“For God’s sake—”
The door swung open.
They both looked up in surprise. Tony frowned. “I thought I said to admit no—”
“My lord. My lady.” Harry closed the door on the two harassed footmen outside and advanced into the room.
Tony straightened away from the table. He was easily half a head taller than Harry, but the shorter man did not break stride.
“Are you well, my lady?” Harry spoke to George, but his eyes never left Tony.
“Yes, thank you, Harry.” She’d assured him back at the cottage that Tony would never hurt her, but he must have decided to see for himself. “Would you like a kipper?”
A corner of Harry’s mouth twitched upward, but Tony forestalled his answer. “We have no need of you. You may go.”
“Tony,” George gasped.
“My lord.” Harry inclined his head. His expression was once again carefully blank.
George’s heart felt like it was breaking into tiny pieces. This isn’t right. She started to rise, but Harry had already turned back to the door.
Her lover left the room, dismissed like a common servant by her brother.
NOTHING LEVELED A MAN QUITE like being unable to protect his woman. Harry jerked on his tricorn and cloak and strode to the stables, the heels of his boots kicking up gravel. But Lady Georgina wasn’t really his, was she? She wasn’t bound to him by law or society. She was a woman who’d allowed him to make love to her. Once.
And maybe only that once.
It had been her first time, and inevitably, he’d hurt her. He’d given her pleasure before, but was it enough to make up for the pain afterward? Did she understand that only the first time was painful? Maybe she wouldn’t let him prove that he could give her pleasure with his flesh inside hers.
Harry swore. The stable hand holding his mare’s head eyed him warily. He scowled at the boy and took the reins. The fact that he wanted Lady Georgina didn’t help his mood. Now. Under him or above him, it didn’t matter; he just wanted to sink his flesh into hers and feel the world fall away again.
“Mr. Pye!”
Harry looked over his shoulder. The Earl of Maitland was hailing him from Woldsly’s steps. Jesus Christ, now what?
“Mr. Pye, if you’ll wait while my horse is brought around, I’d like to accompany you.”
He didn’t have much of a choice, now, did he? “Very well, my lord.”
He watched the earl stroll up while stable hands ran to do his bidding. Even if the other man hadn’t introduced himself at the cottage this morning, Harry would have known him. His eyes were his sister’s—clear, piercing blue.
A saddled horse was brought, and both men mounted. They rode out from the stable yard without saying a word. At least the earl was discreet.
Dark clouds glowered overhead, threatening yet more rain where none was wanted.
They were nearly to the gates when the earl spoke. “If it’s money you’re after, I can give you a pretty purse to speed you on your way.”
Harry looked at the earl—Tony, Lady Georgina had called him. His face was stony, but his lips curled ever so slightly at the corners, giving away his distaste. Harry almost felt sorry for him. “I’m not after money, my lord.”
“Don’t take me for a fool.” Tony’s nostrils flared. “I’ve seen the hut you’re living in, and your attire doesn’t bespeak even modest wealth. You’re after my sister’s money.”
“You see no other reason for me to seek the company of Lady Georgina?”
“I—”
“I wonder if you realize how close you are to insulting my lady,” Harry said.
A flush spread over the other man’s cheekbones. Harry remembered that the earl was Lady Georgina’s younger brother. He couldn’t be more than, what, five or six and twenty? His air of authority made him seem older.
“If you do not take my money and leave her alone, I’ll see that you’re dismissed without reference,” Tony said.
“I’m employed by your sister, not you, my lord.”
“Have you no pride, man?” Tony pulled his horse up short. “What kind of a cur preys on a lonely woman?”
Harry halted his horse as well. “Do you really think your sister wouldn’t see straight through a man trying to take advantage of her?”
Tony frowned. “You’ve put her in danger. Violet says our sister was attacked while in your company.”
Harry sighed. “Did Lady Violet also tell you that Lady Georgina fired a pistol at the attackers?” The other man’s eyes widened. “Or that if I’d had my way, she wouldn’t have been in the gig with me in the first place?”
Tony winced. “Rode roughshod over you, did she? She does have a persistent streak.”
Harry raised one eyebrow.
Tony coughed and started his horse. “Be that as it may, a gentleman doesn’t continue to press his attentions on a lady who can’t return them.”
“Then, as I see it, you have two problems, my lord,” Harry said.
Tony’s eyes narrowed.
“One, that the lady does, in fact, return my attentions, and two”—Harry turned to meet the earl’s gaze—“I am no gentleman.”
Chapter Eleven
“Violet, open this door!” George held her breath and applied her ear to the wood. Nothing. “I know you’re in there. I can hear you breathing.”
“You can’t.” Her sister’s voice came petulantly from inside.
Ha! “Violet Elizabeth Sarah Maitland. Open this door at once or I shall have Greaves take the hinges off.”
“No, you won’t. The hinges are inside.” Violet sounded triumphant.
So they were, the little minx. George inhaled and gritted her teeth. “Then I shall have him bash the door in.”
“You wouldn’t.” Violet’s voice was closer.
“I don’t believe you should count on that.” She crossed her arms and tapped one foot.
There came a scraping from the other side; then the door cracked open. One tear-stained eye peeped out.
“Oh, my dear.” George pushed the door the rest of the way open and walked in, closing it behind her. “Time to cut line. Whatever possessed you to write to Tony?”
Violet’s lower lip began to tremble. “That man has you in his clutches. He’s beguiled you with his caresses and his carnal wiles.”
Caresses and carnal wiles? George knit her brows. “What do you know about carnal wiles?”