“Colin?” Nathaniel immediately folded his arms behind his back. “What are you doing, running around the gardens like that?”
Colin waved a hand, stooping to catch his breath. “I came… to… find you. I was… out by the… western potting sheds. I saw… Leah, and thought… I saw you with… her.” He banged on his chest. “But it… was not you. I think… she is in trouble, so… I ran to fetch help. But I could… not find you. Then, Daniel… told me you had come out into the gardens… with a lantern. He did not… understand why, but I did. So… here I am. I would have… tried to help Leah myself, but… have you seen me? He would flatten me.”
Robin, perched on Colin’s shoulder, made a mournful sound.
“Who would?”
Colin stood to his full height, wheezing a little. “The man… who was with her. The one from the… botanical gardens. I cannot recall his name, for he is… not a plant.”
“Where were they?” Terror gripped Nathaniel’s heart in a frozen fist.
“At the far… edge of the terrace. That way.” Colin pointed vigorously, and Nathaniel took off without another word.
Sprinting as if his life depended upon it, which in some ways it did, he followed the low wall that bordered the terrace, deciding to use the element of surprise. If he did not, and Jonathan saw him approaching, he feared that the scoundrel might do something to hurt Leah.
Minutes later, Nathaniel spotted them… and his worst fears were realized. Jonathan had Leah cornered, pressed back against a wall of boxwoods, his hands gripping her arms. And the wretch seemed to be leaning in as if he meant to either butt her forehead with his or kiss her.
Putting all the strength he possessed into his legs, Nathaniel leaped and grabbed the lip of the low wall, vaulting over it no more than ten paces from where Jonathan and Leah stood. He closed those last ten paces in a heartbeat, his fist curling around the back of Jonathan’s collar, yanking the cretin so hard that a strangled yelp cut through the air. In his shock, Jonathan let go of Leah while Nathaniel circled his arm around Jonathan’s neck, pulling him backward until there was a safe distance between that viper and Leah.
Bubbling with a fury unlike any he had ever experienced, Nathaniel released the choking hold and shoved Jonathan into the manor wall. As Jonathan tried to recover, Nathaniel walked right up to him until he was as close as Jonathan had been to Leah not a moment ago.
“You were warned,” Nathaniel growled. “You were told not to go near my future wife again, yet you have defied me not once but twice.”
Jonathan cowered, putting up his hands to try and cover his face. “She asked me to meet with her. She is the seductress!”
“That is not true!” Leah shouted though she did not approach.
“I detest liars,” Nathaniel hissed, “almost as much as I detest gentlemen who do not keep a promise. But do you know what I loathe more than anything?”
Jonathan shook his head feebly.
“I loathe gentlemen who would try to force a kiss upon a woman,” Nathaniel seethed. “And not just any woman, but the woman I love. Is this supposed to be revenge, Jonathan? If it is, I should warn you, you have been marked.”
Fear widened Jonathan’s eyes to the whites, his hands trembling as he asked, “What do you mean?”
“I have encountered the sort of men who make your attempts at revenge and deceit look like a child’s game,” Nathaniel replied coolly. “Some of them are acquaintances of mine. Acquaintances who owe me several favors. And as my last warning was obviously too gentle, allow me to give you another. If you strike against my family, if you strike against Leah, if you strike against anyone I care about in any way, and that includes petty tales in the scandal sheets, you will find yourself looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life. A short life, probably.”
He did not mean a word of it, not really, but he needed Jonathan to believe it. He needed Jonathan to understand that he would do whatever it took to keep the people he loved safe. Considering the terror in Jonathan’s eyes, it seemed he understood, loud and clear.
“That means, in case it is not obvious, you are not to come within a ballroom’s length of Leah again for any reason. You do not speak to her, look at her, mention her name, or your poor wife shall have to find another husband,” Nathaniel added for good measure, “and though she might delight in that, I trust you will be sensible this time. Those men are waiting for my word. It is up to you if I send for them or not.”
Jonathan had turned a deathly pale, his entire body quaking. “F-Forgive me,” he stuttered. “Do n-not send for them. I w-will stay away, I swear it.”
“Ensure that you do, for if you do not heed this warning, there will not be another,” Nathaniel said, taking a step back. “Now, go. Fetch your wife and leave this manor so that the rest of us may enjoy what is left of our evening.”
Jonathan did not need to be told twice. Stumbling and swaying as if he might faint, he took off along the terrace, not stopping until he vanished into the house. And though Nathaniel could not be certain that the wretch would heed the warning this time, he knew that Jonathanwouldbe looking over his shoulder for a long while, even if no one was following.
And I did not need to raise a fist,he realized, pleased by the notion.
“Are you not a hypocrite?” Leah’s voice turned his head. She walked hesitantly forward, shaking with a violence that led him to shed his tailcoat.
He hurried toward her, putting the tailcoat around her shoulders, his hands rubbing her arms to coax some heat into them. He did not stop to think that she might not want him to touch her; he just wanted her to be warm. “A hypocrite?” he asked, worried. “In what regard?”
“You said you detested liars, but you lied to him,” Leah said, her teeth chattering.
“Of course, he will come to no real harm, but I could not let him know that,” Nathaniel replied, wondering how hard she would slap him if he tried to embrace her, to share his body’s warmth with her.
She shook her head. “That is not the lie I meant. I mean the lie about me being your future wife. You made your opinion very clear when we last spoke to one another.”
