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John drew a breath to answer, but no words emerged from his mouth.
“I thought so,” Sam muttered under her breath. She turned from him and started walking away.
“You know that’s not true,” he called after her. From the volume of his voice, she deduced that he’d ceased following her.Good. She didn’t need him. She put a hand to her abdomen. They didn’t need him.
As soon as Sam entered her home, she was ambushed by Isabel. Once she removed her outer clothing, Sam looked questioningly at her hovering sister.
“Did you see him?” Isabel asked with raised eyebrows.
“Yes.” Sam moved farther into the house. “He should be here shortly. He trailed me all the way home.”
“What did he say?” Isabel asked as Sam started up the stairs.
“That he was sorry.” Sam hadn’t turned to her sister, so she didn’t see her reaction, and she was too weary to describe the full encounter. Let John tell everyone for a change. She needed a rest.
She ordered a bath as soon as she got into her room. Her heart was fluttering inside her chest.He is here, he came for me, it sang. But her brain told her to cease the girly dreams. He was not the man she’d thought he was. He wouldn’t fight for her. He wasn’t the reliable man she’d thought him to be.
* * *
John was greeted at the door by the menacing figure of Sam’s eldest brother. When he’d arrived earlier, Gage was out of the house. Now, he would have to confront him in order to get to his wife.
John raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “If you want to hit me again, Gage, feel free.”
“Give me at least one reason why I shouldn’t?”
John shrugged. “There isn’t one.” He widened his stance and beckoned Gage with both his hands.
Gage smirked and turned away before planting his fist into John’s face. John stumbled and hit the door behind him. He wiped his face with his fist, watching the blood smear his gloves.
“That barely even hurt.”
“Oh, for God’s sake!” Isabel exclaimed from the top landing and hurried down the stairs. “Richard, you can’t keep hitting people.”
“Not people! Just him.”
Isabel raised her brow at him.
“What do you want me to do? Stand by and watch as he hurts Sam?”
“No, but he is her husband. You can’t keep him away from her.”
“I am not letting him into this house.”
“Where do you propose he sleep?”
“It is not my problem!” Gage crossed his arms over his chest and planted his legs apart in a stubborn stance.
John heaved a sigh. “I just want to speak to her.”
“You arenottaking her away from this house.”
“Respectfully, it is not your decision to make. It is Sam’s.”
“Like hell it is!” Gage growled. “I am not letting her out and that’s that.”
John contemplated his next step for a moment, before turning lightly and punching Gage right in the face. The viscount staggered and fell on his arse. He blinked, looking surprised, before lunging at John and crashing him into the side table. John hit his lower back and felt a sharp pain, but adrenaline kicked in so he threw the viscount off him and dealt him another blow. A crash sounded, and both men turned, panting, at the sound. Isabel stood on the first step of the grand staircase, a broken vase at her feet.
“Would you stop acting like out-of-control adolescents?” she yelled.
