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“Demon?” Aria asked.
Rupert halted.
“Princess,” the bulky man said, and Rupert lowered his candlestick.
None of the duke’s men spoke in Swedish accents.
Aria threw her arms around the man and hugged him tightly. “Oh, I’m sorry, Demon. I was just so happy to see you. I thought a horrible man was inside.”
“I am a horrible man,” Demon said stiffly.
“Er—right.” Aria glanced at Rupert. “This is my former bodyguard. He killed many people during the war.”
“I see,” Rupert said, eying the burly man. “Did you kill them with your bare hands?”
Demon glowered. “The Swedish army provides its warriors with weapons.”
“Right, of course,” Rupert said.
Demon narrowed his eyes. “You must not be very intelligent if you think otherwise.”
“I—er—didn’t mean to imply that.”
Demon glanced at the princess. “Sometimes people think people are intelligent just because they wear spectacles, but it’s not always connected.”
“Very astute of you,” Rupert said.
Demon blinked. “Astute?”
“W-wise,” Rupert said hastily, “it’s really not important. I just meant that your hands looked like they could kill someone without any equipment.”
Demon beamed and held his hands up in the air. “Oh, yes. That is true. I could kill you with my bare hands. That’s what I was going to do.”
Rupert’s stomach tightened.
Demon narrowed his eyebrows. “But what are you doing alone with the princess?”
Rupert’s stomach tightened further, as if a boa constrictor had sneaked into the room and decided the absolute best thing in the world to do was to wrap itself around Rupert’s waist.
Rupert swallowed hard.
“Answer me.” Demon banged his fist on a sideboard, and the collection of clashing knickknacks that the landlady had placed there either in a mistaken attempt to make the room appear cozier, or perhaps simply to torture the maid tasked with dusting, rattled.
“I—er—” Rupert was certain he did know how to speak. Even though he’d been shy as a child, there had never been an actual issue with his vocal cords—just a general self-consciousness about using them. But now, his throat closed.
Oh, no.
Please don’t have an attack.
He was suddenly very aware of Demon’s nearness to him. The man emitted a not particularly pleasant scent, as if he’d recently feasted on a meat pie generously laden with onions. Rupert stepped away.
“Where are you going?” Demon barked and clasped Rupert’s wrist with his hand.
If the man wanted another career, he could simply hire himself out as human manacles. No prisoner would be able to escape.
“I—I” Rupert pointed at his throat.
“Let him go, Demon.” An icy edge was in the princess’s voice.
Rupert’s shoulders slumped. He didn’t want the princess to have to rescue him. He was supposed to be taking care of her. He moved hastily toward the window. The princess didn’t join him, staying near Demon. Rupert’s shoulders eased.
The attack didn’t come. Rupert continued to breathe in regular intervals.
He would be fine. He smiled and glanced toward Aria.
She was engaged in a conversation with Demon, and Rupert’s shoulders slumped. It seemed foolish to imagine he could ever have imagined a night with Aria.
The flowers he’d asked the landlady to put in the room suddenly seemed unimpressive, the colors pale and unmemorable compared to the vibrant roses he found in the gardens of manor houses and palaces. Aria was accustomed to a palace.
The room hardly resembled that of a palace: there was no painted ceiling, with cherubs and seraphs peering at the rest of the world in joyous awe. There were no fluffy clouds, and no cerulean sky. There was no ornate crown molding, and no luxurious chaise-longue in which to recline.
No, there was only a single creaking chair; Rupert wondered whether it had been used by a maid to reach the higher parts of the room to clean. The princess deserved so much better. Even her bodyguard knew it, and he was flummoxed by much else.
“Were you searching for us?” Rupert asked.
“Does my father know?” the princess asked.
Demon shrugged. “No. I just told him I wanted to ride by myself on horseback and would meet him in London. There’s a ship that leaves on Tuesday.”
“But why?”
Demon sighed. “I had a feeling something was wrong.” He jerked his thumb at Rupert. “I saw him trying to break through a room in the castle to speak to you. I needed to know you were safe.”
Aria blinked, and Rupert’s face reddened.
“I encountered Demon before the wedding,” Rupert said.
“Oh.” The princess’s face fell. Perhaps she was thinking of what may have happened if she had heard from Rupert before the wedding. Would she still have married the duke? Might she be a free woman now?
“When I returned to the castle, they told me you were gone. I’ve been looking for you ever since.”
“Are you there more people looking?”
“Oh, the whole castle is looking for you,” Demon said. “I’m just the person who found you.” He looked at Rupert. “They don’t have my tracking skills. I used to find Norwegians during their attempt for independence.”
“Indeed?”
“Untrustworthy people, Norwegians,” Demon said. “Like to roam around in nature. Talk about people who know good hiding places.” Demon flexed his arm. “I kept the country together, though.”
“How splendid,” Rupert said faintly.
Demon’s face grew more solemn, and he turned to Aria. “I’ll keep your marriage together. You shouldn’t have run off with another man on your wedding night. I might not be an aristocrat, but I know that’s not allowed.”
Aria gave a strained smile. “The duke was trying to murder me.”
Demon glowered. “He shouldn’t do that.”
Aria glanced at Rupert. “Mr. Andrews rescued me.”
“This man?” Demon snorted. “Don’t worry, princess. I’m here now. We’ll see you get back to Sweden in no time.”
“I should go to my room,” Rupert said.
Aria’s eyes widened, but she nodded. This was the best thing. She turned to Demon. “Mr. Andrews was only checking on me. I am grateful to him.”
“Hmph,” Demon grunted, still scrutinizing Rupert.
Rupert shivered. He felt small and insignificant. He’d felt like he was in charge of the world earlier. He’d thought he could find happiness with Aria.
Aria didn’t seem happy. When she was happy, she beamed and laughed. She’d realized what could have occurred and how ridiculous the prospect was.
His heart thudded, and he left the room. He made his way to the publican. “I would like an additional room.”
She tilted her head. “Indeed?”
He gave a miserable nod.
She chuckled. “I suppose the night wasn’t a success. After making me fetch flowers.”
Rupert’s shoulders slumped further down.
“The problem is, I don’t have any other rooms.”
Rupert swallowed hard. “Indeed?”
The landlady nodded. “A stagecoach just arrived from London.”
“I see,” Rupert said.
The landlady was silent. “I suppose she flung you from the room?”
“I don’t want to converse about that,” Rupert said, wrapping his arms against his chest.
“That means that’s what she did,” the landlady said triumphantly.
She hadn’t, actually, but Rupert hardly desired to argue with the landlady on that particular point.
“Where should I sleep?” Rupert asked.
“You can sleep in the barn,” the landlady said, and her eyes softened. “It’s warmer there and plenty of hay. Just don’t disturb the animals.”
“I won’t,” Rupert said.
“And don’t eat anything,” the landlady called out after. “Those carrots are for the horses.”
“I won’t,” Rupert promised.
He’d gone from sleeping in the best room in the inn with the most beautiful woman in the world to being told not to steal food from animals.
His heart ached. He’d been so happy with Aria.
I love her.
Now she would see him as simply a man wearing spectacles, of no particular interest to anyone at all, just as everyone else saw him, just as he was. Rupert’s heart ached, and when he left the inn, the sting of cold night air did not distract him from pondering her.
Demon would be with them for the rest of the trip. Rupert shuddered and tried unsuccessfully to sleep.
*
ARIA SCRUTINIZED HER surroundings.
Rupert was acting most uncharacteristically. He was quiet and withdrawn, and Aria wondered whether the only reason they’d been conversing so much before was because she’d been speaking with him and he’d been too polite to halt the conversation.
Certainly, he seemed far more inclined to simply stare at his surroundings with a mournful look on his face.
He’d been so quick to leave the room when Demon arrived. He’d been scared of Demon—a fact Aria wouldn’t hold against him. Demon was paid handsomely by her father to be intimidating. One almost thought that Demon practiced scowling in the mirror each morning: certainly, he excelled at glowering and glaring.
The carriage rumbled forward, maneuvering over the dirt lane with relative ease. Now they were nearer London, the landscape became less interesting, as if England’s founders had decided that a large city needed to be built in the dullest portion of the country to provide some interest. London’s architects, certainly, worked hard to provide that interest.
Yesterday, London had seemed too near, when all she desired was to spend time with Rupert, but now it seemed not near enough.
Demon, at least, was happy.
“Ah, princess, I am glad to have found you. Everyone said I couldn’t do it, but I did.” He glanced at her. “What would you be doing without me?”
Aria’s lips formed a tight smile, as she pondered just what she might have been doing. She carefully kept her gaze averted from Rupert’s. She didn’t want to think about the kisses they’d shared.
It had all been inappropriate.
Rupert was simply a man and far too gentlemanly to remark on any potential impropriety on her part.
“How exactly did you find us?” Rupert asked Demon.
If Demon had found them, couldn’t the duke and his men?
Aria wished Rupert were speaking to her.
Demon beamed. In some moments, he didn’t look frightening at all, merely like a man who’d been blessed with a figure prone to growing muscles and had been able to live a life traveling with royalty thanks to it.
She sighed.
Demon had been the closest person to her for the past year. Her late mother’s jewels were renowned, and her father had been convinced that someone might try to steal them and put Aria’s life in danger. Demon had accompanied her on every trip in Bath to take the waters, surveying the people for signs of daggers or muskets. He’d been at every ball, lest one of the guests decide to strangle Aria with a tasseled curtain tie or smash her head with a champagne flute.
Though Demon was gruff, she was closer to him than the lady’s maid her father had hired in London who helped her dress, then disappeared to the kitchen to mend her clothes.
“I asked at every inn on this road,” Demon said triumphantly. He frowned slightly. “If I had been taking the princess to London and I thought her life was in danger, I would have only gone the backroads.”
“We thought time was of the essence.”
“Hmph,” Demon grunted in a disapproving manner, as if he were a teacher whose students were insisting on providing him with the wrong answer.
“And your hair, princess.” Demon shot a disapproving look at her. “I would suggest you change it.”
She blinked. “How?”
He gave a lackadaisical shrug. “You could cut it.”
She shot him a horrified look.
“That wouldn’t be my first choice,” he said.
“No,” Aria said, though she patted her hair and gazed at him with skepticism, as if he still might decide to do just that.
A carriage appeared behind them, and Demon shot a scrutinizing look at it.
*
“THAT CARRIAGE IS TOO near us,” Demon said.
“Perhaps the horses were recently changed,” Rupert said. “New horses can be quite energetic.”
“Hmph. Englishmen don’t know how to drive coaches. They shouldn’t be driving a carriage as if they were moving through London,” Demon said staunchly.
Rupert turned to look at the carriage, and his heart sank. The carriage looked innocuous. It was not remarkable in any manner. No gilt adorned it, the wheels were painted black, a color used to mask the effects of mud and lessen the need for frequent wheel washing, and there was nothing noteworthy about the shape and quality of the construction.
Still, he recognized the carriage—or rather, he recognized the carriage type.
“The duke owns a similar carriage. Do you think the duke’s men are in that?” He looked around. A village was in the distance, and Rupert pointed to it. “Let’s hurry there and hide.”
Demon craned his neck now the carriage was even closer.
“Unnecessary,” Demon said flatly.
“Oh.” Rupert’s shoulders eased. Then it doesn’t belong to them.”
“No, I don’t think the duke’s men are there,” Demon said. “I know they’re inside.”
Rupert swallowed hard.
Demon turned the carriage onto a side road.
“Is this a good idea?” Rupert asked.
“If the carriage follows us, we know they’ve spotted us,” Demon said.
“Perhaps the person merely lives nearby,” Rupert said.
Demon raised an eyebrow. “Optimism has no place when protecting a damsel in distress.”
Then Demon pulled the carriage to the side and grabbed his musket.
If Rupert had suspected they were being followed, he would have quickly driven into a village where the mere presence of passersby should have ensured their relative safety.
Demon, apparently, had a different opinion of such matters, one that involved seclusion.
Where Rupert fled, Demon simply fought.
The carriage pulled behind theirs, and Demon grinned. “I thought so. Definitely trouble.” He took another musket from his coat and tossed it to Rupert.
Rupert blinked and stared.
“Please tell me you know how to use it,” Demon said.
“I’ve shot targets before.”
Demon slapped Rupert’s back. “Then you might become a man today.”
Rupert bit his lip. How could a man who favored literature over everything else ever be a good match for Aria? Even if she wasn’t a princess, even if he wasn’t poor, they would be entirely ill-suited.
Demon bent down, removed a knife from his boot and handed it to the princess. “Just in case, Your Highness.”
“Thank you,” Aria said primly, and it occurred to Rupert that this might not be the first time that Demon had handed her a knife before.
“Don’t worry,” Demon said to Rupert, “I have another one in my other boot.”
“How convenient,” Rupert said drily.
Demon grinned broadly. “Indeed. You can have your cobbler add one to your boots. It’s worth it. Preparation is vital.”
Demon was speaking with the calmness of a cook explaining the importance of adding spices while cooking, rather than waiting until the meal was about to be served. He seemed perfectly at ease, even while he was preparing for battle and potential blood loss.
“Do you recognize those people, Andrews?” Demon asked.
Rupert frowned and peered warily at the carriage. He braced himself for seeing the duke. He didn’t want to imagine the man’s anger.
But no red-faced aristocrat poked his head from the carriage. After all, the duke probably only drove in absolutely immaculate carriages, even for short distances.
Rupert did recognize the people in the coach, and his heart tumbled to his stomach.
“Those are the dukes’ gardeners,” he said.
“Gardeners?” Demon sniffed. “They must have become tired of arranging flowers. They can’t mess with me.”
Then Demon flung himself onto the other carriage, brandishing a musket in each hand. “Ha!”
Rupert glanced at Aria, but she simply gave him an encouraging smile and relaxed into the pillow.
“It shouldn’t take him too long to scare them away,” Aria said. “We won’t be delayed.”
“It wasn’t the delay I was concerned about.”
“You’re worried about him?” Aria raised her eyebrows. “Oh, he’s exceedingly professional. He’s been longing for just such an occasion since we visited England.”
“Indeed?”
She nodded, a benign smile still on her face. “Indeed. He’s an excellent fighter. You should watch.”
Rupert glanced over at the other carriage. Demon did seem aware of what he was doing. One of the gardeners pulled at his leg, but Demon simply kicked the man away so that he fell onto the muddy field.
“He is impressive,” Rupert admitted, but his heart felt hollow.
“Quite,” Aria said languidly. “People forget Swedes used to be ferocious Vikings.”
“Well, I hope he’s not planning on cutting any of their stomachs open while they’re still alive and tying their entrails together.”
“Oh, that happened centuries ago,” Aria said. “That’s not currently in fashion.”
“Good.”
“Though knowing Demon, he would excel at tearing open their stomachs with his teeth.”
Rupert blinked.
“I’ve seen him eat steak before,” Aria explained.
“Ah!” Rupert said.
A shot fired, and Rupert turned his head quickly to the side.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Aria said. “He won’t kill anyone unless absolutely necessary.”
“How considerate,” Rupert said faintly.
“He really is reasonable.”
Rupert had his own suspicions about a man who chose to fight five men at once. “I wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley.”
Aria did not seem surprised by that statement. Evidently, she’d had her own suspicions about Rupert’s ability to protect them.
Galileo began to bark, and Aria quieted him.
Finally, Demon returned. “They won’t be troubling us anymore, Princess.”
Aria exhaled. “I’m not in the least bit surprised.”
“Did you kill them?” Rupert asked worriedly.
“Of course not,” Demon huffed. “I frightened them. They’ll be having nightmares about me for years.”
Demon sat back at the driver’s seat, and the carriage continued on, but Aria’s words echoed in Rupert’s ears.