A wet nose nudged his hand. He looked down into anxious brown eyes. “You go tell her,” he said to the dog. “She won’t appreciate it from me. She’s labeled me a bounder.”
His canine companion didn’t act mollified.
Nor was Kit’s conscience.
God in His Heaven.He marched to the hut and retrieved his hat. It had been with him from almost the beginning of his journey. Since donning this hat, Kit had learned some very hard lessons. The hat seemed sometimes to be the only thing holding him together.
And that is when he realized what it was about Elise that had captured his attention—well, his attentionbeyondthose startlingly beautiful eyes.
She was angry.
Kit recognized it because that same anger burned bright and deep within him. He hadn’t even known it had existed until Kate had rejected his love and chosen his uncle instead. Then, that anger had exploded. After all, dukes weren’t supposed to come in second best.
And if they did, what did it say about them?
That question still haunted Kit. He’d made a muck of everything... betrayed everyone who had cared for him. He didn’t even know if he could return to his former life, not without appearing a damn fool.
Whether Elise knew it or not, she was traveling the same road. He recognized the tightness in her and that fierce fury that was always ready to erupt.
He didn’t know her story. But he felt her confusion.
Suddenly, he understood. His task was to protect her until she could take care of herself. And the first order of business was to point out to her that she wasphysicallygoing in the wrong direction.
“Come, dog.”
He set off after Elise.
***
Her Gram and aunt Tweedie had agreed that Elise was the most obstinate of the sisters. Many had believed Dara was the one who had to have her way in every matter. Or Gwendolyn, who always seemed to do exactly as she wished whether her sisters supported her or not.
But Gram and Tweedie were right. Once Elise set her mind to a task, there was no stopping her.
Right now, she was using her stubbornness to keep going.
She had paid her fare to the next posting inn. The Mail should honor it. All she had to do was reach the road and wave down the next coach.Perhaps she could still make Liverpool before tomorrow evening. Perhaps she could pay her way onto a boat and sleep there for the night. After a dream of spiders, she wanted to focus on outcomes that gave her hope. Elise could thrive on hope—
Footsteps behind her interrupted her thoughts.
Hewas coming.
Of course he was. The man was a sticky burr.
He was also guilty of that trait Elise had seen in every male of her acquaintance from the village oaf to a noble lord—overconfidence. They naturally believed themselves to be superior beings whose commands should be instantly obeyed. They couldn’t stand for anyone, especially a woman, to take action for herself.
She and Lady Whitby had discussed the matter thoroughly. Lady Whitby ran a political salon that was a favorite of London’s governing set. She was as independent-minded as Elise.
The laws of England were woefully unfair to women. Why, the whole reason she and her sisters had been forced to venture to London to find husbands was because the law had handed their ancestral home, the home oftheirchildhoods, to a cousinwho had never, ever lived there.And the reasoning—he wasmale.
Every time Elise thought on it, she became incensed. Richard didn’t deserve Wiltham. It wasn’t a part of his blood the way it was hers.
And now she would have to throw herself onRichard’s mercy to live in the only true home she’d ever known. So, so unfair.
This march through the forest in wet shoes and with damp skirts did nothing to calm her outrage. She was rubbing a blister on the side of her foot. Maybe more than one blister.
She stepped over a group of tree limbs the storm had knocked down. Her cloak became entangled in them. She would have fallen if not for a gloved hand reaching out to steady her—
Elise spun on him, the branches forming a sort of cage around her legs.“Will you leave me alone?”
