he assured. “No one will have any idea you’re going down to the country with me. I’m a master at arranging such things. Fear not.”
With that, the coach began to roll forward across the West End through the gilded streets of London where there was so much wealth that one would have thought no one could suffer, but she knew the houses of this area were full of suffering.
While some people led glittering lives of opportunity, others were barely managing to live in the nightmares they had created for themselves. She was going to stop that now. This was the moment, and she’d been brave enough to take it. She turned to Richard Heath, amazed by him. He was so powerful, his shoulders so capable that they look like they could hold the weight of the world, and she wondered if they often had.
“Why me?” she asks suddenly.
He cocked his head to the side, his dark eyes guarded. “I beg your pardon?”
“Why choose to help me?” she asked, determined to be bold with him. “Surely, there are so many people about you who need your assistance.”
“I try to help them as best I can,” he evaded, pulling off his gloves. . . A fascinating study, revealing long fingers and rough palms.
“I see,” she said, though she didn’t entirely. So she dared to continue. “I don’t truly understand you, but I knew that I had to accept your offer, even if it means. . .”
She paused.
“Even if it means?” he prompted, his lips quirking.
“That I am taking things into my hands,” she rushed, pulling off her own gloves. Another mark of freedom. “I don’t truly know what sort of man you are, aside from your reputation, but there’s something in you that assures me this is the right decision.”
He laughed slowly. “You are an optimistic soul.”
“I never would’ve thought to hear that,” she said. “I have lived my life in so much fear.”
“Well, you are not living in fear now,” he pointed out.
“Thank you,” she said, smiling, the first true smile she’d made in years, “for that. It is you who is making it possible.”
“No,” he countered, lifting his hand in disagreement. “It is you. You’re the one who boldly stepped into my club.”
She laughed, suddenly delighted with herself. “I did, didn’t I?”
His gaze flamed. “Yes, Mary.”
She couldn’t fight her smile. “Are lessons to begin immediately, or must we wait until we go down to the country?”
“Our lessons have already begun. You have acted strongly now.”
She tilted her head to the side, contemplating his statement. “I have, haven’t I?”
“Mary,” he began. “I think you’ve already started out on the path you need to be on, and I am merely here to guide you on it.”
She folded her hands in her lap, pleased. “It seems so odd that a notorious lord of the underworld should be the one to guide me.”
He let a grin curl his lips then. “Life is full of strange things.”
“Indeed. Tell me about yourself,” she said.
His grin faded. “Why would you like to know about me?”
“Well, if you are to be my guide,” she teased, “surely, I should know something.”
He gave a decisive shake of his head. “You need only know that I came from hell and managed to escape it, just like you will do.”
“So we are similar, then?” she asked, amazed she should have something in common with him.
“In some ways,” he agreed, leaning back against the velvet squabs, his greatcoat sprawling over the seat as his legs took up a good deal of room. “But in most, no. We come from entirely different worlds.”
“But we are after a mutual end,” she replied.
“A mutual end?” he queried, his strong brow furrowing.
“To be free of fear,” she declared.
“Yes, Lady Mary,” he agreed, as he rested one of his hands on his knee. “To be free of fear.”
“You must call me Mary now,” she instructed. “And shall I call you Richard?”
“Richard,” he groaned. “No, thank you. Call me Heath. It is the name I prefer.”
“Then, I shall call you Heath,” she said with a nod. “And you shall call me Mary, and we shall be friends.”
“I don’t generally have friends,” he replied factually.
She frowned. “If not friends, then, what are we to be?”
He waggled his brows. “Accomplices.”
It was a strange word, but she liked it. “If that is what we are to be, then.”
“Now, what lesson shall I have on the way to your country place?” she asked, eager to begin.
“You shall have peace,” he said. “I think