at once." When I didn't, he stomped his foot on the floor like a spoiled child not getting his way.
I gave him a tight-lipped smile. "If you want me to leave, you will have to catch me first."
He glanced past me to the gentleman who must have been quite stunned by my shocking behavior. I didn't care what he thought. I had always been known as the prim and proper daughter of Elliot Steele, but recent events had changed me. Let the dusty old men gossip about me at the guild's dining table. It no longer mattered, since I was not connected to the guild through Father or the shop anymore.
Eddie suddenly dodged to the left. I swerved and moved farther around the table. He growled in frustration.
I laughed and inched closer, daring him to try again. Part of me wanted him to catch me, so that I could force him to act like the overbearing brute I knew him to be in front of a customer.
"You're making a scene," Eddie hissed.
"Good."
He licked his lips and his gaze flicked to the gentleman behind me again. He cleared his throat and squared his shoulders, attempting to look as if he were in control. "Come now, India, be a good girl and leave this gentleman in peace. He doesn't wish to witness your hysterics."
"I'm a little too old to be called a girl, Eddie, don't you think?"
"Quite," he said, his tone grating. "Twenty-seven is definitely past the flush of youth."
He might as well have announced that I was too old to wed. I was surprised he hadn't used it as an excuse to end our engagement, but then again, he'd known my age before he proposed. "Nor am I hysterical," I added.
Eddie smiled. It was all twisted cruelty. I braced myself for his next words. "India and I were once engaged," he said to the gentleman who had remained silent behind me. "Alas, her rather fanciful and forthright nature only became evident after our betrothal. I suppose I ought to be thankful that she didn't hide her true self until after it was too late." His laugh was as insipid as his pale blue eyes. "I had to end our engagement or risk our children becoming afflicted."
"You ended our engagement because you got what you wanted, and what you wanted wasn't me. It was Father's shop."
I only just heard the gentleman behind me clear his throat over the pounding of blood between my ears. Eddie must have heard it too, and he collected himself. He licked his lips again, a habit that I now despised.
"Sir, I do apologize." Eddie bobbed his head in imitation of the little automated bird that emerged on the hour from the cuckoo clocks. He looked as ridiculous as he was pathetic. "India," he snapped at me. "Leave! Now!"
I thrust my hand on my hip, smiled, and spun round to speak to the gentleman and make an even bigger scene. An extremely tanned man with dark brown eyes, striking cheekbones and thick lashes stood there. If it weren't for his scowl, and the signs of exhaustion around his mouth and eyes, he would be handsome. He was everything Eddie was not—tall and dark and broad across the shoulders. He wore a well-tailored black suit, untroubled by his impressive frame, a silk hat and gray silk tie. While his clothing screamed gentleman, his stance did not. He leaned one elbow on the counter as if he were half drunk and needed propping up. A gentleman would have straightened in the presence of a woman, but this man didn't. Perhaps he wasn't English. The deep tan would suggest not.
It took me a moment to remember what I'd been about to say, and in that moment, he spoke first. "I have business to conduct with Mr. Hardacre," he said in a flawed upper class English accent. It was plummy enough, but the crispness had been sliced off and replaced by a slight drawl. "Please take your argument with you when you leave." He held his hand out, showing me the door.
I remembered what I wanted to say all of a sudden. "Mr. Hardacre is a liar and a scoundrel."
Eddie made a strangled choking sound.
"So you already pointed out," the customer said. He sounded bored, but that could have been a result of his accent.
"Is that the man you want to give your custom to?" I pressed.
"At the present time, yes."
Eddie chuckled. My hand slid off my hip and fisted at my