Page 74 of A Scandal at Stonecliffe

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nathan drop the drinks he carried as he ran toward them. Panicked, Verity stamped on Stanhope’s foot with the heel of her slipper, wrenched her arm away and ran down the stairs. Stanhope came after her. There was a crash behind her, and Verity turned at the landing, glancing back. Stanhope was rising from the demolished potted palm and charging at Nathan.

No, no, no! Nathan couldn’t be involved in this. She started back up, then stopped. The worst thing she could do was make it clear that she and Nathan were close. Nathan could hold his own, and others would jump in to stop the brawl. The best thing she could do was get as far away from Nathan as fast as she could.

Verity turned and flew down the remaining steps. She heard rapid footsteps pursuing her, but she lifted her skirts and darted through the crowd and out the front door. Running across the street, she disappeared into Covent Garden.

She took a twisted route through the darkest of streets, and only when she was certain that she had lost anyone following her did she hail a hack and head back to her house. When she reached it, she saw her own carriage rolling away and Nathan banging at her door.

He whirled at the sound of her hansom. “Verity! Thank God.” He started toward her, but she was already running up to unlock the door.

Nathan followed her inside, saying, “I looked all around for you.”

“I wanted to lose him,” she explained, turning back to face him, and for the first time she got a good look at Nathan. His hair was in disarray, his clothes rumpled, and there was blood on his cheek. Her voice rose in alarm. “Nathan! What did you do?”

“I hit him. Threw him into that ugly potted palm, actually. Who was that fellow, anyway?”

“It was Lord Stanhope,” she flung at him. “Oh, Nathan, why did you do that?”

Nathan stared at her. “Because he was chasing you. Do you think I’d just stand around and let him grab you again?”

“You shouldn’t have.”

“For pity’s sake,” Nathan snapped, nettled. “I know you think you never need any help. But I’m not useless.”

“That’s not why—don’t you understand? That was Stanhope. He saw me, recognized me, can connect me to you! It won’t take him long to find out everything about Mrs. Billingham. Especially with Milsap on his side. I probably have a day—two at most.”

“Milsap? Who on earth is that? Verity, what is going on?”

Verity sighed. “He’s a Bow Street Runner that Jonathan hired to find out if I was really dead.” She still wasn’t ready to tell Nathan, to see the anger in his eyes when he found out she knew all this for weeks. But everything was unraveling. There was no point in hiding something for fear of it tearing them apart. That had already come to pass. “I’ve been checking on the Stanhope house here in London. I wanted to remain Mrs. Billingham, to stay with you, but I had to know if Jonathan had recognized me. A couple of days before we left for Scotland, I overheard him. I learned he was looking for me again.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Nathan’s look of hurt was worse than the anger Verity had been expecting. “We could have... I don’t know. Stayed in Scotland, bought Milsap off. Something.”

“I wasn’t positive about what I heard. Jonathan never said the name Verity. And I didn’t want it to be true. I clung to that possibility that it wasn’t about me. And so I didn’t tell you. I tried my best not to think about it. I just wanted to go on as if it had never happened.”

“So you didn’t hide it because you don’t trust me?” Nathan’s eyes searched hers.

“No.” Verity’s throat tightened. “I didn’t want to leave. But now I have to. Go to France or Germany or somewhere.”

“Leave?” Nathan’s eyebrows shot up and he took a step forward. “No, Verity. You killed his father in self-defense. To protect your sister.”

“Don’t be naive. He’s a lord. I am a nobody. They won’t take my word over his.”

“But I will stand up for you. I—”

“No, you won’t,” Verity said flatly. “You will tell them you scarcely knew me. Lady Lockwood and the others will back you up. You hit Stanhope because you saw only that he was accosting a woman whom you thought was a lady. You were fooled by me just as everyone else in Society was. You had no idea I was a fraud.”

“You can’t be serious. I’m not saying anything like that. You obviously don’t know me at all if you think I would.”

Verity let out a loud noise of frustration. “Nathan, be reasonable. For once in your life, don’t be honest and courageous. If he knows that you are with me, if you oppose him, he will go after you, too. Yes, you are a gentleman and you’re popular among the high and mighty, but you aren’t a lord.”

“What can he do to me?”

“Besides drag your name through the mud?”

“I don’t care about that.”

“We just spent the past month chasing leads around trying to protect your name!” Verity shot back. Why was he being so obtuse?

He waved her words away. “People know me. They respect me. They—” He stopped, gazing off into the distance, then said, “Marry me.”