Lady Be Good (39 page)

Nick’s brows lifted. “This is the bloke you want me to help, Lily? Quite grateful he seems.”

“Nick.” Had these men been dogs, their hackles would have been raised. “Please. You have a cooler head than this.” She turned to Christian, whose murderous gaze still fixed on Nick. “Someone will hear. Is that what you want? For us to be discovered here, together? Nick—” She swallowed. “Just go. Please.”

“Not yet.” Nick sidestepped around her, his eyes locked on Christian. “I’ve still got a few people to see in that ballroom. In an hour, maybe.”

Christian shut the door with ominous care. “You have no friends here.”

“Oh, I’ve got one or two. But I’m not sure what to make of my niece right now. She’s clearly got some poor taste, lifting her skirts for the likes of
you
—”

Christian backhanded him. The cracking blow sent Nick sprawling into the crates. Lilah cried out and scrambled forward to help her uncle up. “Please,” she
said, though she knew it was useless; he would not listen now. “
Think
—”

He stepped around her and drove his fist into Christian’s face.

They went down in a brawling heap. As they rolled, she leapt clear, her hands at her mouth to trap a hysterical sound.

They were well matched. Too much so. Grappling, they staggered together to their feet, neither gaining purchase. They would kill each other before this was over. Nick drew back his fist—

The door flew open. It slammed into Nick and sent him staggering sideways.

Miss Everleigh gasped, then stepped inside and closed the door. “What is going on here?”

Panting, Nick wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist. The sight of blood on his cuff seemed to amuse him. He shoved himself slowly up the wall to his full height, a showy, provocative move that made Miss Everleigh take one startled step away from him.

He made a low, amused noise. A click of his tongue. “Easy, darling. I won’t bite
you
.”

She shot an alarmed look at Lilah. “I am calling the guards.” She turned for the door, but Nick slammed his palm against it.

“Your assistant won’t like that,” he said.

Christian growled. Lilah caught his elbow. “Stop it,” she hissed. “Both of you.”

“Well, Miss Marshall?” Nick was smiling at her employer. “Won’t you introduce us? I’ve long wanted to meet this pretty thing.”

Miss Everleigh drew herself to her full height. “Who is this man?”

“Nobody,” Lilah said miserably. “He’s leaving.”

Nick cast her a sharp glance. “I’m not done here yet.”

“You’re bloody.” She touched her mouth to show him where. “You can’t go back into the ballroom.”

“You have five seconds,” Christian said coolly.

Nick turned to face him, looking amused. “Says who?”

“No,” Lilah snapped into the gathering weight of their silence. “Yes, Nick, you must go—or
I
will call the guards!”

He glanced toward her. “Breaking the bargain, then?”

She took a deep, miserable breath. “Yes.”

“Oh ho,” he said. “Very well. Gives me the chance I’d been wanting.” He turned for the door—but instead seized Miss Everleigh’s hand. With a flourish he bowed over it, kissing her knuckles as she gaped at him. “Nicholas O’Shea at your service, miss. Admirer of your fine good looks, and uncle to your deeply confused assistant, Lily Monroe, who once assisted
me
. Despite her current bafflement, she’s a girl of great wit, I think you’ll agree. For certain, I can’t think of another impostor clever enough to worm into your service.” He chucked her chin to close her slack jaw, then offered her a wink. “God knows many will have tried.”

Lilah sagged back against a crate. A hand closed over her arm, a steadying grip. Christian’s. She could not look into his face. She could not look at Miss Everleigh, either.

“The devil take you,” she said to her uncle.

He shook his head. “The devil prefers lies, Lily. And if this lot dislikes your truth so much, they’re not worth the bother. You come home where you belong. Not a person in Whitechapel won’t welcome you.”

He let himself out. The sound of the latch seemed to echo. Small click. Sound of a guillotine dropping.

She squared her shoulders and made herself look at her employer. Miss Everleigh was staring elsewhere—at Christian’s hand on her arm.

Lilah jerked away.

A line formed between the woman’s pale brows. “You will meet me in my office, Miss Marshall.” She turned on her heel and left.

Silence settled, pure and deep—the hush after a terrible accident. Or before one.

She rounded on Palmer. “There,” she said. “Now you’ve done it. No better than Nick!”

“Lily,” he said gently, but she shoved him away when he stepped toward her.

“You’re not the only one who knows how to fight.” She spat the words. “Will serve me well, when I’m back in Whitechapel.”

“That won’t happen,” he said flatly.

Some toxic stew was bubbling up inside, anger and panic and disbelief intermixed. Nick had done it now. Christian had ensured it. “You said we weren’t friends? I guess you meant it. You didn’t care for a moment what your brawling would cost
me
.”

“He has no power over you now,” he said sharply. “The truth is out. You’re free of him.”

“Was that your plan?” Her laughter sawed, jagged pieces in her throat. Nick had been right about him, in a way. He stood before her, tall and beautiful in a suit that would cost a working man a year’s wages, arrogantly oblivious to the wreckage he and her uncle had just made of her life. “You can’t solve anything.”

“Lily—”

She started for the door, but he grabbed her elbow. She didn’t fight this time. All the fight had left her. “Call me Lilah, then.” Her voice sounded funny. Rough. “I might as well enjoy it one last time.”

“Enjoy it?” He paused a long moment. “Do you prefer that name?”

What a strange question. She stared at the door. “I did. I thought it more elegant.”

“Whereas I rather prefer Lily.” She felt his hand brush her face. The touch was tender. Soothing. The way one might stroke the face of a feverish child.

She turned her head away. “I must go speak with her.”

“And then we’ll leave,” he said. “I’m taking you to my family.”

The room grew blurry. She blinked very rapidly, till it came back into focus. She would not cry. That would be childish indeed. “What point? I’ll be safe enough.” She blew out a breath. “Besides, how would you explain me to your mother? You’re engaged to someone else.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said.

She turned to him on a deep breath. “But I won’t go. Because you
are
marrying Catherine Everleigh. Aren’t you?”

He gave her a long, inscrutable look. “I could take the choice out of your hands.”

“Yes. You could be just like Nick, if you wanted. You’ve already made a fine start tonight.”

His face darkened. “Very well. Then she’ll keep you on. I’ll make certain of it.”

If he meant that to comfort her, then he was an even greater fool than she. “Don’t bully your future wife for my sake,” she said, and had the satisfaction of seeing him flinch before she left.

Lilah had braced herself for a torrent of accusations. But as she stepped into the office, she was startled by Miss Everleigh’s first words.

“I asked you.” The woman paced in a tight circle, causing layers of taffeta to froth and crunch. “I asked you if you loved him. You said
no
. Did you not?”

Lilah nodded.

“So I will not take the blame for this mess. I will not undo it. I require a husband. He promised not to interfere with my business. And my brother won’t dare cross me. Not as Palmer’s wife.”

Thrown off guard, Lilah said softly, “I imagine not.”

“So I won’t break this engagement.” Miss Everleigh pivoted to face her. “I will marry him.”

“Yes.”

“But . . .” Miss Everleigh’s mouth twisted. “You do love him. Don’t you?”

“It makes no difference.”

“No. It doesn’t. Not now.” A pause. “Oh, why didn’t you tell me
then
?”

Lilah smiled, though she felt no humor. “You said it yourself, once. The butcher or the clerk—those are my choices. I must not aim above my station.”

“There would be no
aiming
required on your part!” Miss Everleigh pressed a hand to her mouth. “I heard what he said! I saw how he—” She shook her head, then fell into the chair behind her desk. “No. You’re right, of course. It would be a terrible mésalliance on his part.”

“No doubt.”

“Yet would it matter?” She yanked her shawl from her shoulders, kneaded it furiously. “Palmer could get
away with murder, if he liked. The public worships him! Why, he could marry an East End factory girl, and they would only . . .”

Lilah saw her register her mistake. “A girl of my background, do you mean?”

She had never witnessed her employer at a loss for words. But suddenly Miss Everleigh could not meet her eyes. “Is it true, then? What he said? That dreadful man? I think . . . I think I recognized his name.”

Lilah sighed. “Yes. From the newspapers, no doubt. Nick O’Shea is my uncle.”

“Your uncle!” She pulled her shawl to her chest in a convulsive recoil. “Why, he was so . . . So pert! So forward! A more ill-bred man I’ve never met!”

“Probably not,” Lilah agreed. “If it’s any consolation, I think he meant his compliments to you.”

Miss Everleigh blushed. “Very odd compliments, if so.” She hesitated, looking at Lilah in open bewilderment. “Nicholas O’Shea. Doesn’t he run some . . . illegal house of cards?”

“Among other things.”

“And you . . . worked for him there?”

“No.” Lilah sat down across from her. “But everything he said was true.” She would give her uncle the credit: he’d chosen his words very carefully. His brand of honor was not, perhaps, the kind that Miss Everleigh would recognize, but in his own twisted way, he adhered to a code. “I did assist him, though. The activities were often illegal.”

“Well.” Frowning, Miss Everleigh smoothed the shawl across the desktop. For a moment she appeared lost in the pattern it presented. “That is very . . . But you don’t
still
break the law?”

“No.” Lilah cleared her throat. “Not recently, miss.” As long as one was very conservative in one’s definition of
recently
.

Miss Everleigh spoke to the shawl. “I should sack you, of course. That is the . . . proper thing to do.”

“I expect nothing else.”

Miss Everleigh took an audible breath. “Have you ever lied to me about other things? Things aside from your name?”

“Yes,” Lilah said. “I told you I did not answer to the viscount. But I did then. He knew of my past. He had caught me in a compromising situation. And he used me to pry into your business.”

“Because of the Russian man.”

“Yes.”

Miss Everleigh nodded slowly. “What did Palmer use to persuade you?”

“I took something from your brother. Letters from his associates on the Municipal Board of Works.” She added in a rush, “It was the only time I have broken the law since I joined Everleigh’s. But my uncle threatened to expose me if I didn’t get the letters for him.”

“You stole from Peter?” Miss Everleigh struggled to contain her smile, but failed. “Really?”

Lilah nodded.

“But . . . only once?”

“Yes.”

“And you did it to . . . keep your uncle happy.”

“I knew I could not keep my position here if he told you the truth about my past.”

Miss Everleigh picked at the fringe on her shawl. “It’s really so important to you, to work at Everleigh’s?”

Lilah spoke honestly. “It was always my dream to live
decently. As for how I did it . . . I was happier as your assistant than as a hostess. I truly did aim to make a career for myself. But either position would have been preferable to working for my uncle again.” She sighed. “And I knew that would be the only choice remaining to me, if I were exposed by him.”

“But how awful,” Miss Everleigh murmured. “What a wretched predicament.”

The sympathy surprised Lilah. But she knew better than to hope. She merely shrugged.

Miss Everleigh shoved her shawl aside. “So. Does he mean to help, your uncle? With this Russian idiot?”

“No idiot, I think. More’s the pity. He’s a danger to you, miss.”

“So Palmer says. But a man like your uncle . . .” Miss Everleigh cleared her throat. “He must have a good deal of experience in dealing with brutes.”

“Palmer will not take his help.”

Miss Everleigh sputtered. “Palmer is mad! What does
he
know of such matters?”

Lilah bit her tongue. But this show of ignorance grated unbearably. “Lord Palmer is hardly clawless.”

“No, no, of course not. But honorable men, raised decently, can hardly begin to understand the criminal . . .” Miss Everleigh colored. “The criminal mind. Not your kind of mind. But the true, hardened, criminal mind.”