by Vella, Wendy
“Put me down, you oaf!” Her fists pummeled him. “I need that job!”
He knew she had pride and also knew she’d never ask him or his family for help, but what was his sister’s piano teacher doing working in the Salty Sailor, or any tavern for that matter?
As luck would have it, his carriage was rolling to a stop where he’d left it, so he opened the door and stepped inside.
“Drive and don’t stop until I tell you, Toddy.”
Dropping Dimity onto the seat, he took the one across from her.
“You bastard!” She spat the words at him. “Why did you do that? You’ve likely cost me my job!”
She was dressed in a cheap gaudy dress that showed off far too much of her lovely body. He saw the rise of her breasts above the ruched red bodice. Rouge was smeared on her cheeks, and her lips were the color of rubies.
“You look like a trollop,” he said. She should revolt him. Unfortunately, she didn’t.
“Don’t speak to me that way! You don’t know me. I hate you!” Words continued to pour from her lips. Defamations of his character, and words that from a man would result in meeting him at dawn.
He’d never seen her this way before.
“Calm down, Dimity.” Gabe used his soothing tone. It didn’t work. The next minute, he had his arms full of irate woman as she launched herself at him.
“Loathsome bastard!”
Her nails were close to his face, so he took evasive action, wrapping both arms tight around her.
“Stop now,” he ordered in the voice that usually subdued his siblings.
“Go to hell!” Her mouth was inches from his, so he did the only thing he could.
He’d wanted to kiss this woman from the first day she stood across from his desk, buttoned into a prim brown gown. Those lips and her lush beauty had slapped him hard in the face. It wasn’t like him to be reckless or take action without thought. But this was different. This, Gabe told himself, was a necessity.
Soft, he thought, and sweet. Her lips tasted so good. Shock had them opening, so he delved inside. His arms pressed her body to his. His head was soon swimming with nothing but Dimity and the need to get closer to her. The need that had his body tight and hard in seconds. She softened and slumped into him. Seconds or minutes; he wasn’t sure how long he held her. Then he felt the sharp sting of pain.
“Ouch!” He thrust her onto the opposite seat and touched his now puffy lip. She’d bitten him.
“Don’t ever do that again.” Her eyes were narrowed and glaring at him, but she was calmer. “I will not be pawed by you.”
“You were kissing me back, Dimity.”
“No, I wasn’t,” she lied.
“I’m sorry.” He said the words slowly, realizing that he did owe her an apology. What the hell had he been thinking to do that to her, especially considering the emotional state she was currently in. Gabe didn’t behave without thinking his actions through… ever. “I should not have done that. I assure you it won’t happen again.”
She gave an abrupt nod.
“I am sorry too,” she whispered. “I should not have spoken to you as I did.” Her jaw clenched, and she looked close to tears again.
“Tell me what you were doing in that place, Dimity?”
Chapter Two
He’d kissed her.
Dimity battled down the wash of wonderful heat being in Lord Raine’s arms had made her feel and let back in the terrifying fear that she’d lost the only job she’d been able to secure out of a list of many. Now how would she survive?
When she’d seen Gabriel Deville, the Earl of Raine, in that tavern, she’d been mortified. She’d once worked as a piano teacher for his sister, and now he’d seen her reduced to dancing on a bar showing off her breasts. Her cheeks burned with humiliation.
Just thinking of Abby made her want to cry. They’d grown to be friends in such short time. Sweet, kind, and everything Dimity rarely was. Her time with Abby would always remain etched in her memory as a wonderful period of her life before it turned to hell.
“Dimity, why were you in that bar?”
“I work there, and as I don’t work for you anymore, I am no concern of yours.” She gathered the tattered remnants of her pride around her and went on the attack. It was the only way she could cope with him seeing her as he had. “I have nothing further to say to you, Lord Raine. You just cost me my job!”
“You cannot tell me you seriously want to work in that place?”
“I am not discussing this further with you.”
Beautiful Gabriel Deville. Tall and handsome, the man carried himself as if he were a bloody king. No stooping or slumping was allowed for the Earl of Raine. His hair was cropped short and the brown locks threaded with silver. “Handsome” was too tame a word for this man; she preferred “disturbing.”
“You will talk to me about it,” he demanded.
He had dark eyes that bored into a person and saw more than they should. If she stayed in his company too long, he would see what she was hiding.
“Stop the carriage!” Dimity hammered on the roof, and it slowed. Grabbing the door handle, she got it open before large hands stopped her and slammed it shut again.
“Don’t stop unless you hear my voice, Toddy!” He roared the words at his driver as he pushed her back into the seat.
“You,” he pointed a finger at her, “stay!”
“Don’t roar at me.”
“I won’t have to if you behave.”
“I’m not a dog, nor one of your poor hapless staff!”
“My staff are well paid and have no complaints,” he gritted out between his teeth.
“You don’t even know their names. You know nothing about them,” Dimity muttered. But he was right; for all he was a hard man, his staff loved and respected him and his brothers. Not that she’d tell him that.
“I have maids named Tilly, Sarah, and Bobbi, which I’m guessing is short for Roberta or some such thing. I have footmen called David, Daniel, and Hogan. Do you wish me to continue?”
She wouldn’t show him she was surprised. But she was.
“You only just learned those because I accused you of being a pompous ass who knows nothing beyond the end of his nose when I worked in your household.”
His smile now held humor. “Flattering though that description was, it did not have me rushing to learn the names of my staff.”
His face really shouldn’t be as handsome as it was, made up of sharp ridges on his cheekbones and a long arrogant nose. But he was handsome, and she’d always found him so. She’d felt the attraction to him as soon as she’d met him that day in his office, when he’d interviewed her. He’d not wanted to hire her, but Abby, who had been there also, had insisted.
Those days seemed so long ago now. Days where she’d enjoyed her life. She’d still experienced hard times due to the fact her father had sent money to her wastrel brother, leaving them short. But she’d been happy. The thought just made the lump in her throat grow. She pushed it to the back of her head with all the others she’d locked away in there.
Everything had changed with the death of her father. The agency had no more work for her, and she’d been thrown from her home by her horrid brother. Blood ties and a promise to their father mattered little to him, it seemed.
“What’s going on, Dimity? Why were you in that hellhole?”
She clung to her anger to stop the fear from making her shiver, to stop the reality of her life from crowding in on her again.
Her father had died a painful death wracked by fever. His last words to her had been ramblings about his Bible and his insistence she always keep it close. She’d hidden it in her things when her brother forced her from the house she’d grown up in with a single bag, and her father’s last wish had been granted.
“I like working there.”
“No, you don’t. No one likes working in such a place. Actually, that’s not true, that other woman seemed happy in her employment. You, however, were miserable
.”
She would never show weakness in front of this man of all people. Stay strong, Dimity. She’d told this to herself over and over since her life had changed beyond recognition.
“Please accept my condolences for the loss of your father. I understand he died suddenly.”
She nodded.
“Talk to me, Dimity. When last we met, you were a piano teacher and my sister’s friend. Abby told me you had students. What changed?”
What indeed, Dimity thought. Even she found it hard to explain how her life had changed so swiftly.
“Please take me home.”
“Where is home?”
“Chadding Street.”
His body stiffened, if that was possible. The man had the best posture of any person she’d ever met. Broad shoulders always back, chin raised as he strode about the place lording it over everyone.
“You cannot be serious. That is not a place for a lady to live.”
“How fortuitous that I am not a lady then,” she snapped. “Just give your driver my address if you won’t let me d-down.”
“You’re shivering.” He pulled a thick blanket out from beneath the seat, and with a flick of a wrist had it opened. Dimity nearly moaned as he lowered it over her. It was blissful. Pulling it to her chin, she huddled into the warmth. Money, she thought, was etched in every thread.
She watched as he rose and lifted the hatch above his head and spoke to his driver. When he sat again, his eyes returned to her.
“If you need money, I can give you some.”
One thing that had not been taken from Dimity yet was her pride. She would not be relinquishing it now.
“I don’t need your money. I want you to drop me at my home and go away, never to return. You’ve cost me my job, so tomorrow I’ll have to start searching for another.”
“I will find you a position.”
“I want nothing you can offer me.”
“A position in a household.”
“No, thank you.” The lure was there. She’d be a fool if it weren’t, yet she would not take it, not from this man.
“Let me help you, Dimity.”
“Why? You hate me and have done so since you employed me as your sister’s piano teacher. Why play the Good Samaritan now?”
“I never hated you—”
“Don’t lie to me!” The words exploded from her. “You disliked me and hated the influence I had on your sister.”
He sighed, which told her she was accurate.
So big and solid. She’d always been envious of the fact that this man protected his family with everything he had at his disposal. There were times when he’d been overprotective, and especially when dealing with the only Deville sibling who was a woman and the youngest of the five children.
Dimity had been envious of Abby. She’d been jealous of the love and protection she received. Jealous that this man would take a bullet for any one of his siblings without a moment’s hesitation. Dimity’s brother hated her and had tried to sell her to someone to pay his debts. She’d taught him a lesson he wouldn’t forget soon.
“I don’t want to talk to you anymore. Just let me out, and you and your family will never see me again.”
“Abby won’t allow you to be absent from her life. You are her friend, and were she not holidaying in Scotland with her husband, she’d be here herself.”
Dimity looked out the window of the carriage. Watched the flashes of light as they passed lamps. Soon that would stop as the streets got narrower, dirtier, and more dangerous.
“Here, take this.”
In one large hand was a wad of notes. Dimity actually curled her hands into fists beneath the blanket to stop from taking them. That money would change her life.
“Take it.”
Pride was a dark and dangerous thing for Dimity. She couldn’t take it, because if she did then she would owe this man something, and that could never be allowed to happen, as she had no means to repay it.
She felt the carriage start to slow. The window told her she was close to Chadding Street. She moved to the door and had it open in seconds.
“Stop, you fool!”
Dimity ignored the earl’s roar and jumped, taking the blanket with her. She tried to keep running when she hit the ground. Instead, she fell, rolled, and regained her feet. In seconds she was off and running into the darkness.
Behind her she heard the thud of his feet, knew he’d be on her soon if she didn’t lose him in the shadows. Weaving left and right with his curses filling the night air, Dimity ducked down a narrow lane, then up another. She stopped only when she could no longer hear his voice or his footsteps. Only then did she double back.
Above her rose the slums that people called home. Narrow, dark, and damp, they housed families that had nowhere else to live. It was a desperate place that she’d been forced to find accommodation in when faced with sleeping on the streets.
Taking the narrow steps up, she stepped over piles of filth and around people who were homeless and came here to sleep on doorsteps and in alleys. Dimity had been here four weeks, and each one had been hell.
Taking the key from her pocket, she unlocked the door, and hurried inside the dark, dank room. Throwing the blanket she’d stolen from the Earl of Raine around her shoulders, Dimity hurried to light the fire she’d set earlier. The few meager pieces of wood threw out a small amount of heat, but it offered both comfort and light, as her candle supplies were precious.
She’d brought only what she could fit in her bag when he’d forced her from the house. Placing her things around the room had done little to create ambience, and in no way could it be termed homely.
A large woof had her going to the door. There stood the biggest dog she’d ever met.
“Hello, Walter.” Dimity clicked her fingers, and he trotted inside. His head was huge, and she thought perhaps his body would be if his ribs weren’t showing. Gray-haired, he always knew when she’d returned. From the first day she’d moved here, he’d spent every night with her. Who he belonged to, she had no idea, but now he seemed to have declared she was his owner.
“I have something for you.” Diving into her bodice, she came out with half a pork pie she’d stolen from the kitchens at the tavern. The dog licked his lips.
“We will share.” She gave him half, which the beast swallowed in one mouthful. Dimity ate hers in three bites.
The earl would be furious, but as they’d likely never meet again, he wouldn’t have a chance to roar at her. Ignoring the ache in her chest those thoughts gave her, she shrugged the blanket off and laid it on the floor.
“On you get, Walter. That will be much warmer than the cold floor, and we’ve discussed the fact you’re not sleeping on the bed. It took me ages to get my legs working again after the last time.”
Tomorrow she’d have to go out and find some other work now that the bloody Earl of Arrogance had made sure her last employment was terminated.
Pulling her father’s Bible from beneath the bed, she ran her fingers over the worn cover. It gave her comfort. She’d not opened it yet; the memories of him doing so were still too raw.
“I miss you so much, Father.”
Chapter Three
With each step Gabe took, his anger climbed. He found no sign of Dimity Brown. She’d leapt from his carriage as if it was stationary. He’d watched her fall and then roll and regain her feet. Was she injured? Where was she? The woman was impulsive and irrational!
He surged between rage and worry as he walked about this godforsaken place attempting to find her. The stench made him want to retch, and the men and women lurking in dark crevices posed a threat. He could look after himself, but what of Dimity? Surely walking about any time of day in such a dangerous place was a risk.
He, who had been trained to be agile and quick-witted, had let her leap from a moving carriage right before his eyes. Gabe’s only excuse was he hadn’t been thinking clearly. She often did that to him.
He should just leave. She’d surviv
e; the woman he was sure was nothing if not resourceful.
“But you won’t leave her because you saw her desperation,” he whispered into the darkness.
With each passing minute, his fear climbed. His need to find her consumed him. For the first time since he’d known Dimity Brown, she was vulnerable, and that was why he would keep searching. That, and the need to see her again.
“It was just a kiss,” he muttered.
“This is not a place for the likes of you.” A man appeared before him suddenly.
“I am looking for a woman.”
“Most of us are.”
“Dimity Brown.”
“Ahh, Miss Brown.”
The way he said the word had Gabe’s teeth snapping together.
“I’ll pay you for her location.”
“There’s many here who would like to lift her skirts and have a romp, but she’s a cutting wench, that one. A man would fear for his fiddle if he dallied with her.”
“One more word and I will put a bullet through you.” Gabe seriously considered just doing it. No one had a right to speak about Dimity like that. “Miss Brown is a friend.”
The man’s smile fell away.
“Tell me how to find her, and I’ll let you live.” Gabe took money out of his pocket and held it out. “Now, or I take it back.”
Minutes later, he was climbing a rickety set of stairs. He walked to where the man had said she lived, then rapped hard on the wood. She was in there, because he heard her make a shushing sound; he just wasn’t sure who was in there with her. The thought that it could be a man made his stomach churn. Had she been forced into doing that to make money?
He thumped on the door again with a clenched fist.
“Me children are sleeping, you bleeding idiot!” The door to his right opened, and an irate man poked his head out.
“Apologies, I am attempting to speak with Miss Brown.”
“It’s my hope you pays her well. She needs it.”
“Pay her?” Gabe queried.
“For her services.” The door slammed.
That rocked him back on his heels. Strong, beautiful, and full of pride. Dimity Brown had no option but to resort to prostitution to survive. The thought made his last meal swirl uncomfortably in his gut.
