Captain Corcoran's Hoyden Bride. ANNIE BURROWS

      He emptied a second glass and slammed it down on the side table.

      The kind of battle he was used to was child’s play, in comparison to tangling with the woman upstairs.

      Aimée was up and dressed by the time Nelson brought her breakfast tray to her room. There had been no point lying in bed any longer. Not when she had scarcely slept all night anyway.

      She had dressed for travel as far as she was able, though she could not yet bear to lace her walking boots up over her swollen ankle. Instead, she had slipped her feet back into the shoes she had worn to dinner the night before. They were still a bit damp, even though she had got up at some point during her restless night, stuffed them with paper and propped them up against the fender. Her ruined dress was too wet to pack, so she had left that draped over the clothes airer. What would become of it, she could not begin to guess.

      Nelson slapped the tray down on a table just inside the door.

      ‘When you’ve eaten, the Captain wants a word with you,’ he said curtly.

      ‘He … he does?’ Aimée’s heart began to thud unevenly. She did not know what on earth he could want to speak to her about. Last night he had made it quite plain he never wanted to clap eyes on her again!

      ‘Please, miss,’ said the burly servant, ‘just listen to what he has to say, will yer?’ He took a step towards her, his face creasing anxiously. ‘Don’t go hurting him no more. You might not like the look of him much, but you won’t find a decenter gent. Got a heart of gold, he has. I served the Crown for years, I did, after being pressed into the service. Fought during campaigns that made many of the officers on the ships I served in into national heroes. Then got cast adrift when we beat France to flinders. And what with stoppages and one thing and another, I washed up ashore homeless and penniless. Would’ve ended up at the end of a rope, if the Captain hadn’t sprung me from jail and given me this job.’

      Aimée was somewhat taken aback by the man’s passionate plea on behalf of his captain. ‘Well, of course I will listen to whatever it is he wishes to say to me. And as for hurting him—’ she frowned, a little puzzled, for she could not see how that might be possible ‘—I have never deliberately hurt anyone in my life. But I shall offer him an apology for my behaviour.’ She had misjudged him terribly. And from what he had said, made him think she had fled from him because she found him repulsive.

      Nelson’s face cleared. ‘You could marry him, then, couldn’t yer? Now you’ve had a chance to mull it over? He wouldn’t never hurt a lady. Not a man what’s done all he’s done for me.’

      ‘I know.’ She had already worked that out for herself. The care he had taken of her, in spite of being so angry, had told her more about his character than he probably realised. So it was with great sadness that she shook her head, and said, ‘But he does not intend to renew his offer.’

      The man’s face fell. Without another word, he turned and left the room.

      Aimée did not waste a moment wondering what reason the Captain might have for wishing to speak to her before sending her away. All night, her thoughts had been running round and round like a dog chasing its tail. She had not reached any sensible conclusions about anything. All she had done was wear herself out, worrying about the hopelessness of it all. Instead, she went to the table and pulled up a chair. By the time Nelson returned, she had demolished every scrap of food on the breakfast tray, and regained at least an outward semblance of composure.

      The brawny servant stood for a moment in the doorway, tears in his eyes, before heaving a sentimental sigh and offering her his arm to help her hobble along the landing and down the stairs.

      Captain Corcoran was sitting behind his desk when Nelson ushered her into his study, but he got to his feet and waited until she was seated before sitting back down.

      Though it was a little late for him to be playing the gentleman, considering how rudely he had spoken to her the night before, she appreciated the gesture.