Jack sprang into action, retrieved the crutch, and then helped Harry center it beneath his arm.
“What about the money?” Jack asked as Harry took his first swinging step toward the door.
“Leave it,” Harry said.
Jack made a sound somewhere between a whimper and a cough as he looked at the scattered notes.
“I know,” Harry commiserated, but spoke loudly enough that Malcolm would hear. “But Lord Damion keeps his word.”
Jack followed as Harry swung his way through the club. One man was unconscious on the floor, while another was braced against the wall, his hand covering his eye as he bent forward at the waist. The third man was gone, and Joshua, hurrying behind Harry, said the man had run off.
Harry felt dizzy and sick, but the men assisted him back into the carriage easily enough. Joshua arranged him on the back bench so he could put his bad leg out straight. The bravado was wearing off, and delayed panic was setting in, along with the pain. What if more of Malcolm’s men were on their way? What if Malcolm reciprocated in a way that hurt Sabrina? Harry had downplayed the potential, but the truth was Lady Sabrina would suffer both socially and financially if her role as Lord Damion was made known. The portions of her work done under the name of that persona could also be affected if men realized they were partnered with a mere female.
Harry huffed at the thought of anyone attaching that description to Lady Sabrina. “Mere” anything did not fit her.
Joshua pulled the carriage door shut. His knuckles were bruised, but he smiled, and his eyes were bright.
“It worked!” Joshua said, then hit the roof so the driver would know to depart.
“Jack and his boys are away?”
Joshua nodded. “They were gone before you were even inside the carriage.”
“Good.” He shifted his leg and pain shot up his hip, causing him to inhale sharply.
“You’re hurt?” Joshua said, leaning forward to look over Harry’s leg. He’d assisted his mother with Harry’s care but had never seemed particularly interested in the more skilled interventions.
Harry nodded, clenching his teeth together and trying not to think of how welcome a shot of brandy would be right now for both his nerves and his leg. “I’ll be all right,” he said, but his words came out clunky. He was supposed to meet Uncle Elliot at his house in Mayfair now that the meeting was over. How much would he explain about whatever new injury he had inflicted upon himself?
“It’s too bad you can’t come back to Rose Haven,” Joshua said. “Mum could take a look at that leg and make sure everything’s all right.”
Therese.
Sabrina.
Harry stared out the side window of the carriage without really seeing through it, then he turned to Joshua. “I must ask your help in another respect, and I shall warn you that Lady Sabrina might not be happy with you at first for going along with it.”
Joshua, who had just brawled with merciless thugs without hesitation, looked frightened at the prospect of upsetting his mistress.
“I do believe, however,” Harry continued, “that, in time, she will thank you for doing as I ask.”
“She’s been very good to me, Mr. Stillman. I don’t want to go against her orders.”
“But did she actually order you not to return me to Rose Haven?”
He looked relieved. “That is all you want, to return to Wimbledon?”
“That is all.”
His brow furrowed with concern once again. “But Lady Sabrina is not expecting you.”
“Right, but circumstances have changed since she asked you to accompany me to this meeting.” Bless him for going along with everything so far. Bless him even more if he would go along with this as well. Harry needed to see Sabrina. He needed her to know how much had changed for them in the course of only a few hours’ time. “I am once again in need of medical treatment.” He paused and made a face he hoped looked as though he were in excruciating pain, then let out a breath. “I believe she would want me taken to Therese, just as she had last time I was in need of care.”
Sabrina heard the carriage returning from London while she wrote out her final schedule for Therese. She had only five more days in Wimbledon, then she would travel to Brighton by carriage and sail to Naples a few days after that. If anything could save her from the confusing emotions of this last week, it would be an ocean voyage