Page 74 of The Beauty and the Boxer
“Step back!” he shouted, his voice lost inthe crowd.
The other boxer, a bloke named Meacham, sidestepped Fredrick’s attack and gave him a double shot in the ribs.The crowd cheered loudly as Jack scowled, sucking in a breaththrough his teeth. He knew the pain of that particular shot.
“Move you bloody feet!” he yelled asFredrick swooped forward and to the left, narrowly avoiding a righthook from Meacham.
“Jack Archer?” A voice shouted through thecrowd. Believing he was hearing things, he ignored it. Only for itto sound again, this time closer. “Jack Archer!”
Turning around, Jack saw a young, vaguelyfamiliar woman, waving to get his attention. She wore a hoodedcloak and was trying to squeeze between a crowd of men to get tohim. A dangerous position for a woman of substance, he noted,guessing instantly that she wasn’t one of LaMont’s working girls.Luckily for her, those around her seemed more preoccupied with thefight. Still, Jack knew men needed little, if any push to shifttheir attentions to a pretty young woman, unintentionally rubbingup against them as she tried to make her way through the crowd.
Bloody idiot. He jumped down off thebench. Pushing and shoving his way through the cheering bodies, hereached the young woman within moments, wrapping his hand aroundher wrist as he pulled her towards the back of the room, where lesspeople were. He dragged her towards the wall and sidestepped adrunk man, who was swinging his arms about like a lunatic. Pushingher slightly against the wall, he bent down and yelled in herear.
“Who are you?”
“Miss Beatrice Taylor!” she said loudly.“Are you Mr. Jack Archer?”
He glared at her.
“Yes,” he answered, confused as to whyMeredith’s sister should be in the back of a gentleman’s club.“What do you want?”
“I was hoping to speak to you.” She glancedaround. “In private.”
“This is as private as it’s going to get,”he yelled, just as the crowd collectively made an ‘ooo’ sound.Damn it. “What do you want, Miss Taylor?”
“To give you this,” she said, pulling out anote from her reticle. “This morning my sister was behaving moststrangely. She was moving about as if she didn’t want to be seen. Ionly saw her by accident as I had woken up rather early and hadonly come down from my rooms to read a bit when I saw her leavingthe house before breakfast had been served. I tried to follow herto ask where she was going, but she was gone by the time I reachedthe stables.” She handed him the note. “I found this letter on theground near her horse’s stable.”
“Did you?” he asked, inquisitively.
She nodded.
“I asked Mr. Archer, your brother, where theSwan on Stoke’s tavern was. He said it wasn’t far from the Archerand Archer building, but that his club Canterbury, was squarelybetween the two places. When he asked me why I wished to know, Ithought to tell him about Meredith’s note when Sarah interruptedand mentioned that you were here today due to some fight. I thoughtI would come here to find you instead, considering what you mean toMeredith.”
That caught Jack’s attention.
“What do I mean to her?” he asked loudly,now completely unaware of who was winning the fight.
She frowned.
“Don’t you know?”
“No.”
“Oh,” she said, confused. “Well, perhaps weshould go and ask her?”
Jack wrapped his fingers around her upperarm and, turning swiftly around, he opened a door and pulled herdown a long, dark hallway that led to another door. Opening it hehauled her into an alley. It was quieter here, but hardlypeaceful.
“You’re going home.”
He waved at a stable hand.
“Home? Oh, no, we can’t! We have to go tothis Swan place.”
“I’ll go, but… Damn,” he said, knowing itwasn’t particularly wise to let a lady ride alone, especially aninnocent like Beatrice. He would need to see to her safety anddecided to ride to the offices first, before going after Meredith.“You’ll stay at the offices, while I go and get your sister.”
“I could go with you,” she said earnestly ashe lifted her to the back of the horse. “I’m quite good at sneakingaround.”
“Yes, about that. How did you get into theclub, anyway? They don’t let well-bred ladies in,” he asked. “Infact, how did you get into town all the way from Simon’s house? Youdidn’t come alone, did you?”
She shrugged as her ears turned brightpink.
