An Earl’s Broken Heart by Ella Edon
Chapter Four
Levi drew in breath as the curtain rose. Of all the parts of the concert, the beginning was by far his favourite. Diana announced herself with a slow, strong aria that seeped to the soul each and every time. If it was possible, she sang with more pain and sorrow than ever before. Tremors of emotion wobbled in each note. He squinted as he looked down at her. Her eyes had the unmistakeable gleam of held-back tears. Something in her voice always made Levi feel understood. It was what was so magical about it. Now it seemed that she was the one who sought understanding. He couldn’t shake the feeling that she was terribly upset about something.
He fixed his eyes on her. Her sadness did not dissipate. Even at the mid-point of the show, when the story called for gaiety, the sadness remained. It worried him. He had seen her perform a few times, and each time, she exuded both sadness and strength. Tonight, it seemed all the strength had gone leaving only the sadness. It hurt to see it. As the curtain fell for the final time, he made up his mind and rose to his feet. He was going to see her. He couldn’t stop himself any longer.
* * *
Diana wiped the tears from her cheeks and put on a brave face as she stared into the mirror. The threat of Caney and the desperate state of her situation seemed to loom over her like a heavy storm cloud.
“You will get through this,” she whispered to herself in the mirror.
A knock sounded on her dressing door. Diana glanced over her shoulder as the person tried to enter, but the door was safely locked.
“Who is it?” she asked, stepping towards the door.
A rough, gravelly voice answered. “It’s me.”
Caney.
She straightened. “What do you want?” she queried.
“I have your money.”
Diana drew in a breath and unlocked the door. Caney immediately shouldered the door all the way open, sending Diana staggering. The thick smell of cheap whiskey struck her flush in the face as he stepped in. He wore a high-crowned gentleman’s hat with a blue satin band and a crooked smile which exposed his single gold tooth.
“Here you go,” he said, tossing a small coin pouch at her.
She caught it in an upraised hand. The pouch was pitifully light, a small fraction of what she was owed.
“This is not what we agreed!” she snapped.
His smile widened like a cat who caught the cream. He produced another small coin pouch and held it up. “I’ll give the rest of it to you, but only if you kiss me first.”
Diana stepped back. “Excuse me?”
He caught her about the wrist with an iron grasp. “I find you ravishing.”
The word made her wince. He had said it as though her beauty was an act of violence against him. She tried to snatch her arm back, but his grip was firm.
“Let go of me,” she snarled.
His puckered his lips and leaned forward. “Just a kiss.”
With her free arm, Diana slapped him across the cheek, sending his hat flying. Her heart was beating so hard that she thought it would explode from her chest.
“Let go of me!”
Caney slowly rubbed his cheek, his face shapeshifting from a picture of pure rage to the cold, calculated calm of a man making peace with his violence. “Is your honour really so important to you? More important than your sister? Are you so selfish?”
Her hand slackened in his wrist. She wished she had never made any mention of Eliza when she first joined the theatre troupe. He knew he had something to use against her.
“Think of what I could offer you. One night, and I will change your life. You’ll be paid more than anyone on that stage; that is how stunning you are to me. Is your virtue such a steep price to pay?”
Her mind said the words she would never admit to herself: “no.” Diana knew deep down that if it came to a choice between her virtue and her sister’s life, she would pay any price. Caney knew it too; his eyes narrowed with the certainty of a predator that had cornered prey a hundred times. As her resistance waned, the words she had read so many times flashed across her mind. Go forth and conquer, for the world is small, and you are a giant. The words gave her a measure of calm, and she lifted her chin. It couldn’t be Caney who sent the flowers; he was a vulture of a man. It meant there was still someone out there, someone who saw something in her. She gritted her teeth and met Caney’s eye. “I wouldn’t kiss you for all the money in the world.”
A muscle twitched at the side of Caney’s mouth. She said it, knowing the consequence. Men like Caney would always react when their entitlement was threatened. The reaction would be restorative, retaliatory. He was the sort to not just get mad but to get even. Diana didn’t care. She would not let herself believe the lies he spewed. She picked up the coin pouch and moved to leave.
He stepped across her, blocking Diana’s path to the door. “I was gracious enough to ask, and you threw it in my face.”
He grabbed her neck, and she winced at the acrid smell of inebriation. “This could have been easier for you.”
With a sharp push, Caney corralled her into the corner of the room. Diana tried to scream, but he forced his elbow onto her throat, muffling the sound.
“Someone, please help!” she called out, but her voice came out in a low wheeze.
A figure appeared in the doorway, silhouetted by the lantern light. Diana blinked as the figure stepped into the room. Then Caney’s forehead came down on her nose with full force.
* * *
Levi strode into the corridor with a large bouquet of flowers. Why were his hands sweating?
“That door, my Lord,” said Jasper, pointing to the last door on the right.
Levi nodded, swallowed, and tilted his neck until he heard a satisfying click. He knocked on the door. There was no answer. He drew in a breath and knocked again more firmly. Nothing.
He turned to leave and heard the sharp, distinctive sound of a slap. He glanced over his shoulder and pressed an ear to the door. There was a struggle going on inside.
He nudged the door open with his toe and heard a wheezing voice. “Someone please, help me!”
Tossing the flowers aside, he kicked the door fully open. A man had an elbow pressed over Diana’s throat, trying to pin her knee to the wall with his. She struggled furiously and tried to scream, but the man drew his head back and brought it down on her nose with a wet crack.
Levi moved without thinking. He sprung forward with a raised fist and caught the man flush at his temple, quick and hard. The man went down with a decisive grunt. Levi was taller and heftier than the man, but he was inclined to make sure the man would not try to extend his violence. The man revealed a knife with a sharp snap of his wrist, and Levi barrelled into him. They went down in a rolling tangle, and Levi managed to gain the upper hand. He slapped the knife aside and brought his fist down with all available force. The man went limp in his hands. Heart thumping, Levi raised his fist to strike again but caught himself at the last moment. The man was knocked out cold.
He ran over to Diana. “Are you alright?”
She blinked at him, barely conscious, a small rivulet of blood streaming from her nose. He lifted her into his arms and stepped out from the dressing room.
“Jasper, I want my carriage at the entrance to the theatre, now.”
Jasper stood horrified for a moment before remastering himself. “Yes, my Lord.”
He darted towards the door.
The crowd parted for them like dust at the brush of wind, plainly shocked to see a nobleman carrying a bloodied commoner in her dressing gown. He did not have time to consider what sort of gossip that would engender; he had to get her to safety right away. At the door, Jasper was already holding the carriage door open at the raised edge of the street. They placed Diana inside as gently as possible.
“Inform the authorities that the man in Miss Diana’s dressing room was trying to force himself upon her,” he said to Jasper.
Jasper’s face hardened into a scowl, head angling back slightly towards the theatre. “Yes, my Lord.”
With a nod, Levi stepped into the carriage, and Jasper closed it behind him.
They set course for Rockgate House, his London residence at the corner of Grosvenor Square. Diana did not stir, but her chest's soft rise and fall indicated she was still breathing. When the carriage lurched forward, her hand shifted and landed at the top of his thigh, perilously close to his groin. Her dressing gown fell slightly askew, exposing her leg to the knee. Blood surging, he shifted her hand to a more appropriate position and moved to the other side of the carriage.
From his new vantage point, it occurred to him that his memory had done no justice to her face. Arched brows, an elegant nose, and thick, full lips. In the light of his carriage, with her eyes firmly closed, she looked a cherub under a halo. That made his thoughts all the more blasphemous.
Holding her in his arms, it had not gone unnoticed that her body was the perfect synthesis of hard and soft. Her arms and stomach were branches of lean muscle, but her neck was supple as a swan’s. He followed her neck and found his eyes drawn to her bosom. Full as fruit about to fall from a branch. Heat rose in his chest as he looked away.
It took a great deal of effort to stop himself from considering her again. Unconscious as she was, he knew it was ungentlemanly. He succeeded in not looking at her, but Levi could not master his mind. The effort required was inhuman. He found himself contemplating wholly ungentlemanly things: what it would be like to kiss her, to run his hand down the contours of her bodice…
When they arrived at the house, Levi was greeted by Mrs. Bingham, a thin, elderly woman who wore the weathered look of one who had seen hard times and become harder herself. She curtseyed as his carriage slowed to a halt.
“Welcome, my Lord.”
Levi held open the carriage door, revealing Diana. At the sight of her, Mrs. Bingham’s eyebrows rose in silent surprise.
“Mrs. Bingham, please call upon a physician with all available alacrity.”
“Yes, my Lord,” she said, hurrying out of sight.
Diana’s nosebleed had slowed, but she had yet to return to full consciousness. He took her up to the largest guest room and laid her down on the velvet chaise lounge. Taking up the chair at the other end of the room, he waited for the physician to arrive.