Page 86 of A Relentless Rake

Dread darkened her face, and he stiffened. They had a lot left between them to hammer out—two people couldn’t reveal their ghosts to each other as they’d done and not have issues left to exorcise before they could move forward. But he certainly hadn’t expectedthatlook from her.

“I can’t,” she whispered, barely louder than a breath. She stepped away to put just enough room between them that he couldn’t reach for her. “I can’t think about anything else until Henry is safe.”

“We made love last night,” he murmured.

She wrung her hands and began to pace. “Especiallythat.”

“Olivia—”

“I’m not ready, Alec.” The pleading look she sent him nearly undid him. “I can’t even think straight right now. Please…later.”

He nodded his agreement despite the cold apprehension that rose inside him. He couldn’t shake the feeling that she was slipping away even though they stood less than six feet apart.

Yet he would grant her this reprieve. For now.

A knock rapped at the door, interrupting them. Olivia turned toward it with a look of relief. “Yes?”

The door opened slowly, and Mrs. Adams poked her head cautiously inside. “Miss Everett, there’s someone at the door asking for you.”

Olivia dragged in a deep, shaking breath, and in that fleeting moment, he saw something in her that he’d never seen before—helplessness. She was overwhelmed.

Her voice trembled. “Please tell whoever it is…that we’re not accepting visitors today.”

Mrs. Adams’s mouth tightened with worry, and she flicked a glance at Alec, as if hoping he would overrule that order. “He said it was about Mr. Everett.”

Olivia’s face paled, and she reached for the back of a chair to steady herself.

“Who is it?” Alec asked quietly.

“A boy, my lord, who claims he has a message for Miss Everett.”

“Please show him in.” When Mrs. Adams left, he covered Olivia’s hand with his on the chair back and laced his fingers through hers. “Your brother will be all right. I promise you.”

She nodded and looked away in a weak attempt to hide her worry. But by doing so, she also turned her bruised cheek fully into view and gave him an unwitting reminder of all that was at stake.

He would protect her with his life.

A skinny boy walked into the room and halted midstep when he saw Alec. He wasn’t more than nine or ten, dressed in rags and covered in black soot. A chimney sweep. The perfect messenger boy for Scepter because no one would have paid any attention if they saw him walking through the streets of Westminster with the other sweeps and deliverymen.

Then the boy shrugged and stepped forward. From his swagger and dirty appearance, he’d lived a hard life on the streets and wouldn’t be intimidated by someone like Alec, even at ten years old. It was a harsh life that would only get harder once he grew too big to work the chimneys and lost even that terrible position, which at least provided some measure of protection against starving in the streets.

The boy snarled defiantly, “You Olivia, then?”

“Miss Everett,” Alec sternly corrected the boy’s insolence.

“Don’t know noMiss Everett,” the boy responded cheekily. “Was told t’ give me message t’ anO-liv-i-a.” He dragged out each syllable of her name. His eyes, far too old for his true age, pinned on her. “You her?”

“I am.” Her hand went to Alec’s arm for support—and to keep him from tossing the boy out right then. “What message do you have for me?”

“Yer t’ take these ’ere papers an’ work ’em.” He reached up his filthy coat sleeve, withdrew a rolled sheaf of papers, and held them out toward her.

“Work them?” She hesitated before accepting them.

“Aye. That’s the message—t’ work ’em. To…to work…” The boy scrunched his face as he searched his mind for the words he’d been forced to memorize by the man who paid him to deliver the message. With no written message to deliver, there was no way to trace handwriting or watermarks, and a boy like this would have been hungry enough to take any offered money without question. “To work out the best places on ’em t’ cause the most damage, then take ’em to the same place i’ the city where you went the night you followed your brother. At midnight tonight. Or they’ll kill ’im.” He gave a proud nod at finishing the message and turned to leave, his work here done. “That’s all.”

Alec swooped down upon him, grabbed him by the scruff of his collar, and lifted him into the air until only the toes of his hole-filled shoes touched the floor. All skin and bones, the boy barely weighed anything, but he fought like a trapped rat as he flung his small fists and kicked wildly in the air.

“Stop that.” Alec dropped the boy onto the desk and leaned over him.