“Then don’t have them in the middle of my workshop.”
She was right. He knew she was, but damn it, everything was coming to a head right now. He needed to stay focused on marrying into theton.Once he did that, he would be in a better position to steer titled women to her shop, rich men to his brother’s gaming hell, and a better class of people to the boxing club.
Meanwhile, his aunt dropped her hands on her hips as she stared at him. “Who is she to you?”
“Who?”
She clucked her tongue. If he were younger, she would have flicked his lips with her hard fingernails. “You haven’t the time to play stupid. The redhead. Who is she to you?”
He kept his eyes averted. “No one. A girl I used to gain entry into theton.”
“And I’m the Queen of England.”
“Stop pestering me!” Aunt Judy was one of a few people in the world who dared challenge him, but even that privilege had its limits. Apparently, she didn’t realize how close she was to being cut from his life as an interfering old biddy.
“I’ll stop when you stay out of my shop,” she said with a snort.
“I’m the reason you have a shop.”
“And you’ve been amply repaid for that.”
“Have I? I watch your books so you don’t overdraft, my name keeps out the thieves, and I send you customers.”
“Since when? You’ve not been to see my books in years, the thieves stay out because I have good locks and I live right here. As for customers, I’ve had three cancel their orders this week. Because of you. So tell me another tale about how you’re the reason I’m in business.”
He wanted to argue, but she was right. He’d watched her closely when she’d started the business, but over the years, he’d wanted to make sure she could survive when he was busy. It had been a long time—more than a decade—since she’d made any mistakes. And yet he still treated her as if she’d just opened her doors.
He grunted. “Fine. Hire your new apprentices.”
“I already have, thank ye kindly. Now tell me about the girls downstairs. Tell me why they have you beating Sammy Watts in the middle of Hyde Park?”
News traveled fast. And if Aunt Judy knew, then thetonwould already be talking about it. Damnation. He should be out there mitigating the problem, not here arguing with her. “Sammy lied to me. I had to make an answer.”
“That doesn’t sound like Sammy. Nor you, for that matter. You’re a great deal quieter about your punishments than a bloodbath in the middle of Hyde Park.”
“It wasn’t a bloodbath.”
“Tell that to the man with his leg cut in half.”
Reuben rocked back on his heel. “Did he die?”
“They took him somewhere to get stitched up. Missy heard it from her sister who was there. Said all them Scots were screaming for the magistrate.”
Great. Just bloody great.
“How are the ladies faring?”
“The bloody one’s still shaking. Not been in many fights, that one, but she’s getting ’erself together. The other one is thinking. She’s the one in trouble, isn’t she?”
He nodded.
“And you had to defend her. Against Sammy. Why?”
He didn’t know. But the sight of Iseabail trapped against Sammy still set his blood to boiling. His hands were clenched into fists at the memory. She’d have bruises from his grip. There’d been terror in her eyes. Terror when she was the coolest cucumber he’d ever met.
“Ach, look at you,” she growled. “Yer the smartest of my kin, and you’re still as dumb as a block o’ wood. You fancy her, you idiot.”
He snorted. “I respect her. She’s smart, and she can fight.”
