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He allowed her to push him away. She turned her head, afraid to look at him. She knew…if she saw his face…
She was weak. She wouldn’t be able to resist.
“Lucy,” he said, and she realized that the sound of him was just as hard to bear as his face would have been.
“I can’t do this.” She shook her head, still not looking at him. “It’s wrong.”
“Lucy.” And this time she felt his fingers on her chin, gently urging her to face him.
“Please allow me to escort you upstairs,” he said.
“No!” It came out too loud, and she stopped, swallowing uncomfortably. “I can’t risk it,” she said, finally allowing her eyes to meet his.
It was a mistake. The way he was looking at her—His eyes were stern, but there was more. A hint of softness, a touch of warmth. And curiosity. As if…As if he wasn’t quite sure what he was seeing. As if he were looking at her for the very first time.
Dear heaven, that was the part she couldn’t bear. She wasn’t even sure why. Maybe it was because he was looking at her. Maybe it was because the expression was so…him. Maybe it was both.
Maybe it didn’t matter.
But it terrified her all the same.
“I will not be deterred,” he said. “Your safety is my responsibility.”
Lucy wondered what had happened to the slightly intoxicated, rather jolly man with whom she’d been conversing just moments earlier. In his place was someone else entirely. Someone quite in charge.
“Lucy,” he said, and it wasn’t exactly a question, more of a reminder. He would have his way in this, and she would have to acknowledge it.
“My room isn’t far,” she said, trying one last time, anyway. “Truly, I don’t need your assistance. It’s just up those stairs.”
And down the hall and around a corner, but he didn’t need to know that.
“I will walk you to the stairs, then.”
Lucy knew better than to argue. He would not relent. His voice was quiet, but it had an edge she wasn’t quite certain she’d heard there before.
“And I will remain there until you reach your room.”
“That’s not necessary.”
He ignored her. “Knock three times when you do so.”
“I’m not going to—”
“If I don’t hear your knock, I will come upstairs and personally assure myself of your welfare.”
He crossed his arms, and as she looked at him she wondered if he’d have been the same man had he been the firstborn son. There was an unexpected imperiousness to him. He would have made a fine viscount, she decided, although she wasn’t certain she would have liked him so well. Lord Bridgerton quite frankly terrified her, although he must have had a softer side, adoring his wife and children as he so obviously did.
Still…
“Lucy.”
She swallowed and grit her teeth, hating to have to admit that she’d lied. “Very well,” she said grudgingly. “If you wish to hear my knock, you had better come to the top of the stairs.”
He nodded and followed her, all the way to the top of the seventeen steps.
“I will see you tomorrow,” he said.
Lucy said nothing. She had a feeling that would be unwise.
