Chapter Two
“Sorry. Did I distract you?”
It was all Julia Dryden could do not to laugh, and it was not a laughing matter.
At least, it probably wasn’t. The punch that had floored the handsome man so entirely out of his depth had been a harsh one. She wasn’t surprised he had fallen to the ground, motionless.
A cheer had risen up the moment he had fallen, half the crowd delighted to see Bill knock another one out, the other half disappointed their wild bets hadn’t paid off.
“What a brute,” Donald had said, shaking his head.
Julia had leaned forward, eager to see what was going to happen next, pulse throbbing in her ears.
She could never have imagined this. Imagined the noise, the laughter, the shouts, the cries, the chatter as men watched heroes battle before them. Imagined the smells, straw, greasy meat pies, and ale slopped onto the boards as spectators cried out the names of their favorite fighters.
But the sensation Julia was transfixed by was a man. One man.
Only minutes ago, a tall, dark gentleman with a slightly bruised arm and a defiant look had stepped into the ring with that absolute brute of a champion.
“He’s a fool,” muttered her brother.
Julia nudged him. “And you’re a fool for bringing me, you know.”
She had meant it as a tease to make the frown on her brother’s face disappear—but she realized she had said the wrong thing the moment he caught her eye.
“You’re right,” said Donald ruefully. “It was a mistake to allow myself to be persuaded, Julia. Ladies should not—”
“I am tired of hearing any phrase that begins ‘ladies should not,’” she said curtly with a deepening frown. “Don’t be such a bore, Donald.”
“I am not a bore! I—”
“There they go,” Julia said eagerly, turning to the ring.
She shouldn’t chastise her brother really, she had been the one to insist. It was so much more fun, now her brother was of age and could gad about town. Now he could invite her to places Julia was not supposed to be.
This was their first adventure. He had been against it, of course, but had been unable to give five succinct reasons why ladies should not view boxing matches, and so Julia had won.
Her stomach swooped painfully as she watched the two men circle each other in the ring, inspecting for weakness, she supposed.
Goodness, it was thrilling. Why had she never expected such drama, such excitement? True, they were hardly surrounded by people of good name nor standing in Society…
“Punch ’is lights out!” yelled the man seated to her left, throwing a hand in the air, the remnants of the pie he had been eating flying. “G’on Bill!”
Julia looked at him inquisitively. That was the trouble with being born into a family where no one did anything interesting, went nowhere, saw no one save the children of those their mother had been to finishing school with, was forced to smile politely at every Society function.
There was a whole world out there, she had tried to explain to her mother only that morning. A world full of people and things and—
“Oooh!” The crowd gasped as the slighter man, the tall, darker one was punched quite heartily in the chest.
Julia flinched. Her heart beat quickly, stirred by the excitement in the air.
“We should have made a bet,” she muttered to her brother.
Donald snorted. “You don’t think we’ve done enough today to scandalize Society if we were caught?”
Julia grinned. “You don’t think we’ve done enough then? I am sure you could always take me to a gaming hell after—”
Her brother rolled his eyes. “Remind me again why I’ve permitted you to come here.”
“Because I wouldn’t take no for an answer, that’s why,” she said happily as the crowd jeered the tall man who appeared to be greatly outmatched. “And because I always get my way.”
Donald snorted, but his gaze did not shift from the ring, and Julia turned to it, half expecting to see the tall, dark man on the ground.
But he wasn’t. He was trying to do something clever, she could see that. Even a few hours into her first ever night of boxing, Julia had spotted that those quickest on their feet were most likely to stay upright, even if their punches were inadequate.
All he had to do was stay on his feet…
Julia clenched her hands together in her lap, suddenly desperate for the tall man—surely the underdog—to win. There was something about him, even from this distance. Something that told her he was a good man, though precisely how she knew, she was unsure.
Something in his air, his bearing. The way his eyes flashed with intelligence as he attempted to discover a way through the brute’s defenses.
“Be careful!” Julia found herself crying out. “Be careful!”
“Julia!” hissed her brother, grabbing her hand as she waved. “What are you—”
“Be—oh, God!”
Her speech ended in a scream as the tall, dark man looked over at her.
Their eyes met.
All sound diminished. All sense of being in a place with near a hundred others faded. All understanding that she was not alone with this handsome stranger disappeared, until all Julia could do was stare.
How was it possible that across a crowded room, seated several yards away as he stood in a boxing ring, blood dripping from his hands, she felt closer to him than anyone she had ever seen?
Her stomach twisted, the world spun, and—
“No!” Julia shouted, along with several others.
The brute had punched the tall man so hard that he fell to the boxing ring floor. Around them, upset mutterings and moans about dodgy betting echoed.
Somehow Julia found herself on her feet.
“Julia, what do you think you’re—”
“He’ll be alright, won’t he?” she said in a tremulous voice.
It was so strange, as though she had known the man for years and had come specially to see him. As though her decision to come here tonight—well, to coerce her brother into taking her—had all been for him.
“He’ll be fine,” Donald said. “Half of it’s for show, I am sure.”
Julia bit her lip. It did not look for show, at least from here. The brute, Bill or whatever his name was, was laughing as he stepped around the ring, accepting the crowd’s applause. The man on the ground was not moving.
Panic, a sensation she was ill-accustomed to, rushed through her.
“But they aren’t doing anything,” she said in an anxious voice.
Donald waved a hand airily. “They know what they’re doing.”
“But we’ve got to—”
“We’ve got to go home, Julia,” her brother said firmly, pulling a pocket watch from his waistcoat and shaking his head. “Lord, if Mother discovers you are out of bed—”
“But what about—”
“Julia!”
Julia looked into her brother’s face. It did not matter that she was a year older. He was the man of the house, and that made her his responsibility.
“We need to go home,” he repeated seriously. “It was scandalous to even think of bringing you here, let alone actually doing it. The best we can hope for now is that we can slip into the house with no one noticing.”
Any other day, Julia would have nodded. After all, it was rebellious of her to be here. She had seen no other woman in the crowd, other than…
Her cheeks burned. Well. That sort of woman.
And her brother had been kind to bring her, understanding when she had put her foot down and insisted she wanted to see more of the world than what ladies were permitted.
But she could not just leave him there.
The thought rushed through her mind in a crowd of worry for the man she had never spoken to. It was ridiculous, foolish. She had never believed in love at first sight until—
Not that she did now.
Julia cleared her throat. “I just want to ensure he’s unharmed.”
“Unharmed?” Donald was staring incredulously as the crowd started to dissipate. There were clearly no more fights that evening. “Julia, he’s lying on the ground unconscious!”
“All the more reason to ensure he will live,” she said firmly.
Where were these words coming from? She had no idea, just the absolute certainty she needed to go down and see him. Protect him. Ensure he was…
She couldn’t understand it herself, let alone explain it to her overprotective younger brother.
“You go home,” Julia said resolutely, not taking her eyes from the prone figure below them. “I’m—”
“You are absolutely not going down there,” said Donald emphatically.
Julia grinned, though her heart still pattered painfully. “Remind me, when did you last instruct me to do or not do anything and I obeyed?”
Her brother groaned, but she did not remain in her seat to hear his argument. Stepping lightly down the steps, avoiding the remnants of food, spilled beer, and what appeared to be gamblers notes evidently not worth anything, Julia fixed her eyes on the ring before her.
It was larger than she had expected. From a distance, the ring had seemed tiny, and she had wondered how the two men had managed to go around and around in such extravagant circles.
No longer.
Julia stared up at the ropes stained with blood. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw the prone figure on the ground.
“Julia, no!”
Happily ignoring the cry of her brother, Julia found the steps into the ring and ducked under the rope.
Most of the crowd was gone now. The noise that had filled the place for hours had dissipated, and Julia discovered her breath was the loudest thing she could hear.
She knelt by the man and, heart in her mouth, leaned over him.
He was, without a shadow of a doubt, a handsome man. Dark, wavy hair crowded his forehead as he lay there, a trickle of blood drying on the side of his temple. A passionate mouth, a frame that appeared more due a nobleman than a common fighter, and hands that…
Julia swallowed. No. It was most uncouth of her to even think that. She wouldn’t.
She gasped. The man below stirred, moving his head slightly as though checking it was still attached to his neck. His eyes blearily opened, revealing dark green pupils.
He blinked, and her stomach lurched.
“Alan?”
It was all Julia could do not to laugh. This was ridiculous! She was not even supposed to be here, and now she was kneeling in the boxing ring over a fighter who had the wind knocked out of him.
What would her mother say!