Lila was, and Hugh Savage was correct in that she merely sought reassurance in his clipped tones. The ones that were familiar, and if not safe, safer than the harsher, coarser ones that haunted her still. Either way, she’d come here to begin a new future and didn’t intend to be turned away. “I’m prepared to offer you a sizable sum.”
It was the wrong thing to say. A foolish reminder of the misstep she’d made moments ago. Hugh Savage’s gaze slipped from her to the bag—forgotten until now—on the ground between them. When his eyes again found hers, that steely, unforgiving smile hovered on his lips. “I don’t give lessons. Ask one of your male relatives.”
She held a palm up. “I don’t have a family member who might teach me.” Her brother, Henry, had spent most of his life being proper and never engaging in anything that might be deemed dangerous or scandalous. With the exception of his recent marriage to a former courtesan, he’d lived an otherwise dull and sheltered life. And even with that, he’d never dare support the manner of venture which Lila intended. “Those I know are people who’ve largely lived sheltered existences,” she settled for.
“Stick to those people,” he said bluntly. “Trust me, Flittermouse, you don’t have any business around these parts. You wouldn’t know what to do with anything but ‘safe.’” He shook his head. “You wouldn’t want to deal with anything except safe.”
“You are correct on that score.” She couldn’t stop the painful twist of her lips. “Both of them.” Only, Hugh Savage made assumptions about what Lila had—or had not—endured. He assumed hers had been a sheltered existence. That fateful day in Manchester, however, had shown her just how much out of her control the actions of the world around her were. “Furthermore, I believe that is the point, Mr. Savage.” As a girl she’d been insulated from danger. “That is why I’ve come to you.” It had taken but one fateful day to realize no one was immune to peril; it could and ultimately did visit those of every station. As such, “safe” wasn’t what she required. It wasn’t what she needed. But it was what she intended to help make the world. “Mr. Savage?” She paused. “Is that your real name?”
“Does it matter, Lila-With-No-Last-Name?”
Fair enough. “I don’t suppose it does,” she allowed.
“You’re a woman who wants to learn to fight. Do yourself a favor and visit Gentleman Jackson’s clubs.”
Gentleman Jackson had taught her brother-in-law—and in those lessons had failed Norman. Nay, it had to be the Savage Gentleman, one who’d neither failed nor been felled.
What she needed to learn couldn’t be taught by some gentleman. She’d equip herself with the skills to look after those she loved, as she’d been unable to do for her friend that day at Peterloo. “He doesn’t possess the manner of knowledge I require.” She shook her head. “It has to be you.”
“Me.”
His statement didn’t have the uptilt of a question, and yet she nodded anyway. Lila needed one who’d learned how to survive in the roughest of worlds. Hugh Savage hadn’t just managed to live but rather had thrived, the king of an empire on the fringe of civilization . . . As such, he could survive anything.
“There’re three owners here; how’d you settle on me?” He pinned a hard stare on her, and she shifted under the force of it. “It’s because they call me the Savage Gentleman, isn’t it?”
She prayed the dark concealed the guilty blush heating up her cheeks. “No.”
“No,” he said flatly.
When she’d come here, seeking him out, she’d not allowed herself to think she’d secure anything but his agreement.
Either way, she’d been overconfident in the outcome of this meeting.
“It has to be you,” she said softly.
For there were no other options. Not in terms of learning from the most skilled. Her brother-in-law had boxed . . . and been killed for it. Her brother had been beaten and nearly killed in the streets. Gentlemen ruled the world. But they didn’t know anything about it. Not truly.
Oh, with their tutors since the nursery and their Oxford educations, those high-ranking members of Polite Society knew the laws and the rules of society. But they didn’t know anything outside that safe, protected sphere they moved so comfortably within.
No, those privileged peers didn’t know how to live a life of any real meaning, and more importantly, they didn’t know how to survive. She recognized a survivor, and only wanted to learn from one.
Hugh