As she walked gingerly towards the appointed meeting place she began to doubt her judgment in coming at all. The lower docks were strewn with rough looking sailors that appeared to already be drunk though the day was early, mangy dogs with rabid mouths, and scantily clad women who had doused themselves in cheap perfume in attempts to hide the filthy smell of their bodies. They were looking to take advantage of the sailors who had just docked and who hadn’t the privilege of a woman’s company in who knows how long. The sight of the eager men throwing themselves at the women was repulsive. She tried furtively to avoid looking at anything around her, reminding herself of the desperate situation she was in to help encourage her on her mission and bolster her courage.
When she finally reached the place the boy had given her instructions to she halted, looking around for the frumpy man with the thick eyebrows and mustache that was supposed to meet her. Her eyes scanned her surroundings not finding who she was looking for. Before she could decide what her next course of action would be she felt a thick hand snake around her abdomen and pull her roughly back towards a fleshy chest, while the other hand went straight for her mouth. She had barely gotten out half a scream before she felt the dirty hand clamp tightly over her mouth, smothering the rest of her scream.
***
Just as Elliot had bid farewell to Soren and Lady Noelle a woman had caught his eye. The appearance of a woman at the docks was not all that unusual, but this girl was different than the haggard, bawdy women that were usually seen walking the docks with hopes of selling their bodies to the eager sailors. No this woman was defiantly not common. He watched her stroll nervously past towards the shady part of the docks and a feeling in his gut told him something wasn’t right. Though he hadn’t gotten a good look at her, he was almost positive that she was a lady, and completely out of her element.
Curiosity got the best of him and with some trepidation he began to follow the girl at a distance, making sure she wasn’t aware of his presence. As he watched the girl dart in and out of the crowds he couldn’t help notice her slender, graceful neck. Her ebony hair was nearly the same shade as Felicity’s which only further intensified his nervousness on the girl’s behalf—if he ever found out that Felicity was foolish enough to come to such a dangerous place he would ring her neck.
Suddenly the girl stopped and began looking around. Elliot took advantage of the time to move closer. Just as he was about to approach the girl and insist she let him escort her out of danger, a portly man came up behind her and snatched the girl into his arms, covering her mouth with his hand just as she was beginning to scream.
Elliot didn’t even hesitate, he rushed forward to attack. Though the man was much larger in size, Elliot knew he’d have the advantage of surprise and agility. He snuck up behind the man and grabbed a fistful of greasy hair and yanked his head back as far as he could. In his surprise, the man let his grip on the girl slip, but he quickly recovered. With one arm securely around her waist, he let his other hand slide down to his pocket where he retrieved a dagger and quickly brought it up to his captor’s throat.
Refusing to let go of the man’s hair, Elliot saw the silver blade flash in the sun and quickly looked down to assess the damage. He gasped in surprise as his eyes settled on Felicity’s face. His stomach rolled at the site of her pale neck under the blade of the dagger and for a moment he was too petrified to act; one wrong move and Felicity’s life would be over. He knew that whatever his next move was, it would have to be quick and effective or she wouldn’t stand a chance.
He lifted his free hand up to the man’s neck and pressed his thumb angrily into his jugular and held it firmly there with as much pressure as he could apply.
The man struggled to speak, “Get yer filthy hands off of me!”
“Drop the knife and let the girl go and I’ll consider it.”
Elliot knew the man was struggling for air when it took him a few long moments to respond. “Not on yer life. I have business with this girl.”
“The only business you have is with me, and if you don’t do what I say you won’t be around much longer to do business with anyone ever again.”
The man growled and tried to shove his shoulder back into Elliot with the hopes of catching him off guard, his concern for his own life thankfully overshadowing his interest in Felicity. Elliot stumbled slightly as he heard Felicity scream. The knife had nicked her neck, causing a small drop of blood to trickle out down her throat.
At the sight of Felicity’s blood Elliot went wild. He put both hands around the man’s fleshy neck and choked him as hard as he could. The man’s arms eventually went limp and Felicity was able to stumble out of his grasp. When Elliot saw that she was out of immediate danger, he twisted around to the front of the man and kneed him in his privates as hard as he could. The man crumbled to the ground groaning in agony.
Elliot squatted down next to the man and hissed, “If you ever touch her again, I’ll kill you.” The man looked at Elliot with fear, nodding his understanding.
Elliot rose and brushed his hands off on the side of his breeches before turning to face Felicity.
Felicity’s emerald eyes widened in surprise. “Elliot?”
He didn’t answer her questioning gaze, instead he reached forward and grabbed her wrist tightly and began dragging her away as fast as he could, attempting to get away from the odious man before he had a chance to recover from the blow Elliot had inflicted and come after them. Felicity had to stumble to keep up with him but he seemed unaware of anything but getting them out of there as fast as possible.
Chapter 11
Felicity’s wrist was aching by the time Elliot finally slowed his pace. He had been dragging her along for what seemed like an eternity. Her cloak had come undone and was trailing behind her, the ties rubbing against her throat causing it to become irritated. She reached up to loosen the strings causing her cloak to fall to the ground before she had chance to catch it.
She reached up to rub some of the pain away from where the ties had been abrading her skin when she brushed her hand against the nick the knife had made on her neck. She gasped at the pain the contact with the injury had caused. The sound of her gasp made Elliot stop. He reached in his pocket and withdrew a handkerchief and began tenderly dabbing at the bleeding cut. He finished cleaning up the blood while neither of them uttered a single word. When he was done he bent his head and kissed the spot gently, as a mother would kiss a child’s wound to make everything all better. The tenderness of the moment took Felicity off guard. Before she had time to react he was pulling her once more down the street, though this time more gently, her cloak all but forgotten.
Elliot didn’t stop until he had reached his waiting carriage. He hefted Felicity inside effortlessly before hoisting himself up and sitting directly beside her. He reached up and tapped on the ceiling indicating his driver to take off.
Felicity turned to him, “Where are we going?”
“Nowhere until we get some things settled between us once and for all. We can drive around London all day long for all I care, but I’m not letting you out until you’ve listened to me.”
Elliot looked down on her slender form and noticed she was shaking. “Are you cold?” he asked as he removed his jacket and placed it around her shoulders.
Truthfully, she wasn’t cold, she was frightened and anxious and shaking because she could see clearly what her fate would have been had Elliot not shown up when he had. “Why did you follow me?”
“I didn’t know it was you, all I knew was that I saw a girl who was completely out of place walking towards the lower docks and I knew that was no place for a lady. I thank God that I had the sense to follow you.”
“Me too, thank you.” She whispered with sincerity.
Elliot turned to her and grabbed both shoulders in his hands, trying to ignore the way his blood heated at any physical contact with her. He had been hoping that sheer will power alone combined with his attempts at blocking her from his mind would erase th
e effect she had on him, but apparently it wasn’t so.
“What were you thinking going down to the docks? What in heavens were you hoping to accomplish, besides getting yourself killed?”
Felicity looked away sheepishly. “It was foolish of me.”
“Of course it was,” he barked. “We’ve already established that. What I want to know is why. Why did you do it?”
Shaking her head she said, “The why’s not important,” she was much too embarrassed to admit to him why she had gone there that day. “Suffice it to say that I’ve learned my lesson and it won’t happen again.”
“No Felicity,” he urged. “It is important. I don’t think you understand the danger you so willingly put yourself in. I don’t think you understand how completely messed up I would be if something would’ve happened to you, if I hadn’t been there to help.”
His voice was thick with emotion as he spoke and she didn’t dare look into his eyes. “I said I’m sorry.”
“It’s not enough.”
That made her angry. She turned to him then, her chin tilted in defiance. “I’m a grown woman who doesn’t have to answer to anybody, not even you. I’ve admitted the foolishness of my actions and have apologized. Please instruct your driver to take me home.”
He leaned in close, his face a mere inches from hers and growled, “I’ve already told you that I’m not taking you anywhere until I get the answers I seek. I want to know what’s going on Felicity, why the façade? One day you suddenly disappear from my life and four years later return in the same abrupt matter, only this time you’re pretending to be someone you’re not. Why?”
“You aren’t one to talk—you were pretty convincing in your little game four years ago,” she sneered.
Elliot reeled back. “What do you mean?”
“Pretending you were in love with me,” she spit out. “Pretending that you had planned to be with me forever, planned to marry me. All so you could get into my bed.”
Elliot looked as if he had been slapped. “That was not an act, none of it.”
“Sure. That’s why when my father found out about—when he found out that you had ruined me that you were so quick to make it right. So quick in fact that I never saw or heard from you again.” Her voice was dripping with anguish, her sorrow cutting him to the core.
Elliot was speechless. He had so many thoughts running through his head he could barely sort them out. He watched Felicity slide away and pull his jacket tightly around her before sliding her hands into the pockets, all the while avoiding having to look at him.
After a tense moment of silence she pulled her hand out of his pocket and held up a worn lavender ribbon, eyeing it curiously. “What is this?”
Elliot looked sheepish. “Remember that day we had a picnic at Kensington Gardens?”
“Yes.” She replied curtly, waiting for him to continue.
“It fell out of your bonnet.”
She looked at him peculiarly, “This is my ribbon?” He only nodded. “Why do you have my ribbon in your pocket?”
He reached over and snagged the ribbon out of her hand and stuffed it furiously into his waistcoat pocket next to his pocket watch.
Seeing the discomfort the subject brought him she couldn’t help but pry. “Elliot, why do you have my ribbon?”
“Maybe I needed it to pull my hair back.” He said flippantly.
Felicity rolled her eyes. “Nonsense. Why do you have my ribbon?” she asked him once more.
He didn’t answer her at first, instead sitting there mulling his thoughts around in his mind. Finally he decided to be honest with her. “Because it’s the only thing I had of you. I’ve carried that ribbon around for four years because it’s all that I had left, the only thing I had to remind me that you really existed outside of my imagination.”
Felicity was oddly touched by his declaration but confused at the same time. Choking on a sob she asked, “Then why didn’t you come?”
Elliot’s heart wanted to break at the pitiful picture she made. Her face looked tormented and he realized she must feel as horrible as he did. He slid across the bench so he was sitting close enough to take her hands tentatively into his own. “Felicity I did come.”
He was staring into her face waiting for a reaction. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she shook her head back and forth, tentatively at first then more frantically as she spoke. “No, that’s not what my father told me.”
“What did he tell you?”
Felicity tugged her hands out of his and balled them into fists. “It’s irrelevant now. The past is in the past and there’s nothing we can do to change it. I guess we weren’t meant to be.”
“You don’t mean that. Is that really how you felt all those years ago? Is that how you felt that day in the cottage when we—”
Felicity flinched and held up one hand to cut him off, “Please don’t speak of that day.” Letting her hand fall limply back into her lap, she turned once more to gaze absently out the window.
Elliot watched her profile as she stared out the window avoiding his gaze. Still after all of these years apart, she was easily the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on, the only woman who had ever haunted his dreams and occupied his heart. Her delicate, fine boned features bordered on exotic. Her dark hair was in perfect contrast to her alabaster skin. Her almond shaped eyes were wide and framed with thick sooty lashes, her lips enticingly plump. The small mole under her bottom lip begged for attention and he longed to reach out and touch it, or better yet kiss it.
When she refused to look at him he slid awkwardly to the ground in front of her, clutching both of her hands intently as he maneuvered in front of her line of vision so she’d be forced to look at him. When he had her attention he said, “There’s something I’ve wanted to say to you for a long time—you are the only women I’ve ever loved. You stole my heart completely four years ago and you’ve never given it back. When you left, you took my heart with you and I’ve never been the same. I’ve waited and prayed and longed for you to be back in my life, to be by my side. Maybe we can’t change the past, but we can decide the future.”
Felicity looked long and hard into his ice blue eyes before laughing sardonically, “You’re a known womanizer, a rake. I’ve heard stories of the hundreds of women who—”
This time Elliot put up his hand to silence her, “Hundreds is being extremely liberal, I assure you.”
“Well than dozens, what does it matter?” she quipped.
“I used them Felicity, I used every single one of them to try to dull your memory. But you know what? It didn’t work. You may not believe we are meant to be together but everything inside of me disagrees. I’ve been nothing but miserable since you left, not a day went by that I didn’t pine for you, my heart aching uncontrollably.” Felicity eyed him wearily as he continued, “What I couldn’t understand then and I still can’t comprehend now is why you left and refused to have anything to do with me, not even offering an explanation. Why didn’t you or your father ever answer my letters or accept my house calls?”
“You wrote?” she asked in surprise.
Elliot was exasperated, “Of course I wrote, didn’t you receive any of my letters?” Before she could answer he continued, “Not only did I write but I paid multiple visits to your father’s townhouse just to be told that I was never to show my face at any of your family’s estates ever again. I believe one time Ramsey even forcefully removed me from your porch, causing quite a scene I assure you. How is it you’re completely unaware of my attempts?”
“My father told me that you wanted nothing to do with me.” Felicity said painfully. The memory of the day her father had informed her of Elliot’s disinterest had been one of the worst days of her life.
Elliot’s nostrils flared in anger, “That’s the furthest thing from the truth, you have to believe me. I came to your house two days after the Tennyson’s rout to ask your father for your hand in marriage, but I was turned away. I wrote your father multiple times d
eclaring my intent and inquiring after you but he never responded. The last time I attempted to visit your father’s townhouse I was told that you were dead to me. I wasn’t sure what happened but I tried everything I could think of to locate you but I never came to a single conclusion as to where you were or why you left. All these years I’ve never understood why you left me, where you went.” He paused long enough to take a quick breath, “Where did you go?”
Felicity felt hope flare in her chest at his words. Was it true? Had he really not refused to have anything to do with her after he had compromised her that night in the cottage? She felt her heart begin to thaw towards him as she stared into his eyes, hoping with everything in her that she would see sincerity. As he stared back she felt her heart leap and she realized that part of her wanted to replace the hurt and sorrow she had carried around since his rejection with something else, something stronger that was beginning to poke through the layers of heartache and pain. She wanted so badly to trust him. She wanted desperately to believe that he wanted her as badly as she wanted him.
Her hand was shaking as she reached forward uncertainly to lay her palm against his face. She could feel the faintest hint of stubble on his cheek and the slight indentation of his dimple. Elliot seemed to melt into her touch, his eyes pleading for more from her to which she readily obliged. She flung both arms around his neck and pulled his head to her chest. His hands went up to the waist of her dress and knotted into the material, clingy furiously to her as if she was his very lifeline.
His breathing was heavy as he tried to stifle the emotions he was feeling. Being in her arms this way felt so right. He had longed for her touch more than he longed for air. Her arms felt like they were the only thing sustaining him right now and he was already scared at the emptiness he knew he’d feel once she let go. He clung to her more furiously as her own arms tightened around him pulling him as close as she could. His nose was pressed against the bare skin above her neckline and he hungrily breathed in her scent. She smelled exactly as he remembered her—jasmine mixed with her own warm musk.
Ladies of Deception 02 - Misleading Lord Martineau Page 8