“Mr. Beck, you must stop. I will not accept any more of your gifts.”
“My dear Miss Parker,” he said fervently, his graying whiskers twitching. “I won’t stop until I’ve won your heart!” He reached for her hand, which she yanked away immediately.
Why wouldn’t helistento her? She despised having to be so cruel, but it seemed the only way. “That will never happen.”
“Oh, but it will!” He took a step toward her, and she immediately took one backward.
“It will not,” a masculine voice said from behind Norah.
Norah swallowed a gasp as Stuart’s arm wrapped around her waist. She looked up at him, but he had his eyes on Mr. Beck.
Mr. Beck glanced between them, appearing just as confused as Norah felt. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.
“I must reiterate my intended’s request for you to cease sending her gifts. It’s unseemly, Beck, don’t you agree?” Stuart’s voice was as smooth as honey.
Meanwhile, Norah stared at him. Hisintended? Her heart thumped so hard she wondered how the entire street didn’t hear it. He must have overheard her conversation with Mr. Beck. The older man would never stop pursuing her . . . but if she were engaged to married to another man . . .
Stuart was a genius. A geniusanda gallant knight, who’d come to her rescue.
Norah swallowed her surprise, letting a true expression of gratitude and admiration place a smile onto her face.
Mr. Beck inclined his head. “I apologize, Mr. Joliet. I didn’t know— I didn’t realize . . .” His face turned pink with embarrassment. “Miss Parker, I wish you’d told me.”
I told you to stop sending me gifts!Norah bit back her frustration and instead gave a dazzling smile to Stuart. “Well, it’s so very new and I . . . I simply didn’t think about it.”
“I wish you both the very best,” Mr. Beck said stiffly. His eyes lingered on Norah. She couldn’t figure out if he was wistful or suspicious, and she fought the urge to shift her weight from one foot to the other.
“My dear, you’re looking very pale. Let me escort you home.” Stuart’s arm tightened protectively around her waist, as if she needed his support to keep from fainting in the street.
Norah nodded, although she felt perfectly fine. Well, perfectly fine except for the fact that she was now acutely aware of Stuart’s arm around her and how that action had pressed her flush against his side.
Perhaps she wasn’t feeling so well at all, not with him this close.
“I bid you a good afternoon,” Mr. Beck said as Stuart wrapped his free hand around Norah’s arm and led her away.
He held her like that until they turned left on the next street, passing a few curious looks as people went to and from their homes. When they turned the corner, Stuart let her go.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
Norah paused beside the home on the corner, feeling strangely out of breath. She’d been so conscious of Stuart’s hand pressed against her waist and his side against hers that she felt now like a boat released from anchor. Finally, she nodded.
“Thank you for coming to my rescue,” she managed to say. Then she giggled, an impulsive act that seemed to rise from the churn of emotions deep inside. “He gave me cow! Acow!”
Stuart laughed too, even as he shook his head. “Ruthann regaled me with his earlier gifts. Perhaps he can find a nice widowed farmer lady to court now.”
Feeling much more herself now that Stuart was a couple of steps away, Norah straightened. “Thank you again. I fear we really will now be the topic of gossip—and that’s without me standing on my head in the middle of a church service.” Between Mr. Beck thinking they were engaged and the looks from more than one curious passerby as Stuart nearly carried her away down the street, gossip was almost certain.
Stuart smirked and held out his arm. When she took it and they began to walk, he said, “Let them talk. It was worthwhile to be freed from the ardent pursuit of Francis Beck, was it not?”
“Oh, certainly! But I worry more about you than myself. Won’t that . . . What if word comes back to . . . Well, if you’re courting anyone, I’d hate to see her be made upset.” It was quite possibly the most awkward thing Norah had ever said. She bit down hard on her lip to keep her cheeks from flaming, and then glanced up at him, far too curious than she ought to be to see his response.
He kept his gaze focused straight ahead, saying, “You needn’t worry. No idle chatter will ruin any plans of mine.”
Norah looked down to hide the smile that bloomed across her face. How Stuart didn’t have any serious prospects was baffling. She’d seen the way other girls had watched him at social events, and he hadn’t been shy when it came to conversation or dancing.
And yet here he was, whisking her away from Mr. Beck in an embrace that would send tongues wagging across town—and he didn’t seem to mind one bit.
What that meant, she didn’t know, and she didn’t dare think on it for too long.
