Stunned, the air knocked entirely from him, Duncan lay on his back, hurting in every muscle of his body, his mind refusing to accept the reality that they might be safe. He could summon only enough strength to turn his head and look for Sorcha.

She lay on the ground nearby, looking up at the moonlit sky. Her breath clouded above her in the chill of night.

Night. How was it that so much time had passed? Could they truly have been riding for hours?

Using what little strength remained in him, he pulled himself over to where she lay. He set an arm around her.

“Are you injured?” he asked.

“Exhausted. But whole.”

He rested his head against hers, letting himself simply breathe. He closed his eyes, rested his body and mind, and silently prepared himself for whatever further dangers awaited them on this most perilous of journeys.

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

If the Dread Penny Society didn’t find a way to curtail the efforts of the Mastiff and his cronies, Barnabus was likely to lose his medical practice. He was, once again, away from his house and at headquarters for a meeting.

He didn’t think the DPS was overreacting—he was well aware of the enormity of danger they were confronting—but, other than Elizabeth, he was the only one present who had a profession outside of writing penny dreadfuls. Stone took on laboring jobs here and there as needed, but he had the ability to take the time he needed. Brogan, Fletcher, Hollis, and Martin could come and go as they wished.

This was not a formal meeting, so they had gathered in the pub upstairs. Brogan spent a decent amount of time teasing those who did not choose Guinness as their beverage. Fletcher had eventually managed to rein them all in. Elizabeth was a good influence on him; she’d led him to be more focused than he had been before.

“What have you been able to sort out?” Fletcher asked Hollis.

He was the one who had known the most about the Radlett case when they had first come across the blackmail connected to it. They needed to know more than the cursory summary Hollis had offered then. There had to be a connection between this case and the Mastiff, or why would it be the focus of the blackmail?