“Your ship?” Julia pushed away from him. “Garrett, I can’t sail away with you. Live the life you have lived going from one country to another. Never having a home. I couldn’t do that to Chatwyn, and I would never leave him.”
Garrett’s eyes turned dark and stormy. “Julia, I would never ask you to give up Chatwyn. What kind of man would I be if I asked you to give up your son for me? I’m not a beast, though the duke might well be. London is your home. My home, now. But Chatwyn is your son. Not the duke’s. His rule over you has to come to an end.” He took hold of her upper arms and held his gaze steady on her. “Do you love me?”
“Yes. You know I do. I have risked losing Chatwyn to be with you. You must know I love you.”
“And I love you. I would do anything for you.”
“I can’t marry you, Garrett. That would not keep the duke from taking Chatwyn away from me. The courts would allow the duke to maintain guardianship over Chatwyn.”
“The duke may know all the judges in London, but I will beat him at his own game. I have the Prince’s ear.”
She tried to tamp down the flicker of hope that rose in her chest. “What do you mean? You aren’t thinking of putting the duke on one of your ships and sailing him to China, are you?”
Garrett’s lips twitched with a bit of a smile. “I hadn’t thought of that, but while I meant it when I told you I’m not afraid to go to prison for you, snaring the duke in the dark of night is not what I have in mind. What I will do won’t harm the duke. Not physically, anyway.”
He brushed a hand down to her shoulder and gave it an affectionate squeeze. “The duke is a good friend of the King but it’s the Prince who is in charge of England right now. He is the only person who can exert control over the duke and force him to do anything. The Regent has the power to make all of Society snub him, smear his name, or take away his lands, and his power. And it just so happens the Prince wants me to do something for him and I can name my price for doing it. My price will be yours and Chatwyn’s freedom from the duke. The Prince can make that happen.”
“Yes, I remember,” she said anxiously. “You have sailed for the Prince. What does the Prince want you to do?”
“Bring a shipment to London.”
“That’s all?” she asked, concern causing her to tense. “It must be something dangerous for you or illegal.”
“No.” Garrett reached down and kissed her lips softly. “It’s not illegal or dangerous. It’s something I didn’t want to have any part of no matter the price, but I’ll do it for you.”
“You are worrying me. What is it?”
“He wants me to bring animals from Africa to London for a special organization he and some other gentlemen want to develop called the Royal Zoological Society.”
“What?” Julia suddenly felt chilled. She pulled her cape tightly around her neck as a gentle rain started to fall. “He wants you to carry animals in your ship?”
Garrett nodded. “That practice is barbaric. Keeping them in cages for months on end to get them here. And then for them to live all their lives in a cage—no. I’m glad you declined such a horrific assignment.”
“I will do it now, Julia. I must. He is the only one who has power over the duke. Mr. Urswick has failed and the courts will do nothing. This is our only chance.”
“No,” she said vehemently. “I don’t want you to do something so dreadful. I went to the Tower Menagerie once and I know how the animals are mistreated.”
“Animals do have a place in Society. If you’ve been, then you know what a lion sounds like when it roars. You can tell Chatwyn every day about the deep, frightening vibration of sound that comes from a lion, but he will never understand unless he experiences the sound for himself. He needs to see how tall a giraffe really is and how big an elephant is.”
“Then I will take him to Africa so he can see them,” she countered.
“I’ve been assured this new society the Prince is sanctioning will be different from the Tower Menagerie. The Prince wants me to do this for him because he knows I can be trusted to see the animals are fed, their cages are cleaned, and they are properly cared for. That’s why I can name my price and my price is for him to see that the duke doesn’t take your son.”
“No, you simply can’t do it. I will show these forged documents to the duke and he will give me my freedom. I don’t want the lives of all those animals on my hands. I’ll find another way.”
“How? There is no time left. You said the duke was better. He hoped to be traveling here soon.”
“Maybe the Prince will do it for you for all the times you’ve carried shipments for him in the past. At least ask him.”
“I will do anything for you, Julia, and I will do this, but the Prince is the type of man who usually forgets what you did for him yesterday and is only interested in what you are going to do for him today. The Prince assured me the Royal Zoological Society is building natural habitats for the animals and that this Royal Society will be nothing like the Tower.”
“Would you want to live in a cage?” she asked, incredulous that he’d even consider doing such a dastardly thing to animals, no matter the reason.
“Domestic animals are caged,” he argued as fiercely as she had.
“They aren’t,” she insisted.
“Then tell me what is a paddock, Julia? What is a chicken coop? A pen for hunting dogs?”
“That’s different.”
He smiled. “Different, are they? Is it the names that make them different? Is it the size? You are living in a cage, Julia. Can’t you see that the duke has you caged, too?”
His words were so truthful she felt as if he were cutting her with a knife. The pain was sharp and piercing. She brushed out of his arms again. She had always loved animals. It was heartbreaking, but she loved her son more. “I understand,” she whispered. “Thank you for the documents, Garrett.”
Julia turned away from him and ran up the back steps into the house. At the back door she laid the leather packet on a table to take her damp cloak off. From the front of the house she heard boots thumping on the floor and then a voice. The duke’s voice.
He was back.
Chapter 21
A shiver shook Julia, and then another. She slowly laid her cape over the packet and wrapped it inside the folds of the damp wool to hide it.
Her mind whirled with thoughts. Had he seen Garrett? Did he know about him? Had the duke come to take Chatwyn away from her?
Julia walked down the corridor and into the drawing room on stiff legs and numb feet. The duke stood by the fireplace warming himself. He was much thinner than when she had seen him last. She’d never seen his shoulders stoop before. There was a sickly pallor to his skin, and his thin face looked gaunt. For the first time since she’d known him, it appeared as if he’d aged considerably.
“Duke,” she said, and curtseyed, hoping that she wasn’t visibly shaking as much as she felt her insides trembling.
“Lady Kitson,” he answered with a nod. “You seem out of breath.”
She swallowed hard. That hardly touched the way she was feeling. “I am. I just came in from playing outside with Chatwyn.”