The Doctor and the Libertine - Callie Hutton Page 0,27

to help anyone.”

“I can’t.” She pointed to the man on the sofa who was staring at them as if they were the best entertainment he’d had in a while. “Someone needs to care for them.”

“I will have one of the maids monitor them instead of cleaning. Then we will hire you an assistant, if only until these patients have returned to their homes. You cannot do it all, Rayne.”

“Dr. Stevens? Why is this man calling you by your given name? And why does he have his arms around you?” Mr. Faulkner-Jones had apparently joined them in the drawing room and was just now making his presence known.

Damn.

Edwin had been holding in his temper since the obnoxious, pompous man had arrived. He was still reeling from learning that Rayne was betrothed. That situation was a shock in itself, but now that he met the man, he would do everything in his power to make sure she never married the supercilious bastard.

They turned together to face the interloper, Edwin keeping his arm around Rayne’s waist in a possessive move that Faulkner-Jones didn’t miss. “Sir, Dr. Stevens has spent almost thirty-six hours tending to patients after the city had a horrendous train accident. She is tired, upset, and most likely hungry. I am not only her employee—”

“—You are not my employee,” Rayne broke in.

He turned toward her and lowered his voice. “You insisted on paying me, so that is what I am.”

“I cannot employ a peer.” She shook her head and wiped her nose. “It is not done, and Father would never approve,” she whispered.

“Well, it has been done. You were the one who insisted on paying me. That makes me your employee.” His voice rose a bit.

Faulkner-Jones cleared his throat.

“I only insisted on paying you because I cannot accept charity.” Rayne pointed her finger at his face.

Sometimes the woman could be impossible. But then again, in his experience most women were impossible. What she was saying made no sense. “It is not charity. If someone performs a service for someone else and that someone else insists on paying that first someone, that first someone becomes an employee of the second someone. Rather, the someone else.” Blasted hell he was beginning to sound like her.

“Father disapproves of—”

“Excuse me!” Mr. Faulkner-Jones shouted loud enough to wake every sleeping patient in the building. Or on the street.

He bristled and glared at the two of them. “Dr. Stevens. It appears that perhaps now is not the best time for us to make whatever arrangements are necessary for this wedding business. I will, therefore, call another time. However, I will be visiting with your father shortly to finalize all the paperwork.”

“Finalize the paperwork? It sounds to me like you are purchasing a horse from Tattersall’s.” Edwin grew more agitated each time the cur opened his mouth. He made marriage to Dr. Stevens sound like a business deal. Which he was beginning to believe it was.

If Faulkner-Jones’s nose rose any higher, he would drown in a rainstorm. “I still have not ascertained why I am being questioned by you, my lord.”

Rayne put her hand on his forearm as he moved forward, ready to punch the man in the face. “No. Don’t start anything, please. Just let him leave.”

Edwin took a deep breath and nodded. However, he was remaining right here until Mr. Robert Faulkner-Jones made his exit. She still had a lot of explaining to do.

That thought brought him up short. Why? She was no more to him than a doctor who fixed him up after his foolish accident. Just because he’d kissed her, and she kissed him back hadn’t changed anything.

Well, maybe not to her since she was already betrothed, but he had admitted to himself that it had meant something to him. He hadn’t even the time to consider it and wonder if there could ever be anything between them since he knew in her eyes, he was nothing more than a reprobate.

But he had hoped to have a chance. To change, and to show her he’d changed. He might even open up and tell her about his sister. He’d never spoken to anyone about that disaster, but if he hoped to have anything at all with Rayne she had to know.

He was beginning to get a headache.

Turning his attention back to Faulkner-Jones, he said, “I am Dr. Stevens’ friend. I also work for her by organizing her books and financial matters. She is much too busy to deal with it all herself. However, it has