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“I’d be a fool to say no,” her father said. “Let no one say that Elliott Hampshire is a fool.”
Without thinking, Eleanor hurried out of the house. No, she couldn’t go through with it. Her father could control many things in her life, but she wouldn’t let him control this. Whatever she had to do, she wasn’t going to marry the duke.
***
The anxious pounding on the door woke Byron from his slumber. He turned in his bed and forced himself to his feet. He stumbled over to the wall and pulled his robe off the hook. The pounding was getting progressively louder. He threw the robe on. He had just finished tying the straps when he opened the door.
“Thank God you’re here,” Eleanor said as she slipped into his home.
Alarmed, he shut the door and struggled to blink the sleep from his eyes. “How do you know where I live?”
“I asked your sister, and she told me.”
He hurried to the window and drew the thin curtain aside so he could take a peek outside. How many people had noticed her come into his residence?
Probably everyone. She had been loud.
He saw a few people looking at his house. Gasping, he let the curtain fall back into place and took a step away from the window. This wasn’t good. They were going to assume the worst.
Eleanor darted in front of him. “I need your help. My father is arranging for me to marry the Duke of Winnett. We can’t let that happen.”
It was then that he realized she wasn’t fully attired for being outside. She was missing the hat and gloves, and if he guessed right, she was wearing slippers unsuitable for the outdoors. “What were you thinking by coming here? Don’t you know how bad this looks? People in this section of town might not be obsessed about propriety like they are in your area, but it’s still in bad form for a lady to come unchaperoned to a bachelor’s residence.”
He put his hand to his head. He was starting to get a headache. He couldn’t even begin to fathom what was going to happen. Would people think he was assaulting her even though she was the one who came here? “We need to get you back home.”
“Didn’t you hear what I said?” she demanded as she followed him to his bedroom. “My father is going to force me to marry the Duke of Winnett! This is serious. I can’t spend the rest of my life with him.”
He stared at her in disbelief. “Don’t you understand what you did? Everyone out there knows you’re here. Word will get around London before the day is up.” What was his sister thinking in telling her where he lived? Didn’t Eris realize how bad things would look?
“I wouldn’t have come here if the matter wasn’t urgent,” she insisted. “We both know how awful the Duke of Winnett is. You don’t trust him any more than I do. I came here because you’re my only hope. Certainly, you can stop my father from going through with this. You just need to prove the Duke of Winnett is a horrible person.”
“First of all, I have been working on that. I spent all night watching his townhouse, and I fully intended to make my rounds through London asking people about him. And second, people are going to assume you and I are doing more than talking right now.”
Her eyebrows furrowed. “What will they think we’re doing?”
Oh for goodness’ sakes. She didn’t know? With a bewildered shake of his head, he dipped his hands in the bowl of clean water and washed his face.Let this be a dream. Please, let this be on terrible dream.He looked back toward the doorway and saw that she was still standing there. He groaned and put his face in the bowl. Heaven help them both because he hadn’t been dreaming all of this.
She urged him to straighten up so he was looking at her. “You have to help me. I don’t care what people think we’re doing. I can’t let my father marry me off to someone who makes me sick to my stomach whenever he’s in the same room with me.” She shook him by the shoulders. “This is serious.”
He took her hands and placed them at her sides. Then he let go of her and took a deep breath. “You don’t have to worry about marrying him. Your father will make you marry me now.”
Her eyes grew wide. “What?”
“It’s either that, or he’ll run you off to a convent.”
“Mr. Tumilson, I demand you open the door at once!” came a very angry father’s voice, followed by a loud pounding on the front door.
It was a good thing Byron wasn’t inclined to get drunk. He could only imagine how much worse his headache would be if he was nursing a hangover. He hurried to the door and opened it. He briefly noted that everyone, including the children, were now looking at his house. He gestured for Eleanor’s father to come inside.
“I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” her father snapped. “The footman said he saw my daughter running off, but I can’t believe you would allow her into your home to…to…” Her father motioned to the lack of proper attire on Byron’s body then to his disheveled hair. “You have soiled my daughter. Don’t think I’ll let you get away with this.”
Knowing there was a slim chance her father would believe him, he said, “I was asleep when she came here. That’s why I’m in my night clothes. We didn’t do anything. She only came here because she found out you’ve agreed to let her marry the Duke of Winnett, and she wants me to stop it.”
“It’s true,” Eleanor added as she left the bedroom.
Byron winced. Despite what she thought, she hadn’t helped his case at all.
“What do you take me for?” her father asked. “A fool?”
