He did not intend for them to stay hidden here.
“We are at the Pool of London!”
Where August kept several of his brigs.
He intended for them to sail.
Scarlet’s hand fell away from her bodice. “Never said that!” Her flushed cheeks begged the contrary. “You hear me, you fancy bitch,” Scarlet railed, jerking the brush so hard it tore tears from Meghan’s eyes. “I didn’t tell you anything.”
Meghan spun around and snatched the brush from the other woman’s hand. Ignoring Scarlet’s outraged gasp, Meghan soared to her feet and brandished the item the maid had turned into a weapon.
“If you touch me once more, I swear I’ll make you rue the day you picked up a brush and not a knife.”
“That is enough,” thundered a man’s voice.
Scarlet shrieked loudly enough to drown out Meghan’s gasp.
Heart pounding, Meghan grabbed the only weapon available to her—her comb—and jammed it in his direction.
Mary Mother of Heaven and Poor Souls everywhere.
Thor had invaded Meghan’s rooms.
His nose was bent from both birth and break. His lips were scarred at both corners, painting the man in a perpetual frown.
Only one of them needed fear—for all that well-controlled anger of the towering man, some four inches taller than August’s six feet, was centered on Scarlet.
While the giant assessed the mere mortals before him, Scarlet cowered.
Meanspirited though Scarlet was, Meghan was not so petty as to withhold a modicum of pity.
She stepped between them.
“I take offense to your treatment of the lady. If you wish to retain employment, madam, I advise you make your apologies as well.”
His quiet authority cut like steel through silk.
Where was the logic in that? Why should this stranger care how Scarlet treated Meghan, when August—who had been a friend to her—thought nothing of hurting her?
Properly chastened, Scarlet fell into a deep curtsy.
“My apologies, miss. I did not mean no harm.”
The stranger weighed the worthiness of that apology.
“That is doubtful but sufficient. You may go.”
The flushed woman jumped and, with two more hurried curtsies, gathered the sides of her skirt and fled for the door.
The moment he stepped aside, Scarlet bolted past him.
“So much for the same courtesy you showed her,” he said. “Forgive my intrusion. I heard raised voices and decided I did not like what I heard.”
“And so you decided to simply come in?” she asked incredulously.
He paused.
He seemed to consider that a moment.
