He felt her shaking as he held her close. He’d tried to allow her to face her father on her own. Hours of listening and he knew that she’d struggled with her relationship with this man. He’d loved her but he’d also created distance between her and her sisters with his affection. He couldn’t listen any longer. “My wife doesn’t want to hear it.”
But she shook her head as she looked up at him. “It’s all right, Chad. I’ll hear it all. For them.”
His breath caught. She was going to take on the hurt, so they didn’t have to. Because she loved them.
She’d said she loved him too. His heart squeezed. Did she love him like this? Would she attempt to protect him too? It made him weak to think about it and as his hands splayed out on her back, he knew he’d return that affection with his every breath. “Come inside.” He pointed to her father. “Your goons can wait outside.”
“They aren’t goons,” her father replied but the two men nodded, already turning to the woods. “They are the only two men I could trust to help me. I put my life and theirs in danger.”
Turning, Chad saw the flowers on the floor, and he bent down to scoop them up. Then, with his arm about Abigail still, he led the way into a sitting room, pulling the bell cord for tea service.
Truly, the situation might have called for something stronger, but tea would have to do for now.
He set the flowers onto a side table as he gestured for Carrington to take a seat across from them.
Lacing his fingers through Abigail’s, he sat next to her, determined to hold his tongue as she navigated this meeting with her father.
But the man’s eyes were trained on him and not his daughter. “You’re the Baron of Blackwater? For how long?”
“Just a few years,” he answered. “My brother held the title for eight before that.”
Carrington gave a single nod. “I met him. Didn’t like him.”
“Not many did,” Chad answered.
“But you,” the man asked, his eyes squinting. “You hold an affection for my daughter?”
“I do,” he answered honestly as Abigail drew in a sharp breath next to him.
“Did Malcolm give you permission to marry?”
“Uncle Malcolm
is dead,” Abigail answered. “Avery is in the care of the Duke of Devonhall, and he is the man who arranged my match to the baron.”
“Dead?” Carrington’s eyes widened. “How?”
Chad did speak up then. “He was found stabbed in the Thames. A partner of Dishonor’s infiltrated the thieves and he told us that it was because Malcolm failed to deliver Eliza as a bride to one of the men in the criminal ring.”
Carrington pressed a hand to his chest, his fingers gripping his clothes just over his heart. “Eliza married to one of the very men who was stealing from me?”
Abigail held his fingers, her grip frighteningly strong. “That’s not even the worst of it. But today is not the time for me to tell you our story. Where have you been and why have you come back now?”
Carrington started talking and he kept on as tea was served, and then refreshments, and finally into the dinner hour.
He’d taken a routine trip to the Orient, intent upon taking a new client, but also, he’d suspected the theft went far beyond the local branch who’d been working with Malcolm. When a group attempted to take his life, he allowed them to believe he’d been killed and had started investigating the men who’d attempted the murder.
What he’d found was that the man he’d been buying his goods from had set up a ring to steal a percentage of them back and then resell them to the very vendors he’d originally stolen them from.
“It took me a year and half to find them and then to eliminate the threat.” His head dropped. “You know that I loved your mother deeply. But by the time I learned of her death, I had a choice. I could come back here and undo all the work I’d done, or I could stay and finish. And I knew full well, if I resurfaced, they’d try to kill me again. I was worried I posed far more danger to you alive and back in London than I did gone.”
Abigail rested her head on Chad’s shoulder. “I understand.”
“I’m glad,” Carrington replied.
“But you need to know that you left us at the brink of starvation and at the mercy of Uncle Malcolm’s schemes. When I think of some of the things my sisters had to do to survive…”
Her father leaned forward. “I know you don’t want to hear this right now, but I always knew you girls could do it. You’re strong and smart and savvy too. And you love each other in a way I’ve never seen before.”