Page 41 of Lady Beast's Bridegroom
Deerhaven took a hand. “London has suddenly become unhealthy for you, Frankton. I recommend a long journey.”
Peter agreed. “Starting by nightfall, after which I shall come looking for you with a horsewhip. Do I make myself clear?”
“Oh, I say,” said Frankton’s remaining supporter.
Deerhaven lifted his eyebrows and stared down his nose at the man. “Markham, is it not? Do you believe it is the act of a gentleman to accost a gently born lady and sully her ears with threats of corrupt intimate practices?”
“I didn’t!” Frankton sobbed.
“Ransome’s lady wife could not bring herself to repeat the words you used to make your threat,” John told him, “But we got the sense of them. A bag, Frankton? A rope, too, I imagine, for I cannot envisage any female submitting to your vileness without being restrained.”
Frankton whimpered as his last supporter turned away, having to push through the onlookers who had gathered from all four corners of the establishment.
One of them was Richard Tattersall, the second of the name and the third of the dynasty who had run the famous sales yard and subscription rooms since 1766. “If my lords have quite finished imparting a lesson to this scoundrel, I trust you will allow us to return to business,” he said politely. “You may be sure that Mr. Frankton is no longer welcome in these premises.”
“I will blackball him at my club,” offered another gentleman.
“And I at mine.”
Frankton picked himself up and ran from one person to another, babbling explanations and begging for a second chance.At a nod from John, two of the men who had come to support Peter picked the louse up by the elbows and carried him to the entryway, throwing him into the street.
“Now, gentlemen,” said Deerhaven. “Were we going to look at some horses?”
Chapter Eighteen
Arial really shouldhave kept what Frankton said to herself. She had been in shock. No one had ever spoken so crudely to her. Or, if they had, it was before she had any experience to be able to understand what they were saying.
She heard about Peter’s retribution not from him, but from Lady Deerhaven. “Deerhaven is very proud of himself. I just hope they have not drawn even more attention to these ridiculous flyers.”
There was a second caricature out the day after the confrontation at Tattersalls. This one showed a man with his breeches down to his knees, his bare buttocks on display as he bent over a woman with her skirts up. Both figures wore sacks over their heads, and the caption read, “When I tup Lady Beast, I wear a bag in case hers falls off.”
Peter kept that from Arial and was indignant when she marched into the room he was using as an office and slapped a copy in front of him. “Where did you get that? I gave instructions…”
She met his anger with her own. “To keep me in the dark? To treat me like an infant?”
He leaned forward over the desk. “Dammit, woman. To protect you!”
Arial swallowed her response and took a deep breath. Shouting back at him was not going to help. She forced hershoulders to relax as she let the breath out. “A partner. A friend. That is what you said you wanted, Peter. That’s what I want to be. Someone on your side and at your side. Is that still true? Because when you go off and confront Frankton and do not tell me about it, when you try to hide this stupid image from me, it does not feel like it.”
It was Peter’s turn to swallow back whatever words had boiled onto his tongue. “I did say that didn’t I? I apologize, Arial. I did not mean to insult you. I just don’t want to see you hurt.”
Arial slapped the piece of paper. “This nonsense does not hurt me. Having you keep me in the dark hurts me.” Tears scalded her eye and she blinked furiously.
Peter rounded the desk and gathered her into his arms, and for a moment, she just wanted to lay her head on his shoulder and let the tears out. She resisted. “I am so angry, Peter. I seem to have brought you nothing but trouble.”
“The trouble came with me,” Peter insisted. “The pot is being stirred by my stepmother and my best friend’s betrothed.”
“And my loathsome cousin,” she reminded him. “Perhaps I can concede that we both have unfortunate connections.”
He chuckled, she smiled, and they kissed. Then Peter told her about his visits to Josiah and the dowager Lady Ransome, both of whom denied any connection to Frankton or the flyers. “And Frankton has left town. I have nothing to confront them with except his word, and I can’t even produce him to confirm it.”
Arial forbore to point out that running Frankton out of London was his idea. She was glad the man was gone. The people who talked behind her back were much easier to ignore.
Even after that discussion, she and Peter were still cautious around one another, each measuring their words and watching the other for a response. It did not help that Arial’s female inconvenience arrived the next day, along with the usual cramps and headache.
“Peter,” she told him, once she realized, “I will need to make my apologies for this afternoon’s visit to the Tower. Will you be happy to escort the girls? If not, I am sure Sergeant Miller or one of Captain Forsythe’s men will go along with the group.”
“Are you unwell?” Peter asked.
