The Lady Gambles (16 page)

He should not have made her so angry! Should not have said those insulting things to her. Insults, Caro acknowledged ruefully, that she had more than returned.

How different things could have been, if instead of offering her marriage in that insulting manner, Dominic had first made a declaration of having fallen in love with her.

And if he had? Caro asked herself. What would her answer have been then to his marriage proposal? Would she have returned that declaration of love before accepting his marriage proposal?

The thought that she might have done both of those things was so disturbing to Caro that she found herself hurrying from the drawing room, pausing only
long enough in the entrance hall to instruct Denby to have the coach brought round, before hurrying up to her bedchamber to collect her bonnet and pelisse. The afternoon seemed to have grown chilly since Dominic’s abrupt departure…

Quite where she intended going on her carriage ride Caro had no idea, aware only that she had to escape the confines—the memories!—of Brockle House, if only for a short time.

She instructed the coachman to drive through the same park as yesterday—perhaps with the hope that she might once again catch a glimpse of the young girl with the dog that had so achingly reminded her of Elizabeth. But if that was her wish then she was disappointed, and after only a short time she was also a little tired of the curious glances being directed towards where she travelled in the black carriage so obviously bearing the crest of the Earl of Blackstone.

Feeling in need of sympathetic company, Caro knocked upon the roof of the carriage and instructed the coachman to take her to Nick’s; Drew Butler and Ben had been delighted when she had called to see them this morning, so surely a second visit would not be too unwelcome?

But they had not gone far in that direction before Caro looked up and noticed a huge black cloud billowing up into the sky, her attention fixed on that black haze as she once again tapped on the roof of the coach. ‘What is that about, Daley?’

‘I believe it might be smoke, Mrs Morton,’ he answered respectfully.

Smoke? If there was smoke then there must be a fire. And fire was a dangerous thing in a city the size of London. ‘Perhaps we should go and see if we can be of any assistance, Daley?’

The middle-aged man looked uncertain. ‘I doubt his lordship would approve, madam.’

Dominic.

Smoke?

Fire!

Quite why Caro was so convinced those three things were connected she had no idea—she only knew that she became more convinced of it by the second!

‘Y
ou have to stop now, Drew; there is nothing more we can do,’ Dominic instructed the man wearily.

The two men were blackened from head to toe from having several times entered the burning building before them, thick black smoke now billowing out of every doorway and window of the building even as the flames and sparks shot up through a hole in the burning roof.

Butler’s eyes glittered wildly in his own soot-covered face. ‘Ben is still in there!’

‘There is nothing more we can do,’ Dominic repeated dully, his own expression grim beneath the soot and grime as he stared up at the inferno that had once been Nick’s.

‘But—’

‘He’s gone, Drew.’

The older man’s arms fell helplessly to his sides, his weathered face echoing the defeat both men felt as they could only stand now and watch the fire blaze out of
control despite their own efforts and that of the men who had arrived a few minutes ago to help put it out.

The fire had been well under way when Dominic himself had arrived some half an hour or so ago. Nowhere near as fierce as it was now, of course, but even so he had quickly drawn a halt to Drew and Ben Jackson’s efforts as they rushed in and out of the building salvaging what they could.

Unfortunately Ben had decided to return one more time to collect some personal belongings and the account books from the desk in Drew Butler’s office.

He had not come out again…

Drew’s hands clenched into fists at his sides. ‘I’m going to kill the bastard!’

Dominic’s jaw tightened. ‘Brown?’

The older man’s eyes blazed with fury as he turned. ‘Who else?’

It was a conclusion that Dominic had come to himself the moment he saw the fire blazing and so easily recalled Brown’s air of quiet satisfaction when he had left the gambling club earlier today.

Dominic had gone into the lion’s den the evening before, with the intention of ascertaining whether Brown truly was the one responsible for the attack on Osborne. The slickness with which the other man had denied all knowledge of that attack—when he was a man known to boast that he was aware of everything that happened in what he regarded as being ‘his city’—had seemed to indicate those suspicions were correct.

That Brown had himself arrived at the gambling club earlier today, supposedly to pay a visit on his old friends, Butler and Jackson, as well as the guarded
conversation that had transpired between Brown and Dominic in Caro’s presence, was simply a measure, Dominic was certain, of the other man’s audacity.

A fire in that building, only hours after Brown’s visit, was to Dominic’s mind tantamount to a direct challenge…

He frowned darkly. ‘The law will need evidence before they will agree to act.’

The older man gave a scathing snort. ‘I don’t need any evidence to recognise Brown had a hand in this.’

Neither did Dominic. ‘Be assured, I feel exactly the way you do about this, Drew, but nevertheless I must seriously advise against taking matters into your own hands—’

‘So I’m to sit back and let him get away with murder, am I?’

Dominic had already experienced one slight on his honour in the past two days; he was not about to suffer another one. He put his hand on the older man’s arm. ‘I am hoping you will trust me to ensure that will not happen.’

Drew barely seemed to hear him. ‘I worked for the man for almost twenty years. Had my suspicions before this of what a low-down cur he could be, but—’ He gave a disgusted shake of his head. ‘Brown did this as surely as my name is Andrew Butler.’

Dominic drew his breath in sharply. ‘And I have assured you that I will ensure he will be made to pay for his crimes—’

‘Dominic! Drew! Oh, thank goodness you are both safe!’

Dominic turned just in time to catch Caro as she launched herself into his arms.

Caro had barely been able to comprehend the sight that had met her eyes as the carriage turned into the avenue and she saw the blazing remains of the club where she had worked until two evenings ago. The whole building was ablaze, with that heavy black smoke billowing everywhere, and dozens of men hurrying back and forth as they threw water upon the blaze to prevent it passing to the vulnerable neighbouring buildings.

Her relief when she spotted Dominic, standing to one side in conversation with Drew, had been immense. So much so that she had briefly forgotten her earlier disagreement with Dominic, and simply thrown herself into his arms out of the sheer relief of seeing him safe.

Her cheeks now felt hot—and not from the effects of the fire!—as she gathered herself together and extracted herself from Dominic’s embrace before turning to face the older man. ‘How good it is to see that you are unharmed, Drew—’

‘Never mind that now, Caro,’ Dominic was the one to answer her as he pulled her firmly back from the danger of the hot timbers now starting to fall from the top of the blazing building. ‘Explain what you are doing here, if you please!’

She frowned up into his dark and disapproving face. ‘I had gone out for a drive, as I told you I intended, when I saw the smoke…’

‘And decided to investigate,’ Dominic recognised with barely restrained violence. ‘Did you not realise
that by doing so you might have become caught up in the blaze yourself and possibly been injured?’

She waved an airy hand. ‘I hope I have more sense than to have gone close enough so that—’

‘And yet here you are!’ Dominic glared down at her, very aware that she was as yet unaware of Ben Jackson’s absence. That when she did realise he would have another crisis on his hands; Caro’s affection for the gentle giant had been obvious from the first, and once she discovered that Ben had disappeared into the blazing building some minutes ago, and not returned, she was sure to react. In truth, Dominic had no idea which direction those emotions would take, tears and cries of anguish, or anger that her friend might have perished in the fire…

She gave a pained frown. ‘I was concerned—’

‘And now that concern has been satisfied I want you to get back into your carriage immediately and return to Brockle House,’ Dominic instructed firmly.

‘But—’

‘Caro, do not argue with me over this, as you seem to feel you must argue every other point in our conversations.’ Dominic’s jaw was as tightly clenched as Drew’s fists had been minutes ago. ‘You can be of no possible help here,’ he added.

‘Might I suggest that you leave me to continue dealing with the situation here whilst you escort Caro home?’ Drew quietly drew Dominic’s attention, his pointed look in the direction of some activity at the side of the building enough to tell Dominic that Ben had been found; neither man believed he could have
lived through the minutes he had spent trapped in that raging inferno…

‘That is unnecessary—’

‘It is very necessary.’ Dominic easily cut across Caro’s protest even as he gave a brief nod to the older man in recognition of their silent exchange.

‘To you, perhaps—’

‘To me, too, Caro.’ Drew gently added his own weight behind the argument as he moved forwards so that he now stood beside Dominic. ‘Do as his lordship advises and return to your carriage—’

‘Why are you suddenly both in such a hurry for me to leave?’ Caro eyed both men suspiciously as she realised they seemed to be crowding around her. Herding her, actually. Much like her father’s estate workers when they were gathering the livestock together to house them in the huge barns over the winter. ‘I—where is Ben?’ Her gaze moved sharply to the left and then to the right, but with Drew and Dominic standing like two sentinels directly in front of her, she found that vision limited.

Deliberately?

‘Caro—’

‘Where is Ben, Dominic?’ Caro lifted her hands and placed one against the chest of both men with the intention of pushing them aside, nimbly stepping around them when neither man was made to move. Just in time to see that several of the men who had been fighting the fire were now carrying something from the side of the building. Something heavy. A dead weight, in fact… ‘Ben?’ she gasped weakly.

‘No, Caro!’ Dominic reached out and grasped her by the shoulders as she would have run across to where the
men were now placing that cumbersome burden down upon the ground.

Her gaze was frantic as she lifted her hands to fight against Dominic’s hold upon her. ‘Can you not see that it is Ben?’

‘We know who it is, Caro.’ Once again it was Drew who spoke gently. ‘If there’s anything that can be done for Ben, then you can be assured that it will be,’ he added grimly. ‘The best thing you can do for him now is to return home without any more fuss.’

Caro became very still in Dominic’s grasp as she looked first at Drew and then back to Dominic, the latter giving a slight shake of his head as he turned back from looking at the frantic activity around that scorched bundled of rags that had obviously been Ben Jackson.

Because even from this distance Caro could see that his spirit was no longer there…

An anguished cry escaped her lips even as she felt her legs buckle beneath her and began to fall slowly to the ground.

‘You are perfectly safe, Caro.’ Dominic’s voice sounded harsher than he had intended, in the otherwise silence of the moving carriage, as he tried to still her struggles to free herself from where he held her tightly against his chest. ‘Please be still, Caro,’ he urged more gently.

For once in their acquaintance she heeded him, unmoving in his arms as she looked up at him with huge sea-green eyes that were rapidly filling with tears. ‘Is Ben really gone, Dominic?’

He drew in a ragged breath. ‘If it is any consolation
then I believe he would have died from breathing in the smoke long before the fire ever came anywhere near him.’ He sincerely hoped that was the case, at least.

Although the method of Ben’s death did not change the fact he was indeed dead. And as a result of a fire both Drew and Dominic believed to have been deliberately set by Nicholas Brown.

‘Truly, Dominic?’

He forced the rigidity from his expression at those grim thoughts of Brown’s cowardly act before looking down at Caro, knowing that she needed to believe that Ben’s death had been as painless as was possible given the circumstances. ‘Truly.’ Dominic nodded.

He had paused only long enough, after seeing the unconscious Caro into the safety of the carriage, to converse briefly with the men who had brought out Ben’s body. It seemed they had found him collapsed in the hallway leading to Drew’s office situated at the back of the club, where the fire itself was the least fierce.

‘He was such a kind young man.’ Caro’s voice caught emotionally.

Dominic had seen Ben off and on for years on his visits to the gambling club; it had been impossible not to feel an affection for the younger man’s almost childlike acceptance of his lot in life.

As such, Dominic knew that it was going to be hard for all of them to accept the death of such an affable and likeable young man. ‘He was,’ he acknowledged flatly.

Caro pulled out of his arms to slowly sit up. ‘How could it have happened, Dominic?’ She gave a slightly dazed shake of her head. ‘I can hardly believe I was
sitting drinking tea with him only hours ago…’ The tears began to fall unchecked down her cheeks.

‘Yes.’ Dominic’s mouth tightened as he easily recalled that Brown had been seated at that table, too. ‘We may perhaps have more insight into how the fire began once the flames have died down and we are able to get back inside the building.’ Although in his own mind—and undoubtedly that of Drew Butler—Brown, or one of his henchmen acting on instructions, was clearly to blame.

‘Do you believe Nicholas Brown to be responsible?’

Dominic was not in the least surprised at the speed of Caro’s astuteness. ‘Undoubtedly,’ he confirmed grimly.

‘As just another deliberate act to cause you as much inconvenience as possible, or do you think he really meant either Ben or Drew—or possibly both—to die?’ Her face had taken on a slightly green cast as she voiced that last possibility.

As far as Dominic was aware, he had never lied to Caro; in fact, his actions, especially this morning, had possibly been too honest where she was concerned. Possibly? The whole of his behaviour today, from making love to her to the crassness of his marriage proposal, had been honest to the point of self-destruction!

That she had allowed him to hold her just now, even briefly, Dominic knew was due only to her distress over Ben’s death. Once she had recovered her senses they would no doubt be back to a state of daggers’ drawn.

He drew in a deep breath as he chose his words carefully. ‘I believe it was the former. At the same time, I also believe Brown did not care who, or if, anyone should be hurt in the fire,’ he acknowledged heavily
before taking the kerchief from his pocket and wiping the worst of the soot and grime from his face and hands.

Caro breathed shakily. ‘Ben would not have hurt even a fly.’

Remembering those ham-sized fists, and the several occasions upon which he had witnessed the younger man wielding them, Dominic was not quite sure of the truth of that statement! Nevertheless, he took Caro’s point; there had never been any malice in Ben’s actions in doing his job defending the club.

‘I am sure it was pure misfortunate that Ben perished in the fire.’ Dominic was not as certain of that as he sounded, aware as he was that this morning Nicholas Brown had witnessed both Ben and Drew busily at work in the gambling club so that it might re-open as soon as was possible.

Caro looked up at him closely. ‘Do you honestly believe that?’

‘I…believe it is a reasonable assumption, yes,’ he said carefully.

‘I am neither a child nor an imbecile, Dominic, and after all that has happened, I do not expect you to treat me as such!’ Caro’s expression had become fierce as she obviously picked up on his evasion.

He had no doubts as to her maturity or intelligence; it was simply not in his nature to confide his thoughts and feelings to another person. ‘I assure you it is not my intention to do either of those things, Caro. I simply feel it is better not to voice my concerns until I can be completely sure of my facts.’