Stone’s gaze grew shuttered. “They won’t.”
“How can you be so certain?” Adam cried. He dug his fingers into his temples. He wanted to writhe and twist to escape this agony, but there was no escaping this hell of his own making.
“He’s right,” Blakely murmured.
A black haze clouded Adam’s vision. He wanted Stone and Blakely to be correct, but the costs of them being wrong were too great. They didn’t see Georgina the same way Adam did. They didn’t know how her cheeks flushed red with every smile, or how her beautiful singing voice could move a man to tears. They only saw her as dispensable to the goals of The Brethren—just as Adam himself first had. It really wasn’t anyone’s fault but his own.
They hadn’t failed Georgina.
He had.
Stone cleared his throat. “I understand you feel indebted to the young woman, but you have the organization to think about.”
Indebted. This was about so much more than being indebted to Georgina Wilcox. It was about saving a woman who needed saving more than any person he’d ever known.
Adam looked down at his lap. The stitching of his well-worn breeches was frayed. He trailed a jagged nail along one of the threads. He suspected Georgina had taken a needle to them on more than one occasion. Had he ever thanked her? Had he ever said anything of it? No. His fingers curled into tight balls. “One way or another, I’m going back for her.”
Blakely touched his shoulder. “Have we ever left a man behind?”
Adam felt like he’d just been kicked in the gut. He sucked in his breath. “She’s a young woman.” He remembered the day she’d come charging into his room, her lips bruised and swollen from Hunter’s assault. A haze of blackness fell across his vision. It temporarily blinded him. Hunter would punish her. Even now, she might be paying the price with her innocence. Adam buried his face in his palms and sucked in slow, steady breaths. He would save her even if it meant he had to return and face Fox and Hunter—and when he found them, they would be praying for death because he would torture them within an inch of their lives.
Stone was saying something. “You will be perfectly comfortable. Eventually you will see them.”
Comfortable where? See whom? Adam was spinning out of control again. “What did you say?”
Blakely explained. “For as long as ‘The Sovereign’ decides, you are to remain in hiding.”
Adam clenched his teeth so hard a sharp, tingling sensation radiated up his jawline. “Are you saying I’m to be kept prisoner, still?”
Stone and Blakely exchanged looks. “You have to realize the suspicion you’ll rouse if you appear in Society like this.” Stone waved a hand in his general direction.
He’d had enough of all the bloody deception. His life had not been his own for a very long time. He’d accepted that—until now. Now it grated.
During his captivity, he’d tried to not think about his family. He couldn’t think about his mother weeping at his absence or his brothers’ desolation. Such images would have weakened him when he’d needed to be at his strongest. “What has my family been told?”
Stone reached into the front of his jacket and extracted a small stack of letters. They were tied with a black ribbon. He handed the pile over to Adam.
Adam took the packet, eying the bundle. He undid the knotting and pulled out the top sheet. Snapping it open, he scanned the parchment. It was his writing.
Except it wasn’t his writing.
He picked his head up and glanced at Stone.
“You’ve been traveling,” Stone explained.
“Traveling?” he said dumbly.
Stone motioned to the stack. “Italy. Greece. Spain.”
Adam threw the stack down next to Stone. The packet landed with a decided thump.
“And you, Blakely?” Adam shot the question at the older member of The Brethren.
Blakely shrugged almost apologetically. “I’ve only been in the hands of Fox’s men for less than a fortnight. I’m sure a trip to the country will explain my absence.”
Of course, The Brethren had seen to everything with a needlelike precision, as they always did. With their far-reaching influence, it shouldn’t have shocked him in the least that they’d managed to explain away his captivity.
They had taken care of everything.
His heart seized up. Except Georgina. They hadn’t taken care of her.
During the long months of his captivity, he’d longed for the day he’d be free. He had expected his liberation would be sweet. There was nothing he’d wanted more in the world than his freedom—not even Grace. As the carriage sped along, putting Bristol far behind him, Adam realized again he’d been wrong. There was something he wanted more than his freedom—it was Georgina’s.
But now she was beyond his reach.
He closed his eyes.
Irish radicals are planning to establish communication with United Irishmen in the Metropolitan area. Fox is being charged with the task of building an army of men to help the French in a fight against England.
Signed,
A Loyal British Subject
Chapter 6
Adam, Blakely, and Stone had made their escape in a firestorm; now all that remained were the dying embers of inactivity. Georgina had learned early on that silence was never a good thing.
As expected, the explosion came fast.
Father shoved the kitchen door open and scanned the space. “I’ve been calling. Why didn’t you answer me?”
Georgina wet her lips and took a step backward, placing the kitchen table between them. “I—”
“Why is the cellar door open?” he snapped. He rushed over and slammed it closed, turning the lock in place.
A giggle of hysteria bubbled up from her throat.
“What’s so funny, gel?”
Mayhap she could leave before her deception was discovered. If she could get Father to go into the cellars to visit his recently released prisoner, she could make her escape to the waiting carriage.
A roar more fitting a savage beast reverberated from the floor above, followed by footsteps thundering down the stairs. She flinched.
Jamie ran into the kitchen.
And Georgina accepted that all hope of escape was gone.
“She set them free!” he shouted.
Georgina turned on her heel to flee. She made it past her father. Jamie wrapped his hand tightly around her forearm, cutting off the path to freedom.
He shoved her.
Father caught her and turned his glare on Jamie. “What are you talking about?”
Jamie spit. “Markham’s gone!”
Father cursed. “When?” He shook Georgina until her teeth rattled. “When?” He looked to Jamie. “Go see if you can stop them. There are three men and two of them badly injured! They cannot be far.”
Jamie rushed to do his bidding.
Please let Adam be free.
“It is too late. They are long gone,” she lied, praying it would quash Father’s efforts and provide Adam with much-needed time to escape.