She sank back against the bags of tea, making herself small. He’d have a look about and then move on to the next warehouse. It would take a man hours to search this place and to find her. She was a—what was the saying?—a needle in a haystack. She might as well go back to sleep.
“Miss Howard, we meet again.” The light from a lamp illuminated her legs, drawn up against her chest. Willoughby stepped closer and the light shone in her eyes. Belle lifted a hand to shield her face.
“You found ‘er!” the night watchman exclaimed, coming up the aisle at a fast clip. “Well, I’ll be.”
“Mr. Merrick, do you mind giving us a moment alone?” the saboteur asked, his voice like silk. “I promise we will be out of your way very shortly.”
The watchman eyed Belle, who scowled right back at him, then gave a nod. “I’ll be just outside.”
“Thank you.”
As the watchman’s footsteps receded, Arundel’s friend set his lamp on the ground and sat, rather awkwardly, on the ground. “You’ll ruin your trousers,” Belle commented.
“Oh, our friend Hew is much more concerned about such matters than I am, I assure you.”
“I doubt that. A man named Willoughby?” She was being deliberately rude. “I imagine you dislike dirtying your hands.”
“You’d imagine wrong, but I have no doubt you will realize your mistake soon enough and find out just how much a dandy Mr. Arundel can be. God knew we all had to suffer him brushing his coats out every night at the Farm. And for what? He’d just be crawling in the dirt again or dusting the coat with gun powder the next day.”
“Shows what you know, Willoughby. Mr. Arundel and I won’t be continuing our acquaintance.”
“It’s Will, and your entire attitude shows how little you know, Miss Howard. Who do you think fought me tooth and nail to come after you? Arundel isn’t done with you. Not by a mile.”
Belle didn’t want to admit how those words made her heart jump. She tamped down the hope with the ease of long practice. “I think perhaps you don’t know Hew Arundel as well as you think, Willoughby. He has vowed never to love again.” She forced herself to meet his gaze. “I may not be pretty to look at.” She touched her scarred cheek. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t deserve love.”
Hew had taught her that. Her father and her sister had told her thousands of times that she deserved to be loved and cared for. They told her over and over that she was worthy, but only now was she beginning to believe it. The past few days had shown her she could do more than sell tea in a shop. She was so much more than the little mouse of a woman hiding behind a window on Fenchurch Street.
“And are you in love with him?” Willoughby Galloway asked.
“What business is it of yours?” She looked away.
“My God, but you are a trial, aren’t you? I ask because if you love Hew and he loves you—”
“I told you, he will never love again.”
“He’s vowed never to marry again, Miss Howard. It’s too late not to love again. Any fool can see he’s completely in love with you.”
Belle blinked then shoved Galloway back. He hadn’t been expecting this reaction and fell over, almost toppling the lamp. Belle hastily reached to steady it, lest it shatter and set the entire warehouse on fire.
“What the devil was that for?” Galloway asked, righting himself and brushing his coat off.
“I don’t believe you.”
“Do you shove every person who tells you a man loves you?”
“No one has ever told me that before.”
“No wonder,” he muttered under his breath. “Believe me or not, just come back to Mivart’s with me. I promised Hew I’d find you and bring you back.”
Belle crossed her arms over her chest. “I won’t go back.”
“Of course not. I’m sure you intend to make this as difficult as possible.”
“Why should I go back?” she demanded. She’d pushed him as more of a reflex earlier, but now she rather thought she wouldn’t mind giving him a harder push or even a punch. “Hew is leaving and you think you can keep me from my father tomorrow night. Don’t say it!” she warned.
He closed his mouth. Then he took a deep breath. “You should go back because Hew needs you. He’s not as strong as he’s pretending. He’s in pain. The only way I got him to lie down was by promising to find you.”
“You think I don’t know that? I’ve been nursing him—or at least trying—for days.”
“Then if you care for him at all, come back. We can work out the details later.”
“We can work them out now.”
Galloway’s brown eyes seemed to blaze with anger, and she had a moment to worry that she might have pushed him too far. He took a slow breath. “It is a mystery to me how you have made it to the age of—how old are you?”
“As though I would own it to you!”
“Good—” He broke off and took another deep breath. He seemed to be breathing a lot. “I told Hew I would bring you back. What will it take for you to return with me?”
“You have to admit that my father is still alive.”
“No. Try again.”
“You have to allow me to go to the rendezvous with you.”
“No.”
“If you plan to deny my every request, then we are wasting our time. Good night, sir.”
“Make a reasonable request, Miss Howard.”
Belle thought for a moment. “Don’t send Hew back to your Farm until after the rendezvous tomorrow night.”
“I doubt he would go anyway.”
“And if he says I can go to the rendezvous, then you have to acquiesce.”
“Fine.” He held out his hand. She stared at it.
“That was a quick agreement.”
“He’ll never allow you to get anywhere near Hyde Park. I told you, he’s in love with you. He won’t want you even in the vicinity of danger.”
“You’re wrong,” she said.
“I doubt that, but out of curiosity, which part am I wrong about?”
“All of it. He’s not in love with me, and he will allow me to go. I can be persuasive when I want.”
“You can be demanding,” he said. “That much I see.” He held out his hand again, and she shook it.
Twenty minutes later they were in a hackney on the way back to Mivart’s. Belle didn’t know how she would persuade Arundel to let her go to Hyde Park tomorrow. Galloway was probably right. She would just demand it. After all she’d done for Hew Arundel, she deserved something in return.
Galloway had been blissfully silent for the last almost half hour, but she heard him take yet another breath and knew her luck had run out. “I haven’t known Hew Arundel long,” he said. “It will be a year in January, but I do know him well.”
Belle didn’t say anything, just wondered what Willoughby there, seated across from her, was getting at and wishing she had a cup of tea. She imagined it was because she could still smell it on her clothes and in her hair.
“You can’t spend so much time in close quarters and not come to know a man well. He hasn’t spoken much about his past. I know he’s been hurt. I know he is reluctant to trust. And I also know, in spite of all that, he is in love with you.”