So big and solid. She’d always been envious of the fact that this man protected his family with everything he had at his disposal. There were times when he’d been overprotective, and especially when dealing with the only Deville sibling who was a woman and the youngest of the five children.
Dimity had been envious of Abby. She’d been jealous of the love and protection she received. Jealous that this man would take a bullet for any one of his siblings without a moment’s hesitation. Dimity’s brother hated her and had tried to sell her to someone to pay his debts. She’d taught him a lesson he wouldn’t forget soon.
“I don’t want to talk to you anymore. Just let me out, and you and your family will never see me again.”
“Abby won’t allow you to be absent from her life. You are her friend, and were she not holidaying in Scotland with her husband, she’d be here herself.”
Dimity looked out the window of the carriage. Watched the flashes of light as they passed lamps. Soon that would stop as the streets got narrower, dirtier, and more dangerous.
“Here, take this.”
In one large hand was a wad of notes. Dimity actually curled her hands into fists beneath the blanket to stop from taking them. That money would change her life.
“Take it.”
Pride was a dark and dangerous thing for Dimity. She couldn’t take it, because if she did then she would owe this man something, and that could never be allowed to happen, as she had no means to repay it.
She felt the carriage start to slow. The window told her she was close to Chadding Street. She moved to the door and had it open in seconds.
“Stop, you fool!”
Dimity ignored the earl’s roar and jumped, taking the blanket with her. She tried to keep running when she hit the ground. Instead, she fell, rolled, and regained her feet. In seconds she was off and running into the darkness.
Behind her she heard the thud of his feet, knew he’d be on her soon if she didn’t lose him in the shadows. Weaving left and right with his curses filling the night air, Dimity ducked down a narrow lane, then up another. She stopped only when she could no longer hear his voice or his footsteps. Only then did she double back.
Above her rose the slums that people called home. Narrow, dark, and damp, they housed families that had nowhere else to live. It was a desperate place that she’d been forced to find accommodation in when faced with sleeping on the streets.
Taking the narrow steps up, she stepped over piles of filth and around people who were homeless and came here to sleep on doorsteps and in alleys. Dimity had been here four weeks, and each one had been hell.
Taking the key from her pocket, she unlocked the door, and hurried inside the dark, dank room. Throwing the blanket she’d stolen from the Earl of Raine around her shoulders, Dimity hurried to light the fire she’d set earlier. The few meager pieces of wood threw out a small amount of heat, but it offered both comfort and light, as her candle supplies were precious.
She’d brought only what she could fit in her bag when he’d forced her from the house. Placing her things around the room had done little to create ambience, and in no way could it be termed homely.
A large woof had her going to the door. There stood the biggest dog she’d ever met.
“Hello, Walter.” Dimity clicked her fingers, and he trotted inside. His head was huge, and she thought perhaps his body would be if his ribs weren’t showing. Gray-haired, he always knew when she’d returned. From the first day she’d moved here, he’d spent every night with her. Who he belonged to, she had no idea, but now he seemed to have declared she was his owner.
“I have something for you.” Diving into her bodice, she came out with half a pork pie she’d stolen from the kitchens at the tavern. The dog licked his lips.
“We will share.” She gave him half, which the beast swallowed in one mouthful. Dimity ate hers in three bites.
The earl would be furious, but as they’d likely never meet again, he wouldn’t have a chance to roar at her. Ignoring the ache in her chest those thoughts gave her, she shrugged the blanket off and laid it on the floor.
“On you get, Walter. That will be much warmer than the cold floor, and we’ve discussed the fact you’re not sleeping on the bed. It took me ages to get my legs working again after the last time.”
Tomorrow she’d have to go out and find some other work now that the bloody Earl of Arrogance had made sure her last employment was terminated.
Pulling her father’s Bible from beneath the bed, she ran her fingers over the worn cover. It gave her comfort. She’d not opened it yet; the memories of him doing so were still too raw.
“I miss you so much, Father.”
Chapter Three
With each step Gabe took, his anger climbed. He found no sign of Dimity Brown. She’d leapt from his carriage as if it was stationary. He’d watched her fall and then roll and regain her feet. Was she injured? Where was she? The woman was impulsive and irrational!
He surged between rage and worry as he walked about this godforsaken place attempting to find her. The stench made him want to retch, and the men and women lurking in dark crevices posed a threat. He could look after himself, but what of Dimity? Surely walking about any time of day in such a dangerous place was a risk.
He, who had been trained to be agile and quick-witted, had let her leap from a moving carriage right before his eyes. Gabe’s only excuse was he hadn’t been thinking clearly. She often did that to him.
