Florence touched his fingers briefly, almost as if she was reassuring him.
“When we nearly lost Liberty, I wondered how I would cope,” Edward said.
The solemn words had Toby’s blood running cold.Liberty had nearly died?
“When did she nearly die?” he forced out.
“Just before she was to enter society, she had an accident and fell off her horse,” Edward said.
She could have broken her neck and he would never have known.
He was about to ask another question when the man Liberty was playing against let out a roar as he rose to his feet. “You should not have been able to beat me!”
“Look after Florence, Edward,” Toby said. He then climbed the rope that penned the chess opponents in and was standing beside the man before Liberty could get out of her chair.
“Problem?” he said with a calm he was not feeling.Liberty had nearly died.He couldn’t shake that thought from his head.
“She should not have beaten me!” The man spoke in a thick accent that Toby thought could have been Russian.
“Because I am a woman, therefore I cannot beat you?” Liberty said, in a tone that boded trouble for the man as she regained her feet.
“She—”
“That’s Lady Liberty to you, and be warned,” Toby said, eyeing the man. “If you say anything further which does not include congratulations, then I will take that as an insult to her.”
“I am quite capable of handling this,” Liberty fumed.
The man glared at her, then just when Toby thought he’d have to teach him a lesson in manners, he stormed away.
Liberty rounded on Toby. “Why are you here? You should not have stepped in. What if someone notices?” Her eyes were shooting left and right.
“I don’t care if someone sees. He should not have spoken to you that way, my lady,” Toby snapped.
“He stepped in because that man was threatening you, Liberty. You should thank Lord Corbyn,” Edward said, arriving with Florence, who was now holding his hand, and Barnaby.
Her teeth snapped together, and then her eyes fell to the child.
“Why are you holding a child’s hand, and who does that dog belong to?”
“She is my ward, and lives with me.” Toby smiled at Florence reassuringly. “Florence, this is Lady Liberty, and she is Edward’s sister. That is Barnaby.” He pointed at the dog.
“You have a ward?” He could see the shock on her face.
“Come this way if you please, Lady Liberty, and I will introduce you to your next opponent,” a man with a spectacular moustache said to Liberty.
He could see she had many questions, but they would wait. Now she had another man to beat. This one was older, with thick gray hair and a smile, which thankfully he directed at her.
Toby, Florence, and Edward walked back to where they’d been watching, but the crowd had grown and Florence could not see over the heads. Bending, he asked, “Would you like me to lift you into my arms so you can see?”
She nodded.
It felt awkward, but he managed it. Lifting her high, Toby held her against his chest. When her little arms looped around his neck, the lump in his throat nearly choked him. Barnaby once again settled on his foot.
Edward then held out a twist of paper. Florence took a lemon drop, as did Toby.
“What really happened between you and my sister all those years ago?” Edward said as they watched the man make his first move. “I asked her, but she refused to tell me anything other than you had grown apart.”
Clearly Liberty’s brother had the same forthright nature she’d once had.
