Page 17 of Devil in Her Details

His brow furrowed at the last, but he chose to ignore her retort. “You’ll come to see reason in time.”

Blazes. She suddenly couldn’t look at his face anymore, much less stomach speaking to the rogue. With a sharp turn on her heel, she stalked away, the heat of her temper already ebbing. The marquess was not worth the effort of further indignation. She refused to grant the oaf another ounce of it.

A hand clamped around her wrist, jerking Lilly to a halt.

Astounded at his gall, her gaze flung to him. “Unhand me!”

“Lilly—”

She wrenched against his grip. “Release me or I shall scream.”

His fingers tightened.

Lilly had never made a scene in her life. After all, dramatic behavior as the social equivalent of catastrophe. But standing on this street, with his fingers bruising her wrist and his smug certainty that she wouldn’t dare, she found she meant every word. She would scream. And she would make it spectacular. She would give Brighton a scream to talk about for a decade if that was what it took.

“I warn you, Calvington, unhand me or I shall make a scene that will shame you to death. And I have not given you leave to use my Christian name.” Shivers of disgust erupted all over her. “Do so again and I may very well cut out your tongue while you sleep.”

His fingers loosened at last, and she tore her hand free.

“So spirited,” he murmured.

“As opposed to dishonorable?” she shot back.

“In your view.”

How she hated these short, unruffled answers.

Lilly curled her lip in repugnance and swept away, resisting the temptation to break into a mad dash. That would only make her seem weak.

“It would be wise to stay away from other men, my lady,” he called after her. “Do not test my patience in that way.”

So repulsive.

“I’d like to see you stop me,” she taunted over her shoulder without breaking a stride. She refused to falter, to give him the satisfaction of a single hesitation. But his words followed her regardless, settling somewhere unpleasant beneath her skin.

His chuckle filled her throat with bile.

Determination rose. She’d rather work all night to finish Allie’s commission and head to her lodgings for the final fitting rather than allowing them to return to the shop and learn Calvington had already found her. Then they’d never leave, and who knew how that might escalate? And if Dagger Fury came through with his promised payment, in a few days, it wouldn’t matter anyhow. No reason to worry her friends unnecessarily.

Still, she could not quite shake the crawling sensation between her shoulders.

Confound it.

She should have asked for Dagger Fury’s address. That way, she could drive Calvington mad with her client’s presence before he was dealt with. It would only serve him right!

Lilly burst back into her shop, forcing herself not to look back. A small voice in the back of her mind whispered that if Dagger Fury had been present just now, Calvington would not have dared lay a finger on her. The thought was both comforting and deeply irritating. She didn’t need a man to save her. She could hold her own.

Lilly rubbed her wrist.

And yet . . .

She could not help but wonder how long it would take before he decided Calvington had overstayed his welcome in Brighton. Provided, of course, he wasn’t the sort to commission and abscond.

Best she still prepared for the possibility.

*

Fury exploded through Dagger. The force of it was so strong he nearly saw red, and it took everything in him not to draw a dagger on pure instinct and sheath it through the man’s hand. Only he had no damn dagger on him at the moment. That didn’t matter. Marquess or not, the man would rue the day he touched a woman against her will in his town. That bloody fop had to go.