refused to let either him or Freddy go up to Bart’s room to confront him. The best they’d been able to do was convince the dolt to take them up to the fourth floor where they were told to wait in the hall while the idiot went into the room to tell Bart he had guests. Phin had spotted the stairs to the roof instantly and taken matters into his own hand.
He would be eternally grateful for acting the moment he saw those stairs. Lenore wouldn’t have been able to hold onto the edge of the roof for more than a few seconds if he hadn’t risked his neck to grab her and yank her up to safety with him. He’d never tell her how close he’d come to spilling over the edge of the roof himself, and if he were honest, it remained to be seen if they were safe.
“You found her,” Freddy gasped and leapt away from Swan’s hotel room door as soon as Phin and Lenore spilled into the hallway.
“She’d already climbed out the window and attempted to make it to the roof,” Phin panted, gesturing for Freddy to speed ahead of them down the main stairs. Phin would have taken three or four stairs at a time if he didn’t think Lenore might stumble trying to keep up with him. “What in heaven’s name is that idiot concierge doing with Swan?”
“I couldn’t tell,” Freddy said as they charged down to the lobby. “I think the young man grew a backbone at the last minute and tried to ask about Lenore. Swan shouted at him.”
“That’s why there was no gunfire,” Lenore gasped.
“I beg your pardon?” Freddy asked as they dashed through the lobby and out into the night.
Lenore had regained some of her color, but fleeing into the cold, lamp-lit night made her look as pale as a ghost again. All she managed to say as Freddy signaled to the driver waiting for them was, “He has a gun. More than one, if I know men like Bart.”
“Then we need to get you to safety as quickly as possible,” Freddy echoed what Phin had said on the roof.
“Swan will go to Reese’s house first,” Phin said, pausing to give the driver his own address before leaping into the carriage. “Lenore will be safer with me for the time being, but we need to leave London as soon as possible.”
“Bart will come after me,” Lenore said, panting to the point that Phin feared she might hyperventilate.
He threw his arms around her and held her close as the carriage lurched into motion. “He might try, but Reese wasn’t just heading to Scotland Yard for help, he went off to fetch Lord Clerkenwell.”
“Jack has wanted to act on our fears from the start,” Freddy added, resting a reassuring hand on Lenore’s leg. “He’s been hampered by formalities, but after tonight, I think he’ll be more than willing to take matters into his own hands without formalities.”
Lenore nodded tightly, then sagged against Phin. In spite of the danger that still nipped at their heels, Phin felt an immense sense of pride and love as he hugged Lenore close. He’d been a damn fool to be angry with her over preserving her life. While he still thought a lot of trouble could have been spared if she’d been honest with everyone, with him, from the start, he could see the full terror of her situation now. He didn’t want to think what would have happened if he had hesitated even a little in going after her. Timing had saved her life.
He loved her. He already knew that he did, but as Lenore’s breath steadied and her trembling stopped, as she clung to him and hid her face against his shoulder as she recovered from her trauma, he knew it in every fiber of his body, in every beat of his heart. He loved her with a passion that would forgive any mistake if only so he could keep her in his arms forever. If Swan’s sense of vengeance meant they had to flee London, flee England, and hide in the middle of the Amazonian jungle, he would go there happily, as long as he could be with her.
The world seemed abnormally calm as they reached his house and climbed out of the carriage.
“I’ll head back to Howsden House in case Swan shows up there,” Freddy said, staying in the carriage. “It’s where Reese is likely to go once he’s fetched Jack anyhow.”
Phin