He wasn’t alone in that.Fiona cursed a blue streak against his shirtfront, casting aspersions against the ruffian’s lineage and threatening harm to his more valued body parts.Amusement warred with anger, both of which only served to blanket the fear that chilled him.
“What happened?I thought you were going back inside?”
“I was,” she sighed.Regretfully, her tight grip on him slackened, and Fiona stepped back with a sigh.“I returned to the door and just decided that I—I could not.I sent one of the footmen inside to let Francis know I was leaving.”
“And you just decided to walk back home?”
“Yes.”She shrugged.“It’s just a few streets away, after all.That man offered me a ride at first, then grabbed me when I refused, trying to force me into the carriage.I don’t think it was even his.”
“I hardly think that matters.”He frowned.“Let’s get you back inside.Your brother needs to hear of this.”
“No,” she protested.“I can’t do that.Not right now.I can’t walk back in there looking like this.”Aylesbury looked down at her torn and dirtied gown, feeling the anger stir within him again.“And if you were to accompany me, everyone might think that you...that we...”
Fiona shrugged again, but Aylesbury understood her point.He’d already gained a reputation as a hothead since Piper’s disappearance.He didn’t need to be thought a rapist as well.“Come with me.”
Knowing he would owe Lady Onslow more than flowers after abandoning her daughter yet again, he took Fiona by the hand.Pulling her behind him, he rounded the corner to the eastern side of Belgrave Square.Eight columns supporting an iron-railed balcony at the center of the street marked his townhouse.
The house was quiet as it usually was when Aylesbury went out, his servants likely entertaining themselves in their parlor below but for the lone footman left above to see to the door.Leaving him with orders to send up a maid with tea and towels, he led Fiona to a small drawing room on the ground floor.
“We’ll have some tea to help calm you.Then I will let you freshen up before I escort you home.”He turned up a single gas sconce to light the room.
“Thank you, Harry.”
He turned to find her standing in the middle of the room watching him, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.She looked more fragile than he had ever seen her.Even in the dim light, he could see the shimmer of tears in her eyes.
As vulnerable as she was, he doubted she would be able to gather enough of her interminable ire to stop him if he were to gather her in his arms.
With what had happened between them earlier and her pride, he also knew she would probably resent him for witnessing her moment of weakness.
The only solution then was to supplant that helplessness with a touch of anger, and thankfully, there was a topic readily at hand that would not bring that anger down on him.
“You know, I think someone might be trying to kidnap you.”Despite the seriousness of his supposition, Aylesbury was happy to see fire light her eyes, driving out the fear as he hoped it would.
“My, my, how clever you are.Are you just figuring that out now?”
God, but she was so impertinent!Spirited.Challenging.Alive.
Striving for more, he responded with a mocking inflection.“It occurred to you before this?You must think yourself so much smarter than I.”
“Oh, notsomuch smarter,” Fiona shot back with a toss of her head.Aylesbury was hard put not to grin with pure delight.
“But I am Aylesbury, my dear,” he drawled as if that said it all.
It did say enough to inspire a cheeky spark in her eyes as she finally,finallylooked at him fully for the first time in all the days since they had met again.If he’d known irritating her was all it would take to gain such a response from her, he wouldn’t have been so bloody polite to her all week.
She snapped her fingers.“Ah, yes, nobility!An excellent substitution for intelligence.”
He ignored her neat parry, expounding with mock hauteur, “And as an Aylesbury heir, I went to Cambridge.A-levels in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Latin.Do you speak Latin?”
She lifted an equally arrogant brow.“Francis agreed that it’s hard to imagine what part of my life would require me to speak Latin.”
“Admit it,” he teased.“I am better educated...”
“Education does not trump intelligence, only ignorance,” she pointed out.“You might be better educated.However, that doesn’t make you smarter.”
“I certainly didn’t teach me how to be as stubborn and unforgiving as you.I will allow that much.”He let the banter lie, as entertaining as it was, to readdress his original subject.“But I digress.You knew then?”
“That someone was trying to kidnap me?”she asked, then sighed heavily as if she were sorry to see their exchange end as well.The short train of her gown swished behind her as she paced the room, lifting or touching a knickknack here and there.“Yes.Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the first time something like this has happened, but I had never been the target, if you will, before.”
