Gabriel opened the carriage door for her, assisting her in without question. “Cremorne Gardens,” he called to his coachman. “Quick as you can.”

Effie looked at Gabriel gratefully as he climbed into the cab beside her. He shut the door. The carriage jolted forward, the driver springing the horses into an extended trot.

“What the devil is going on?” Gabriel asked her.

“Compton has taken Franc,” she said.

“What?”

“Or one of his servants did it. I’m not perfectly sure. Lady Belwood said he came with a footman. He must have sent the man to search my room while he was interrogating me. When he didn’t find the book there, he took Franc instead. Compton would have told him to do so. He knows what Franc means to me.”

Gabriel’s attention briefly fell to the aged, cord-bound book Effie was clutching to her bosom. He gave her a questioning look.

“I took it from Compton’s library,” she said. “Parker caught me red-handed. He chased me. We fought in an alleyway. I-I stabbed him with a hairpin.”

Gabriel’s blood went cold. His voice took on a dangerous edge. “Parker put his hands on you?”

“He tried to. I’d hid the book under my crinoline and he was attempting to take it back.” Effie’s fingers tightened on the book, her knuckles going white. “If he’s hurt Franc—”

“He’s a dead man,” Gabriel said.

“Yes,” she agreed. “If he’s harmed a curl on his coat—”

“I’ll rip his bleeding head from his shoulders.”

“Not if I get to him first,” Effie said.

The carriage bounced hard as Gabriel’s driver raced the horses toward Chelsea, weaving in and out of the traffic on the Brompton Road. A clatter of hooves sounded over the street, punctuated by the noise of other drivers shouting, horses whinnying, and wheels rattling like thunder.

Gabriel made an effort to master his temper. He would be no help to Effie if he was in a blind rage. “What did you mean about Compton interrogating you?”

“I confronted him with what he’d done to Elizabeth Wingard.”

Gabriel absorbed the information without a flinch. “And he did nothing to you in return?”

“Aside from abducting Franc?” She gave a dismissive huff. “He threatened me with prison. And he related a rather graphic fantasy of my being hanged. But other than that…”

The words prison and hanged echoed in Gabriel’s head. Unlike her, he didn’t treat them lightly. His composure fractured. “Bloody hell, Effie. What if I hadn’t come back today?”

“Why did you?” she asked. “I didn’t expect you until tomorrow.”

“Because I haven’t been able to think straight since you left me on the train at Waltham Cross.”

Her mouth ticked up briefly in a rueful smile. “Oh. That.”

“Yes, that.” He searched her face. “Did you mean it?”

Her expression softened. “With all my heart.”

His own heart swelled in reply. “Effie—”