Page 52 of Courting Trouble
A click from down the hall toward the entry told her the door had been opened and shut. The sound preceded Titus’s footsteps down the hall. She knew the cadence of his confident stride, and she stood suddenly. Her heart at once surged to her throat, only to take a nosedive into the pit of her belly.
This was impossible. No matter what she did, she hurt him.
If she ended it, she sliced through the tenuous bond they’d only just forged. She broke his heart again, just when he’d begun to open it.
If she stayed… she might cost him everything. His patients and his patrons. His entire life’s work. Everyone she loved would suffer for that love. She was like a fragmented bomb, laying waste to all who dared to stand in her immediate vicinity.
Her father, apparently, hadn’t marked Titus’s approach. “I suppose you and Mark will both have to learn to be discreet with your lovers. But perhaps he’ll allow you to keep your doctor on the line. Then, you won’t have to cease being a whore.”
Titus rounded the corner, looking every bit the gentleman doctor. Hair tidy, jaw clean-shaven, his expensive grey vest buttoned over a shirt rolled up to the elbows.
Except…
He didn’t spare Nora half a glance before he marched up to the Baron, his features a black mask of wrath and retribution as he used his only slightly superior height to look down his nose.
“It is part of my personal creed to do no harm,” he said in a voice measured only with darkness. “But in your case, I’m willing to make an exception.”
His fist drove into her father’s face with all the force of a locomotive, knocking the imposing man over.
Nora rushed forward. Though her father had fallen to his hip, he was still sitting up, holding one hand over his nose. Blood leaked through his fingers as he let loose a string of curses he could have only picked up at the docks.
Titus shook out his hand a few times, testing the mobility of his fingers before glaring down at the man he’d put on the ground.
Even though he looked as though he’d like to murder her father, he reached into his pocket and extracted a handkerchief, dangling it in the Baron’s line of sight.
Lord, but he was an endlessly decent man.
Her father hesitated for a moment, but then took the offering and shoved it beneath his nose with a pained groan. “In your case, I suppose I deserved that,” he said, his voice almost comically nasal and muffled by the handkerchief.
“What isdeservedis an apology to yourdaughter.” Titus looked like an avenging angel, ready to go to battle, wielding his righteous indignation. “It is your fault she is in danger. All of this was caused by the man you selected for her. Tell me, Cresthaven, did you know the Viscount was mad before pledging her to him?”
Dammit, she just fell in love with him again.
“You can stay out of this.” Her father managed to be imposing, even as he leaned his head back to stem the flow of blood from his nose. “Even now, she’s as far above you as the stars are above the treetops.”
“You don’t think I always knew that?” Titus gestured to her, keeping his palm up as an invitation for her to take his hand.
Instinctively Nora reached for him, but then she hesitated. All the words her father said barraged her conscience like a thousand pricks from a thousand daggers.
You will ruin him. He will hate you for it.
Not as much as you’ll hate yourself.
“Honoria,” her father warned. “If you stay, this place will be leveled to rubble atyourfeet.”
Titus loomed over him, his fist tightening once again. “Don’t you dare threaten me or this institution.”
“I’m not, lad. I’m simply telling you the truth.”
“I’m no lad, you sanctimonious bastard. I’m a doctor, and a soldier, and a scientist. I deserve—”
“You deserve to keep what you’ve built and to retain the respect you’ve earned.”
Both Titus and Nora stood there for a moment, jaws loose as they stared at the man struggling not to bleed onto the carpet.
Had he just paid Titus a compliment?
The Baron pinched the bridge of his nose with a wince, but he was a hard man, not unused to a swinging fist at the docks in his younger days. “I already told Honoria, an alliance with her could ruin everything for you. Her reputation is in tatters, man.”
