Heath hesitated but then nodded grimly. “Very well, but you will let me take the lead.”
They had barely descended from the carriage, however, when they heard shouts from the vicinity of the front entrance door. Lily’s heart leapt to see Basil being thrown unceremoniously out of the gaming hell. He tumbled down the short flight of steps to land in a heap on the sidewalk, while the door slammed shut behind him.
Giving a gasp of alarm, Lily ran to him, but she wasn’t required to help him up. Instead, Basil lunged to his feet, his fists clenched with rage as he glared at the entrance door. He was sporting a bruised eye and a bloody nose, and he was livid.
He would have rushed back into the club, but Heath clamped a calming hand o
n his shoulder, preventing him. “Hold there, Eddowes. Pistols can be far more persuasive than fists.”
Upon seeing the loaded weapon Heath held, Basil let his shoulders sag. “Fanny isn’t there, nor is O’Rourke. But his bloody bruisers wouldn’t say where she was taken.”
“Perhaps they will tell me,” Heath replied, making for the door.
Lily followed immediately on his heels. Her friend’s beating had lit the fire of anger inside her, and she was ready to strangle O’Rourke and his minions with her bare hands.
The door swung open the instant Heath knocked. The large, burly man standing there wore a fierce scowl and had raised his fists threateningly, as if he’d expected Basil to return. But the sight of a pistol pointing directly at his chest made his eyes widen in alarm.
Glancing back at Lily, Heath withdrew a handkerchief from his coat pocket and handed it to her. “Why don’t you accompany Mr. Eddowes to the carriage?” he advised. “I expect I won’t be long.”
Then with a lethal smile at the doorman, he gestured with the pistol. The servant backed away carefully, and Heath stepped inside, shutting the door quietly behind him.
Basil immediately started sputtering in outrage at being denied his revenge. Lily felt like doing the same, yet she wanted more to stop him from charging back inside and suffering even more damage to his battered face.
Telling herself she could trust Heath to handle the matter, she corralled Basil back inside the hack, then climbed in after him. Yet she was still worried for Heath. She hated to think of the danger he might be in, facing those brutes alone, even if he was armed.
For the next interminable five minutes, Lily kept peering out the carriage window while applying the handkerchief to stop her friend’s nosebleed, alternating between fretting silently and trying to reassure Basil that Lord Claybourne would succeed in discovering where Fanny had been taken.
Her confidence was soon rewarded. When Heath appeared, he was unscathed. He gave directions to the driver and then settled inside across from Lily and Basil.
“I persuaded O’Rourke’s lackeys to tell me where he might be found,” Heath explained as the hack moved forward and picked up a rapid pace. “It appears he recently built a private residence in Marylebone, and yesterday sent several of his servants there to ready the house for habitation. He intended to be gone for the next several days.”
Marylebone was a district just north of London, Lily knew, not too distant from Heath’s own town house.
“So Fanny is likely being held there?” she asked.
“That seems a reasonable assumption.”
“How do we rescue her?” Basil demanded.
Heath shifted his attention to the younger man. “I would rather you allow me to handle it.”
Basil’s jaw hardened. “No, my lord, I cannot do that. I could never forgive myself if Fanny came to harm while I stood idly by.” His voice lowered to a rough whisper. “It is bad enough knowing that bastard could have brutalized her by now.”
“If he has, he will pay for it,” Heath said grimly. “But there is a possibility the dresser mistook what she saw for an abduction.”
“A slim possibility,” Lily muttered. “It is much more likely that O’Rourke is a true villain.”
“I agree,” Heath replied. “Which is why we will take adequate precautions. Reportedly the house is in a quiet neighborhood, so we will halt a distance down the street and proceed on foot. There is no need to alert O’Rourke to our arrival.”
Basil scowled. “But you mean simply to knock on the front door?”
“That is the usual method of gaining entrance to a house,” Heath said dryly. “Although I don’t plan on knocking in this instance. I intend to walk in and take him by surprise.”
“What if the door is locked?”
“Then I will break a window.”
“You realize O’Rourke could have an army of bruisers guarding Fanny?” Lily warned.