He was suddenly reminded of the first time he had seen her features revealed by moonlight. That night on the lonely lane in Sussex he had lifted her veil, taken one look at her shocked, defiant face, and he had known he wanted her. Something in him had known that he would stop at nothing to make her his own.
Kudeo. I dare.
Now she was his. But she was so very vulnerable and so very impulsive. He had to protect her because he could not trust her to protect herself.
"My God, Phoebe," he said against her mouth.
"You do not know what you do to me. I swear I do not comprehend it myself. But I do know that you are mine and I will do whatever I must to keep you safe." He crushed her lips beneath his own, drinking in the essence of her, trying to capture her soul as well as her sweet body. After a moment Phoebe made a soft little sound and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"What the devil is going on?" Anthony grabbed the bottle of claret off the end table and poured himself a glass. He glowered at Gabriel as he dropped into a chair across from him.
"Keep your voice down." Gabriel flicked a meaningful glance around the club room. It was still early in the afternoon and the club was only sparsely populated as of yet, but one or two of the members were standing close enough to overhear a loud conversation. "I do not particularly wish to announce my affairs to the world."
Anthony subsided in annoyance. "Very well," he said, lowering his voice, "tell me what this is all about. Why the urgent summons?"
"Someone is trying to hurt or, at the very least, terrify Phoebe." Someone might even be trying to kill her, Gabriel added silently. But he could not bring himself to say the words aloud.
"Good God." Anthony stared, thunderstruck. "Are you certain?"
"As certain as I can be."
"Who is it? I'll kill him."
"I'm afraid you must wait your turn. I have first claim on that pleasure. As it happens, I believe the person directly responsible is a woman named Alice. She is either mad or a member of the criminal class who has some acting talent. She was able to pass herself off to Phoebe as a housemaid. I believe there is a strong possibility that Neil Baxter is involved." He briefly summarized events.
Anthony listened in fulminating silence. When Gabriel finished, he nearly exploded. "Goddamn it, man, Baxter is supposed to be dead. You assured us he was."
"Believe me, I am vastly more disappointed than you are that he is not."
"What the devil are you going to do about him?"
"Get rid of him again," Gabriel said. "But this time I intend to make certain he stays out of my way in future."
Anthony's eyes narrowed. "He truly is a cutthroat?"
"I was told by some of the survivors on my ship that he even seemed to enjoy the business of cutting throats."
"Why the attacks on Phoebe?"
"I believe they are Baxter's way of taunting me."
"Why is he using this Alice person?" Anthony persisted.
"Perhaps so that there will be no proof that he is behind the attacks." Gabriel frowned, thinking it through. "If anyone is caught, it will be her. If she is truly mad, she will not be able to point the finger of blame at Baxter. If she is a professional villain and chooses to confess, her word will not mean much against Baxter's."
"Perhaps she does not even know Baxter's identity," Anthony said slowly. "He might have hired her to do his dirty work without letting her know who he was."
Gabriel nodded. "Possible. But I am going to try to find out if there is a connection between the two."
"How will you do that?"
Gabriel leaned forward and lowered his voice even further. "I am having a Runner look into it. I have instructed him to find out if Baxter has a mistress or some connection to the criminal class."
Anthony studied him for a moment. "If you cannot prove Baxter is behind these acts of violence against Phoebe, what will you do?"
Gabriel shrugged. "I would prefer to be able to prove that Baxter is causing the trouble, if only to convince Phoebe that he is not the Sir Lancelot she believes him to be. But one way or another, I shall have to get rid of Baxter. In the end I may be obliged to do it without being able to prove what I know to be true."
"Phoebe will want proof. She does not turn on old friends easily. She is very loyal."
"I know." Gabriel kept his face expressionless with effort. "But Baxter is potentially too dangerous to be allowed to hang around her much longer. He is fully capable of charming an innocent such as Phoebe. Out in the islands he seduced more than one wife into telling him her husband's business secrets. And more than one mistress into betraying her lover's plans."
Anthony arched a brow. "Your mistress, perhaps?"
"Not exactly. She was the woman to whom I was engaged," Gabriel said quietly. "She was the daughter of one of my partners. Her name was Honora. Ironic, is it not? If ever a woman had less sense of honor than Honora Ralston, I have not had the misfortune to meet her."
"She gave information to Baxter?"
"He made himself her lover. Convinced her I was a dangerous pirate masquerading as a legitimate businessman. He said he was trying to trap me."
"I see." Anthony hesitated. "You eventually realized what was going on?"
"Yes."
Anthony stared at him. "What did you do?"
Gabriel shrugged. "The obvious. I tricked Honora into giving Baxter false information and then I set a trap for him."
"I hesitate to ask this, but what, exactly, happened to Honora?"
"When her father found out she had given herself to Baxter and nearly ruined the company in which he had shares in the process, he married her off very quietly."
"To whom?" Anthony asked curiously.
"An aging partner in the shipping venture."
Anthony narrowed his gaze. "Any chance she's the mysterious Alice? Out for revenge?"
"Not likely. The last I heard, she was pregnant with her second child and still living out in the islands. The elderly partner has apparently decided to found himself a shipping dynasty."
"So that leaves us with the mysterious Alice and a possible connection to Neil Baxter." Anthony reflected on that for a moment. "What about Phoebe?"
Gabriel reluctantly pulled himself away from his thoughts. "What about her?"
"You are quite certain she is safe while you go about the business of trying to find Alice?"
"Yes, of course. Did you think I would leave her unprotected?"
"No," Anthony said. "But I thought that by now you would have realized it is rather difficult to protect Phoebe if she is not inclined to be cooperative. Where is she?"
"At home. The staff has been alerted not to allow any strangers into the house under any pretext."
Anthony scowled. "Phoebe's agreed to stay in the house all day?"
"She will stay there as long as it is necessary. I have given her instructions not to leave unless I accompany her or unless Stinton is free to keep an eye on her."
Anthony's jaw dropped. "You've confined Phoebe to the house?"
"Yes."
"Indefinitely?"
"Yes."
"She's agreed to this?" Anthony demanded warily.
Gabriel drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair. "Phoebe will do as she is told."
"Devil take it, man. Are you mad? This is Phoebe we're talking about. She does exactly as she wishes. What makes you think she'll obey you?"
"She's my wife," Gabriel said.
"What difference does that make? She never went out of her way to obey her father or me, her older brother. Phoebe has always been guided by her impulsive nature. My God, she could be riding merrily off into danger at this very moment. She's probably convinced herself she's on another quest to find the mysterious Alice."
Gabriel got to his feet, unwilling to reveal how uneasy Anthony was making him. "I gave her strict orders to stay at home today. She knows better than to flaunt those orders."