“I said wait here.”
/> He was left with the image of her stricken expression as he stepped into the street. Gerard Gallow rounded on him, fists clenched and face purple with rage. “I won’t stand for this. She will be ruined and arrested. I’ll see to it.”
Aidan gathered up all his hurt and fear and rage. He thought of the lies she’d told him and the danger she was in. And then he let it all gather in his fist and drove it into Gerard Gallow’s face.
The man went down like a sail with its rope cut. The crowd that had gathered around them gasped and drew back. Several of the ladies shrieked.
“Drunkard,” Aidan explained as he heaved the trunk up to his shoulder. He was crouching down to grab the back of Gallow’s collar so that he could drag the man to the dockyard, but Penrose raced up to take the trunk from Aidan’s shoulder.
“I’ll take that, sir. Is there someone you need me to get? A constable, perhaps?”
“No, thank you, Penrose. I’ll take it from here.”
Aidan bent down, lifted the unconscious man by the shoulders and slung him over his back, staggering a little at the weight. “Find out where the Talisman is docked.”
“Yes, sir.”
Penrose raced off, running right past Lucy Cain without seeing her. Aidan made a point of nodding in greeting as he passed her, and smiled a little to try to erase some of the fear from her eyes. But her startled blink told him that his smile was more of a snarl, so he ducked his head and walked toward the docks.
Once there, it was a simple transaction. He paid the captain of the Talisman to keep Gallow locked in a cabin until he set sail. “He’s to have no visitors. I’ll return tomorrow to ensure he’s still here. There’ll be another hundred pounds in it for you if he’s still aboard when you shove off. And I’ll have a letter to be delivered to the governor of Ceylon. Agreed?”
“Absolutely. An honor to do business with you, Mr. York.”
Two sailors disappeared below with Gallow slung between them. A third toted his trunk. God willing, Aidan would never see the man again.
Still . . . he’d rather fight Gerard Gallow like a dog in the street than return to Kate and find out why she’d lied to him. About everything.
He had no choice, but he eyed the train station as he passed it, wishing he could simply board a train and go somewhere else. Anywhere else. But he walked on until he reached the door of her shop. The small groups of people still loitering on the walk studied him as he approached. Lucy tried to stop him, but he shook his head and did not pause once. He could not stop or he might not be able to start again.
When he opened the door, he found Kate standing in the center of the room, her arms wrapped around her middle. “Aidan. Are you all right? What happened?”
He could not speak yet, so he only gestured toward the stairway. Kate trudged up the stairs and Aidan followed. He tried to sit down, but his muscles twitched beneath his skin, so he rose again. And every second, Kate watched him with eyes so wide he thought he’d fall into them. “Tell me,” he finally rasped. “Tell me the truth.”
He heard the rush of air in her throat as she inhaled. “I’m sorry.”
“Just say it!”
“My husband died ten months ago,” she whispered, and Aidan felt his stomach drop so far that he felt hollow.
“I didn’t know how to tell you. Or when.”
“What does that mean, you didn’t know how? You simply do it! And when? When I asked about him. When we made love. When I begged you to divorce him! Jesus Christ, Kate!”
“I couldn’t tell anyone. I couldn’t. You heard Gerard. He’d accused me of killing my husband!”
“Did you?”
“No!”
Aidan scrubbed his hands through his hair. “I feel like I’m going mad. Was any of it true? Any of what you told me? Were you even sent away at all?”
When she didn’t answer, he looked up to find her so pale that she looked gray. She nodded. Her hands gestured as if she’d say more, but when Aidan saw the way they shook, he cursed and moved to hold her. Her skin felt cold when she leaned into him. “You need to sit down, Kate.”
He settled her close to the stove and fed the fire. Then he poured her a glass of Madeira and pressed it into her hand. “You have to tell me everything. Everything or I’ll leave right now. This is cruel, what you’ve done to me.”
“I know,” she murmured.
Aidan paced to the window and stared out. He waited and she finally spoke.