Eight.

"Put me down," Nell insisted for the twentieth time. She pummeled him with her fists to add force to her demand.

"Not till I've got you safe," Harry stumped on, unperturbed by the stares of strangers on the street. "My aunt's house is around the next corner."

"This is kidnapping."

"So it is." He patted her on the rump and she squeaked with annoyance and thumped him on the back.

Nell subsided as he reached his aunt's house and rang the doorbell. "Good morning, Sprotton," Harry said. "Lovely morning."

"Beautiful, Mr. Harry," the butler responded smoothly, quite as if Mr. Harry didn't have a woman draped over his shoulder.

"My aunt in?"

"No, sir, you've missed her by half an hour or thereabouts."

"Pity. Oh well, when she returns, let her know we have a lady come to stay with us." He bent and placed Nell on her feet, saying, "Lady Helen Freymore, this is Sprotton, my aunt's butler. Sprotton, she'll be staying in the best spare bedroom."

Her hat had fallen off somewhere in the street, her hair was straggling out in all directions, and she was certain she looked like she'd been pulled through a hedge backward, but Nell extended her hand to the butler, saying calmly. "How do you do, Sprotton?"

"Welcome, my lady," Sprotton said and shook her hand with equal dignity.

"Sprotton, Lady Helen's baggage is currently at-" Harry turned to Nell. "Where were you staying again?"

There was no point arguing. She had no future with Mrs. Beasley anymore. Nell gave the butler the address of her lodgings and told him what to fetch. He bowed, issued instructions to two waiting footmen, and sent them off.

"Would you like a cup of tea, Lady Helen?"

"That would be lovely, thank you, Sprotton," Nell said.

"In the withdrawing room?" the butler inquired, indicating the room with a subtle gesture.

"Perfect," Nell said and stalked into the withdrawing room. She was hopping mad.

Harry followed her, his eyes twinkling. She seated herself on a small hard chair and regarded him coolly. "So, as I told you it would, that meeting cost me my job."

"Yes," said Harry. "Sorry."

"You're not sorry at all," she flashed. "You're as pleased as punch about it."

"I know. And once you've calmed down a little, you'll realize you're much better off. I'll take you to London and help you do whatever it is you need to do."

"And what if I don't want to do it with you?"

That wiped the pleased expression from his face. But only for a second. He shrugged. "Better with me than with that harpy."

"At least with her my personal business would have remained private," she muttered ungraciously.

"And it wouldn't with me?"

"No."

"But you've lived with her for several weeks and you've only met me four times."

"Yes, but even after two weeks with her, she's still a stranger, whereas-" She stopped, aware she was giving too much away. It was frightening how quickly he'd got under her skin.

They sat for a moment in silence. "Thank you for coming to my defense," he said eventually. "I was very touched."

She made an embarrassed gesture.

"It actually doesn't upset me, being called a bastard," he told her. "I've been called one all my life. One becomes inured to such things."

"I could never become inured to it," she said vehemently. "I hate that word and I won't have it spoken in my house. My presence," she corrected herself belatedly.

He gave her a thoughtful look. "I see."

"No, you don't," she began, but just as she was about to explain, Sprotton entered with the tea tray. To Nell's surprise, as well as the pot of tea, there was a large plate of sandwiches, some ginger cake, and half a dozen jam tarts.

"Surely it's not time for luncheon," she said.

"No, my lady, but Cook thought seeing as Mr. Harry left the house before breakfast he might be glad of a little something before luncheon."

Mr. Harry, whose mouth was already full of ham sandwich, nodded at Sprotton and winked at Nell. When he'd swallowed, he said, "Delicious. Tell Cook she was spot-on as always. I'll pop in myself and thank her later."

He saw Nell's look of surprise and said, "I first met Cook when my brother Gabe and I were growing lads and always hungry. She made it her mission in life to feed us." He took another sandwich and added plaintively, "She still thinks I'm a growing lad."

Sprotton said dryly, "I shall correct her misapprehension, Mr. Harry."

"Do so at your peril, Sprotton," Harry said with a grin and reached for a third sandwich. The butler bowed ironically and glided from the room.

It was the first time Nell had seen Harry Morant in his home environment. She liked the easy way he had with the servants. It made him more appealing than ever.

She drank her tea. She had to tell him.

The door flew open and Lady Gosforth sailed in. "Such a to-do," she declared, removing her hat and handing it to the butler, who'd followed her in. "Another cup, Sprotton. The Pump Room is in uproar, my dears. Such excitement. The whole of Bath is agog." She removed her coat, plumped herself down on the sofa and regarded them with sparkling eyes. "So, we have a wedding to arrange."

"Yes," Harry said.

"No," said Nell.

"Yes," Harry repeated more firmly.

"He's right, my dear," Lady Gosforth told Nell. "There really is no choice after the public scene he made. Did he really carry you bodily from the Pump Room and up the street?"

"Carried her all the way into this house," Sprotton murmured as he filled a cup with tea, added lemon, and passed it to her.

"Wonderful. What a tale! Harry, dear boy, I never thought you had it in you. Will we have the wedding in Bath or in London?"

"There won't be a wedd-" Nell began.

"In London," Harry said. "Nell wants to get to London as soon as possible."

"Excellent. I'll make all the arrangements." Lady Gosforth drained her teacup and bounced to her feet. "Oh, I do so love a wedding."

"We leave for London this afternoon," Harry told her. "You'll come with us, I hope, Aunt Maude."

Nell almost spilled her tea. This afternoon?

"I wouldn't miss it for the world. Besides, someone has to take the poor child shopping-she can't get married in the clothes she has." She bent down and kissed Nell warmly on the cheek. "Welcome to the family, my dear. I've been itching to dress you, just itching!" She sailed from the room, clapping her hands, saying, "Sprotton, call the staff together, we're going to London this afternoon. We must pack."

Nell blinked and caught her breath.

Harry saw her expression and chuckled. "Like a whirlwind when she gets going isn't she?"

Nell nodded, then swallowed. "She's very kind. You all are. But-I can't marry you."

"Nonsen-"

"I'm not fit for marriage."

He bent forward in sudden concern. "Are you ill?"

For a second she was tempted to say yes, but she couldn't bring herself to lie to him, not when he'd laid himself so open to her. "Not ill. Morally unfit."

He frowned. "You mean you're not a young innocent?"

"No, I'm not. Not at all."

He shrugged and sat back in his chair. "Which of us are by this age. I'm no pattern card of respectability, myself."

"It's worse than that. I had a baby. A daughter."

He blinked. He was silent a long time, then he said, "Who's the father?"

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter."

"It does."

She set her jaw. "I won't tell you. My daughter has nothing to do with him." She almost snarled the word.

Harry frowned. "You mean he doesn't acknowledge it?"

"No." She met his gaze squarely. "You can ask until you're blue in the face but I'll never tell a soul."

"Not even your daughter?"

"Especially not her."

He didn't like that, she could see. Too bad, she wouldn't change her mind.

He had a grim look in his eyes, but his voice was mild enough when he asked, "Where is the baby now?"

"I don't know. I lost her."

"Lost her? You mean-oh, I'm sorry."

"No!" she said quickly, seeing his expression. "Not lost as in-" She couldn't bring herself to say the words. "She's alive, I think-I pray-but she's lost. As in I don't know where she is. Papa stole her away from me while I was asleep, and before I could find out where he'd taken her he was dead. I think she's somewhere in London."

He said nothing for some time, looking thoughtful. He was shocked, she knew.

"How long ago did you give birth?"

She stared. It was an odd thing to ask. "Just over two months ago."

He frowned. "Two months? And yet when I first saw you, you were traveling alone, uncared for, on the back of a cart!" He sounded furious. "Dammit, you-someone needs to be taking better care of you than that! Two bloody months!"

"I had no choice in the matter," she said quietly.

He seemed to master his anger. "And now you're starting to look for her?"

"No, of course I didn't wait that long! I went after Papa straight away. But he died on the road. I buried him and then went on to London. I searched everywhere for my daughter. For weeks I walked the streets of London, searching for her, asking everyone I could think of, but finally ..."

"Finally you gave up."

"No! I'll never give up on her," she said vehemently. "But I ran out of money and I collapsed in the street."

"Dammit! So you fell ill, because nobody was taking care of you." He clenched his fists.

"No, I wasn't eating enough, that was all. I'd been saving every penny for the search for Torie. That's her name, Victoria Elizabeth, after my mother."

He swore again under his breath.

"I realized then I couldn't go on the way I was. I couldn't help my daughter if I was dead in a ditch. That's why I came home, to Firmin Court, to raise some more money to go back and keep searching until I found her."

Harry stared at her. "That's why your feet and skirts were so muddy," he said slowly. "You'd been walking. You walked home. All the way back from London?"

"Oh no," she assured him. "Not all the way. I got several lifts."

"I wouldn't send a mare on a journey like that so soon after giving birth!" He closed his eyes and said something under his breath. "And when you got there, you found your home had been sold."

She nodded. "I was in flat despair at first, not knowing how I could ever get back, but then the vicar saw the advertisement for a companion to accompany a Bristol lady to London. It was the answer to a prayer."

"And you got the harpy from hell."

"No, honestly, I didn't care a rap for the way she carried on. As long as she got me to London to look for Torie, she could call me anything she liked. My only problem with her was the delay she made in Bath to drink the waters."