Page 79 of Three Weeks with a Princess
“What sort of gentleman pursues a woman who wishes to be left alone?” Jack asked. “Rest assured, if not for my duty to this lady’s safety, I would happily illustrate exactly how I deal with cowards like you.”
“No need to be insulting.” Stanley’s expression was a nice mix of wounded dignity and fear. “We had no idea the girl was yours, Lendale. We’d have left her alone if she’d only told us so.”
“I tried,” said Lia, “but you wouldn’t listen.”
“You didn’t say it wasLendale,” protested the owlish one who’d made the kissing noises.
“And that would have made a difference? My saying no wasn’t enough?”
She was so outraged that she’d left off her atrocious faux accent. Lia’s melodic voice, with its hint of a Yorkshire accent, was distinctive. The more she spoke, the more likely Stanley would finally be able to place her.
“Let me handle this,” Jack said. “And stop talking.”
He leveled his most lethal stare at Stanley and his friends. “Let me explain in a way simpletons such as yourselves can understand. When a woman asks to be left alone, you comply. An affair such as this is no excuse to force yourself on any female.”
“Such delicate sensibilities, my lord,” sneered the one who resembled an animated corpse. “But very well. There are dozens of amenable whores floating around tonight and one’s just as good as the other. No point in wasting time on a chit that’s already bought and sold.” His gaze shifted to Lia’s bosom and lingered there. “Although I still wouldn’t mind getting a taste of what his lordship is shagging. I’d wager she’s as juicy and sweet as a ripe little peach.”
Jack sensed Lia’s temper shredding completely, so he tightened his hold on her wrist.
“You see here, you disgusting lout,” she growled, charging forward before Jack reeled her in and clamped her against his side. She snapped her head up to glare at him. “Let me go this instant.” She was in such a rage she’d lost all sense of caution.
“That voice!” exclaimed the viscount. “I’ve almost got it. Say something else, my dove. Better yet, take off that silly mask and let me see who you really are.”
When Stanley made a lunge for Lia’s face, Jack yanked her back just in time, wrapping an arm around her waist and lifting her off her feet. Ignoring her protests, he trotted down the hall until he came to the nearest door. He flung it open, carried her inside, and then slammed it shut. Thankfully, there was a key, so he quickly locked the door, cocking an ear for sounds of pursuit.
“I am not a sack of grain to be hauled from one place to the next,” Lia said in a frosty tone. “Please put me down.”
He set her down but kept his attention on the noises in the hall. He heard lumbering footsteps and incoherent protests; Stanley and his fellow buffoons were still out there.
“I’m sure they’ll grow bored and leave in a minute,” Lia said. “Although I wish I could give them a piece of my mind. Their behavior has been nothing short of disgusting.”
“They deserve it, but that would be an exceedingly bad idea. Viscount Stanley seems fixated on you and he was close to figuring out who you are.”
“I suppose you’re right.” She glanced around the small room and grimaced. It was little more than an antechamber, although a comfortably appointed one. “Oh splendid. Here we go again.”
“What was that?”
“I had to hide in this room when the viscount and his friends were chasing me.”
The image of those immoral louts pursuing her sent his temper spiking and made him want nothing more than to toss them into a large heap of horse dung in the street. Because he was to be denied that pleasure, he intended to use the time to battle it out with Lia once and for all. She was a captive audience; for once she wouldn’t be able to dodge him.
The trick would be getting her to see reason, which he sincerely hoped she would because his patience was at its end. He was even starting to formulate ridiculous ideas about abducting her, spiriting her away from London. Unfortunately, that fantasy usually veered off in a direction that involved secluded country cottages and Lia tied to a bed with his cravats, wearing nothing more than her stockings and garters.
He grappled with that enticing image, finally shoving it to the back of his brain. Now was hardly the time to be indulging in lewd fantasies. He could never have Lia, and the sooner he got that through his thick skull, the better.
She wandered over to plop into the leather club chair in front of the empty grate. Sighing, she pushed up her mask and then leaned forward to rub one of her ankles, as if it pained her. The pose gave Jack an almost unimpeded view down the front of her bodice. In fact, if he moved forward just a wee bit, he would no doubt be able to see her entire—
“What a total disaster this evening has been,” she grumbled, derailing his thought. “It’s incredibly annoying, given all the trouble I had to go through to attend.”
Jack leaned back against the door, forcing himself not to look at her chest. He wouldnotbe like the Stanleys of the world, hounding women. He had vowed long ago never to follow in his father’s disreputable footsteps.
“You have a talent for understatement, pet,” he said. “And although I’m truly sorry you had to suffer insults from swinish men tonight, coming here was an incredibly foolhardy thing to do. You don’t belong in this world and you know it.”
When she took off her shoe to rub her toes he was momentarily transfixed by the delicate arch of her foot and her pretty ankle. The sharp tone of her voice, however, yanked him back to the conversation.
“Does any woman belong in a place like this? Most of what I saw tonight was, well, shocking, frankly.”
“Of course it was shocking. It’s meant to be shocking.”
