Page 42 of Marry in Scandal

With a sigh Ned seated himself ruefully on the stairs. It was going to be a long, uncomfortable night.

The landlady was still on the landing. She eyed him curiously. “Sir?”

“Would you bring me a blanket, please?”

“A blanket, sir?” She took in what he meant and her eyes widened. “You’re going to sleep here? On the stairs?”

He gave her a cool look as if to say,Why not?It was not for her to question his actions. If he took a fancy to sleep on the stairs, that was his own business.

But her brow cleared and she gave him a warm, motherly smile. “I did wonder before whether the lass really was your sister—well, arriving with no luggage, and the state of her!—but I can see now you truly are her brother, sir, taking such good care to protect her from all possible harm. I’ll bring you up a blanket and a pillow too, sir—and a nice hot toddy.”

She bustled off, leaving Ned muttering irritably under his breath. Of course the inmates of the inn would speculate about the state of his “sister” arriving in an almost-naked state and with no luggage. He’d bet his last penny Elphingstone would have wormed that out of them already.

The landlady returned and, under her motherly eye, Ned wrapped himself in the blanket, smiling until she left him alone. How the devil had he landed himself in this fix? Lily Rutherford’s future was no business of his. She still dreamed of marrying for love, still thought that escaping from her abductor was all that mattered. And that she was safe now.

Safe! She was in almost as much danger of a forced marriage now as she’d been with that swine, Nixon.

He should have found her a safe place and left her there—with some respectable matron. Or in a convent, surrounded by nuns.

Ned sipped the hot toddy gloomily. Where was a nunnery when you needed one?

He could see exactly where this affair was leading and could see no way out of it. The last thing he wanted was responsibility for a helpless virgin, but what choice did he have? He couldn’t have left her in the state in which he’d found her: half frozen, filthy and still dazed from whatever drug she’d been given.

Stripping her of her wet clothes had been the only possible thing to do.

He hadn’t known she would be... delectable, even in her filthy state. Not that it mattered whether she was beautiful—her being female and unmarried was the problem. And him being an eligible bachelor.

Even if he had taken her to the home of a respectable matron—there were one or two living in the district, friends of his grandfather—then what? Respectable matrons gossiped with the best of them. The story would have inevitably spread and the scandal would have ruined her anyway.

It was a damnable mess, and his only hope of getting out of it without causing a major scandal was to get her back to London without anyone knowing.

It could be done. He’d managed several covert assignments in his army days. He’d smuggled people across borders and spirited them out of palaces and prisons. Getting Lady Lily Rutherford back into her home without incident or repercussions should be—would be—quite straightforward.

He pulled the blanket tighter and tried to sleep.

• • •

“You can blow the candle out now, thank you, Betty,” Lily said. Betty snuffed the candle and the room settled into darkness, the only light coming from the fire in the little sitting room; they’d left the door open for thewarmth, though it wasn’t really cold. It was cozy, lying snug in bed, watching the glow of the coals.

After a few minutes, Betty said quietly, “He isn’t really your brother, is he, miss?”

Lily hesitated a moment. “No, but don’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t. Ma don’t think so, either, but she likes that he got me to sleep in here with you. Shows he’s a proper gent, she says.”

Lily smiled to herself. “He is.”

They lay in the darkness, the only sound the occasional crackle and hiss of the fire, and below them the murmur of men drinking in the taproom.

“He kissed you, didn’t he?” Betty said. “Just before Ma and me came in.”

“Yes.”

“I thought so. What was it like, if you don’t mind me askin’?”

Lily didn’t mind. Betty was no real substitute for her sister, Rose, but Lily was bursting to tell someone. She tried to think of how to describe the glorious sensation of kissing Edward, but before she could say anything, Betty added, “I been kissed a couple of times—not that I wanted it. The first time it was Hec, the stableboy—he just grabbed me one day, without no warning—and he’s ugly, miss, and old—forty or more—and his teeth are all black and broken. Ugh! It was horrible. I had to knee him in the you-know-whats to get away.”

“The you-know-whats?”