Page 22 of From Unwanted to Duchess
“I do not like what is in the air here,” he said. “We must go. You must trust me.”
“All right,” she replied, surprised that she actually did.
He grabbed her by the arm, and together they pushed through the crowd, James practically boxing his way through until they had made it to the other side. They paused on a street corner, both out of breath, when a tall young man walked past.
“I wouldn’t go that way,” James warned. “Dashed lot of trouble in that direction.”
“Thank you for the warning,” the man said, but continued on his path anyway. “I shall be quite all right. My business is not with them.”
James shrugged. “Well, I suppose we shall have to walk the rest of the way.”
“Indeed,” Frances said.
Together they walked on. For a while, they walked in silence, but then she turned to him.
“Thank you for your help. I thought for a moment I was going to be carried away in the crowd.”
“I thought that, too,” he admitted. “I’m glad I was wrong. But in any case, Aunt Eugenia will be most upset with us.”
“We are not the ones who left,” she pointed out.
He chuckled. “Well, technically, I left to investigate what was happening, and then she allowed you to follow, and before we knew it, there was so much trouble, and we were separated. So really, it was nobody’s fault. I will try to explain.”
“Well, I wish you well, for she does not strike me as the sort of person who takes this type of situation lightly. She’ll be in the suds that the two of us were together alone as well.”
“You speak of propriety? Well, our kind does value propriety above everything else. However, I dare say, given everything that has happened?—”
He was interrupted by a gunshot that sounded from behind them.
Frances lurched sideways at the sound of it, directly into him, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders to hold her steady.
“Good heavens, what was that?” she yelped, even though she already knew. She had grown up in the country. She knew what a gunshot sounded like.
“Someone fired a weapon,” James said grimly. “I hope nobody was hurt.”
“So do I,” she said. “But you’re right, we really should go.”
He nodded, and this time the two of them did not dally any longer or engage in conversation. Instead, they walked the few blocks back to Mayfair, where they found her aunt’s carriage already waiting.
Frances took a deep breath, aware that in all likelihood, a severe scolding was awaiting her.
