“I’m absolutely sure. You’ll need your bed all to yourself tonight so you can sleep off everything you drank. Besides, I need to get up early to work tomorrow.”
Leopold’s eyes struggled to focus on me. His smile wavered, then returned in a sloppy, unpleasant way. He placed his hand on my knee and fumbled clumsily at the fabric of my dress as he tried to slide his hand higher up my leg.
“Isabella,” he said, as though he were explaining something very obvious, “I’m seducing you. You know that, right?”
I stared at him in disbelief. There were few things farther from seduction.
“I’ll give you two seconds to get your hand off my thigh, or I’ll break every one of your fingers,” I told him through clenched teeth.
Leopold grinned as though I had made the funniest joke in the world. “Don’t be like that, now. Don’t you want to have some fun? This is my first visit to England, after all. You should make sure I enjoy my stay.”
“You will enjoy your stay far more if you don’t have to leave in a coffin,” I said icily.
“Oh, come on now,” he wheedled. “I know how to show a girl a good time.”
I stood so quickly that my chair scraped against the floor. “Show a different girl. I’m leaving.”
I walked out of the ballroom and into the empty corridor beyond. The air there was cooler, and the sound of the musicfaded behind me, though my anger still pounded hot beneath my skin. I had gone partway down the hall before I heard Leopold following.
His footsteps were uneven. He staggered a little as he came down the corridor, one hand dragging briefly along the wall to steady himself.
“Want to find a more private area for us, do you?” he called, his voice too loud in the quiet hall. “I get it, I get it. I’d like that too.”
I stopped and turned. He kept coming toward me with that awful smile on his face, as if every objection I made was simply part of a game he expected to win.
I stepped in close to him, ignoring the strain I was putting on my gown, which already felt ready to tear. Any pretense of flirting or sweetness was gone now. “You’re not getting the message. Leave me alone, or you’re going to regret it.”
Leopold’s expression hardened. His false charm slipped, and irritation showed through the drunken haze in his eyes. “I could have you arrested, you know. You’re just a servant. I’m the best you’ll ever get.”
Then he lurched toward me and tried to grab.
Well, Ihadgiven him fair warning.
I slammed the heel of my hand beneath his chin. His head snapped back, and before he could recover, I grabbed the front of his shirt and hauled him forward again. He stumbled toward me, off balance and too drunk to protect himself properly. I drove my knee sharply into his stomach, then brought it up again to slam into his nose.
There was an ugly cracking sound.
Leopold cried out, and blood immediately poured from both his nostrils. At the same moment, I heard my dress rip loudly along one seam, but I didn’t care. The gown could be mended. Leopold needed a lesson and I was going to give it to him.
The poor fool offered almost no resistance. Whether he was too drunk, too stunned, or simply too unaccustomed to being told no, I didn’t know, nor did I care. While he was still bent forward, clutching at his face, I brought my elbow down hard against the back of his neck.
He collapsed onto the floor with a heavyoof.
I gave him a swift kick to the ribs with my ridiculous pointed shoe, then daintily gathered my torn skirt and stepped over his body. As I passed, I placed my foot directly on his fingers and pressed down. Leopold let out a high-pitched yelp of pain, then curled on the floor, moaning and groaning.
I looked down at him with all the sweetness I could muster. “Have a good evening, my lord.”
BARON
Long past midnight, I was still wide awake, reading through reports by the light of a low-burning candle and trying very hard not to think about Laurel and what she and Leopold might be doing. Unfortunately, the harder I tried not to think about it, the more determined my mind became to punish me with every possible image of Laurel smiling at him, leaning close to him, and letting him sweet talk his way into all sorts of things I would kill him for. I had left the dance early because I couldn’t bear to watch them any longer, especially when Laurel had seemingly made a point of testing my limits, knowing perfectly well I had to pretend she meant nothing to me. My own companion had seemed disappointed by the evening, but I didn’t care. She could tell her friends that a tournament champion had given her a rose. Wasn’t that what all she had wanted in the first place?
A sharp knock sounded at my door.
“Come in,” I called, wondering who would be coming to call at such a late hour.
The Duke of Austria entered first, his face flushed with outrage, and his disgusting son stumbled in behind him. “We need to report an attack!” the duke said.
I looked past the older Leopold to his son, and for the first time that night, my mood improved.
