Dandy barked obligingly.
“Oh hush, you little traitor,” Addy chastised, frowning down at the small dog. “We’ve had this discussion before.”
If he weren’t so sick with worry over what was happening, he might have laughed at her antics. Addy Fox was ridiculous, and he loved that about her. In fact, he lovedeverythingabout her. And that was why he had dashed across England following her, and why he was presently standing at her hotel door with a pocket full of cheddar and sodden shoes.
Well, to be fair, he loved everything about her except for her running away from him without an explanation or even a goodbye. There was the troubling matter of her supposed betrothed, as well.
“We need to talk,” Lion told Addy firmly. “If you want me to announce our private affairs to everyone staying on this floor, I shall. But I would prefer not to do so.”
She sighed. “I don’t think we need to talk.”
“Addy, you ran away from me and boarded a train to London without so much as a farewell. I think we have a great deal to talk about.”
She stared at him, clearly waging a debate in her own head.
“Don’t marry Geoffrey Smith,” he said.
Her brow wrinkled. “His name is George, not Geoffrey, and I’m not marrying him.”
Relief washed over him. “Then marry me instead.”
“I’m not marrying you either, you…you…fortune hunting…curmudgeon!”
Her halting insults would have been amusing if not for two words.Fortune hunting.Suddenly, everything made sense.
Lion had believed Addy had run because he hadn’t proposed to her in the wake of their night together. When his sisters and aunt and uncle had unceremoniously arrived at Marchingham Hall, he had been admittedly thrown. Uncle Algernon and Aunt Helene had each had his ear, and Addy had tucked herself away in Lila’s room for hours upon end. He’d still been struggling with his own feelings, trying to muddle through emotions he’d never thought to feel. He’d thought he had time to propose to her in proper fashion on Christmas Eve.
When she had fled, he had thought he’d misread her, that he had tarried too long and she had grown upset with him. But now, he realized that she must have overheard that blasted uncomfortable conversation with Aunt Helene. His study door had been partially open, and he’d heard a creak.
What a fool he had been.
He wedged his foot deeper into the opening, leaning into her, tantalized by the faintest hint of violets and orris root. It had been only one day, and God how he had missed her.
Lion held her stare. “Let me in so that I may explain.”
“What is there to explain? Tell me, did you ever look at me and see just me, or did you look at me and see new carpets and a head gardener and the repairs for a leaky roof?” Fresh tears welled in her eyes as she finished, those verdant orbs turning impossibly greener.
Lion wedged his knee into the gap now. “Addy, when I look at you, I can assure you that carpets and repairs are furthest from my mind. All I see is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever beheld.”
Dandy barked and began pawing at his leg in excitement. He patted her head. He had missed the little scamp as well.
“You’re just saying that because you’ve been caught out,” Addy accused, frowning.
He was getting nowhere, still doing his damnedest to get inside the bloody room. Lion sighed. Over his shoulder, he heard the commotion of other guests venturing into the hall, no doubt to see what the fuss was about.
“We’re going to start a scandal if you don’t let me in,” he told her, keeping his voice low.
“I think we’ve already started a scandal,” Addy returned grimly, peering past him into the hall before huffing an irritated sigh. “Very well. You may as well come in. I have no wish for my reputation to be dragged through the mud because you insist upon having an audience with me.”
She stepped back so suddenly that Lion nearly lost his footing. He stumbled into the hotel room and closed the door at his back, hoping this wasn’t an omen for the dialogue that was about to take place.
Her aunt was eyeing him as if he were a rodent that had scampered across her foot. Dandy, however, had no such reservations. She sat at his feet, gazing up at him adoringly. Lion offered her a bit of pocket cheese as a reward for her adulation. If only Addy were so easily swayed.
“You will find that neither my niece nor I are influenced by cheese,” the elder Miss Fox observed acidly, as if she had read his mind.
He cleared his throat. “Madam, I would appreciate a word in private with your niece.”
“I think not,” Miss Fox said sharply.
