gentleman and I know your investigations have not turned up anything of note yet. In fact, was he not the one who gave you that blanket?”
“Yes,” she admitted quietly.
“Hardly the scoundrel, is he? And what sort of an earl would snatch an old woman up? What nefarious reason could he have?”
“Well, he could...he could be using Mama against me. To dissuade me from my investigations.”
Her father eyed her for several moments, his lips twisting. “It sounds to me as though you are rather hoping for continued reasons to investigate him. Were it any other man, you would have likely moved on to other things by now.”
She gasped. “Papa, that’s simply not true.” She tucked the medicine back in her satchel, snatched up her hat and shoved her hands into her gloves. “I’m going to see Mama now. If you do not care what is happening to her, then I must go and fight her corner.”
“There is no corner to fight, Freya, your mother is quite well, and the earl will be taking excellent care of her, I have no doubt.”
She released a sound of frustration and stomped out of the door, slamming it shut behind her. Damn the earl. Thinking he could just march in and...and take her mother! That was not how things were done. At least not in her circles. She supposed noblemen were quite used to swanning in, snatching up mothers and imagining they knew what was best for everyone. Her mother should be home, in her own bed, under the care of her daughter, not in some strange house with maids she didn’t know.
By the time she reached the earl’s townhouse—a good hour’s walk—her indignation hadn’t receded. Indeed, if anything it had pooled into a fiery mass of fury. First he made her watch while he spoke to various ladies of the night and then, when he was likely coming to give her an explanation, he snatched up her mother instead.
Of course, she didn’t really have to watch him speaking with those women, but she had hardly been able to avoid it. Nor had she been able to resist the pull at her stomach, the way it still twisted and turned when she imagined him propositioning them. It should not have shocked her, nor had any impact on her whatsoever. She’d seen and heard enough scandal in her journalistic career.
She’d never heard of someone kidnapping someone’s mother, though. What on earth had motivated him to do such a thing? Could it be true what she said to her father? Would he try to use it against her? And to think her father considered she was only investigating him because of some interest in him. Ridiculous.
Fine, so she had kissed him and maybe been a teensy-weensy bit jealous of the women, but she was a journalist. A professional. She would not pursue a story she did not think had merit out of some mere fleeting interest in a man.
Lifting her chin, she straightened her back and pulled the doorbell. Professional. Calm. Dignified. She could do this.
Chapter Fourteen
Miss Haversham’s cheeks were mottled red. Guy tried to keep the smile from his face. He’d been waiting for the doorbell to ring.
Well, waiting for her really. He knew she’d hate what he had done. The woman was too darn proud. He pulled open the door fully and gestured for her to enter. “I wondered when I might see you.”
“I do not know how you can be smiling when you have essentially kidnapped my mother!” She stepped in and furiously tugged the pins out her hat then thrust it toward Mr. Brown. The man scrabbled to catch it when she released it into his hands. Her gloves followed then her coat, her movements jerky and erratic.
“I did not kidnap her,” he said slowly.
“You might as well have done.” She put her hands to her hips and stared up at him. “Why did you do it? To persuade me to drop my story? If you think—”
“Funnily enough, I had no motive other than to see your mother well, but I am glad to see you do not think better of me,” he drawled.
“Well, why should I?” She peered around, waiting until the butler had slipped out of the hallway. “After all, you were in a whorehouse last night,” she hissed.
“As were you, Miss Haversham.”
“Yes, well, I was not there for the...entertainment.”
“No, you were there to pry into my business, which I must say is getting exceedingly exhausting.”
She huffed and turned away from