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with something like wonder.
    “I was just playing vingt-et-un with the fellow,” Lord Fortenbury said, his voice cracking with fear, as if knives in the chest might be contagious.
    “Ladies and gentlemen, please,” Mrs. Bailey said, her voice calm, “return to your play. There is nothing to be done here. I will send for the authorities and we will soon have this righted.”
    There was grumbling but the gawkers began to disperse when Mrs. Bailey promised to offer refreshments to all of her guests.
    “I will call the runners,” she told Christian before she returned to the front of the house, discreetly leaving the two of them alone.
    When she was gone, Maddie hid her face in Christian’s shoulder. “If you don’t mind,” she said, in a voice more vulnerable than he had ever heard her use, “I should like to go home.”
    “You’ll probably need to answer some questions,” he said gently. “But I suppose the runner can come to you at your father’s house tomorrow.”
    “I would prefer that, yes,” Maddie said with a gulp. Her face was pale, and whatever bravado had propelled her into coming along with her brother tonight had dissipated. “Would you get James for me, please, so that he can take me home?”
    Mrs. Bailey, who had returned with a sheet to cover the unfortunate Tinker, spoke up. “Oh, Lord Linton has already departed. He left as soon as you screamed. I thought he might have gone to fetch the runners but since they haven’t arrived yet, I suppose he didn’t.”
    At the news Linton was gone, Christian frowned. So did Maddie.
    “He left?” she asked, incredulous. “Why would he leave when he is my escort? How am I supposed to get home? He knows I’m here!”
    Christian heard a thread of panic underlying Maddie’s tone and hurried to reassure her. “I’m sure he simply went to retrieve help as Mrs. Bailey suggested,” he said, taking her hand in his.
    He had no idea if their hostess’s supposition was correct or not, however. There was no denying that Linton’s disappearance was suspicious. What reason would he have to flee the scene if he were not somehow involved? Christian had supposed that it was Tinker who belonged to the Citizen’s Liberation Society, but what if both Tinker and Linton were members? The possibility infuriated him mostly because Linton would then have knowingly brought his sister into the same quarters as traitors. The very idea made his blood boil.
    Determined to see that Maddie was taken care of no matter what her brother’s involvement in tonight’s imbroglio, Christian took Maddie’s arm. “I will see you safely home, Lady Madeline. Have no fear.”
    To his relief, Maddie, for once, did not argue, and allowed him to lead her out the back door of Mrs. Bailey’s house and to his waiting carriage in the mews beyond.
    *   *   *
     
    Gresham’s coach turned out to be a hackney he’d had one of Mrs. Bailey’s footmen call for him. Which was fine by Maddie. She was just glad to be out of that house. Though she’d gathered up quite a bit of detail and description to make the gaming hell scene in her novel convincing, it was the circumstances of Mr. Tinker’s death that would stay with her.
    “Now we will see about getting you safely home,” Gresham said, a little too brightly, as he climbed into the carriage with her and rapped on the roof to indicate that they were ready to depart.
    Though Maddie was somewhat numb from her experience, she appreciated Gresham’s attempt to bolster her mood. He could be kind like that, she thought, grateful that he had been the one to rescue her from the situation rather than someone less sensible like George Vinson.
    Here in the closed confines of the carriage, she was painfully aware of him as a man. The interior was not so large that they were able to sit across from one another without touching. Indeed, his legs were long so that his knees brushed against hers every time the carriage drove over a bump.
    They’d