Gerald sagged against the wall, his strenght finally giving out. A quick look about the room revealed no one watching their exchange or her hasty exit. Pressing his hand lightly to his side. his fingers came away slick.

Damnation.

He'd been doing fine until she'd shown herself. Exhaustion blanketed his mind, numbing his limbs at a rather alarming rate.

Maxi, his longtime business partner and friend, was suddenly there, studying his bloodied side. "You need to take care of that."

Gerald waved him off. "Follow the lady to her carriage. Make sure she's not accosted by anyone on the stairs or in the street."

With a scowl, Maxi left to do his bid.

Glancing over the guests, Gerald searched for the mistress of the house. When their eyes clashed, he called her over with a nod. She was putting him up as a favor tonight.

He'd be moving back to his townhouse tomorrow.

It was the perfect place to go. He needed to lay low for a few weeks, long enough for things to settle down in the East with his business dealings. Long enough for his and Maxi's shipping empire to trade hands.

Maxi had traveled with him to England after attempt on Gerald's life. He'd known the man for eight years, and Maxi was the last business associate he could trust at this point. The man was loyal to a fault.

Sherly, the mistress of the house, was at his side, her ample bosom display with ruched ts lined with a neat row of beads and feathers drawing the eye of any man within her vicinity. Her plump face, with her roughed lips and kohl-lined eyes, gave him a commanding expression.

"You shouldn't be up and about yet, your lordship. I'll not have you pulling out my fine stitchwork."

That had been the other reason he'd come to madam Purforry's. She had a steady hand and didn't faint at the first sight of blood. She'd had him cleaned, his side sewn back together and patched up within an hour of his arrival.

"Stitches still feel right. I've just stretched the skin." Cocking a grin at the mistress, he pushed slowly off the wall, impressed that he didn't fall over when he suddenly felt light-headed. "I'm embarrassed to say, I need your support." 

Sherly put her shoulder under Gerald's arm.

"No need to dally with the flashy types coming through here." she tsked. "I've got plenty of pretty innocent-looking girls if that's what you seek. They'll sit on your lap and do all the work."

Didn't he know for the truth.

Sherly wrapped her arm around his middle, mindful of the blood-soaked patched in his shirt. Her voluptous figure barely held his tall frame upright. "Juliet wasn't pleasing enough? I can send up another girl. Someone to take your mind from the pain."

"No company tonight."

He couldn't take her up on that offer now that he'd seen his wife. Kim looked the same... only grown up. As well as he could tell with that flimsy mask that did nothing to conceal her features. Her high cheekbones. her nose, those black curls of hers that looked and felt smooth as the finest silk. He'd wanted to unravel her hair from all those pins and spead it out beneath him.

There his thoughts went again. Strange how he'd not spared his wife a thought since their wedding night and now his mind almost seemed to consume by her.

Arm tight around Sherly's shoulders, he made his way up to the third-floor landing out of view of the other patrons. Maxi followed, having completed his task.

The man wore a scowl that could kill. One that said, I didn't save you for you to bleed out because of stupidity on a whorehouse.

"I'm well enough, Maxi. Just get me in my room so I can clean this up."

Maxi hoisted him up with his shoulder, and Sherly retreated, promising to send up a repast. When he was finally sitting on the bed, he pulled his hirt off, hissing in a sharp breath.

Taking the wet cloth from Maxi's hand, Gerald patted at the blood. "I've only pulled a stitch."

Maxi retrieved a roll of linen, set in the room for the purpose of cleaning the deep slash in his side, and started ripping it into strips.

"We shouldn't be here. There are to many people here to notice our presence in London."

No, it wasn't an ideal place, not now that he figured someone had sent his wife here. Just so happened to be the last place in London he felt he could hide without drawing undue attention to himself. Seemed he was mistaken in that notion.

"We don't have have a lot of options open to us. I can't really fight off anyone should they try to get the better of me right now. I'm pretty much useless like this. And until I'm on my feet again and at a full strenght, we have to stay to ground."

" jumping about your lap is not a good way to do that." Maxi grumbled.

"I wasn't about the slight the proprietress. She sent the girl, and I let the girl do what was asked for her." He held the strips of linen out to Maxi. "The wound has to breathe. I don't want it turning septic."

Maxi took  the linens and set them out on the tall chest of drawers. "We should leave for your town house tomorrow."

"We will."

A light rapping of knuckels sounded at the door. Maxi pulled a knife from somewhere on his person, a lethal-looking piece of curved metal that had to be ten inches long.

"Calm yourself. It's sure to be the meal Sherly promised."

Of course Maxi never liked to be careless. He held the knife behind his back and cracked the door open enough to see who was on the other side. The door swung wide the next moment, and a servant came in carrying a covered tray.

She gave a pretty curtsy after setting down the tray on the round walnut server. Her cleavage spilled over the low-cut bodice, revealing her roughed areolas at the line of her gown.

"Will that be all, my lord?"

Another enticement. He would have laughed if it wouldn't have insulted the girl. Instead, he said, "Quite enough. Tell Sherly I do not wish to be disturbed until tomorrow."

"Yes, my lord."

When the door shut on her retreat, Maxi threw the bolt in placed and checked over the sandwiches neatly stacked on a plate. "Do you think she's poisoned it?"

"Sherly has no reason to be done with me. For the time being. our arrangement is mutually beneficial."

Leaning his head back to the wall, Gerald closed his eyes and pictured his wife with her little mask and prim clothes.

"Who was that woman I followed down to the street?"

"My wife."

There was a pause.

"Was she looking for you?" Maxi's expression was carefully absent of emotion, and his tone even.

No one could be more shocked by his wife's presence than Gerald himself.

Cracking one eye open, he answered, "I doubt it."

He'd not elaborate that she might have been here for an assignation. That was no one's business but his own.

Maxi sat in the chair and picked up one of the sandwiches. "Curious that she happened to walk into this establishment as opposed to the thousands of others in the city. Someone knows where here. We're being watched."

Gerald nodded his agreement. "I'll talk to Sherly in the morning. I'm sure she's aware of the situation that brought my wife here." Probably knew who Kim was to meet with. too.

"We should leave tonight." Maxi bit into the bread.

"Keeping out of sight will have to be enough. If someone wants me dead they'll have to get through Sherly's muscle. I wish them luck. I've never met a man who could get past them. Women, yes, but not just any man is going to get through those doors."

"We are like sitting geese."

"Whoever our foe is, they'll not get a noose around our necks." Gerald let out a frustrated sigh. "Stop fussing and let me sleep. What we do will depend upon the information I get from Sherly. Once we start finalizing the deal with Hayworth, the waters will calm."

"Nothing has been easy in the sale of our business. I don't expect it to get any easier."

"Whoever is trying to make the deal fall through may get bored with this game of cat and mouse they've devised."

"I hope you are right." Maxi grumbled.

Gerald didn't respond. He hoped he was right, too. Or, despite all his careful planning, they might still end up dead before the deal could be finalized.