He paused to hold her gaze for a moment, as though assessing just how much she wanted to know. Katherine stared back with open interest.
With a low grunt, he continued, “When Lissy was fourteen, Da sold her to a bloke who wanted her for his own. She ran off instead. If that was the only way she’d get out of the rookery, she was going to do it on her terms.”
Katherine pondered what he said. And what he didn’t say.
“It must have been difficult...after she left.” The thought of him being left in the hands of a violent father while still so young and vulnerable made her chest ache. But the child had grown into a man who could create fear in an opponent with nothing more than a hard stare. A man who also spoke softly to a shy little girl and held her with infinite care.
He shrugged. “She came by when she could—when she knew Da was away. She forced me to learn my letters and sums and later helped me get work at a bawdy house.” He glanced away, scanning the park around them. “My sister is focused. She puts herself first because no one else ever has. She’s built a grand life for herself by doing so.”
“It’s very commendable.”
His jaw was hard as he looked back to her. “For a prostitute?”
“For anyone,” she clarified.
There was a pause as he stared at her. Then he noted roughly. “Not many would see it that way. Least likely a duke’s daughter.”
The slight sneer in his voice had Katherine tilting her head thoughtfully. “Another reason I’m grateful for an unusual upbringing with an eccentric father. Of course I’m aware of how society often judges people for things they’ve no control over, but I’ve little experience with that.” She glanced down at her hands as she smoothed a crease in her day gown before lifting her gaze again to his. “I prefer to allow a person’s actions and attitudes tell me who they are.”
She couldn’t read his expression then. It was too stern. Too heavy and still. Then he issued that low humming sound that always managed to resonate through the deepest parts of her. Leaning forward, he braced his elbows on his knees to ask in a roughened voice, “And what do my actions and attitudes tell you, dove?”
In an instant, she felt several things; heat—always heat—a tingling rush through her chest, a lovely weight in her low belly, and a quickening of her pulse. She was tempted to look away. To break the intensity of his stare. But she was no coward, so she met the challenge and the question honestly.
“You’re unabashedly coarse and bold in your manner.” He gave a snort and she arched a brow. “Characteristics I suspect you intentionally emphasize on occasion, which suggests you’ve a proud nature and you’re undaunted by others’ opinions of you. The ferocity of your response to threats against anyone under your care reveals a deep sense of loyalty and an innate need to protect.” She couldn’t stop from sending a swift gaze over the breadth of his shoulders and the solid strength obvious in his arms, even beneath the coat. “That you could use your exceptional strength and physical power much more liberally than you do tells me you use it as a last resort. You are never brutal without proper cause.”
She’d noticed as she was speaking that his expression had seemed to grow more and more closed with each of her revelations. Until the last, when he gave a caustic laugh and leaned back in his seat.
“Proper cause? Is the gold claimed by the winner of an illegal fight cause enough?”
“Survival is.”
His gaze sparked while his mouth tipped into a rueful smile. “I didn’t fight to survive. I was doing just fine as flash man to the bawds.” His tone lowered suggestively. “And got plenty of perks with the job.”
“Then why did you take up boxing?” she asked, genuinely curious.
“Glory? Gold? Because I’m bloody good at it?” He shrugged dismissively.
It was a non-answer, but she didn’t argue further. He didn’t even realize he’d just proven most of her previous points.
“What do you hope to do once all this is over?” she asked.
The way he narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow suggested he was reluctant to answer. She hoped he’d be as up-front about his future as he’d been about everything else. For some reason, it mattered a great deal to her that he would move on to something meaningful after his job with them was finished.
“Will you go back to offering loans to men who bet on the fights?”
He started shaking his head before she even finished the question. “No.”
She tilted her head. “Then what?”
There was a brief flicker in his gaze before he replied casually, “I plan to open a training center. For men hoping to make a living by their skill and might. Flash men and bouncers.”
“Bodyguards,” she added with a smile, recalling his request for a reference.
A twitch softened his lips. “Aye.
“I suspect you’ll quickly have more clients than you know what to do with.”
Rather than reply to her declaration of confidence, he simply stared back at her, his mouth curling subtly at the corners. Then he gave a short nod and turned to extend his gaze beyond their carriage.
She tried not to note how the shift of his attention felt like a loss. She’d enjoyed speaking with him. Learning about him. Mason Hale had been steadily proving to be far more multifaceted than she’d first imagined.
They’d gotten well into the park by now, and no matter where she looked, she saw the same thing. Casual people doing casual things. No one looked familiar. No one seemed inordinately threatening or suspicious.
Except...maybe there?
A gentleman riding toward them on a large grey gelding couldn’t seem to glance away from their carriage. He even paused to tip his hat. Katherine narrowed her gaze at the stranger until