learn to be discreet with your lovers. But perhaps he’ll allow you to keep your doctor on the line. Then, you won’t have to cease being a whore.”
Titus rounded the corner, looking every bit the gentleman doctor. Hair tidy, jaw clean-shaven, his expensive grey vest buttoned over a shirt rolled up to the elbows.
Except…
He didn’t spare Nora half a glance before he marched up to the Baron, his features a black mask of wrath and retribution as he used his only slightly superior height to look down his nose.
“It is part of my personal creed to do no harm,” he said in a voice measured only with darkness. “But in your case, I’m willing to make an exception.”
His fist drove into her father’s face with all the force of a locomotive, knocking the imposing man over.
Nora rushed forward. Though her father had fallen to his hip, he was still sitting up, holding one hand over his nose. Blood leaked through his fingers as he let loose a string of curses he could have only picked up at the docks.
Titus shook out his hand a few times, testing the mobility of his fingers before glaring down at the man he’d put on the ground.
Even though he looked as though he’d like to murder her father, he reached into his pocket and extracted a handkerchief, dangling it in the Baron’s line of sight.
Lord, but he was an endlessly decent man.
Her father hesitated for a moment, but then took the offering and shoved it beneath his nose with a pained groan. “In your case, I suppose I deserved that,” he said, his voice almost comically nasal and muffled by the handkerchief.
“What is deserved is an apology to your daughter.” Titus looked like an avenging angel, ready to go to battle, wielding his righteous indignation. “It is your fault she is in danger. All of this was caused by the man you selected for her. Tell me, Cresthaven, did you know the Viscount was mad before pledging her to him?”
Dammit, she just fell in love with him again.
“You can stay out of this.” Her father managed to be imposing, even as he leaned his head back to stem the flow of blood from his nose. “Even now, she’s as far above you as the stars are above the treetops.”
“You don’t think I always knew that?” Titus gestured to her, keeping his palm up as an invitation for her to take his hand.
Instinctively Nora reached for him, but then she hesitated. All the words her father said barraged her conscience like a thousand pricks from a thousand daggers.
You will ruin him. He will hate you for it.
Not as much as you’ll hate yourself.
“Honoria,” her father warned. “If you stay, this place will be leveled to rubble at your feet.”
Titus loomed over him, his fist tightening once again. “Don’t you dare threaten me or this institution.”
“I’m not, lad. I’m simply telling you the truth.”
“I’m no lad, you sanctimonious bastard. I’m a doctor, and a soldier, and a scientist. I deserve—”
“You deserve to keep what you’ve built and to retain the respect you’ve earned.”
Both Titus and Nora stood there for a moment, jaws loose as they stared at the man struggling not to bleed onto the carpet.
Had he just paid Titus a compliment?
The Baron pinched the bridge of his nose with a wince, but he was a hard man, not unused to a swinging fist at the docks in his younger days. “I already told Honoria, an alliance with her could ruin everything for you. Her reputation is in tatters, man.”
“My associates aren’t as easily frightened off by a little scandal as yours are,” Titus remonstrated.
“We both know that’s not true.”
Titus’s eyes flicked away from Nora’s questioning look, and with that, her decision was made.
And her heart was shattered.
The Baron only spoke the truth. Her love was the kiss of death, and Titus knew it.
Woodenly, she went to her father and bent to help him up with her one good hand.
“Nora. Don’t.” Titus reached down and lifted the Baron easily, stabilizing him on his feet before turning to her. “I don’t care about all that, I never have. We can find a way to…”
“It’s impossible,” she murmured.
“No, it isn’t. Listen to me—”
“You don’t know what you’re up against,” her father said, checking the handkerchief to see if he’d stopped bleeding. “Her sisters are ostracized and persecuted. The press hound us at every turn, making it damned near impossible to leave the house. They camped out at the