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Ignoring her protests he swept her into his arms and held her against him for several long moments.
“Just lie still for a moment, darling,” Trenton murmured as he scoured the length of her for any sign of injury. “I’ll get you a doctor.”
“No, I don’t need one,” she croaked. “Please, Trenton. Please don’t call a doctor.”
“Can you tell me what happened?” he asked with a frown. Not wanting to upset her any more, he relented on the doctor for the moment.
While he waited for her to reply, he scoured the area and only then noticed a slim figure, dressed entirely in black. He watched the man disappear into the pedestrians walking along the top of the embankment. It wasn’t that the figure was different to the other pedestrians in any way. Most of the men in London wore black suits. However, very few of them had their collars tugged up to obscure their faces like that man did.
Was that the man responsible for breaking into Ursula’s room last night? Was that man her secret admirer and now, her attacker?
He studied Ursula’s pale cheeks but just couldn’t bring himself to leave her, even for a few minutes, so he could go after his quarry. Right now, s
he needed him and her safety and wellbeing had to come first.
She stared at him blankly for a moment while she wracked her memory for anything other than the curricle ride. “I cannot remember much,” she declared after several moments of careful thought. “My head hurts.”
Trenton looked at one of the urchins. “Go and fetch a doctor.”
“No!” Ursula protested loudly, and immediately winced when her head began to pound. “I am fine. I just want to go home.”
Tears loomed, but she didn’t want to let them fall. She would do that when she was in the privacy of her room, not sitting in the middle of a towpath with what felt like half of London looking at her. She didn’t object when Trenton pressed a handkerchief to a lump on her temple and told her to keep it there before he swept her into his arms and stood up.
“Wait!” she protested. “My posy.”
“What?” he growled.
One of the urchins handed him the posy he had purchased for her earlier. He almost groaned in disbelief and shook his head at the mysteries of the female mind.
After everything that had happened, she was worried about a few small flowers. She had a blasted house full of them at home, yet she wanted the smallest posy available in London.
With a rueful shake of his head, he thanked the urchins for their help and carried his precious burden toward the embankment steps.
“Thank you,” Ursula whispered. She had no idea what had just happened, but she was very glad that he was there. “I should be avoiding you,” she whispered, although had no idea why she should be telling him that.
Trenton frowned down at her. “You should? Why?” he demanded with a scowl.
As far as he was aware he had done nothing wrong – well, apart from kiss her that is, and it certainly hadn’t been enough to scare her.
“You are engaged. We shouldn’t be out together,” she replied.
“I don’t care what anyone thinks,” he assured her truthfully. “Let’s get you home, shall we? Then we can get a doctor to take a look at your head. Then I think we need to talk, Ursula. There are things you need to know.”
“I don’t need a doctor,” she protested weakly.
“Well, let’s see how you feel about that when you get home.” He was fairly certain that she had received nothing more than a small bump to the head. However, he would feel considerably easier once a doctor had given her the once over.
“Are you alright?” he asked when they were half way to Adelaide’s house but she had yet to speak.
“I have a headache. Other than that, I am fine,” she assured him with a weak attempt at a smile.
“Can you remember what happened yet?” As far as he was concerned he had spent far too long concentrating on guiding the curricle through the traffic. The sooner he got her home, the sooner he could talk to her, and see for himself that she really was unharmed.
“I can remember walking down the towpath – just. Then I passed a tree. Suddenly, the world went black. I can remember that someone squealed but cannot remember if it was me.”
“You didn’t see the attacker’s face at all?” He wished he had glanced up a few moments earlier because he felt certain that the man’s face would have still been visible. It was too late to go back now though. The man would almost certainly have disappeared.
“I saw a dark shape, that’s all.” She looked at him hesitantly. “He broke away from the tree just before the world went dark. The shape looked the same as the man who broke into my room last night, but I cannot be sure. Everything was so dark last night.”
