Page 36 of A Christmas Temptation for the Duke
“I said quiet,” he hissed again, continuing to pull her toward a large tree which say on the edge of the crowd. He led her to it and then pulled her behind the great hunk of timber.
“What are you doing?” Her heart was racing, and she could not tell if it was brought from excitement or anger.And just when I thought we were starting to understand one another…
“We are being followed,” the Earl said as he peered around the tree.
She blinked. “We are… what?”
“Be careful,” he said softly. “By the maypole… just across from that stall covered in purple banners. You will see two men. I noticed them earlier and thought nothing of it. But since then, every time I have looked, they have been right behind us.”
“Two men?” her eyes widened when it came to her. “They might be the ones who were outside my home last night!”
“Possibly.”
“It must be them!” Her heart started to race again, but not from fear. It was vindication, and that the Earl was with her, she knew there was no need to worry. “Where –” She went to look around the tree.
“Careful!” His arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her back. “Slowly…”
Slowly, she peered back around the tree, and that was when she saw them.
Of course, Alison did not recognize them. One was tall and lean with curly hair and a beaked nose. The other short and fat, bald beneath his cap, and a broken nose that was squashed flat against his face. They were dressed in dirty coats, scuffed pants, and had a look about them that might warn others from getting too close.
They were also eating ice-blocks; the tall one especially seemed to be enjoying his immensely. That was until it broke from his hand and fell on the head of the shorter one, who cried out and shoved the tall one back as he cursed him. The tall one tried to wipe the ice from his friend’s head, only to knock off his cap, which was met with more cries.
“I don’t recognize them,” she said as she came back around the tree.
“I can’t imagine you would.” The Earl’s expression was as hard as ice. He fixed it on the tree as he lost himself in thought, biting into his lip… “We must leave at once.”
“What? Where will we go?”
“Where do you think?” He held out his hand for her to take. She eyed the hand, and there was a moment where she considered arguing simply because it came naturally. Of course, she did no such thing and the moment she placed her hand in the Earl’s she felt that familiar comfort encase her.
From there, the Earl led her across the park, through the crowd, and toward his carriage parked on the outskirts of town. And all the while, Alison glanced over her shoulder looking for the two men.
She had not imagined it. They really had been outside her home. As to what that meant? She could not even guess. And, as much as she hated to admit it, thank God she had the Earl there to protect her.
Chapter Eleven
Daniel paced the room as he tried to come up with a plan of attack. That was if a plan of attack was even needed! For all he knew, this was all nothing more than a coincidence, and those two men…no, they were following her. I know that they were.
“And you are sure you have never seen them before?” he asked Lady Alison for what must have been the tenth time since they arrived back at the estate.
“As I said already, no.”
“And you have no idea why they might be following you?”
“Why would I?”
“Or why they might have been outside your home,” he pressed as he continued to pace. He was becoming irate. The heat from the fire was making his head spin. And he hated feeling so utterly useless.
“I suspect they were planning on robbing it. At least that was how it sounded.”
“But why your home?” He turned on Lady Alison, and his face dropped.
She was sitting on the couch in front of the fire. Pickle was asleep on her lap, and she stroked its back gently as if she did not have a care in the world. Here he was, slowly unravelling, and she looked as if she was winding down after a long day and preparing for bed.
“How can you be so calm?” he snapped.
She blinked. “Am I?”
