“But they just said he wouldn’t come.” A pinprick of dread flared in Amanda’s stomach. Lady Mary was shrewd. And Amanda had a feeling she wouldn’t like the direction she was heading.
“He won’t pay a visit to you personally, no.” The older woman’s eyes flared with excitement. “But I bet he wouldn’t be able to say no to debating you on the public stage. He has too much invested in this quarrel with you. If you went to Simon’s like Rothchild’s friend asked, I’d lay odds Hanford would show, too. He couldn’t let you have an uncontested platform.”
“No,” Amanda and Julius said at the same time.
“The idea has merit.” Sutton pursed his lips. “We know he’d be away from his house for at least two hours.”
Dunkeld grunted. “The way politicians talk? I’d say more like four.”
Summerset lifted Lady Mary’s hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it. “If I were a younger man, I’d ask you to marry me. Brilliant.”
Lady Mary slapped his hand away, her translucent skin blushing a delicate pink. “Such brass.”
Her shoulders rounding inward, Amanda pressed her body into the settee’s back cushion. “Brilliant or not, I can’t do it.”
“Of course, you can,” Lady Mary said stoutly. “It’s just a question of whether you will or not.”
Amanda glared at the woman, feeling betrayed. Why she told her companion about the invitation to Simon’s, she didn’t know. Temporary insanity. She never expected the woman to use it against her.
“Whether she can or not is beside the point.” Julius patted her knee. “Since I won’t allow it, the issue is moot.”
Amanda slowly sat up until her spine was ramrod straight. “I beg your pardon? You won’t allow it.”
“Uh … that didn’t come out right.” Easing his hand off her leg, Julius gave her a wary look. “I only meant that as your temporary protector, it would be ill-advised of me to let a woman like you out in public.”
Dunkeld whistled, long and low.
Summerset gave Julius a pitying look. “Poor sod doesn’t know when to shut up.”
Amanda uncurled from the settee until she stood tall before Julius. She clenched her fists at her sides. “A woman like me?”
He jumped to his feet and grabbed her hands. She pulled them back.
“I meant a woman who has been a thorn in the side of a man I now suspect of grave wrongdoing.” Running a hand through his dark hair, Julius looked around the room for support.
His friends were wise enough to stay silent.
“It seems like the intelligence of Marcus’s friends has declined since you,” Lady Mary said, nudging Summerset with her elbow. “Since we can all ignore Rothchild’s rubbish, the question still remains: will you debate Lord Hanford?” She turned wide, faded-blue eyes on Amanda.
Amanda faltered back. They all awaited her response. She swallowed, trying to bring moisture to her bone-dry mouth. Could she? Taking a walk around the block had nearly sent her into a fit. Standing in front of a group of men, being heckled …
The last time that had happened she’d been standing before the Tyburn tree. That crowd had been men, women, and children, laughing and jeering, excited for their coming entertainment. She’d been numb, long ago resigned to her fate. After a year alone in her squalid cell, death had seemed more a welcoming respite rather than something to fear.
She’d been numb until Julius had rescued her. She owed him so much more than her life. She owed him the joy she’d rediscovered. The strength she’d begun to find deep within. And she owed all those innocents, the children and adults who didn’t deserve death for their mild crimes. They didn’t have a Julius to save them.
But they would have her.
She nodded, the smallest of jerks. Letting out a long, quavering breath, she nodded again, slow and deep. “Yes. I’ll do it.”
Lady Mary beamed. “I never had any doubt.”
That made one of them.
Julius gripped her shoulders and turned her to face him. “This isn’t like your afternoon constitutional. People won’t be ignoring you. They’ll be cruel, say hurtful things.” His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “And I won’t be there to stand next to you.”
She swayed towards him, her body tingling with warmth. “Even if you aren’t holding my hand, I’ll still feel you there. You’re always with me.” And for the first time, Amanda believed she could do this. The idea still terrified, but she would muddle her way through.
Dunkeld cleared this throat. “We could go without you, Rothchild. You take Miss Wilcox to the club.”
