The Complete Regency Surrender Collection. Louise Allen

crossed his arms and let out a breath. ‘I told you.’

      ‘Told him what?’

      ‘That you have a temper.’

      She pressed her lips together and gave her right glove a firm tug. ‘Well, in a few short hours, Gabriel, you won’t have the opportunity to witness my temper.’

      He placed his hands on his hips in a commanding stance. ‘That is up for debate.’

      She unintentionally mimicked his posture. ‘No, it is not.’

      ‘Yes, it is.’

      ‘No, it is not.’

      Andrew cleared his throat. ‘Well it was lovely chatting with you. Think I’ll see what the footmen have brought me before it turns cold. Don’t you know? Wot? Wot?’

      They stood staring at one another, silently daring the other to move. Olivia won when Gabriel pulled her by the arm out into the hall.

      ‘We are settling this right now.’

      She tugged her arm out of his grasp. ‘I am not discussing anything with you in the hallway of Drury Lane.’

      ‘Then we will adjourn to our box, but make no mistake, Duchess, we are having this discussion.’

      The riotous applause and cheering from the audience broke the silence between them as he dragged her into their box. Storming to the front, he jerked the curtains closed. Apparently he wasn’t considering what people would think about the curtains being drawn in their box after they had been seen together earlier.

      He advanced on her so he stood less than a foot away. ‘You are not leaving me.’

      Even with his noble actions, she could not forgive this last betrayal—and it would be the last. She could not endure crushing hurt like this again.

      ‘It is obvious I am not enough for you. When I send out cards with my new address it will cease the chatter about us and everyone will know we care nothing for one another.’

      All of Britain might believe that, but deep down she knew she still loved him and probably always would. Physical distance was the only solution she had to save what was left of her heart.

      He grabbed both her hands, and she tried to pull away. His grasp tightened, though not painfully. ‘There is no one else I need. You are more than enough for me.’ He looked her in the eye. ‘I have sacrificed much for what I do, but I will no longer sacrifice my marriage with you.’

      ‘Fire! Fire!’ The shout came from right outside their box.

      Olivia turned towards the door and sucked in a deep exploratory breath. There was a faint scent of wood burning. They needed to leave right away.

      ‘Andrew,’ Gabriel muttered and tugged her by the hand, hauling them out into the hall.

       Chapter Twenty-One

      Still grasping Olivia’s hand, Gabriel stopped outside their box and scanned the crowd of people stampeding past them on their way to the staircase. Panicked shouts and cries echoed off the walls as people sought out friends and family. A door diagonal from them was open and men were already forming a bucket brigade and throwing water into the smoking room.

      This was impossible. He didn’t even know who to look for.

      Andrew exited the royal box behind two guards. His knowing gaze shot to Gabriel. He nodded in agreement that this was no coincidence. They needed Andrew out of the theatre quickly before it either burnt down or he was murdered.

      A damp woodsy smell filled the hall as panicked people continued to run past them, shouting for their friends and warning everyone to run for their lives. This was a diversion. Gabriel knew it. He was just about to yell to Andrew to return to the royal box, when Olivia tugged at his sleeve.

      ‘There she is, the woman in black. She’s working with Janvier.’ She was pointing to a tall thin woman with dark hair, standing thirty feet from them staring at Andrew.

      Before he could ask about her assumption, the woman pulled a gun from her reticule and aimed it at his brother.

      In an instant he was back in the garden in Richmond years earlier. Peter was pointing a gun at him. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t allow you to stop their plan,’ his uncle had said, looking down at him and cocking the hammer of the pistol.

      Gabriel closed his eyes at the resignation on his uncle’s face, preparing for the end. The bullet ripped through his torso, taking his breath with it. Then he heard Peter cock back the hammer of the second barrel. He was aiming the gun now at Gabriel’s head. Then suddenly a shot rang out and his uncle fell back. Andrew had come out of nowhere and saved him, killing Peter in the process.

      He could never stand by and watch Andrew die. Jumping between the barrel of the woman’s pistol and Andrew, Gabriel tackled his brother to the ground—and felt the burn of a bullet bury itself in his shoulder.

      * * *

      The crack of gunfire tore through the commotion in the hall, and Olivia watched a number of men tackle the woman in black to the ground. After wrestling the gun out of her hand, they held her firmly to the ground.

      ‘Murder, murder.’

      ‘Has His Highness been shot?’

      ‘We have her. We have the cutthroat.’

      ‘The Duke of Winterbourne has saved His Highness.’

      ‘Oh, my God, is he dead?’

      That last shout turned her legs to jelly and she looked over at the motionless form of her husband, lying atop Andrew. A stain of dark crimson was spreading near the shoulder of his coat.

      Why wasn’t he moving?

      She ran to him, dropping to her knees just as he let out an agonised groan of pain.

      ‘See that she is secure,’ she yelled to the guard closest to her. ‘And do not let them take her anywhere until you hear from His Royal Highness what should be done with her.’

      Gabriel lifted himself off Andrew while clutching his right shoulder and fell back against the wall. Blood oozed through his gloved fingers. The pain must have been excruciating, if his grimace was any indication. ‘Bloody hell, I hate being shot,’ he gritted through his teeth.

      Seeing him like this was making Olivia’s hands shake. He was too young to die.

      Blast him for making her feel anything towards him beside anger and betrayal. Part of her wanted to cradle him in her arms and take away his pain. Another part of her wanted to rail at him for jumping in the path of a bullet and getting shot. What was the appropriate thing to say to someone at a time like this?

      ‘You need to find a new hobby.’

      A spurt of laughter sneaked out between his clenched teeth before he pressed his lips together.

      Shouting continued around them as people began to ignore the extinguished fire and focus their attention on the man who’d saved ‘Prince George’.

      Andrew knelt next to him, concern etched across his fake brows. ‘We need to get you home.’

      * * *

      Olivia stood near the window of her husband’s bedchamber, watching his valet dig a bullet out of his right shoulder. When had her life taken such an abrupt turn? She’d insisted they should call a physician, but Gabriel assured her Hodges would do a fine job. After what felt like an hour of digging, she wasn’t certain that was the case.

      Thunder rumbled and a flash of lightning exploded in the room as rain pelted the windowpanes. She rubbed the goose pimples on her arms and watched Bennett hold Gabriel’s shoulder down as Hodges continued to dig at the stubborn ball of lead. Gabriel’s hair was sticking up in all directions