Page 6 of A Symphony for the Earl

“Richard,” Valentina begged. “Such a scene…and everyone is watching. Can’t you stop it?”

“I most certainly will,” he answered and strode past the waiting hackney, who yelled something he didn’t stop to decipher.

Richard reached the center of the disturbance. “Hansen! You will cease arguing at once. And as for you, my good woman, you may—”

A tall, slender figure stepped around Hansen. She couldn’t have been much older than Valentina and wore a fashionable sage-green cloak, rich with sable trim. A matching fur muff dangled from one chocolate suede glove. Beneath the jaunty velvet toque on her head, hair black as a raven’s wing curled in a chignon at the nape of her neck. A few long tendrils had escaped, framing the young woman’s furious face.

A frisson of something—he was unsure exactly what—coursed through him. She was very fair, with a faint sprinkling of freckles across her straight nose and eyes of a startling sea green. He wouldn’t call her beautiful, but she was one of the most striking women Richard had ever seen.

“Why on earth are you shouting at my majordomo in the open street?”

“I am trying to explain to this…chailin…this horrid man, whoever he is, that I am a guest of the Merricks, but he refuses to let me enter.” The lilt in her voice was unmistakenly Irish.

“Good God!” Richard could not hide his shock. “You cannot be Miss Rafferty?”

“That I am,” she snapped. “And I have repeatedly demanded to speak with the Earl of Seldon. He is my guardian.”

“I am the Earl of Seldon.”

It was Miss Rafferty’s turn to look astonished. “But I supposed the earl to be much older.”

Richard tamped down a wave of irritation. Was his age a discussion topic once more, and in the middle of High Street?

“Surely you don’t expect my majordomo to allow an unknown visitor into my house without suitable references?” Richard asked in the iciest manner possible.

Instead of appearing cowed, the infernal woman lifted her chin haughtily. “And I suppose these are London ways, rudely denying entry to an expected guest?”

“Not another word, Miss Rafferty. We shall all go inside with no further discussion in public. Unless”—he lifted a brow—“this is how things are done in Dublin?”

Her fair cheeks reddened, but she appeared far from chastised.

Richard rounded on Hansen. “And you, fetch a footman and bring the luggage into the house. This minute, Hansen.”

The majordomo glared at Miss Rafferty and opened his mouth, then clamped it shut. He stiffly climbed the front stairs to the house.

His mother had disappeared, presumably hiding inside. He turned back to the disaster at his gate. “Miss Rafferty, in the house, if you please. Jerome, take the horses to the stable.”

To his amazement, neither Jerome nor Miss Rafferty took a step. The tiger coughed none too discreetly and wagged his head at the hackney driver waiting on the curb.

“Eh, now…’oo’s to pay me?” the burly figure demanded. Richard winced; the man sounded just as rough as he looked. Where in God’s name had she found him?

“I brung this ’ere young lady and her load o’ belongings all the way from the harbor with nary a pence. You, my fine gent, owe me some scratch.”

He jabbed a filthy finger at Richard, who noticed the small crowd of neighbors and passersby congregated across the street. Evidently, they were watching the disaster unfold in front of his home, both shocked and entertained, if he were to hazard a guess.

“You—’is Lordship, or ’ooever you be—”

Richard turned back to the driver “Are you addressing me?” he enquired in freezing tones. “If so, you may use the title the Earl of Seldon. What is it you are owed?”

“A crown,” the driver growled, holding out his hand.

“I spent all the money I have on the passage, Lord Seldon,” Miss Rafferty explained, not in the least embarrassed. “But my solicitor will transfer funds to your bank, I assure you.”

“May we not discuss finances on the street?” he replied, clenching his teeth. “Inside, if you please, Miss Rafferty. I will take care of your transportation.”

Richard heaved a sigh of relief as she turned to climb the brick stairs into the house and the onlookers began to dissipate. He reached into his pocket and handed the hackney an excess of coins.

After the hired carriage had rolled away and the trunks and various pieces of luggage were brought into the house, he followed to find his guest standing in the atrium surrounded by an astounding amount of baggage.