Page 27 of A Duke in Pursuit of Passion
"No! No! My Lady!" Alice screamed as Ella was pulled right off her feet and into the air.
Then, just as suddenly as the attack had begun, everything seemed to change.
"Get your filthy hands off them!"
The cry was a voice so familiar that it sent a rush of relief racing through Ella. The second her feet landed back on the floor, the man who had been gripping her was tugged away. A cane whipped him on the backside and sent him squealing just like the pig he was, back down the alleyway with his hands clutching his buttocks.
If Ella had not been so terrified, she might have found it amusing. Instead, she could only watch as Lord Rolfe and Mr Murphy sent the second thug running after the first.
Panting for breath, Ella tried her hardest to regain control over her racing heart, preparing for the moment when Lord Rolfe would turn to her and demand to know what had happened.
Instead, he simply turned and walked away, calling to Mr Murphy, "Bring the women. I must return to the market and pay for the cane I borrowed."
Everything happened so quickly that Ella barely had the time to understand what had just occurred. Still trembling and heart pounding, she barely heard Alice whisper to Mr Murphy, "Thank heavens you got the note I left this morning."
Perhaps if she had not been so relieved by their rescue, Ella might have been angry with her maid. As things stood, she could not bring herself to voice the fact that Alice had been right. They should never have gone to the market alone. Maybe if the men had been with them, they might have managed to catch up with Louisa.
That did not take away from the fact that Lord Rolfe had not even looked at her. Nor had he bothered to stop and ask if she was alright before storming off towards the market, and somehow that was even more infuriating than his presence in the first place.
Chapter 16
Even hours later, Nathaniel could not rid himself of the day's memories, how it had felt to wake in the morning to Mack’s announcement that Lady Ella had taken herself and her maid off to the market in search of her sister. The moment he had heard the words, he had been furious. More than that, he had been terrified. After what he and Mack had learned of Mr Giles the night before, he feared for both women’s safety.
To find them being attacked by those two thugs, Nathaniel had almost lost himself. Having only had time to grab a cane from a nearby stall before following the sounds of screaming, he might have managed to seriously maim one of them if he’d allowed himself the chance.
And the fury he had felt looking upon Lady Ella’s stubborn face in that alleyway afterwards was almost as flooring as the relief he had felt at seeing she was unharmed.
Throughout their return to the carriage, Nathaniel could not speak for the emotions that threatened to tear him apart. And it had seemed Lady Ella was in no mood to speak either; likely she only would have insisted that they did not need any help if she were to say anything at all. Alice, the poor maid, had looked so pale that he feared she might still succumb to the shock of the entire ordeal, and stoic Mack had remained as silent as the rest of them.
Nathaniel had avoided everyone for the rest of the day, still coming to terms with all that had been going through his head, the worry, anger, and the urge to protect Lady Ella no matter what she wanted from him.
And after a silent dinner in the dining room with his aunt out at some ball or other, Nathaniel retired once more to his library, hoping that Lady Ella would not find it in herself to cause any more trouble while he did all he could to send out word of Mr Giles to fellow noblemen and gentlemen who may have heard something about town.
Yet he had been in there barely an hour when he heard the fluttering of gentle knocking upon the door. The moment he heard it, his jaw clenched. It most definitely was not Mack come to tell him it was getting late and to give himself a break for the evening. He would recognise the knock of his manservant anywhere. Besides, a glance at the grandfather clock told him it wasn’t nearly late enough for him to come doing that just yet.
“Come in,” he called against his better judgement and the urge to just stay quiet until she had given up and turned right back around to go to bed. Lady Ella was far too stubborn for that, he knew.
And almost as soon as he called, the door opened to reveal her standing in the doorway looking, for once, quite hesitant.
With barely a glance at her, he turned his gaze back down to the paperwork on his desk, gritting his teeth further. She caught and held his attention far too often as it was.
Lady Ella did not appear to take the hint that he did not wish to speak to her, and so she slipped into the room silently, only the swishing of her skirts telling him that she was even moving.
“My Lord,” she said after several more moments surrounded by silence. Just hearing her voice made Nathaniel’s entire body tense up. It took everything he had in him not to raise his eyes to look at her. “I came to thank you for what you did earlier.”
Still, Nathaniel kept his mouth shut on the urge to tell her he needed no thanks. He would have done it again in a heartbeat, though it angered him to think that she could ever put him in that kind of situation more than once.
“I dread to think what might have happened if you and Mr Murphy had not shown up,” Lady Ella said when Nathaniel failed to say anything at all.
His heart clenched, and his stomach churned at the images her words conjured up. He could imagine all too well what might have happened to her and her maid.
Unable to stop himself, he scoffed, deciding that it would be best to get up from his desk and keep himself busy while Lady Ella got on with whatever she had come to say to him. As things were, he had nothing to say to her.
Though it was not really important, he picked up the book he had been using as a paperweight for all his paperwork and crossed the room to return it to its shelf.
“My Lord, I know you are likely angry at my actions in going out this morning without your knowledge, but I do not deserve this kind of silent treatment from you!” Lady Ella snapped at him while his back was still turned on her. Still gripping the book’s spine, Nathaniel’s hand tensed, and when he dropped it back to his side, it quickly became a fist.
He could already tell where this was going. She had started similarly in the cabin on the ship, and he could hear the anger in her tone that suggested she was winding up for another argument.
