“I will never forget your gallantry, sir. If you hadn’t come to my rescue –”
“You would have been robbed and left for dead,” he finished her sentence firmly. “Those street rats never give up once they’ve found a victim, and a young woman walking the street alone makes the perfect target. It would be safer for you if you had a companion.”
She straightened herself, not wanting to appear weak. “None of that is required. I can take care of myself.”
His hands went to his hips, looking very irritated. “You sound so very certain of that. I wonder if you are so naïve that you believe those little vermin would have eventually asked you for some money when you didn’t give them your purse?”
She couldn’t answer him. Desperation and hunger could drive even the most kind-hearted of men to brutality. Surely these children were no different.
“If you have any education at all, you must realize thieves are the lowest form of mankind. They will do whatever necessary to take from those more fortunate than them,” he continued. “Even throw you under a horse and carriage.”
“Don’t talk to me as if I’m a brainless bint, sir,” Nellie snapped haughtily. “I’m not an uneducated, gullible woman who trusts everything in the world is fair and just. Even if I hadn’t lived through what life has dealt to me, my training as a governess has kept me well-versed in the ways of the world.”
“It appears I owe you an apology, miss. I meant no offence, but you need to understand the dangers that will find you in this town should you not be more careful.” He held his hand out to her. “Allow me to take you back to your place of employment now to ensure those thieves don’t come back to finish what they started.”
She glanced at his hand but didn’t take it.
His hand fell back to his side, his confusion obvious. “Are you so stubborn you won’t accept my apology? Or is it that you think I mean to rob you myself?”
She bit her lip nervously. This man had been so kind to her. The least she could do was give him an explanation, even if it meant revealing some of her misfortune to him. Unsure if she was doing the right thing, she cleared her throat. “Stubborn I may well be, but I mean no offence. I only refuse you as I have no employer I can return to right now.”
His gaze narrowed. “Then you must be returned to the family you’re staying with instead.”
She shook her head hesitantly, realising this was going in a direction she wasn’t prepared for. “I have no family.”
“With no placement or family, where are you staying?” he enquired hesitantly.
She glanced over her shoulder to the Great Western Hotel before returning her attention to him.
“You can’t be serious?” he asked in shock, understanding registering on his face. “A hotel is no place for an educated woman.”
“Perhaps not, but it is all that’s available to me right now.” She gripped the side of her skirt nervously, preparing to turn and leave. “Again, I thank you for coming to my rescue. I shall never forget what you’ve done for me.”
Turning, she stepped toward the hotel, needing to get as far away from this man, and the unfamiliar feeling he was creating in her. She should know better than to allow herself to be lured in by such a man, but she couldn’t ignore the flutter fanning her heart.
“Nor shall I forget you,” he uttered, his voice so soft she couldn’t be positive she’d heard him or imagined his response.
Her knees trembling, she continued on her way to the hotel and stepped inside without a backward glance. Who was that man?
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