He pulled back, holding me at arm’s length. “I saw you leaving the house this morning from my bedchamber window, but by the time I was dressed and running out the door, you had disappeared. I asked the first maid I found if she knew where you had gone, and thankfully she said you had asked her about the Adelphi Theatre and whether this was a safe neighborhood. She gave me directions, and I set out on foot as fast as I could.”
“Did you run all the way here?” I was half teasing, but when I saw how serious he was, I sobered. “I’m sorry for scaring you, Alec.”
“What in the world are you doing leaving the house by yourself?” He crossed his arms. “You should know how dangerous it is to walk around London alone.”
“I lived in Five Points. I think I can manage a respectable part of London in the light of day.”
“You never looked like that in Five Points.” He indicated my ensemble. “You’re almost inviting someone to attack you or pickpocket you at the least.”
“You have no idea what I survived in Five Points.” My voice choked as a memory flashed back of being cornered by a strange man in a dark alley. I’d fought and gotten away, but the thought of it had haunted me for years.
“You’re right. I don’t know what happened to you before I met you.” He swallowed and shook his head. “I wish I had met you much sooner and helped you get out of there. But you’re out now and it’s my job to protect you until—” He paused.
“Until what?”
“Until it’s another man’s job.”
We stared at one another for a moment and then he glanced at the theater. “Why did you come here?”
I licked my dry lips, not sure how much I wanted to tell him. He’d already seen the worst parts of me, why not tell him the rest? “My mother used to be an actress here.”
He studied me, frowning. “Is she still here?”
“No.” I played with the fingers of my glove. “The man at the stage door remembered her but said she hasn’t been here for fifteen or twenty years. The last he heard, she—she started a brothel in Soho.”
“Oh.”
The look of surprise and shock on his face was too much. I turned away from him and started walking back toward Trafalgar Square, tears burning my eyes. I hated the reminder of who I really was, and seeing his response only made it worse.
Alec was suddenly at my side, slipping his fingers through mine as he held my hand. “I’m sorry, Keira.”
I wiped my cheek with my free hand and couldn’t look at him. “I know you think less of me—”
“I could never think less of you.” He pulled me to a stop. “Don’t you understand?” He gently turned me to face him. “There is no one I think more highly of than you. Nothing in your past could change how I feel about you, especially nothing that you had no control over.” He lifted his hand and wiped a stray tear on my cheek with the back of his finger, swallowing his emotions. “I’m—I—” He paused and shook his head. “I only want the very best for you.”
My skin tingled where his finger had trailed, and longing swept through me. That one kiss on Christmas had set a fire in my heart that could not be quenched by anyone other than Alec—yet I forced myself to not let thoughts of him continue.
People passed by, staring at us as we faced one another in the street.
“The best thing for me would be finding my mother,” I said, forcing my thoughts back to something I could control. “I have to talk to her, to understand who I am and where I came from.”
“I am not taking you to a brothel, Keira. We don’t even know which brothel she might own.”
“How can we find out?”
He let out a sigh. “Somerset House is not far from here, perhaps a five-minute walk down the Strand. I went there last time I was in London on business. It’s a general register office for the City of London and they might have information about your mother and her whereabouts.”
“Will you take me?”
Alec smiled. “I have a feeling if I say no, you will find a way to get there on your own.”
I returned his smile.
“Come.” He continued to hold my hand as we began walking farther from Buckingham Gate. “We need to be mindful of the time. Aunt Maude would never forgive me if I didn’t have you back before the Duke of Severton came to call.”
“I do not anticipate that the duke will call.”
“He’ll call. I saw the way he was looking at you last night.”
