Page 69 of The Belle of Belgrave Square

Jasper uttered terse commands to the servants—something about packing Julia’s bags and having Cossack collected from the stables. Jenkins obeyed with all haste, dashing from the room on silent feet. Mary complied, too, eventually.

Julia suspected she knew why.

Mary had been present for Dr. Cordingley’s second visit this morning. She’d stood beside the bed, lips pressed tight in disapproval. Afterward, it was she, not Mama, who had sponged Julia’s brow.

“It’s not right,” she’d muttered under her breath. “Your own mother leaving you to that man.”

Mary rarely criticized anything Mama and Papa did. But this time, Dr. Cordingley had gone too far, and it had been with Mama’s express approval. Perhaps that was why Mary hadn’t barred the door against Jasper or run to fetch Julia’s parents.

Not that any of them could have stopped him.

Julia had the feeling that, once he’d made up his mind, no one on earth could stand in Jasper Blunt’s way.

She tightened her arms around his neck.

“As much as you can fit,” he told Mary as she stuffed clothes into a pair of carpetbags and an old leather portmanteau. “She won’t have the luxury of coming back.”

Jenkins returned from the stables, ducking into the bedchamber to confer with Jasper in a lowered voice.

“Miss Wychwood’s horse is being led round, sir.”

“Excellent.” Jasper strode to the door with Julia in his arms.

Jenkins preceded them. He opened the door quietly, looking out into the hall before motioning Jasper to go through.

The next thing Julia knew, Jasper was carrying her down the stairs.

She supposed she should feel mortified. She was, after all, in her nightdress, with her hair unbound and her arms bandaged heavily beneath her sleeves. But Jasper had respected her dignity. Her quilt was wrapped around her, shielding most of her body from view as he crossed the hall.

“I don’t feel safe here anymore,” she’d told him. “I would dearly like to leave.”

And he’d listened to her. He’d actually listened and understood.

He was right to say he was rescuing her. Julia didn’t think she could survive another visit from Dr. Cordingley.

Jenkins trotted alongside them. “I have your gloves, sir. You left them when last you called.”

“He’s not interested in his gloves,” Mary snapped, dragging Julia’s bags down the steps. “Attend to the door. And then come and get these.”

Jenkins rushed to open it, standing back as Jasper passed through with Julia in his arms.

A glossy black carriage waited in the street, with a liveried coachman on the box and a footman standing by the door. At the sight of them, he opened it and set down the steps.

In seconds, Julia was safely ensconced inside with Jasper. He cradled her on his lap, holding her firmly against his chest. His thighs beneath the thin barrier of her quilt and her cotton nightgown felt as solidly muscular as all the rest of him.

Goodness.

She looked up at him in wide-eyed astonishment. He’d actually taken her in her underclothes. Not figuratively, as she’d told Mary she wished a suitor might do, but quite literally.

“In broad daylight, too,” Julia murmured. “A proper scandal.”

Jasper’s gray eyes shone briefly with wry humor. “You’ll have to marry me now, ma’am.”

“Is that where you’re taking me? To a church?”

His expression became serious. He had the look of a ruthless soldier embarking on a military campaign. “No,” he said. “I’m taking you to Lord Ridgeway’s house.”

The bedroom on the third floor of Lord Ridgeway’s town house was light and airy, the curtains opened to let in the afternoon sun. Traces of lemon polish, washing soda, and beeswax lingered in the air. The fragrance was a comfort to Julia. Surely, nothing depraved could happen in a room that smelled so fresh and clean—even if it was a room in a bachelor’s household.