Scoundrel With A Noble Heart (sequel of Disgraceful)

Chapter 11

His heart stilled for a second, only to begin racing. His mind whirled as a sudden burst of intense joy pervaded his entire being. It took nearly half a minute for him to recover from his daze and, just a moment before any stupid endearment slipped out of him, she pushed him away and whispered in a panicked voice.
"There's a man stalking me!"

The words brought sudden realization of what actually happened, shattering all illusions of romance. It was a good thing she had snapped him out of his delusional thinking or he would have earned himself a good slap, and an eternal humiliation.

Suddenly they heard distant voices coming from the passage outside and she pulled him down onto her mouth again. The voices grew louder, and he knew he had to stay alert, but it was hard to think of anything else, when her sweet, soft lips pressed against his.

When the noise had faded into the distance, Arabella pulled away abruptly and leaned breathlessly against the wall. Her mouth parted for air, her head tilted back to reveal her white, slender neck. Inappropriately, he found the sight arousing, and he loathed himself for that. He tore his gaze away and took a peek outside. A few minutes later, the crowd began to disperse, and only a few shoppers moved about the passage. Once he was certain nobody was looking in their direction, he signaled her to follow him out and sneaked away.

"Who is the man? I guess my father has sent some, but they can't be everywhere."
Arabella exclaimed once they had got far enough from the market.

"Are you sure the man was stalking you?"

"Without doubt. I could have sworn I saw him rushing to follow me when I suddenly made off. He was trying to make his way through the crowd a moment before I managed to elude him."

When they passed a tavern, a poster plastered on a column in the front porch brought Matthew up short. Immediately he took the poster and looked at the picture.
"Jesus!"

"What?" Arabella demanded, and when he didn't give a prompt reply, she snatched the poster from his hand. One glance at the poster and her face instantly blanched. The next moment, she tore the paper into pieces.

"That explains why the man in the market stalked you. Come, we must find a place where nobody can see you."

But even though they chose the less frequented path and skulked in the edge of the woods, every now and then, they encountered some locals. Some of the people took note of them and lingered their gaze longer than was proper, as if trying to recall if they'd seen them before. And almost every which way, they spotted the blasted poster. Arabella stopped and ripped up each one of them, tearing those papers into the tiniest shreds so as not to be able to put together again.

"There's no use. There are too many of them. You cannot get rid of them all. Besides, now some people in this town must be able to identify you."
Matthew commented when she stopped and tore another poster for the umpteenth time in less than an hour.

She spun around and snapped at him,
"Then what would you have me do? Just walk past them like it's not my face they put on the damned paper?"

He thought for a moment, his gaze brushed her from head to toe.
"You better change into a less fetching dress if you want to avoid attracting attention."

"Now there's an idea," Arabella's eyes sparkled with excitement.
"I need a disguise. Let's go and find some boutique."

Matthew rolled his eyes.
"It will make no difference at all for you to change into another fancy dress."
He paused for a second when an idea occurred to him.
"I know the perfect disguise for you. Now give me a penny and a half."

Sometime later, Arabella's face twisted into a grimace as she spread a worn, somber-colored dress before her.

"No," She shook her head.
"There's no way I'm wearing this."

"You must. If you continue to go through the countryside in this fancy dress, you'll keep attracting attention and soon get noticed."

She let out a frustrated breath.
"Where'd you buy this crap?"

Instead of answering her, Matthew turned away to avoid meeting her eyes. For some reasons, he couldn't quite bring himself to tell her. He'd targeted the first cottage he could find, creeped into the backyard and grabbed the nearest laundry in the clothesline.

He'd been thieving all his life, and his conscience had long stopped bothering him for that, but for the first time he cared about what other people thought and felt about him. No, not just any other people. He cared about what she thought of him, what she felt about him. He didn't want her to think poorly of him.

"What's the matter?" She regarded him with a concerned frown. "Matthew?"

"I stole it." He blurted it out before he lost his gall.

"What?"

He corrected it instantly.
"No, I technically bought it, because I left your money near the window in exchange for this dress."

Not showing any sign of disapproval, Arabella raised her brows and shifted her gaze back to the dress.
"Well, then we shouldn't let your effort go to waste. Now turn your back."

He obeyed her instantly, but when he'd just half turned, she already lifted up her skirt, giving him a fleeting glimpse of her shapely leg. Not much, but it was enough to give him ideas. He was still struggling to shake them off when her voice intruded his chaotic mind.
"I'm done."

He spun around and froze to the spot. Even in an old piece of rags she didn't look less appealing. Instead, the raw material only threw into stark relief the fairness of her complexion, the smoothness of her skin.

"Do I look like a real peasant now?"
Arabella twirled around to give him the full view of her new appearance. He was speechless for a while and she secretly enjoyed his admiring stare, until suddenly an undignified gurgling from her stomach shattered the moment.

"You wait here, I'll go get some food."
He quickly turned around and ran toward a bakery across the street.

Standing alone at the edge of the street, she looked around and caught sight of a group of delinquent juveniles coming from the opposite direction. She hastily turned away but one of the boys had noticed her.

"Hey, look what we have here."
One of the youngsters whistled, coming up to her.
"It's not safe for a pretty girl like you to be out in the street alone. Mind if I join you?"

"Wait, she looks quite familiar." His friend peered at her curiously.
"Where are you from, sweet?"
The youth reached out to touch her chin, and Arabella slapped his hand immediately.
"Get off you piece of weasel shit!"

"Whoa," The youth raised his hands in a mocking gesture of surrender.
"She sure is feisty."

From across the street Matthew, who'd just come out of the bakery saw the scene. He yelled and hurried to chase the rogues away.
"Hey! Leave her alone!!!"

Having no further intentions than to make a harmless prank on Arabella, the mischievous group took flight rightaway, their barks of laughter rang out as they scattered all over the street. Soon as they disappeared, Matthew turned toward her.
"I told you to avoid attention."

"I did nothing at all. I was just standing here and they came accosting me!"
She retorted and he instantly realized his erroneous accusation. She wasn't the one to blame for the incident. A woman couldn't look that way, and not got noticed.

Another group of men appeared on the crossroads, coming in their direction. Quickly he spun her around and led her toward a field several feet away, hiding behind an old wooden shed in the middle of it.

"Here." He handed the bread he'd just bought to her, then bent down to scoop some wet soil.
"I suppose we have to make you a little less attractive."

She shook her head, her eyes widened in horror.
"You'll have to kill me first because I'm sure as hell not going to touch that dirt, let alone let you spread it all over my face."

"Let's face it. Being attractive can have its downsides. If you don't cover your face, molesters will keep coming your way."

She expelled a frustrated breath.
"I'll make sure you pay for this one day."

To be continued
Update will be available every Friday night