Page 71 of His Scandalous Viscountess
“Oh, I’m quite lovely, thank you.”
His pang of worry slipped away as he let loose an unexpected chuckle and found he couldn’t stop. The sheer joy of having this woman as his burst free from him in a long hearty laugh that seemed to never end.
Chapter 28
Julia enjoyed a good spectacle. Watching the actors prance around, singing and dancing during the intermissions, and the bawdy tone of many of the exchanges, delighted her. Wolf, Emily, and Cooper all seemed equally as entertained. Cooper’s box at the Adelphi Theater had proven to be a fine entertainment.
Once the program came to its inevitable conclusion, the four of them remained seated. It seemed silly to clamber from the box with all the other patrons doing the same. If they waited a few minutes, the worst of the crowd would dissipate.
As the others chatted about the play, Julia marveled that just the night before, Wolf had stretched her out across his bed and fucked her until she had nearly passed out. In her post-orgasmic haze, the man had coddled her until she’d roused enough to satisfy his concern. He’d wrapped her in the blanket from the bed and held her as little shivers and aftershocks of pleasure had continued to zip through her body. Then he’d produced a glass of water for her, and insisted she drink some before he’d allowed her to tuck in under the covers and drift off to sleep.
“Shall we?”
Cooper stood and offered his hand to Emily, who smiled at him. Julia envied them a bit. They were head-over-heels in love with each other. Certainly, she was aware that Wolf cared for her a great deal, and was willing to go to great lengths to protect her. But while she’d never intended to fall in love with him again, she had. She’d known it the night he’d tied her to the bed, and she knew it now. What she didn’t know was if he felt the same about her. And she was tired of the not knowing. It was past time she told him how she felt. Her stomach flip-flopped in her belly, but her resolve grew stronger with every heartbeat.
He offered her his arm, and together they followed Cooper and Emily out of the theater. The crowd had lingered some, so a throng of people still loitered, making it difficult for carriages to draw up to the curb. They spotted Wolf’s carriage across the street and decided to cross, in lieu of making the vehicle traverse the busy road.
They dashed out into traffic, but Julia stepped on a loose cobblestone. With a painful jolt, her ankle twisted and she stumbled, losing her hold on Wolf’s arm. He stopped and turned back to see what had happened when a carriage pulled up behind her and halted. The door opened as two hulking men leaned out and snatched her up. She was hauled backward into the cab of the vehicle on a scream fueled by fear and anger.
Wolf lurched toward her, his brows drawn down in fury as she was jerked deeper into the conveyance. “Stop! Julia! Julia’s been snatched!”
She fought the strong hands that held her, desperate to get back to the door before they moved. Despite her bunched skirts and injured ankle, she used the edge of the bench seat and the coat of one of the villains to drag herself toward the still-open door. She was close, could even see Wolf clinging to the door while he fought with one of the men.
Then the man she’d grabbed onto drew a gun and pointed it at Wolf. The strong hands that had held her before returned. Fisting his hand in her hair, the man yanked on her head—hard. Ignoring the burning pain of her hair being torn from her scalp at the roots, she continued to strain toward freedom and Wolf.
To her utter horror, a shot rang out. Her gut twisted as she saw him crumple to the ground. “Wolf!”
The fist in her hair jerked harder, and yet she refused to give in. But with Wolf now dispatched—Oh, God! He couldn’t be dead!—and the carriage moving, the two thugs at the door closed the opening. Then the one who’d shot Wolf turned around, ripping her hand free of his clothing.
“Stupid meddling bitch,” he snarled, spittle flying from his lips to land on her face.
Still struggling to get free of the third man, it was a shock when the snarling man’s hand quickly followed his spit. Pain bloomed over her cheek and made her eye throb as she found herself huddled on the floor of the carriage. Her heart shattered as she watched Wolf struggle and then crumple over and over again behind her closed eyelids.
Tears streamed down her face as she realized that the man she loved had just been taken from her in the most vicious twist of fate that life had dealt her yet. Her body shook with pulsing anger and despair.
Then a cacophony of sound filled the carriage, an asynchronous mix of the ragged breath of one of the thugs and her own sniffling, punctuated by the steady clop of hooves.
The ragged breather slowly recovered, and the snarly man turned his fury on his companions. “Your fancy bloke had best pay up when we get there. No one said anything about me have’n to kill one of them puffed-up dandies. I ain’t signed on for that kind’a trouble.”
Julia gasped. This wasn’t random, though if she stopped and considered her recent past, that realization shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Sitting up, she gathered her wits and blocked out the throbbing across her cheek and eye, as well as the growing pain in her ankle.
“If money is all you three are after, I can offer you plenty of ready cash. How much is this man paying you?”
One of the other men snorted. “More than you likely have, even as fancy a piece as you may be.”
Julia considered who would have resorted to this kind of nefarious action, and only one man came to mind. Granted, she couldn’t be sure until he showed himself, but she had little doubt he would eventually reveal his role in this drama. “I am far richer than the man I suspect hired you lot.” She hesitated, but decided she had nothing to lose but her life at the moment. “I’ll double whatever he’s paying you.”
Snarly growled as he reached down and grabbed ahold of her bodice. He jerked her toward him until his fetid, gin-soaked breath slammed into her. She considered that there might be permanent damage to her ability to appreciate anything more delicate than smelling salts in the future.Ifshe escaped alive.
“How do we know you’ve got that kind of blunt?”
Her head spun at the stench, but she managed to keep her wits about her. It seemed she’d piqued his interest. “Stop and consider my attire. I am wearing a gown made of the finest Indian silk, and my earbobs and matching necklace are real rubies, not paste copies, I assure you.”
Her hand trembled as she directed his glare to the necklace circling her throat.
It was a risk. They could simply rip the baubles from her person and then demand more, but she had little ground to stand on under the circumstances. As they passed a gas streetlamp, the interior of the carriage glowed dimly, but enough so that she could see the greed in the man’s beady eyes.
Just as a spark of hope flamed to life, it was snuffed out.
