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Realizing how utterly inappropriate her behavior was, she hurried back to her side of the bench seat.

“Sorry.” Her hands rushed over her skirt to smooth out the fabric.

“I guess in the excitement of the moment I wasn’t thinking.

” But as Ollie opened his mouth to reply, she turned her body expectantly, distracted once again. “I know why those police are there.”

Ollie shifted in his seat, tugging at the legs of his trousers. “Why?”

“Because that’s my house.”

“That’s not good. You suppose they’re there for you?”

The hansom rolled to a stop beside a police officer who was on his own, picking at his teeth.

The officer looked over and made eye contact with Evelyn.

Evelyn froze. Did he recognize her? She tried to imagine what would happen once she climbed out.

There would surely be lots of clamoring and noise as they realized who she was.

But then, the officer turned away to continue picking at his teeth without an audience.

Evelyn let out a breath of relief. Maybe this would go better than expected.

“Welcome home, I suppose,” Ollie said.

“Yes, lucky me,” she replied blandly. “I can only imagine the storm awaiting me inside, especially with all of them here.” Evelyn tried see if she could see anyone through the window but couldn’t.

Images of Mama, of Papa, their expressions as she waltzed in through the door formed in her mind.

Would Mama faint? Would Papa shout at her?

Was the earl inside?

She resisted the urge to shudder.

Evelyn could only imagine the sneer the earl would produce upon seeing her. In fact, she wouldn’t be surprised if he immediately dragged her to the nearest church.

They would surely do his bidding. He was an earl, after all.

Evelyn looked at Ollie as her heart began to race again. “I’m scared, Ollie.”

Ollie’s face and voice softened. “I know. I don’t like this. Any of this.”

“I don’t have a choice.” Her voice cracked. Ollie’s concern for her was the only light in the harrowing moment. She wanted to delay her departure further. “Where are you going to go after this?”

“I’ll drop off the clothes you’re returning, and then I guess I’ll go home and spend time with my cat for God knows how long.

Weeks, months maybe, where I’ll feel pity for myself.

I’ll spend too much time wondering what you’re doing at any given moment.

Hoping that you’re happy, knowing that you’re not, and feeling rubbish over it. ”

“You have a cat?”

Ollie gave her an amused look and there was a twinkle in his eye. “Yes, I do.”

“Oh, I do adore cats. Please give them a little scratch under the chin for me.”

You’re sure you want to say goodbye? A little voice asked in Evelyn’s mind. She had a brief flash of an image of her onboard a ship, waving at Ollie at the dock, sobbing as the ship sailed away.

That was odd. Where had that come from?

“Goodbye, Ollie.” Evelyn pushed the funny image away. “Maybe we will pass each other on the street someday.”

“I hope we do.” Ollie climbed out of the hansom and extended a hand to help her down.

Briefly, she hesitated at the potential touch but forced herself through it, as it was an automatic reaction on his part.

She accepted his offer of help. As her feet met the pavement, she held Ollie’s gaze.

His hand felt warm and strong against hers.

Emotion crackled, but all he offered was a small farewell nod. And then, he let her go.

She turned her back to him for the last time and forced herself forward, one foot in front of the other, until she approached her front door.

“Who are you?” One of the officers stepped into view, blocking the door. He studied her red hair. “Are you that runaway bride?”

Fear rendered Evelyn mute.

Another officer joined. “She sure looks like her, doesn’t she?” He scratched at his head by pushing his hat up. “What was her name?”

“Ellen, I think?” the first officer replied. “Are you Ellen?”

“Ellen?” Evelyn blinked. “No, I’ve never heard of Ellen before.”

“It’s not her, then.”

“Blimey.”

Evelyn moved one step forward.

But the first officer laid a heavy hand on her shoulder to stop her. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Her body screamed at the feeling of a strange man’s hand on her shoulder. She shrugged her shoulder hard to fling it off.

A flash of anger crossed the officer’s face.

“I’m going to the house.” She indicated toward her home, affronted by the audacity of this man. It didn’t matter that he was an officer of the law. Who did he think he was to put his hand on her, to stop her from going where she pleased?

“You’re staying right here, miss, until we know your business here. The family up there is frantically searching for their missing daughter. You’ve surely seen the paper this morning? There’s a large reward for her return!”

“How can they be searching for her if they’re inside?” Evelyn asked wryly.

The two officers exchanged looks of bewilderment. “Have you come to collect the reward?” one asked.

“Do I get the reward if I turn myself in?”

“I—” The man stared at her totally befuddled. “Why, you impertinent—”

“Hush up now, will you?” The other officer elbowed him hard. “If this is the runaway bride, running your mouth will only get you in a load of trouble with the boss.”

The officer scowled at Evelyn. “Stay here,” he said authoritatively before he went into the house. One by one, the other officers in the crowd began to notice her. And one by one, the voices dropped from their conversations.

Evelyn felt as if every pair of eyes in the world now stared at her.

The front door flew open, loud in the sudden silence, and Papa’s lanky form appeared in the doorway. He ducked under the awning to walk through it. “Evelyn!” He shouted so loud, it made her jump.

The earl followed him out.

Evelyn felt the blood drain from her face upon seeing the earl. Her heart began to pound hard with panic. Her nerves twitched all over her body. She should have been stepping forward to meet her father, she should have been going toward the house.

But she couldn’t move.

Again.

“What the blazes do you think you’re doing?” Papa now stood before her and hissed the words as low as he could. “Are you trying to drive us to madness?”

“No.”

“Have you gone mad?”

“No!”

“Then explain where you’ve been and why you ran off yesterday! Did you know your mother and sister and I looked all over London until sunrise this morning?”

Evelyn looked at the ground.

“Do you care at all about our worry? For heaven’s sake, Evelyn.” Papa ran his hands through his orange hair. “Do you think about anyone but yourself?”

Hot tears welled up in her eyes. But what could she say? She’d been selfish for running away. It hadn’t occurred to her how much her parents would worry. It hadn’t occurred to her they would go looking for her until sunrise.

“All I wanted was to get away,” she said, and she knew it made no sense the moment the words had left her mouth. And how horrifically selfish it sounded.

But before Papa could respond, the earl spoke. “Well,” he said, his voice far calmer than Papa’s. Too calm. Frighteningly calm. Despite the fear he instilled, she looked up to see him.

The pupils in his eyes were huge, and there was a wickedness to the mild smile he offered her. “Where is your pretty, white dress, Evelyn? You did look so beautiful in it yesterday.”

She was too frightened to respond, to admit she had forgotten it in the hansom. Nervous, she glanced around and realized the police officers had surrounded them to watch the show.

But then something beyond the crowd caught her eye. Ollie was still here! He was about twenty feet away, though, watching the scene grimly from a distance.

When she turned back around, she met her father’s eye. He, too, looked in the direction of Ollie, then back at her. She couldn’t tell if he knew whom she was looking at.

Regardless, he didn’t say a word.

“Well,” the earl continued, “I suppose it doesn’t matter. Quickly, though, we must depart. Now. Whatever it is that you are wearing…” He frowned at the too-short dress. “It will have to do.”

Evelyn swallowed. “‘Have to do’?”

“Come now, darling,” the earl said. He reached up to her hair and twirled a strand around his finger, staring at it.

“Our time awaits. You didn’t really think you could get away from me, could you?

” He leaned over to her ear. “You belong to me already, Miss Sparrow. I own you, and running cannot change that. Go to the ends of the Earth, and I promise I will come drag you back.”

The earl grabbed her shoulders tightly, squeezing them in his hands with all his might. Evelyn yelped with pain, but this only seemed to flame the earl further and he shook her.

“You will do as promised to me. You will get in my carriage right now. We will be going back to the blasted church and then we will be going back to my home. You can thank your antics for this: You will never see your home or family again.”

Papa stepped forward. “Now wait just a minute. That was not part of the deal.”

The earl dug his fingers harder into her shoulders. Her body screamed in response. “It wasn’t in the deal that she would run off like that, either, now was it?”

This rendered Papa silent.

While the crowd of officers and curiosity seekers watched, the earl spun Evelyn around to his carriage, its door yawned open, waiting to pull her into its depths of hell.

The earl pushed her toward it. And then, something quite unexpected happened.

“Get your blasted hands off of her!” A man’s deep, velvet voice caused the earl to stop.

Evelyn was surprised to find Ollie staring down the earl with fury. His green eyes were wild, holding a look she had never seen on him before. He pushed the sleeves of his jacket and shirt up to his elbows, as if he were preparing for a fight.

Evelyn expected the earl to throw her into his carriage but, to her surprise, he let her go entirely and seemed to forget all about her. “Who are you to dare speak to me that way?” The earl sneered as he looked over Ollie. “London scum needs to learn its place.”

Panic pounded in her ears, throbbed through her veins. Her entire body felt as if it were on the verge of twitching erratically. Her legs begged to run, run, run again.

The noise, the activity, whirled in her mind. Everything seemed to slow.

The earl and Ollie continued their shouting. Her ears roared with her pounding heart. Her breathing quickened with it.

A man in street clothes waved the morning’s newspaper at her.

Papa said her name.

She looked over to Papa. “Who is that?” he asked.

But Evelyn couldn’t speak. If she did, all of the energy that boiled in her body would create a scream that would decimate the ears of everyone within a mile radius.

The earl made a stupid mistake, however, and shoved Ollie. Hard enough to make Ollie falter back.

Returning to the present, Evelyn gasped and stepped toward her friend. But he recovered quickly.

The fury that had clouded Ollie up until now exploded from him. As the earl made to lunge forward, Ollie had no choice but to pull a large fist back, then meet it with the earl’s face.

The earl flew back into the wall of police officers, who scrambled to catch him. While being fussed over, the earl put a hand to his reddened cheek, his jaw dropped open, and he stared stupidly with enormous eyes, as if shocked to his very soul someone below his station had dared lay a hand on him.

And then he pointed a finger at Ollie and shouted, “Assault! Assault! That man tried to kill me!”

“ Kill you!” Evelyn shouted back as the police officers scrambled, taking this accusation seriously despite witnessing the moment.

The man in streetwear began to shove his way toward her.

But she wasn’t paying enough attention to notice.

“You deserved every bit of that hit, and you know it,” she shouted.

The earl lunged for her, but she jumped back.

Only to be accosted by a police officer.

“Unhand me!” Evelyn demanded.

“That’s my daughter!” Papa bellowed from somewhere.

Someone shouted her name. Her head swiveled in that direction only to discover a man with a boxy, handheld camera pointed right at her.

Blast!

It was pandemonium. Police officers everywhere shouted to each other, fanned the earl, and ordered Evelyn to cooperate. She looked around frantically for Ollie but couldn’t see him any longer.

“Evelyn!” Papa called out.

Evelyn tried to jerk away from the police officer who held her, but it was useless. “Keep it up,” the officer said trying to keep her still, “and I’ll have no choice but to cuff you!”

Instead, and without thinking too deeply, she kicked behind her—hard—and connected her shoe with his shin. The officer shouted out with pain, letting her go. She spotted the man with the camera again and really hoped he hadn’t caught that moment.

Evelyn pushed through the crowd of scrambling police officers.

Hands reached out to grab her, missing by mere centimeters.

Over a man’s head, she spotted Ollie again, now at the very edge of the crowd.

Somehow, he had snuck through the wildness without notice from anyone, probably because her behavior was demanding everyone’s attention.

Evelyn made her way out of the crowd and hurried over to Ollie.

And despite the madness, she smiled.

“Hello, Ollie,” Evelyn said as she stopped before him.

“Some crowd you attract,” Ollie replied before motioning her to follow him.

Evelyn glanced back. Fights had erupted everywhere, and the officers were trying to break them up, forgetting all about her.

But her father hadn’t forgotten.

He watched her, a head taller than everyone else, helplessly. He was too deep into the crowd and would never make it out in time to grab her before she ran away. Again.

“Let’s leave before they realize you’ve escaped,” Ollie said.

Evelyn held her father’s gaze for a beat longer before hurrying after Ollie, leaving the circus behind. “Where are we going?” she asked.

“My house,” Ollie said. The hansom cab was still there, waiting. As he climbed in after her, he added, “And just so you know, you are never coming back here. As long as I can help it.”