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His friends came at him, two of them grabbing his arms while the other three punched him. He got in a few good punches of his own, for two puny lords were not going to hold him down for long.
Where were the footmen?
He’d taken down two of those supposed gentlemen, but there were still four left to go, and one of them had managed to land a lucky punch to Perin’s eye with that signet ring on his hand, leaving him with a bloody cut above his eye.
He knocked that man out cold and had started for the others when the lords suddenly began flying off him.
Finally, those blasted footmen took notice.
But as the last of them were pushed off him, he realized it was Westcliff himself and…oh, hell…Aurora, tossing them off. She had a candlestick in her hand and had coshed Rodrick over the head with it. She might have gotten one or two more of them with that highly polished weapon.
“You vile heathens,” she was shouting at all six of them, who now lay sprawled on the ground and groaning. “How dare you! And to insult Lord and Lady Dexter with your behavior! Have you no shame? Have you no honor?”
“Are you all right, Perin?” He realized Lady Westcliff’s eldest brother was now kneeling beside him. Of course, William Croft, another of Peter’s siblings, had also been tossing off those attackers. William happened to be Baron Whitpool.
Great, an earl, a baron, and an earl’s daughter all come to his rescue. Was there any chance they were not going to be front-page gossip fodder for the London newspapers? Or that his name and gambling houses were not going to be mentioned?
“I’m fine.” He grinned as he watched Aurora still standing over those chastened lords, waving her candlestick as she continued to excoriate them for their behavior.
William chuckled. “She is magnificent, isn’t she?”
Perin nodded.
Aurora’s father now knelt beside him. “You have a nasty cut over your right eye. Dr. Farthingale is here. He will tend to it.”
“And I will hold your hand while he does,” Aurora insisted, now waving the candlestick at him to halt his protest. “It is my fault those beasts attacked you.”
“It wasn’t your fault. They were merely protecting their territory from interlopers.”
She knelt beside him and put her handkerchief to his cut. “I am no man’sterritory.”
“I did not mean you specifically,” he said. “They are the offspring of English peers. They have ruled England since the time of Magna Carta.”
“Give or take a few bloody rebellions,” Aurora muttered.
“My point is, they were protecting their way of life. They see me as part of the tide that is about to sweep them out of power.”
She cast him a cynical glance. “How very insightful of you, Perin.”
“Are you being sarcastic with me, Lady Aurora?”
She dabbed at the blood on the side of his eye. “Yes, I am. Do you mind?”
“No, I will never mind what you say to me. I need to be put in my place every once in a while. As you know, I can be an arse at times.”
“But a very nice one,” she said and then moved away as the doctor tended to him.
Was he making a mistake with Aurora?
Was it possible she could be more than a dream to him?
Dare he hope?
