Lucy hesitated, and he thought she might turn and flee his presence. Would he blame her? Hardly. Neither his visage nor his disposition had improved much over these last many months, but at least he could try to act the gentleman. He offered her a smile. Lucy let go of the door handle and entered the room. She slid gracefully into the chair and nodded.
Glad to be able to sit down, he drank in his fill of her beauty, which he had been denied for almost a whole year. Her gaze scanned over him as well. He ignored the urge to run a hand over his hair, which he knew was a long, wild mess these days. And how long had it been since he had shaved?
A footman poured Lucy tea. “Thank you, Timothy.” She gave the man a smile, but it faded as she turned her piercing blue eyes back to Hart. “You have been back in town for a week.” Her statement flatly laid out her disappointment.
“I did not think you or Trudy would want to see me.”
She pressed her lips together into a thin line as though she were keeping herself from replying.
Then she sighed. “Trudy would love to see you. It’s very bad form to not have called on her immediately, considering your long absence from our lives.”
The reprimand stung, partially because he knew she was right. He should have gone to see his aunt. And partially because she quite deliberately did not include herself as someone who wanted to see him. He regretted that he’d hurt her that day when she had told him of her tendre for him, but it had been for the best. She was getting married and moving on with her life as she should. Severing her schoolgirl attachment to him had been the right thing for her future.
“I apologize. I will go see her. I promise.”
Lucy nodded. She studied him over the rim of her teacup. “Why are you in town, Hart?”
He thought to dissemble, but as she narrowed her eyes, he decided against it. He cleared his throat. “I have found a new lead to what caused my father and brother’s deaths. I’m here to follow the thread.”
“Are these the same people that tried to kill you?”
He nodded. “I believe it is all connected.”
Lucy leaned forward, her hands clasped together tightly on the table. “Then you must give the information over to an investigator. Someone whose job it is to catch criminals.”
“No, this must be investigated delicately.”
“But, Hart, we are speaking of criminals. You must think of your own safety. You have the ability to hire someone to handle this. All the resources that are at your disposal—”
“This is personal,” he bit out.
“I see that nothing has changed. You still have no use for other’s opinions.” She shook her head. “Clearly, you mean to do some personal damage. Some sort of revenge.”
He took a sip of tea and tried to compose his expression. None of this had to do with her. “I am simply going to follow the lead and ascertain if it’s true.” He gestured to the newspaper in front of him. “I read that felicitations are in order.”
She sighed, and her lips thinned into a slash of frustration. “That is why I am here. That piece of gossip is a lie. I need your help.”
“What do you mean? A lie?”
“Fitzwilliam doesn’t know how to take no for an answer,” she muttered.
Hart leaned forward. “Lucy, tell me what happened.”
“Last week, he assaulted me at the Jackson’s ball. I was stupid and took some air in the garden. He came up behind me and grabbed me. He made it plain that he wanted to be caught in a compromising position with me so that I would have to accept his proposal.”
Bastard!Hart clamped his lips together. “He had already asked for your hand?”
She nodded. “And I had already turned him down. Well, I don’t like being coerced, so I used my defensive moves and hurt him so he would let go. Then I hurried straight back to Aunt Trudy.”
He couldn’t stop his eyebrows from raising in surprise. “What defensive moves?”
“Father taught me several moves that can be accomplished in skirts. My mother, too. He wanted to make sure that we could defend ourselves from drunk sailors in port when he wasn’t at home to protect us.” Her lips turned up in a wicked smile. “Turns out they work on overzealous lords as well.”
Hart leaned back in his chair. “I approve. And I would very much like to see these moves of yours someday. But how would this incident lead to your engagement?”
She huffed. “Trudy warned me I had stepped too hard on his manly pride. He sent that tidbit to the paper without ever speaking with Trudy or me. Perhaps he thought I would be too embarrassed to set the record straight? The trouble is, I don’t think there is anything I can say to make him stop harassing me. This is why I am here. I need your ducal clout. Can you please make him go away?”
“Certainly. I’m appalled at his tactics. Do you want me to shoot him?”
