“Perhaps Fanny went to the ladies’ room,” Lucy said. “I’ll check.” She spun on her heels. “And I don’t need a bodyguard for that.”
On the first level, a hallway led to offices, storage, what Eli suspected were withdrawing rooms, and ultimately the exit at the rear of the building. Rob and Eli watched Lucy enter a room set aside for ladies’ private use before the sound of a disturbance sent them running past it. Another hallway crossed their path just beyond the room Lucy had entered. Two or three people had gathered around the earl, who was pulling on a handle, rattling the door it belonged to.
Fanny’s voice, frantic with fear, rent the air, freezing Eli’s blood in his heart and speeding his steps. As he ran, he saw the earl glance back at them and put his shoulder to the door, ramming until it gave. A shriek followed the crash.
Eli shouldered past three men, one vaguely familiar, to get to the door, and stopped, one hand on each side of the doorframe, breath heaving while Fanny threw herself into the earl’s arms, sobbing. Rob came up behind, putting a staying hand on Eli’s shoulder. They peered into a dark, windowless storage closet of some sort.
“Is the lady well?” Rob demanded, his commanding officer voice on full display.
Grimsley straightened and removed his arms from the utterly inappropriate—and in Eli’s opinion, unnecessary—embrace, only to put one around her waist to support her. “Shaken up, I think,” Grimsley responded. “Let me find you a place to recover, Miss Hancock.”
“Come this way, my lord. The business office is a few steps away,” a portly little man, one of the men that had apparently come in response to her screams, said.
The earl led a trembling Fanny from the closet and down the hall. She glanced at Eli briefly and opened her mouth, but the earl moved her on before she could speak. Rob and Eli could only trail behind them to the office. When they reached the main hall, Lucy hurried up to them, shouldering her way through a crowd that began to gather. The three of them slipped into the office, and Eli closed the door behind them.
Soon the theater manager had Fanny in a chair with a glass of lemonade. “I can’t imagine what happened,” he fussed.
“Yes,” Rob said. “Do explain it to us, Grimsley.”
“It was entirely my fault. I thought I knew the way to the ladies’ retiring room. We took an incorrect turn and opened the wrong door,” the earl said. “Miss Hancock tripped somehow, and the door shut behind her and jammed. I couldn’t get it open. The darkness frightened her.” He knelt and took Fanny’s free hand. “I’m so sorry. Are you well?”
Fanny gazed at the earl with a wan smile. “It is a good thing you were able to break down the door quickly,” she said.
The lady and the hero of her dreams.Eli had never felt more useless in his life.
Fanny shook herself, put down her glass, and looked about the room. “I should be the one to apologize for making such a scene. It was nothing, really. I overreacted.”
“After what happened to you in Manchester, it’s understandable,” Lucy said, laying a hand on Fanny’s shoulder.
Fanny retrieved her fingers from the earl’s grasp and covered Lucy’s. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“We should get you home,” Eli said.
“The crowd will dissipate when the program resumes,” the fussy little manager said, his expression dubious as if he didn’t quite believe his own words. He turned to Rob, deciding he was the one in charge. “I, ah, my lo—” he began.
“Sir Robert Benson. Miss Hancock’s brother.” Rob’s clipped, no-nonsense words added to the man’s nervousness.
“I am so sorry for Miss Hancock’s unfortunate accident. We will see to that door. I guarantee it.” The theater official wrung his hands.
“See that you do!” Rob turned to Fanny, his voice softening. “I’ll have the carriage brought round to the rear.”
Eli thought for a moment she would argue with them and demand to finish the play she so clearly enjoyed, but she did not.
While they waited, Lucy urged sips of lemonade on Fanny. Fanny, for her part, expressed embarrassment until Eli thought his heart would break.
“It wasn’t your fault,” he told her. “The door was faulty.” How that could be he couldn’t quite imagine. It didn’t make sense.
“Mr. Benson is correct. Blame me, dear Miss Hancock,” the earl said, hand to heart, thoroughly irritating Eli.
Rob appeared sooner than they might have expected, to Eli’s intense relief. “The crowd is gone, Fanny. You’ll be fine.”
Fanny groaned. “There will be gossip. I can only pray the victim will be described as ‘unknown woman from the country’… At least it is unlikely to follow me to Ashmead.”
“Ashmead? A village? Is it as quaint as it sounds?” the earl asked.
“It is home,” Eli muttered, wishing he could wipe the earl’s self-satisfied smile right off his face.
Eli offered Fanny his arm before Grimsley could, but she turned to the earl when they exited to the hall. “Thank you for your rescue, my lord. I’m sorry I ruined the evening.”
