“You can try,” Ambrose said calmly.
“I’m coming back, and you better be here, Ruby!” Dill roared.
Ambrose heard Ruby’s whimper and Tilly’s assurance he would not get near her again. He was going to make sure that never happened.
“Outside now, and there will be plenty who’ll watch as I beat you to a bloody mess,” Dill said with a smirk on his face. Clearly, like Tilly, he believed he’d win. “They’re my people, not toffs like you.”
After these words, the man walked out the door.
“You need to pack all of Ruby’s things, Tilly, and be ready to leave the minute the fight is over. If something should stop me from helping you, get in a hackney and go,” Ambrose said.
“No!”
He shut the door on Tilly’s cry. Dill had disappeared, but Ambrose caught up to him, and soon they were in the small lane below.
“He thinks he can take my woman,” Dill was saying loudly to the people milling about. “I’m going to show him otherwise.”
Ambrose looked around as a circle formed. He was alone in a neighborhood where most of the inhabitants likely loathed the aristocracy. He needed to keep his wits about him and use all the skills Charles and Bram had taught him.His shoulder still ached from last night, but that would not stop him fighting.
Dill raised his fists and started circling Ambrose.
“Teach him some manners, my lord!”
Perhaps not everyone was in Dill’s corner.
“Make him hurt, Dill, then we can steal everything he’s got on him!”
But most were.
A fist swung his way, and Ambrose struck out with his leg just as it connected with his jaw, making him see stars. His kick landed, and Dill stumbled back with a loud “Oomph.”
The noise was deafening now as people cheered them on.
“Keep your fists up, Ambrose!”
Of course she’d not obeyed him. Circling, he saw Tilly standing between a young boy and old woman. Pale and scared, she looked close to tears. He looked around for Ruby and found her behind Tilly, leaning against a wall with Barnaby at her side.
Tearing his gaze away, he focused on the angry man charging at him and hoped that this was not the place where he met his end because he had things he wanted to do with his life.
Shooting Tilly a last look, he had a sudden urge to make her part of those plans.
CHAPTER 15
She felt ill. Her stomach was clenched along with her fists, and Tilly was sure this morning’s meal was about to end up on the street before her.
Dear Lord, Ambrose was fighting, and it was all her fault. He was protecting Ruby because he was a gentleman, which she’d always known because she’d seen the way he looked after his sisters, but often refused to acknowledge. The thought of anyone hurting him, of him bloodied and beaten at the hands of this bullish man, had her wanting to cry.
“What do we have here?”
The words were spoken in a cultured voice and had Tilly looking over the crowds. Three men stood there. Lord Seddon, Lord Sinclair, and his brother, Mr. Sinclair.
“Excuse me, yes, make way. Thank you.” Mr. Sinclair was the first to reach her.
“Well now, this is a surprise, Miss Wilson, and after our lovely dance at the Holton Ball just a week ago too.”
“M-Mr. Sinclair,” she said, attempting a curtsy, which was not easy, as people pressed in on them from all sides.
“No curtsy is required, I assure you. My brother may be apompous lord with expectations that everyone should curry his favor, but he can go without today.”
