“Don’t worry.” Gideon looked down at her and his arm firmed around her shoulders. “I won’t let them take you.”
“Can’t we fight?” Charis’s voice shook with distress.
Regretfully, Gideon shook his head. “They’re armed. The risk of your getting hurt is too great.” He turned his unblinking gaze to Felix. “Take me instead.”
Gideon’s easy tone momentarily deceived Charis. Then, with disbelieving shock, she realized what he offered. On a strangled cry, she straightened and stared at him in horror.
You will not do this, my love. I won’t let you.
Felix gave an unimpressed grunt. “What purpose will that serve?”
“It keeps her out of your filthy paws.” Gideon’s tone dripped derision.
Felix sent him a hate-filled glare. “Sadly, because of your machinations, it’s your signature we require, not hers.”
“My man of business is at Penrhyn to advise her how to get the money. Charis can contact the trustees and the bank, organize the papers. Until then, I place myself at your disposal.”
Her belly twisted in denial, and her hands clawed at his coat as if she’d restrain him by main force if she must. “No, Gideon, this is unthinkable. You can’t.”
The broken protest faltered into silence. She couldn’t risk Felix and Hubert discovering his vulnerability. If they knew what Gideon risked by becoming their hostage, they’d torture him to insanity.
“You can’t,” she repeated in a shaking voice, wishing they were alone, wishing she’d never met him and put him in this danger. Better she’d married Desaye weeks ago. What she’d always feared had finally come to pass. Her dilemma threatened to destroy the man she loved.
Through glazed eyes, she saw Gideon register her terror and rise above it. His black gaze as it probed hers was certain, unafraid. “I’m not letting them within a yard of you, my darling.”
It was the same voice he’d us
ed when he’d stubbornly insisted they had no future together. Her instincts told her he was determined on this course, and nothing she said would shift him.
She had to do something. She had to stop him. He confronted his vilest nightmares for her, and she wasn’t worth it.
She swallowed the lump of furious emotion in her throat, only to have words fail her again as Gideon raised her gloved hand and brushed a fleeting kiss across her knuckles. Scalding tears prickled her eyes.
Felix and Hubert were ruthless, violent bullies. They’d work out their frustrations on their captive. Even without his affliction, Gideon faced pain and humiliation at their hands. With his affliction, the consequences could be catastrophic.
“No…”
Gideon’s jaw took on the familiar implacable line. “I swore these dogs would never touch you again.”
“Dear me, your gallantry touches my heart,” Felix said sarcastically as he moved closer in unmistakable threat. “But I do believe we’re better keeping the jade.”
“Completely unacceptable.” Gideon didn’t look at Felix, and he spoke as if he held the upper hand in this ugly scene.
Felix emitted a harsh laugh. “By God, you’re a cool one. What’s to stop us taking her?”
“I’ll stop you.”
“You forget who has the gun.” Even so Felix paused.
Gideon’s smile was superior as he turned to her stepbrother. “Kill either of us, you lose your chance at the money.”
“You’d still be dead,” Felix said grimly, raising the pistol.
Gideon shrugged off the jibe. “Frankly, I don’t know why you expect to get away with this. We’ll lay the facts before the law at the first opportunity.”
How could he sound so confident when he must know what was likely to happen? His reckless courage made Charis’s belly lurch with nausea.
“We’re not fool enough to wait around like sitting ducks. Hubert and I are for the Continent.”