“What the bloody hell is that?” he asked, skidding to a stop.
Her gaze raised to his, her eyes shimmering with tears. “It’s coins. Gold.”
He took the sack from her hand, working open the string as he looked inside.
“How did I not feel the weight of it? I mean he leaned close but…”
“There’s a note,” he said as he pushed several coins aside.
Isabella rose from her chair and came to stand close to him to see the note too. Her body brushed his, her warmth seeping through his shirt. Carefully, he unfolded the scrap of paper.
* * *
For you and your sisters. There will be more now that I know I can find you at the club.
* * *
Isabella gasped next to him as she plucked the note from his hand. “Who is he?”
“I don’t know,” he answered as he once again tried to place the sound of the other man’s voice. “But I don’t like this one bit. Why would he give you money? What does he want? Who does he know? How dare he…”
But Isabella gasped, interrupting Bash’s litany of questions. “My father has always had a secret partner. You don’t think that was him, do you? If he found out I had a secret identity perhaps he was finally able to help us. Do you think he knows anything about my father?”
“Isabella.” He wrapped an arm around her. He hated that this man had gone anywhere near her. Somehow, he liked it even less that he was able to give Isabella more hope than Bash had managed. “You don’t know that he’s your father’s partner.”
She looked up at him, her hand coming to his chest. “Who else could he be?”
Bash didn’t know, but he damned well was going to find out. Had he chosen wrong? Mayhap he should have followed the two men outside.
A knock sounded at the door and Isabella stepped away.
“Yes,” he barked.
The other guard stepped into the room. “Sorry sir, but they got away.”
“They got away?”
“Had a carriage waiting just outside.”
“We don’t allow carriages to park just outside,” Bash bit out. Who exactly was this man?
“True, sir. The driver must have been cutting circles.”
Bash could feel his temper flaring again. Isabella might be in danger and there wasn’t a damned thing he’d done right tonight to stop it.
But he knew exactly how to proceed.
“We’re taking you home,” he said over his shoulder. “Have my carriage brought around back.” Then he pointed at the guard. “You’ll give me a full account as soon as I’m back.”
Bash was going to get to the bottom of this.
But first, he was going to tuck Isabella back in her house where she was going to stay. No more club. No more dressing as a man and no more mystery men slipping money into her pocket.
When he did find out who that fellow was, he was going to bash in all his teeth.
He didn’t care how much like his father that made him. He’d get the satisfaction of watching that man bleed.
Chapter Twelve