A Wicked Conceit by Anna Huber (e novels to read TXT) 📕

to escape the vaults. I wondered briefly if he thought of Maggie, of the child she’d miscarried, but then another contraction swept every other thought aside.

When at last we emerged from the vaults and then from the tenement building where the entrance had been concealed, I peered around me in startlement to discover that it was night. I breathed deep of the fresh air—its cleanliness relative to where we’d been. Faces crowded near to watch us—Sergeant Maclean, Henry, Philip, and other citizens of this part of Edinburgh. But there was only one my heart leapt at the sight of.

“I hear you’ve had a bit o’ a misadventure, my lady,” Dr. Fenwick proclaimed as Bonnie Brock lifted me into our carriage before melting away.

“She’s in labor,” Gage told him, stumbling up behind us.

“Aye,” he responded calmly, pushing his spectacles up the bridge of his nose. “And it seems you’ve received a wee bump to the head. Best go see the surgeon o’er there.” Then he began to climb into our carriage. “Noo, my lady, let’s have a look.”

I inhaled a deep breath as another contraction swept through me. He waited through it before urging me to recline on the seat so he could lift my skirt to examine me. Rolling my head to the side, I could see Gage standing stubbornly in the doorway, his face haggard and his eyes bright with concern.

“Are you feelin’ the urge to push?” Dr. Fenwick asked me.

“Yes. Desperately.”

“Aye. Then there’s no time to wait. Bring me the blankets and supplies from my coach, Mr. Gage. You’re aboot to become a father.”

I focused on Dr. Fenwick’s voice and my breathing as matters were arranged around and under me. Then the door was shut, and Gage was seated beside me, holding my hand as the physician urged me to push.

The details are not necessary. It is sufficient to say that finally, in the fullness of time, our child was born, giving out a lusty cry. To which those outside answered with a hearty cheer.

I smiled wearily as Dr. Fenwick cleaned and examined our baby.

“Mr. and Mrs. Gage, you have a healthy little girl,” he declared before passing her to me.

Tears of joy and relief pricked my eyes as I swaddled her close and stared down into her beloved face screwed up into a furious scowl as she wailed. “Oh, my darling,” I crooned. Words of love and affection spilled from my lips without conscious thought, as I tried to warm and soothe her. Gage wrapped his arm around me, gazing down at her in such adoration that my smile spread so wide I thought it might crack my face.

“She’s beautiful. Perfect,” he proclaimed in awe before pressing his lips to my forehead. I could feel his throat ripple against my cheek as he swallowed, and I knew he was struggling to master his emotions.

“I love you,” I murmured.

He lifted his head so he could gaze down at me, his pale blue eyes swimming with affection. “I love you, too.”

•   •   •

Several days later, Philip, Alana, Charlotte, Henry, Gage, and I congregated in our drawing room as our daughter, Emma, was passed around. Thus far, she’d proven fondest of sleeping, eating, and making her father hop to her every whim with the tiniest of cries. I teased Gage mercilessly about it, but then I suspected I was just as bad. It didn’t help that with her blue eyes and blond hair, she looked so much like her father.

“Well, there will be no more ridiculous rumors about your paternity,” Alana cooed as she pressed her lips to Emma’s downy head.

Philip looked up from where he had been gazing over his wife’s shoulder at his new niece. “I hear they apprehended Lennox and confiscated all of his manuscripts.”

“Yes. Maclean acted swiftly once Mr. Heron came forward with his information,” Gage replied from his position perched on the arm of the chair where I sat.

“He also sent them looking for us,” I chimed in.

After Heron realized that McQueen’s men had taken us captive, he’d run straight to the nearest police house with everything he knew. Joe, our coachman, had begun questioning the other residents of Heron’s building and discovered we’d been taken. Then he rushed home to inform the members of our household, who had scattered to tell Philip and Henry and organize a search.

“There were people scouring all over Edinburgh looking for you,” Philip replied.

“But it’s the residents of Blair Street to whom we owe the most gratitude,” I said quietly. “Had they not notified Bonnie Brock when they realized who we were and what was happening, we might never have been found.”

Charlotte shivered at the implications.

Henry nodded at Philip. “We tried to venture in after Kincaid and Anderley, but after just a few turns, we had to retrace our steps for fear we would never find our way back out and they would have to send a search party in after us.”

“What of McQueen’s men?” Alana glanced up from Emma’s face to ask. “Were they arrested?”

“Not that we’ve been made aware of,” Gage said.

Though I was thinking of Bonnie Brock’s pledge to handle the matter, despite my insistence that he leave it to the police. He and Maggie had paid us one more visit the evening prior, conferring with us in the morning room as before. Gage had been somewhat hesitant to allow them to see Emma, but I’d reminded him we probably owed Bonnie Brock our lives and hers. Particularly as he’d risked his own life and freedom by working in full view of Sergeant Maclean and his men. Had he not slipped away the moment after he’d deposited me in our carriage, I had no doubt he would have been apprehended.

In any case, Bonnie Brock had been rather subdued during our conversation, and somewhat cowed by the baby. Maggie had been doting, her eyes lighting with a delight that I had never seen reflected there. It even brought a smile to her brother’s mouth. Whatever his feelings the