“Yes,” she agreed quietly. “I expect he does.”
“And he has done you violence,” her brother repeated.
Her eyes closed and she inhaled, searching for the strength to confide in the stranger who was also somehow still her brother. How strange it was that he should have been missing from her life, only to return as if he had never been gone. He still wanted to protect her against Granville. This time, however, she could not let him.
“He has,” she admitted at last. “But there is nothing that can be done. My circumstances are quite hopeless.”
But the brother before her was not appeased by her words.
“That’s where you’re wrong, sister,” he said grimly, his hands flexing at his sides. “There is always something that can be done. All I need is a bit of time, and I’ll make certain that bastard never hurts you again.”
With a curt bow, the brother she had spent years fruitlessly searching for turned and strode from her sitting room.
“Archer, please,” she called after him. “Wait.”
But he did not heed her.
And Portia knew what she needed to do. She had to get to The Sinner’s Palace with all haste so she could act before Archer did. She needed help, and there was only one man she trusted.
Wolf.
* * *
Wolf returnedto The Sinner’s Palace with Hart, wearier than a traveler. Hours had passed since their ill-fated mission to bring Loge back into their ranks had begun. They’d failed miserably. Tierney had finally released them without a word of where he had gone or why. The man had been stony and cold and silent, save for the communication that they could leave—and without the return of their own weapons.
“He’s gone back to Tierney,” Jasper confirmed of Logan as the Sutton brothers reconvened in the office of their gaming hell. To protect their beloved sisters, they had not involved any of them in their plot to kidnap Loge. “Says we are to take our concern elsewhere. Says he wants no part of The Sinner’s Palace or the Sutton family.”
“He still ain’t telling us what he’s truly about with Tierney,” Rafe added grimly. “But after that bastard dared to take the two of you as his prisoner, we had no choice but to accept the exchange.”
“Damn it,” Wolf cursed.
“We failed,” Hart added. “Tierney is a cunning arsehole. He sent his men out the front of the shop to cause a distraction, and he approached us from the rear. We didn’t see or hear him until his pistols were in our backs.”
Grim disappointment twisted in Wolf’s gut. They were no closer to answers than they had been before. Logan was still lost to them.
“Tierney is far more than a cunning arsehole,” Jasper told them all, stroking his jaw with a thoughtful air. “My men have told me what’s being printed at Tierney’s place, and it ain’t ordinary literature. It’s Hampden Club pamphlets.”
Hampden Clubs had been springing up over the last few years of discontent, meeting in secret, propagating reform literature. It was a dangerous business, and deuced easy to land on the wrong side of the Crown.
“A reformist?” Wolf asked, shocked at the prospect.
Loge had never been one to speak much about parliamentary matters or to have grievances against the government the way some did. That he would take up with a man determined to overthrow the government seemed damned unlikely.
“Not quite,” Jasper said slowly. “I suspect it’s something far less obvious.”
“We believe our brother is a spy,” Rafe elaborated. “Along with Tierney. One of Jasper’s men followed Tierney to Whitehall. Tierney was disguised.”
Whitehall was where the Home Office was kept. And with the Spa Fields riot having recently occurred, which had involved a gang of reformers who planned to attack the Tower of London, the Home Office and Bow Street were collectively on edge. Everyone was suspect.
“What of the moneylending and the print shop?” Hart asked. “You think it all a ruse?”
“Aye,” Jasper said simply. “And a damned clever one at that.”
“A dangerous one too,” Wolf added. “If they are openly posing as Hampden men, that means Tierney and Loge are infiltrating the inner circles, and if these coves are as bloodthirsty as everyone supposes, if anyone discovers what they’re about…”
He allowed his words to trail off, not wanting to give voice to his fears.
They had just finally found Loge, and he could not bear to think of losing him. It was a bit more difficult to care as much about Tierney after the bastard had threatened himself and Hart with a pistol, and suggested Portia had deserved the violence she had suffered, even knowing he was Portia’s half brother. But if what Jasper and Rafe suggested were true, it certainly made Loge’s distancing himself and change of name clearer. Same for Tierney.
“It ain’t going to be pretty,” Jasper finished for Wolf.
“Speaking of pretty,” Rafe drawled wryly, “Wolf, there’s a lady awaiting you in your rooms. She didn’t give a name, but she was rather desperate to see your ugly dial plate. We reckoned it was best to send her there while we waited for you to return.”
In an instant, his exhaustion faded away.
Portia? Here?
It seemed impossible, and yet there was no other woman in his acquaintance who would seek him out in such a private way. And if Tierney had gone to her when he had disappeared, Wolf knew the reason why she had come. He had to see her.
Right. Bloody. Now.
He nodded. “I’d best see to her, then.”
Jasper waved him away. “Go to your woman. There ain’t any problem we’re going to solve tonight. Tomorrow’s another bloody day.”
Jasper was right. If Loge was involved in something as treacherous as they supposed, there would be no solving it tonight. Without lingering another moment, Wolf left his brothers behind, all but racing from the office. He passed down the private hall in a blur and took the steps to his private chamber in threes.