“I asked you to wait upstairs.” His voice wasn’t quite as gentle as his touch. “And you forgot this.”
Nia twisted around and took the bag he’d held out. “You ordered me to wait upstairs but failed to mention I’d spend half my life waiting there.”
Jasper’s mouth twitched, and she nearly thought he was going to smile. But she must have imagined it, because his frown deepened and he looked away.
Exhaling a long breath, he ran a hand through his hair. “My apologies for the inconvenience, Nia, but when I tell you to do something, I only do so for your own good.”
“That’s what my father tells me.”
“I’m not like your father.” His gaze shifted to Stella and then back. “I was worried—"
“Oh! You needn’t have been!” Nia found her manners. “Miss Stella has been extremely helpful… showing me around and telling me all about her job. She works here, you know.”
Jasper made a choking sound and then winced. “I’m aware.” He then turned to the young woman who’d been so very helpful. “My thanks, Miss Stella, for looking after my… friend. But I’m afraid I’ll have to cut this little tour short as the two of us must be on our way.”
“Oh!” Nia was startled to realize that her heroic baron had had good cause to worry. Her father would have sent people looking for her by now, and the last thing in the world she wanted was to be caught.
But before she could so much as suggest she remain as an employee here on a trial or temporary basis, Jasper was tugging her away.
Urgently.
“So nice to meet you!” Nia managed with a wave.
Once they’d turned a corner, Nia frowned over at Jasper. “That was rather rude of you. Stella’s been sharing the most interesting things about her work here. Do you think I could—?”
“No.”
“But—”
“Absolutely not.”
Her “hero” was beginning to frustrate her again. One minute he was saving her life and the next he was bossing her about worse than her father.
Well, not worse than her father. But in an annoying, almost tolerable way.
“Just because I lack experience doesn’t mean I cannot learn. I rather think I’d enjoy it.” They’d reached the back exit, and when they stepped outside, they would have been in complete darkness if not for the few lanterns hanging inside a stable across the yard.
Jasper stopped and turned to face her. “What is it that you think Stella does to earn her wages?”
“Cleaning, cooking. She didn’t specify which. But she says your friend pays well, and that she feels safe there.” And feeling safe, Nia realized, was something she’d taken for granted for a very long time. “Your friend must be quite broadminded. Did you realize he provides educational opportunities for his employees?”
“She isn’t a cook,” Jasper said. “Nor is she a maid.” He squeezed the bridge of his nose with two fingers, frowning. “She is a courtesan.”
“But…?” Nia glanced backward. “Surely not.”
“This establishment is the Domus Emporium. Perhaps you have heard of it? It is a gentlemen’s club that provides services not available at White’s or Brooks.”
“A brothel?” She’d heard whispers of such a place—criticism, really. And from those comments, she would have expected it to have been rowdy, with naked ladies frolicking about while the gentlemen overindulged in drink, food, and… more extreme carnal vices.
"It is not a brothel. Brothels employ prostitutes. The Emporium is a home for courtesans. It serves a more exclusive clientele.”
“Then if that was the Domus Emporium, then that means your friend is—”
“The Duke of Malum.”
The Gazette occasionally ran stories about the duke—none of them complimentary. Her father had cursed the man for being an embarrassment to all of England and the aristocracy more than once.
She wished she’d paid more attention to his ramblings, but at the time, they hadn’t seemed important.
