“Not exactly,” Emily said with a swift glance toward the ballroom. Lord Griffin was there, making his way through the crowd, still determined to catch her. She gave her friend a quick hug. “I am returning to Clearview.”
“But—”
“I don’t have time to explain.” Pulling away from Mary, Emily hurried out into the street. She could not delay any longer. Not if she was to avoid arguing with Lord Griffin over a matter that she refused to concede to. So she ran toward a parked hackney and ordered the driver to take her to the nearest coaching inn. Hopefully the coins in her reticule would be enough to pay for a ticket.
2
“Didshe tell you what happened?” Griffin asked Mary when he finally reached the front door, through which Emily had made her escape moments earlier. If a few startled guests would only have refrained from stepping into his path for a better look at the runaway lady, he would have stopped her by now.
“No.”
Griffin stared down at his sister-in-law. His nerves were tightly strung, his muscles tense not only because of the drama that had begun to unfold as soon as he and Miss Howard had been discovered but because of the kiss.
Christ, they’d scarcely gotten started – he’d only just managed to gauge the shape and feel of her lips when they’d been interrupted, but it was enough to compel him to chase her wherever she went. Because damn it all, he wanted more.
“You should not have let her leave.” His voice was clipped, hovering somewhere between anger and fear.
Mary met his gaze with defiance, informing him that she would not be put out by his tone. “She’s not a child, but a woman accustomed to living her life on her own terms. If you think for one second I might have been able to stop her, you’re wrong.” She straightened her spine, growing in height by at least half an inch. The edge of her mouth lifted and then she said, “But perhapsyoushould try?”
“I intend to do precisely that,” Griffin said, leaving without even bothering to collect his hat. He’d manage without it. Wouldn’t be the first time he’d done so. Right now, speed was more important than fashion. He had to find Miss Howard before she left London and…and what? Returned to the quiet life she enjoyed at Clearview?
A moment’s hesitation assailed him as doubt crept in. He’d kissed her because he’d needed to push away all the uncertainty, anger, and pain he’d felt when she’d mentioned his scar. He’d neededherto make him feel something else. So he’d surrendered to the temptation more easily than he should have only to find himself drugged by her sweet perfume. And then there had been her body, so soft and tempting and…
He shook his head and quickened his pace. If she was going to Clearview then so was he. For her protection, of course. Letting her travel alone would be ungentlemanly. And besides, he had things to say, things thathadto be said if he was going to avoid Caleb’s wrath and their mother’s censure. Even if proposing marriage did not fit well with his plans and the lady seemed reluctant to even consider such an outcome, he would do it. Because that was the honorable thing.
So he found a free hackney and asked the driver to take him to the nearest coaching inn. He’d search them all if he had to, but he wasn’t about to let Miss Howard spend the night in one alone while dressed in fine silk. She’d be a target for certain – the notion tightened his chest and quickened his pulse. If anything bad were to happen to her, he’d never forgive himself.
This thought increased when he failed to find her at the first inn they stopped at or at the second. It was now an hour since he’d quit the Camberly ball and… what if Emily had changed her mind? Perhaps she’d gone to her parents’ instead? Unsettled by his own increasing uncertainty, he decided to check one more inn and then set a course for the Howard residence. It was one o’clock in the morning, which meant there were still a few hours before the first carriage departed along the West Road. And if push came to shove, he’d collect his horse and ride to the first posting inn on the route and pray that he found her before any danger befell her.
But luck was on his side, it would seem, for when he strode into The Swan With Two Necks, he found her in the taproom, sitting at a table with a couple of rough looking fellows whose leering smiles said all Griffin needed to know. He strode forward, grabbed the nearest one by the back of his jacket collar, and hauled him out of his seat. The other man stood, fists clenched and ready to fight.
Griffin turned his scarred cheek toward him and sneered. “I suggest you take yourself and your friend away from this lady before I ruin your evening.”
“I don’t think so,” said the man whom Griffin had just released with a shove.
“It’s two against one,” said the second. “I think we can take a toff like you without too much trouble.”
“Does that mean you’re going to try?” Griffin asked. His body was already honing itself in preparation for the first blow.
“Damn right,” the first man snarled.
Griffin caught a flash of movement. He heard Miss Howard gasp. Leaning sideways, he moved swiftly out of the way so the fist that came flying toward him only struck air. Pulling his arm back, he strained every muscle and pushed his fist forward, hitting his opponent squarely in the jaw. Spit flew from the man’s mouth as he yelped and fell onto a bench, slumped over and seemingly unable to counterattack.
“Hey,” a broad-shouldered man with red hair yelled. “I won’t have you fighting in here. You’ll have to take that outside.”
Griffin answered with a glare, and the man, most likely the innkeeper, took a step back. “If you’d asked these scoundrels to leave when they started harassing the lady, it wouldn’t have come to this.”
“Watch out!”
Griffin spun back to face the first man as soon as Miss Howard warned him, allowing him to duck just in time. He caught the man’s arm and used his momentum to send him stumbling toward the exit. The innkeeper nodded toward the barkeep who came to remove the men from the taproom.
“Are you all right?” Griffin asked Miss Howard as soon as some order had been restored.
She nodded but refused to meet his gaze. “Yes. Thank you. I’m glad you arrived when you did. It was silly of me to come here like this, dressed for a ball, but I…I just wished to escape as fast as possible and…” She swallowed. “You can return to Camberly House now, I should think. The—”
“Absolutely out of the question.” Griffin gestured to the innkeeper and the man approached.
“My apologies, sir. It’s pretty busy tonight as you can see. I didn’t realize the young lady was being disturbed.”
