In seconds, Julia was safely ensconced inside with Jasper. He cradled her on his lap, holding her firmly against his chest. His thighs beneath the thin barrier of her quilt and her cotton nightgown felt as solidly muscular as all the rest of him.

Goodness.

She looked up at him in wide-eyed astonishment. He’d actually taken her in her underclothes. Not figuratively, as she’d told Mary she wished a suitor might do, but quite literally.

“In broad daylight, too,” Julia murmured. “A proper scandal.”

Jasper’s gray eyes shone briefly with wry humor. “You’ll have to marry me now, ma’am.”

“Is that where you’re taking me? To a church?”

His expression became serious. He had the look of a ruthless soldier embarking on a military campaign. “No,” he said. “I’m taking you to Lord Ridgeway’s house.”

The bedroom on the third floor of Lord Ridgeway’s town house was light and airy, the curtains opened to let in the afternoon sun. Traces of lemon polish, washing soda, and beeswax lingered in the air. The fragrance was a comfort to Julia. Surely, nothing depraved could happen in a room that smelled so fresh and clean—even if it was a room in a bachelor’s household.

A stack of pillows at her back, she sat up further in bed to better see what Mary was doing.

Jasper had ordered the maid to accompany them. Mary wasn’t best pleased about it. She grumbled loudly as she reorganized Julia’s clothing in her bags—folding petticoats, bodices, and underthings.

“It’s all creased and rumpled,” she muttered. “That’s what you get for cramming things into luggage willy-nilly. If he’d given me five minutes to fold it properly—”

“We didn’t have five minutes,” Julia said. “We had to leave right away.”

“Why? So he could bring you here? To a bachelor’s establishment?” Mary snorted. “And you a well-bred girl.”

“It’s only temporary. Until he can procure a license.”

“On a Saturday? Bah. He might have left you safe in your bed at home.”

Julia gave her maid a weighted look. “Safe, was I? And what would I have done if my mother summoned Dr. Cordingley again? How would I have managed?” As it was, it would probably take her days to recover. Until then, she’d be nothing but a burden on those around her, Jasper especially.

Mary’s lips flattened in a stubborn line. She was too peeved to admit Julia was right. “He didn’t need to parade you through the streets in your nightclothes.”

“I was covered in a blanket,” Julia said. “I might have been a bundle of laundry for all anyone knew. Besides, nobody saw me.”

That wasn’t wholly true.

While no one save Mary, Jenkins, the coachman, and the footman had witnessed her escape from Belgrave Square, her arrival in Half Moon Street hadn’t gone unremarked. As Viscount Ridgeway’s carriage had rolled up outside of his town house, another carriage had stopped in front of the house next door. The occupants disembarked at the same time Jasper was carrying Julia up the stone steps to Lord Ridgeway’s front door.