“I do not.” Gideon would not be moved on this.
The more he had thought about it afterward, the more unsettled he had become.
“You must understand that another man, faced with… such an assault… if he lacked restraint, if he lacked honor…” She needed to hear this. “Such a man would not have cared how he subdued you.”
An ordinary gentleman, caught unexpectedly beneath such frantic blows, would have struck back instinctively. Another sort of man would have fought back.
The thought alone turned Gideon’s stomach.
“There was something terrifying about it,” he admitted quietly.
Her head turned sharply toward him then.
“Not you,” he clarified. “Never you.” His gaze held hers steadily. “The fear itself.”
For one long moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Beatrice looked away again.
And that fear he’d experienced all night… that gut wrenching, horrifying fear that inevitably, she’d take one risk too many, had him saying the one thing she never wanted to hear.
“You must stop putting yourself in these situations.” He’d not compromise on this.
Her response was a decidedly unladylike half laugh, half snort.
“I’m not joking, Beatrice.”
“You can’t tell me what to do.” She dropped her hand from his arm and her pace increased. Gideon kept up easily.
“I can when you throw yourself into danger without a second thought.”
Her chin lifted. “I do have second thoughts. And third ones. I'm not reckless.”
“You aren’t. Until you are.”
That struck true enough for her steps to momentarily falter.
For several moments they walked without speaking.
Then, more softly, he said, “If something sets you off again, if, while confronting one of these scoundrels, you feel threatened, so much that you cease thinking clearly… if those emotions carry you beyond reason…” He hesitated.
Because there it was. The heart of why he had asked her here.
The honorable reason, at least.
The promise.
Not just to Dash, but to himself.
Protect her. At the time, Gideon had thought the task easy enough. Simple, even.
Now it consumed him.
“You will no longer place yourself directly in danger,” he said firmly. “The Vigilance Society may continue if you insist upon it, but not outside of the ballroom.”
Beatrice stopped walking altogether. And then, she pivoted toward him. “What?”
“You heard me.”
