Page 16 of The Lady's Last Mistake
“Was it a pickpocket?” Lila asked.
“No, he…” Cassie took a breath, closed her eyes, and forced herself to calm. She was fine. The man was gone. She was safe.
Warm hands touched hers, and she opened her eyes to find Lord Thornton on one knee before her. He’d taken her hands in his and was now inspecting them. Her fingers, clamped into fists, were speckled with dirt from the puddle she’d fallen into. A few raw scrapes marked her knuckles.
“What did the bastard do to you?” Lord Thornton asked as he coaxed her fingers to open. The hair comb had bit into her palm, leaving imprints. He picked it up and eyed it with a propped brow. “Or should I ask, what did you do to him?”
Sister Agnes brought him a boiled cloth, and he dabbed the shallow gashes. Cassie winced at the sting.
“I can do that myself,” she told him, trying to take her hand from his. He clung on.
“I will tend to them, Miss Banks,” he replied, the use of her false name slightly mocking. “While I do, perhaps you can explain. If he wasn’t a pickpocket, who was he and what did he want?”
“I don’t know who he was. I didn’t get a good look at him. He was a gentleman, though.”
“What kind of gentleman would be skulking around in an alley?” Elyse asked.
“What did he look like?” Lila’s question was a natural one, but the way she voiced it sounded oddly panicked.
“He was wearing a gentleman’s threads,” Tris confirmed. “Didn’t see his face. Ran off too quickly after Miss Banks slashed at him with that comb.”
A deeper scrape on her palm sent a jolt through her as Lord Thornton dabbed. She hissed, pulling her hand back. He made atsk tsksound and hushed her while regripping her wrist. She scowled at him.
“Well then, what did he want?” Lord Thornton repeated.
Where is she?Tell me where she is.The stranger had sounded desperate. Furious. Cassie’s shivers had started to abate, but now, they set back in.
“He wanted to know where a woman named Isabel was.”
Lila staggered backward, knocking into Elyse. She sucked in air, and horror turned her face a mask of white against her fading bruises. Lord Thornton twisted at the hip to see who’d made such a sound, at last halting his incessant dabbing.
“Lila—?” Elyse began, but the young woman turned and ran.
Chapter
Six
Grant followed Cassie and Miss Khan as they chased after the young woman. His muscles were strung tight, his body thrumming with pent up ire. This was exactly why Cassie should not have been in this part of London. For Christ’s sake, she’d been attacked, and if her driver had not been there to intervene…
He clenched his molars as he turned into a small and modestly furnished sitting room. The young woman, probably a year or two younger than Cassie, paced the carpet, her palms covering her cheeks. He’d seen the bruises right away when he’d entered through the false front of the accountant’s office and met her as she came off the stairs. She’d scrambled back up a few steps, nearly tripping before Miss Khan held out a placating hand.
“Lila, this is Doctor Brown. He’s been treating another resident here. You need not be afraid of him.”
If the attacker in the alley had been looking for her, he could now understand her instant fear.
“Isabel?” Cassie said, testing the name. “Is that your real name?”
Her composure had returned. In the kitchen, she’d been pale with shock, her blue eyes wild and unfocused. Grant had dropped to one knee before her without thinking, and only afterward considered his reaction might have appeared too familiar.
“Lila was my mother’s name,” she whispered before backing up to a chair and collapsing into it. The young woman’s pupils had sharpened to pinpricks. The fear she’d shown upon Grant’s arrival was nothing in comparison to what transformed her face now.
“The man in the alley,” Cassie said. “You are hiding from him?”
“How did he find me?” Isabel’s voice was reedy and panicked. She bent forward and leaned her forehead into her hands. Her shoulders began to shake.
Miss Khan went to her side and put an arm around her, while Cassie turned to Grant. She mouthed,Give us a moment?He shook his head and set his jaw. “Miss Isabel,” he said as he came further into the room. He ignored the warning glares from both Cassie and Miss Khan. “Is this man the father of your child?”
“Doctor Brown.” Cassie clipped his name. “At Hope House, women aren’t required to answer questions they aren’t comfortable with.”
