inherit the dukedom and would undoubtedly benefit the most from Frederick’s death.
“But Warfield has been abroad for years and has made it quite clear that
