Then he clapped the hat back onto his head and tipped it at an angle that somehow magnified the aura of leashed power already hanging round him.
A tide of completely feminine feelings surged through her. Feelings he’d made it very clear he found embarrassingly unwelcome. She bent her head to hide the blush heating her cheeks, pretending she was engrossed in counting her takings.
Fourpence three farthings. Better than she’d have thought, considering her audience hadn’t looked all that affluent.
‘Well?’
His dry, sarcastic tone robbed her of what little pleasure she might have felt at her success if he hadn’t already made her feel so very awkward, and foolish, and helpless, and...female.
‘Well, what?’
‘Do you have enough to pay the landlord for our breakfast?’
‘You know very well I haven’t.’
‘So we shall have to pop my watch after all.’ He grimaced. ‘I can’t believe I’m using such a vulgar term. I suppose I must have caught it from Hugo. He is always being obliged to “pop” something or other to “keep the dibs in tune”, or so he informs me.’
‘Not necessarily.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, we have this,’ she said, jingling her coins.
‘Oh, please,’ he huffed. ‘We’ve already established you’ve hardly made anything there.’
‘It’s enough to buy some bread and cheese,’ she pointed out. ‘Which will keep us going for the rest of the day. We have a week before we have to pay the landlord what we owe him. A week in which to raise the money some other way.’
‘That’s true,’ he said, with what looked suspiciously like relief.
‘And if all else fails, or if we run into any other difficulties, we will have your watch in reserve.’
‘And knowing you,’ he muttered, ‘we are bound to run into more difficulties.’
‘And what is that supposed to mean?’
‘Just that you seem to have a propensity for stumbling from one disaster to another.’
‘I never had any disasters until I met you.’
‘That is not true. We would not have met at all had you not already been neck-deep in trouble. And since then I have had to rescue you from that ostler, and your penury, and your foolish attempt to evade me, and now a pack of lecherous young fops.’
For a moment his pointing all this out robbed her of speech. But she soon made a recovery.
‘Oh? Well, I do not recall asking you to do any of those things!’
‘Nevertheless I have done them. And what’s more I fully intend to keep on doing them.’ He halted, frowning in a vexed way at the clumsiness of the words that had just tumbled from his lips. ‘That is,’ he continued, ‘I am going to stick to your side until I know you are safe.’
‘Well, until we reach wherever it is that your dragon of an aunt lives and you hand me over to her, I reserve the right to...to...’
‘Be mean and ungrateful?’
‘I’m not ungrateful.’ On the contrary, she’d been so grateful when he’d shown up just now and sent those horrible men packing that she’d fallen on his neck and embarrassed him. Embarrassed herself. In fact she suspected that half the reason she was suddenly so cross with him again was because she was ashamed of appearing clingy and weepy. Right after vowing she wasn’t going to rely so totally on him.
‘Of course I’m grateful for everything you’ve done,’ she said. ‘But that doesn’t give you the right to...to...dictate to me.’
‘Is that what I was doing? I rather thought,’ he said loftily, ‘I was making helpful decisions which would keep you from plunging into further disaster.’
‘Oh, did you indeed?’
All of a sudden his manner altered.
‘No, actually, I didn’t,’ he said, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. ‘You are quite correct. I was being dictatorial.’
‘What?’
‘Ah. That took the wind out of your sails,’ he said with a—yes—with a positive smile on his face. ‘But, you see, I am rather used to everyone doing as I say without question. You are the first person in a very long while to argue with me.’
‘Then I expect I will do you a great deal of good,’ she retorted.
‘I shouldn’t be a bit surprised,’ he replied amiably. ‘Just as being in my company will be an improving experience for you. Because you,’ he said, taking her chin between his long, supple fingers, ‘are clearly used to having your every whim indulged.’
‘I am not,’ she objected, flinching away from a touch that she found far too familiar. And far too pleasant.