Page 77 of Along Came a Rogue

Crenshaw’s eyes softened knowingly. “I only hope that her baby is born healthy, Major.”

So do I…If anything happened to the baby, Emily would never survive it. He trembled at the thought of how much love she carried for her child, even though it had yet to be born. And he would do everything in his power to make certain that baby arrived into her arms unharmed. “Chesney told me that you don’t plan to contest the inheritance.”

He confirmed that with a nod and a faint smile. “I was never meant to be the heir and certainly would not be now if not for a few cruel twists of fate. If she has a son, then so be it.”

Grateful for the man’s magnanimity, knowing it would make the coming months much easier for Emily, Grey shrugged into his coat. “Lady Emily is remaining at home now until her confinement. I’m certain she’d welcome visits from you.” He paused, adding around the knot in his throat, “Family means everything to her.”

“Of course. I would be honored to call on her.” Crenshaw paused, his face saddening. “It pains me to think she might be in danger. How could anyone want to harm that sweet young woman?”

Pulling on his leather gloves, Grey answered with a voice so full of raw determination that it was little more than a low growl, “I intend to make certain no one has that opportunity again.”

* * *

On the other side of the door connecting the sitting room to the dining room, Harold Crenshaw placed his ear near the crack and listened to the conversation between his father and the man who brought the woman back from Yorkshire. His hands clenched into tight fists at his sides.

So, the little bitch was convinced she was going to have a boy, was she? A little bastard to pop between his father and the title, to steal away his own future fortune.

He should have dealt with her in Yorkshire, just as he’d removed that peacock of a husband of hers. Killing him had been so easy, hardly any effort at all. All he’d had to do was approach Crenshaw while he was riding along a stretch of empty field, charm the man down from his horse by pretending his own horse had thrown a shoe—the same shoe he had ripped off himself only minutes before—and then, while Crenshaw was bent over and examining the horse’s hoof, pick up a rock and bash in his head. He left him where he fell.

It wasn’t until two months later that he found out she’d been bred, like some kennel bitch in heat. But he’d let himself be convinced that she’d disappear to Glasgow once her stomach grew grotesque with her spawn, that she was too frightened not to flee for her life.

And she should have been frightened. Very frightened.

Her husband was dead, but news of the baby had never been sent back to London. No one knew. All he had to do was wait for the old marquess to die and his father to inherit, and the frightened little bunny with her unborn litter would have hopped away to Scotland, to disappear without a peep. He’d only have to arrange for an accident or two every few months to keep her frightened enough to remain in hiding, and in a few years, even if she squeezed out a boy, no one would have believed the child to be her husband’s if she tried to petition for the title. She’d have been labeled a whore, gotten with a bastard by rutting with some other man while her husband lived apart from her in York.

His father would have become a marquess, and when he died, the fortune and title would have all been his.

He’d planned it all so carefully. Everything had gone smoothly…until that damned footpad shot Chesney, and the major was sent to bring that woman back to London.

His plans were unraveling quickly now, with no time to lose. The bitch was due to whelp soon. A girl child would be completely forgotten, although he was furious at his father for pledging an allowance and dowry from money that should have been all his. But a son would ruin everything.

It was one thing to murder the baby while still in its womb; it would be far too suspicious to kill it after it was born, after having also murdered the father.

No—he had to make certain the baby was never born, and the only way to ensure that was to kill the mother. The driver he’d paid to run her down this afternoon ruined his last opportunity for a believable accident. Now he’d have to take matters into his own hands.

It was time to put an end to her once and for all.

Chapter Fourteen

That night, unable to sleep, Emily sat in the chair in her room and stared into the fireplace at the dying fire and layer of coals that gave off little light and even less warmth. Around her, the house was dark and quiet, with her parents sleeping in their separate suites in the other wing and Thomas in his on the far end of the hall. Outside the house, the city was just as quiet, just as dark and still.

Her troubled thoughts returned to Grey. He was out there somewhere amid the shadowed streets and gaslights. Was he awake as well, too troubled to surrender to sleep? Or was he relieved now that Thomas would take over protecting her and he no longer had to be bothered with her, sleeping deeply without a thought of her? Or, heaven help her, was he even now lying in the arms of another woman? One who made no claims to him, who would never impinge upon his freedom or his future—

A shadow moved at her window.

Her heart stopped. She jerked up her head as a cold pang of fear slithered down her spine. Oh God! Someone was there.

Scrambling up belly-first from the chair as fast as she could, she grabbed her hairbrush from the dressing table and held it up like a knife as the sash of her window jiggled and swung open with a creak. A dark figure slipped inside her room. As he turned to pull the window closed behind him, she raised the brush to throw it—

“Emily, it’s me.”

Grey. Her heart panged painfully, partially from thinking he was an intruder, partially from him.

She shook the hairbrush at him. “You can’t be here,” she pleaded angrily, careful to keep her voice low as she approached him. “I don’t know how you got up here, but you—”

He grinned. “I lowered myself from the roof by a rope.”

Her lips parted at that, stunned, and she stared at him incredulously. He’d risked his neck scaling down the house to sneak into her room? Her heart now pounded for a whole new reason.