“Without escort?” Straightening his posture, he flexed his fingers and started moving toward her once more. He didn’t stop until he was just a handbreadth away, and it took every ounce of self-control Amelia possessed not to flee from his angry advance. “What the bloody hell were you thinking?”
The force of his voice struck her like blow. It tore through her insides, shredding her composure in a way that made her feel small and vulnerable. Never in her life, not even when she and her siblings had faced starvation, had anyone made her feel quite so wretched. And she hated him for it in a way that sent blood pumping through her veins at an alarming speed. It heated her insides to boiling point until there was nothing to do but release her anger just as he had. “Don’t yell at me!”
His eyes flashed but he didn’t retreat. “I suppose I should give you a prize instead? For excellence in devious behavior?”
“How dare you?”
Towering over her, he leaned in closer. “I dare because I am in the right. You, however, are a schemer, and if there’s one thing I cannot abide, that is it.”
“What a coincidence since me taste fer pompous men is equally lacking.”Oh bother!He’d riled her so much she’d lost her cultured tongue.
“You insult me even though you are the one who lied about your whereabouts and then proceeded to traipse around London without a chaperone dressed in whatever that is?” He made a wild gesture with his hands. “Only to come to this godforsaken place which, by the way, happens to be located right next to one of London’s most dangerous neighborhoods.”
Well... when he put it like that, she supposed he might have a little reason to be upset. Still, his tone of voice was not to her liking. Nor was the way he was looking at her, as if she’d just murdered someone and he’d found her standing over the corpse with a bloody knife in her hand.
“What business did you have with Mr. Gorrell?”
He asked the question more calmly than he had the previous ones, but rather than make her wary, it prompted her to think of the whole situation with greater awareness.
“Were you spying on me?” She hadn’t had time to think about how he’d arrived here yet because of how shocked she’d been.
The anger that had followed had been an equally large distraction. But now? What she felt was... well, she wasn’t really sure what it was, to be exact. Of course she understood his outburst, but she also resented him for not giving her a chance to explain. And to think he’d been following her, watching and waiting without bothering to make his presence known, just so he could have this moment in which to catch her in the wrong, made her start to wonder about what she’d ever seen in him in the first place.
“I prefer to think of it as keeping an eye on you, Lady Amelia.”
“So that would be a yes.”
A vein began to tick at the corner of his right eye while air pushed itself in and out of his nose with each heavy breath. Turning away, he thrust his hands through his hair, which was darker inside the dimly lit house, before circling around to face her once more.
“Do not try to deflect.” When she raised her eyebrows, he muttered a curse. “I promised your brother that I would protect you. Figuring out what you might be up to seemed like the right approach. The only approach. Because what if something had happened to you during this little outing of yours? What if it hadn’t been me who’d walked through the door and discovered you here on your own, but a ruthless cutthroat instead?”
Amelia’s confidence wavered once more as he came up behind her to quietly murmur, “Your plank of wood and your fists would have been just as useless on such an individual as they were on me.”
Shuddering, she closed her eyes against the grim reality of which he spoke. “I should have locked the door after Mr. Gorrell left.”
His breath seemed to cease. And then, “You never should have come here in the first place.” Remaining at her back, he stood like a solid threat against all of her hopes and aspirations. “You should have gone to Dorset House for tea. And you should not have lied.”
“I’m sorry,” she repeated. She’d regretted the lie from the very beginning, but had found it necessary.
“Because what if...”
His breath vibrated against the side of her neck, as if speaking had become more difficult. Holding herself very still, Amelia tamped down the strange displeasure she felt at his nearness. It was so apart from how warm it had been just yesterday when they’d danced.
“What if I’d had to inform your brother that you’d been hurt?” A chill curled around her spine as he let those words sink in. “The risk was there, Lady Amelia, by your own design.”
Gasping, she stepped forward, away from him, and took a deep breath before letting herself address him. “I am not a helpless female.” Balling her hands into fists by her sides, she turned to stare at him, waiting for him to react.
“No. You are far worse than that,” he said, surprising her with his comment. “You are the sort of woman who thinks herself immune to danger. After all, you used to roam about St. Giles without incident, so you think you can go on doing so—or at the very least thwart your attackers by some ingenious means that won’t leave you beaten or violated.”
The harsh words struck her like a whiplash licking at her chest. Still, she refused to cower. “I see your point,” she said with a calmness she’d thought had long since deserted her. “But now it is time for you to see mine.”
“By all means. Convince me that coming here as you did was not the most reckless thing in the world.”
Steeling herself, she met his gaze. “It seemed like the most appropriate place for me to meet with Mr. Gorrell.”
“And why is that?” he asked with a sigh of exasperation while raising his eyes to the ceiling.
“Because it made it easier for us to discuss this building.” She drew a deep breath and then added, “I am in the process of purchasing it from Mr. Gorrell.”
