Page 88 of His Stolen Duchess
He didn’t want to unnerve Georgina more than she obviously was, and she didn’t need to know the men had come after her. He would explain that it was a simple burglary that had gone wrong and that she had nothing to worry about. They would not return to the townhouse lake again.
As for Lady Eastbeck? He would deal with her personally.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Georgina took deep breaths as she walked along the halls of their townhouse. She was looking for Lysander, but had been unable to spot him anywhere. The residence was not gigantic, but she was having a difficult time finding him, as though he didn’t want to be found.
She tried not to think about the lake incident earlier that day. She had been trapped in the middle of the lake with two options. Either tread water until she ran out of energy and drowned, or make her way back to the shore where the masked men stood.
You don’t need to worry about that anymore. They weren’t there for you; it was only bad luck that you were using the lake.
Still, all three men had approached her while she swam, and she shuddered to think what might have happened to her if Lysander had not gotten there in time. They were there to burgle the house, and they wouldn’t have let her escape to get help.
That was part of the reason she needed to find Lysander. She felt much safer in his company. She looked around the hallway she’d walked down. Of course, she was safe now, but she wouldn’t truly feel it until she was in his arms again. She didn’t want to leave his side.
When she reached the library and looked in, she saw him with his back turned to her, looking out of the window and into the darkness outside. She stepped into the room, seeing his reflection in the glass, but he didn’t notice her enter.
She stood there for a while, looking at his broad back. She smiled as she thought about the way he had dealt with all three men by himself. She didn’t entertain violence as an option, but it had been called for by their nefarious actions.
The same strong arms that had taken down those men were the same ones in which she would soon be wrapped.
Georgina went to him, placing her hand on his back.
Lysander immediately jumped and spun around. Georgina stepped back, worried he might accidentally swing at her after the events of that morning.
“It’s me,” she soothed.
Lysander took one look at her and stepped away from the window. He paced toward the bookshelf on the west wall, then turned and headed for the door.
“Lysander,” she said. “Please don’t go. I never got a chance to thank you properly for what happened this morning. If it wasn’t for you, who knows what might have happened to me.”
“It was a burglary,” he muttered. “You would have been fine.”
“Still, you were there, and you saved me. For that, I’m truly grateful. I don’t know what I would have done. I didn’t want to get out of the lake, but the thought of succumbing to the cold and running out of energy makes me shiver to think about it.”
“Do we have to talk about this?”
“No, of course not. I only wanted to thank you for what you did for me,” she replied. Georgina stepped towards her husband, hoping that he would finally take her in his arms and offer the comfort she had been seeking. “Seeing you fight those men. It was…”
“What?” he asked.
Fire smoldered in his eyes. She hadn’t seen it at the lake, but only because she had been too far away. Still, from the way the men had cowered from him both during and after the fight, she knew he must have had the same blaze in him then. That fire was back, but it was a troubling fire, as if he wanted to fight her as he had fought the burglars.
“Well, it was almost beautiful. I am no fan of violence, but they needed to be taught a lesson for attempting to take what was nottheirs. What you did was justice, and I can’t help but admire that you did it so effortlessly.”
“Is that something to celebrate?”
The tone of his question clearly held two vastly different answers. Georgina thought he had accomplished something commendable, but the dour timbre of his words let her know that he thought the opposite.
“Saving me is something to celebrate, isn’t it?”
“I will always protect you, Georgina.”
Finally, some reason from you.
“But it all hinged on the speed and tenacity of a street urchin,” he finished.
“I beg your pardon?”
