The Lady Loves Danger by Anabelle Bryant

Author:Anabelle Bryant [Bryant, Anabelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-02-22T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

“This way.” Malcolm Vane’s low command melted into the dank fog lingering across the vamp of their half boots. Sebastian advanced in the opposite direction, intent on circling to the back of the dilapidated fishing shack before Vane reached the front. Closer to the water now, the expected odors of rancid fish and rotted wood were quick to evoke eerie reminders of another time, when Sebastian wasn’t nearly as wise, when he was composed of nothing more than an odd mixture of fear and determination. Now he shoved those memories behind a locked door and focused on the task at hand.

Oliver’s retelling of a man named Bert and the clang of a mournful bell in the distance had triggered Vane’s memory when Sebastian mentioned it at the offices. Vane had worked on a problem that required he mix with the lowest element of humanity. He recalled a twosome of petty thieves who fancied themselves smugglers but were little more than fools for hire. They went by Bert and Sullivan.

It could result that the overlap between the two facts shared nothing in common, but Sebastian never abandoned information until it either proved useful or useless. Same as the evenings he’d spent waiting in Seven Dials. No clue was too small to investigate when attempting to save lives and right wrongs.

Tonight, veiled by humid mist and murky cloud cover, he pursued justice. Too many loose threads and peculiar aspects of the events on Jermyn Street persisted. It would be good to locate one of the thugs who’d aided the earl. Thieves knew all the goings-on of other thieves, their loyal network more steadfast than an agreement in the House of Lords. To that point, criminals respected each other on a level inconceivable to common man because each decision made could possibly be one’s last.

With enough of the right kind of persuasion, Sebastian was confident he could extract information linked to the ruined sale of a child in Seven Dials. Had Delilah not startled that transaction, he might have caught the men involved. More importantly, he would have rescued the youngster trapped in the canvas sack. That thought alone sparked rage. Horrible circumstances awaited the children who were stolen. The automatic assumptions of chimney sweep, pickpocket, mudlarker for a child’s fate were hardly the worst. Those were trades of the lower classes. But sexual deviants and abusive miscreants were at times the same titled men who graced ballrooms and drank imported cognac at White’s.

Shaking away the maudlin reality, he summoned a ready image of Delilah to mind. Never a hard task. He wouldn’t discount her courage. Or her beauty. Nor the fact that, had she not been there in Seven Dials, he’d never have found her, saved her . . . kissed her.

A rat scuttled across the slick stones ahead outlined in silver moonlight, and banished fanciful notions of affection and romance. He was dockside near Blackfriars Bridge in the southwest end of the city along the shipping yards of the Thames.

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