chest rose and fell hard from that furious defense that came as though torn from her.
A defense Hugh was undeserving of.
Shame needled around his belly.
From over the top of his sister’s head, the earl glared darkly back at Hugh.
He knows.
Of course he didn’t. Of course he couldn’t. Shut away in the country, how could the other man have gleaned the darkest parts of Hugh’s past?
“Then what is he doing here, Lila?”
“Hu—His Grace has been good enough to provide me with instruction.”
The greying nobleman rocked on his heels. “Instruction.”
Couldn’t Lila tell that her brother’s increasing echo boded unwell? This was bad. Hugh had felt tension on the eve of battle less thick than this.
Lila drew a deep breath. “I sought out His Grace, asking him to provide me with lessons on fighting.”
The earl went absolutely still. “What?”
Finding her voice, Lila hurried to gather up the notebooks she’d carried outside, and handed one of them over to her brother.
“I should leave,” Hugh said quietly.
Lila’s brother jabbed a finger in his direction. “You’re not going anywhere,” the earl snapped as he flipped open the top page. He paused. “Combattre la Société.” He looked up. “What the hell is this?”
Lila frowned. “I’ve asked Hugh to help me.”
“You want to open up a boxing arena?” The earl’s bellow frightened several finches from their perches, and those creatures flapped noisily.
Lila winced. “That’s not what it is.” She turned her hands up, all but pleading with her palms for her brother to understand.
“Then what is it?” her brother demanded.
Floundering for words, Lila looked over to Hugh. There was a plea for help there in her eyes. She still couldn’t realize a man like Waterson would never accept his sister dabbling in that world, one so far removed from the opulent one she’d been born to. Still, Hugh sought to give support through his words. “Your sister came to me with the idea of building a place where women and men might come and learn skills which they might need to survive. It’s not an arena. It’s not even a boxing studio, but rather . . .” And then it finally came to him, what she intended. “It will be a place where people are motivated by a need to learn the art of self-defense.” It was something that had never been done in the fighting world. And a use for the sport which Hugh had never considered. “An art of battle not driven by aggression, but rather by a need to protect oneself.”
Lila looked to him with so much emotion shining in her eyes, they warmed Hugh all the way through. Tears gleamed in their beautiful dark depths as she gave a slight, appreciative little nod. “Thank you,” she mouthed.
Hugh touched a hand to his chest.
The older gentleman, head bent in his book, however, proved singularly unimpressed. He snapped Lila’s notes closed. “No.”
Lila recoiled. “That is what you’d say . . . ? No?” She didn’t allow him a word edgewise. “My God, you are a hypocrite. You’ll support your wife, but should I or Sylvia dare venture into something outside the peerage, then you’ll order us about and forbid us like we’re children.”
“Do you truly believe I’d support your dealing in . . . in . . . this?” The earl didn’t manage to get the words out.
“Yes.” Lila edged her chin up. “I believed you would.”
“You want to engage in a brutal sport.” The earl marched over, stopping just a pace away from Lila. “The same sport that killed your brother-in-law?”
That charge sucked the blood from Lila’s face.
“Her efforts and intentions are honorable,” Hugh said quietly. By God, he’d be damned ten times to Sunday if he let the pompous earl cut her dream out from under her.
“And you?” The earl shot him a death stare. “You know so very much about honorable? Tell me.” He seized a note from inside his cloak and whipped it at Hugh. “Do you really know everything there is to know about His Grace, Lila?”
Oh, God.
Hugh’s stomach roiled.
The earl did know.
It was there in the dark eyes that seared all the way through him.
Sweat slicked Hugh’s palms, and never more had he wished he favored those leather gloves donned by members of the ton.
“I know everything I need to know about him,” Lila said with a faith he didn’t deserve. With a confidence she’d not ever show if . . . when . . . she discovered the truth.
“Lila,” Hugh said in barely audible tones, his voice hoarse to