would happily ignore.
She moved past him, approaching an elegant mahogany stand where a basin and pitcher were filled with fresh water. “I am not going anywhere, so you may as well cease fuming at me. You have cuts that need to be cleansed. I do hope you brought your salve along with you, for I fear you will need it for the wound on your cheek.”
Tending to him was a much-needed distraction. It made her feel useful and necessary. It also made her feel less like crying. The sight of him in such a state was worrying. She hoped it was not because of her.
“I can tend to myself,” he growled.
He was not going to run her off; she was determined. She poured water into the basin, found a cloth, and dunked it within, before wringing off the excess. Evie turned to find him standing where she had left him, his expression fierce, his gaze hard.
“I know you can tend to yourself, Theo,” she told him calmly, “but you do not have to. I am here.”
“Not for long.”
His harsh words hit her heart like a handful of pebbles. Stinging pain, but she could endure. Evie ignored them.
She crossed the room to him and took his hand in hers, tugging him toward a chair. “Come and have a seat so I can better see you. You are as tall as a mountain.”
And every bit as immovable. He would not budge from where he stood.
She pulled harder.
He glowered at her. “You are a little bee buzzing about a bear.”
“Then you had best take care, lest I sting you.” She pulled at his hand, noting it, too, was covered in dried blood, his knuckles swollen and cracked.
He did not wince as she tugged on his battered fingers, though surely the action must have caused him pain. “Bees ought to know better than to menace bears.”
She found his wrist instead, warm and vital beneath his sleeves. Her thumb traced the smooth skin where she knew the inking of a blade hid. “Yet here I remain, foolish bee.”
“Foolish bee indeed, to suffer the wrath of a bear.” But as he said the words, he finally allowed her to tug him toward the chair.
He sat, looking distinctly unimpressed.
“You are neither bear nor beast,” she said, studying his ravaged face. “Will you tell me where you were all this time or am I to be left guessing?”
“Home.”
The curt answer made sense. She gently wiped the blood from his cheek. “The Devil’s Spawn?”
“Rookeries.”
“Why?” She finished cleaning his face and studied him.
“Trying to find answers. Not going to find them here, playing lord and lady with you.”
Playing lord and lady.
“Is that what we are doing, Theo? Playing?”
He said nothing, simply stared back at her. The bruise beneath his eye was darkening, giving him a menacing aura. One of the candles sputtered out. In no time, they would be in darkness.
On a sigh, she turned away from him, fetching fresh candles and lighting them with the remnants of the brace that had been burning all night. When each one was replaced, she took the bloodied cloth to the water basin and rinsed it, all too aware of Theo’s gaze on her as she moved.
When she stood before him once more, she picked up his hand, tenderly cleansing his injured knuckles. “I am not playing a game. Not with you. Never with you.”
He stiffened, tensing beneath her ministrations. “Evie—”
“Theo,” she interrupted. “We have become friends over this past fortnight, have we not? And, dare I say, more than that, I hope.”
His jaw clenched. “We cannot be friends or…more. Our worlds are too far apart. Look at me. This is who I am. Tonight, I beat a man unconscious with these fists.”
He held up his hands, showing them off, one still covered in dried blood.
She swallowed. “Is that why you truly went to the East End? To prove to yourself we are too different?”
“I told you why. I need to find out who is responsible for trying to hurt you.”
“Because you care,” she said softly, taking his other hand in hers and beginning to clean it as well.
“Because I no longer want you to be my problem.” His lip curled. “So you can become Lady Dullerton.”
He was trying to hurt her, doing his best to build a divide between them. But she was not going to allow him to do it. “What if I no longer wish to become Lady Denton?”
He rose from the chair abruptly, forcing her to take a step