Page 36 of An Inconvenient Duke

And then he would kill the bastard with his bare hands for daring to harm his family.

Step by slow step, the man circled the room, keeping Claudia in front of him like a shield. She was so terrified that she shook violently, most likely still on her feet only because the man held her up by her hair, his fingers twisted painfully into her curls. They reached the doorway. With his eyes never leaving Marcus, he backed deliberately toward the hall.

“Marcus!” He heard Danielle rush down the hall, not seeing the intruder until it was too late.

Startled, the man spun around to face her, leaving his side vulnerable to Marcus and lowering the knife in surprise.

Now.Marcus drew back his leg and kicked. His boot slammed into the man’s knee, which buckled beneath him with a loud groan of pain.

The intruder shoved Claudia to the floor and staggered back into the hall. He brandished the knife at Marcus to force him to stay back, then at Danielle as she pressed herself against the hallway wall less than ten feet away. She snatched a lit candle from the wall sconce and threw it at him, forcing him to duck.

Marcus pivoted on his foot and twisted around to kick with the other, landing another strike, this time hard into the man’s chest.

A flash of motion at the top of the stairs caught his attention.Pippa.

In that moment’s distraction, the intruder thrust the knife. The sharp blade sliced through Marcus’s jacket and sleeve, cutting into the hard muscle beneath. Flinching at the searing pain, he jerked back, his punch missing the man’s jaw and flying through empty air.

The man swung the knife again, and Marcus dropped his shoulder as he dove forward. He hit the floor and rolled, popping back onto his feet and snatching up a silver candlestick from one of the tables lining the hall. Brandishing it like a sword from his uninjured arm, he positioned himself between the intruder and the stairs, keeping Danielle and Pippa behind him.

White-hot fury burned inside his gut. Never. That bastard wouldneverlay another hand on the women he loved.

“What on earth…?” The viscountess’s panicked cry surprised him. He glanced over his shoulder to see the older woman kneeling behind Pippa to take the child protectively into her arms and a flash of motion as Trousdale barreled down the hallway at the intruder.

The man turned and sprinted for the rear stairs to flee the house, too fast for Trousdale to catch him.

The candlestick fell from Marcus’s hand and banged onto the floor as he fell back against the wall, bruised, bleeding, and exhausted.

“Uncle Marcus!” Pippa cried and shoved away from the viscountess and past Danielle to launch herself up into his arms and cling to him.

Marcus winced at the blinding pain, but he would never drop her.Never.

“Your arm,” Danielle rasped out as she hurried to him and placed her hand worriedly on his shoulder.

“I’ll be fine,” he ground out. He’d suffered much worse on the continent.

But the dubious expression on her face told him that she didn’t believe him. She turned her attention to his niece.

“Pippa, come here. It’s all right,” Danielle cooed as she gently pulled the little girl from his arms. She turned to hand her off to Mrs. Davenport as the woman finally arrived, huffing and puffing from running down from the nursery. “Please take her back upstairs—”

“Noooooo!” Pippa wailed, her arms tightening around Danielle’s neck, and refused to go to her nanny.

Danielle cast a silent plea at her aunt for help.

The viscountess came forward immediately to take Marcus’s good arm and help him away from the wall. “That wound needs to be dressed, Duke.”

Ignoring her concern for him, Marcus glanced at Claudia, who sat on the floor in Trousdale’s arms, crying in both fear and relief.

“I’d checked on Pippa,” she explained, her chin resting on Trousdale’s shoulder as he held her in his arms. “On the way back, I stopped in Elise’s room to see if I could find her wedding veil.” A jerking sob tore from her. “I wanted to show Danielle and the viscountess… Then I saw that man…going through her things…”

Trousdale rubbed her back to calm her, but his caresses did nothing to ease her shaking.

“I tried—I tried to get away, and I screamed…but he was too fast…that knife…”

Her words died away as she buried her face in Trousdale’s waistcoat and cried.

Marcus’s eyes stung as he tore his gaze away from Claudia. The icy truth slammed through him, as palpably as the burning pain of his cut arm. His family would never be safe until he found the men responsible for killing Elise.

And when he did…God help them.