His heel struck a bottle in the gutter and it spun away and shattered. She turned, stared back into the shadows, then took to her heels. Marcus abandoned stealth and ran too, his long legs gaining easily on the fleeing figure with its hampering skirts. Then his ankle twisted as he trod on a greasy cobble; he slid and came up hard against the wall, splitting the leather of his glove as he threw out a hand to save himself. When he reached the spot where he had last seen her, she was gone.
Marcus looked around. He could see the dark entrances to at least five streets and alleys from where he stood. Impossible to search them all. He walked slowly back to the carriage, cursing softly.
Nell flattened herself against the wall of the stinking privy in Dolphin Court, her ears straining as the sharp footsteps grew fainter. Finally, when the stench became too much, she crept out and studied what she could see beyond the narrow entrance. Nothing and no one. He had gone, for now.
Who had it been? Not Lord Stanegate; he at least could not know what she did or where she worked. Mr Salterton, wanting to know what had happened—or worse, intent upon silencing the messenger? Or was it as simple as some amorous rake bent on bothering a woman alone or perhaps a thief after her meagre purse?
Only, thieves did not drive in handsome, shiny carriages. Which left Salterton or a predatory rake. Shivering, Nell decided she would rather take her chances with the rake; she doubted that a well-directed knee would deter Mr Salterton.
When she reached Dorset Street she walked to the end, past her own door to the corner and watched for almost ten minutes, but no one at all suspicious came into sight.
It was an effort of will to force her legs up the three flights of stairs to the top of the house and even more of one not to simply fall onto the bed, pull the covers over her head and hide. Nell made herself build up the fire, fill the kettle from the tub of water the shared maid of all work had left on the landing and take off her pelisse and bonnet before collapsing into her chair.
A woman on her own was so defenceless, she thought, her fingers curling into claws at the thought of the men who preyed on those weaker than themselves in the crowded London streets. Or behind the anonymous walls in little rooms like this. Her vision blurred for a moment and her stomach swooped sickeningly. She would not think of that.
For the first time in her life she felt a treacherous yearning for a man to shelter her. Someone powerful and strong. Someone like Viscount Stanegate. She closed her eyes and indulged in a fantasy of standing behind his broad back while he skewered the dark man on the point of an expertly wielded rapier or shot him down like a dog for daring to threaten her.
In reality, that would probably be a horrible experience, she told herself, getting up to make some tea. The last thing she wanted was to witness violence, and the viscount was hardly going to act the knight errant for her in any case. But the vision of a handgun stayed with her. Somewhere, there was the little pistol that Mama had always carried in her reticule. Mama had never had to threaten anyone with it, and it probably wasn’t even loaded, of course. But the sight of a weapon might give some randy buck pause.
Nell found the pistol after a prolonged search. She peered down the barrel, wondering how one told if it had shot in it. Eventually she opened a window, pointed it out over the rooftops and pulled the trigger, braced for a bang. Nothing happened; she could not even pull the trigger back properly. So it was at least safe to carry.
Despite that, her snug eyrie in the roof no longer felt quite so secure. Nell turned the key and wedged a chair under the door handle. Was it time to move again?
By the next day, Nell’s unease had hardened into something like defiance. She was damned if some man, whoever he was, was going to frighten her out of her home. It wasn’t much, but it was clean, it was dry and she was surrounded by good-natured, honest people. She had her pistol, she was forewarned. She would stand her ground.
That was easy enough to resolve in the brightly lit, warm surroundings of the workroom with half a dozen people around her and a large pair of sharp scissors to hand, she realized as she walked home.
Wary, she checked behind herself, yet again. There were no carriages following at walking pace tonight, no suspicious pedestrians behind her. It must simply have been a lone buck taking a chance. With a sigh of relief she ducked through Smock Alley and turned left and then right into Dorset Street. Home.
The keys were slippery in her chilled hands and she fumbled getting them out of the reticule. They caught on the pistol and she heard a sharp click as she pulled them free. Then she saw the man: big, dark, menacing and striding towards her out of the gloom, just yards away. The breath left her lungs and she tugged the little pistol out of her reticule and held it in front of her.
‘I am armed. Keep away!’ Her hand was shaking, so she lifted the other to support her wrist.
‘Miss Smith, put that thing away before you hurt yourself.’ Lord Stanegate? He stopped, perhaps two feet from the end of the muzzle. The lighting was poor, his face was in shadow, but she would recognize that deep voice anywhere. He was apparently hanging on to his temper with an effort.
‘It is you it is pointed at, my lord,’ she observed. ‘It is not I who will be hurt.’ Her heart was thunderous, her stomach was churning and there was nowhere to run to, but she would not let him see her terror.
‘Have you any idea how to use it?’ He sounded more interested than alarmed. Nell wished she could see his face properly.
‘Of course I have! I aim it at the brute who is threatening me and then I pull the trigger. I can hardly miss at this range.’ If she could keep him standing there long enough someone might come out of the house. Or Bill Watkins might come home. Bill was a bricklayer, at least the height of the viscount and built like an ox.
‘I was not aware I was threatening you, Miss Smith,’ he said in a voice of infuriating calm, standing his ground. ‘I merely wish to speak to you.’
‘As you did before, I collect? That involved me being locked up in your house and intimidated with threats of Bow Street. And yesterday—was it you who chased me? Hunted me through the streets?’
‘Yes, I must apologise if I alarmed you. That was not my intention.’ He shifted a little so that light fell feebly on her hands and on the dark muzzle pointing at his chest. She could see his face better now, or at least the profile. Long nose, uncompromising jaw, high cheekbones.
‘Oh no, not at all, think nothing of it,’ she retorted with honeyed politeness. ‘Alarmed? I merely thought it was either some buck set on rape or Mr Salterton thinking to dispose of his messenger. It would have been foolish of me indeed to have been alarmed.’
‘Hell.’ He put up a hand, rubbed it across his mouth, the first crack in his composure she had so far detected. ‘I intended merely to follow you home and to make myself known. To talk to you. When you ran—’
‘I see. Like a hound you chase anything that runs away. How civilised.’ For such a tiny thing, the pistol seemed to be made of lead. ‘How is the earl?’
‘Better, a little, no thanks to you, Miss Smith.’ The apologetic note in his voice was gone again. ‘He is resting more easily, I think. In poor spirits, it depresses him to be so weak.’
‘I can imagine. My mother—’ She bit back the words. This man did not want to know about her mother, nor should she weaken enough to confide in him, perversely tempting though that was. It must be something about the solid strength of him, she thought, renewing her grip on the weapon.
‘Please go away,’ Nell said firmly. Movement at the end of the street caught her eye. A black carriage, its glossy sides catching the torchlight, pulled in against the kerb a few yards behind the viscount. ‘I do not wish to speak to you.’
‘But I want to speak to you.’
‘And what you want, you always get, my lord?’
‘Mostly.’