* * *
When Miss Hawks walked into the suite of rooms that had been provided to them, Aaron thought she looked quite admirable. She wore new jeans and a checked flannel shirt, both tight enough to accentuate her important lines and hint at others. Her flushed face was alive. Sun browned, wind roughened, with small wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and lips, she was the epitome of handsome, character, and strength.
Considering her previous condition, he was extremely happy to see her looking so healthy. He just wished she was not so pissed.
At him.
Sarah's expression when she first came into the room held plenty of warning. The warning wasn't given soon enough to prepare him for Miss Hawks' right cross.
After he picked himself off the floor and spent a few moments rubbing his jaw, Aaron backed very carefully away from the very angry Miss Hawks.
"What was that for?" he demanded.
"What was that for!" Her face flushed a deeper red. "I got clobbered, stripped, cut, and kidnapped because you are a fraud! Then you ask what that was for! I was almost raped and murdered, for the Lady's Sake. Miss Townsend tells me you didn't even have the decency to look away when I was stripped naked. How dare you!" Her voice, filled with indignant shame, cracked at the end.
"I wasn't looking at you," Aaron protested. He held up an arm to ward off a flying ashtray. Fortunately, she was so upset that her aim was more of a fictional concept than a real fact. The ashtray missed him by a foot and bounced off the couch. "I had broken ribs." He thought of the bloody horror she had been and shuddered. Thank God for modern medicine.
"I saw you looking," Sarah contributed helpfully, leaning against the outer doorframe. "As a matter of fact, you've now seen a whole lot more of her than you've ever seen of me."
Aaron glared at her. Damn it, the vixen was enjoying this.
"I haven't seen any of you," he shot back to Sarah, "though the Lady knows I've tried." She had the grace to look contrite, almost. He looked back to Hawks. "Look, my ribs were broken. I could hardly breathe, and I was afraid we were all going to die. On top of that, I was trying to pull us all out of there. Okay. Yes, I saw you less than completely clothed, but I really didn't pay the matter any attention. I had more important things on my mind, things like getting us out of there."
He was babbling. He was a blooming, babbling idiot.
And then he caught her look. Storm clouds had gathered. Obviously time to bolster his defenses. He drew in a deep breath. "And no, I am not the type of pervert who gets his kicks out of sadism, not even voyeuristic sadism. Miss Hawks, from my point of view, your being naked was a matter of no interest beyond my wanting to save you."
Miss Hawks' glare turned more furious.
Sarah shook her head despairingly. "Oh, you poor boy."
"Why take it out on me?" Aaron protested while Miss Hawks' eyes turned towards a heavy lamp. "Dozens of other people probably saw you when we were brought here." Dropping quickly, Aaron rolled to the floor. The thrown lamp almost passed over his head. It was stopped in its trajectory by the electric cord that was still plugged into an electric socket. Jerked back by the cord, the lamp fell to the floor, and shattered.
"They, I do not know!" Hawks snapped. "They owe me no respect. They are not my partner. They did not get me in that spot in the first place, and they did not say my body was not worth looking at."
"Wait a minute. I didn't say that." Had he said that? Gods, please let him not have said that.
Aaron did not dodge fast enough this time. The end table's leg caught his hip. Leaping backward he dove behind the couch and carefully peered over the top.
Looking as confused as Aaron felt, Aybarra stood behind Sarah.
"Turner, what the hell is--"
Sarah flattened him. She turned so fast Aaron did not have time to think of shouting a warning. Aybarra fell straight to the floor before he could blink. Before he could blink a second time Miss Hawks kicked him in the stomach.
"You will speak to my partner only with respect!" Miss Hawks raged.
"What did I--?"
Sarah jerked him to his feet. "My intended," she said firmly, "is an important man. He is a good man. You will speak to him respectfully, or you and I will have a private conversation that you will not like."
Aybarra looked imploringly to Aaron. Doubtfully, Aaron rose from behind the couch. It was good to see all that womanly anger being directed at somebody else since it meant that he might be safe now. Still, it would not hurt to be prepared to take cover again.
"It's proper to use a Mister, Miss, or Mistress before a person's name," Aaron explained to Aybarra. "Using profanity at all is thought to be crude at best, insulting at worst. Using profanity in the same sentence as a person's name is the highest insult. Ladies, this is a different place. People are commonly addressed by either their first or last names here. Unfortunately, the use of profanity is not an unusual occurrence."
Neither woman relented. "Apologize," Sarah demanded.
Miss Hawks looked like one of the furies incarnate. "You will speak respectfully to us all, or we shall be forced to repeat this lesson."
Aybarra spoke quickly. "Mister Turner, I apologize for being disrespectful to you, and I promise never to be so again, especially when you have these two bodyguards nearby."
Sarah released him and came fully into the suite. She looked around curiously. "Good enough for now. Aaron, you have to explain how everything in here works. Miss Hawks, you can leave that poor man alone, and please stop breaking the place up."
"He's black as an Afran." Hawk's anger had dissolved.
"I was born and raised in this country," Aybarra said firmly. "I am a Jeffersonian the same as Mister Turner." He looked offended, and Aaron did not blame him. The racial wars had ended just over seventy years ago, but tensions were still high.
"Miss Hawks," he said. "In Jefferson it is considered rude to refer to a person's race or color."
"But he is black," she defended.
"And I am white. Both of us are in the minority here. Most people in this county are either Asian or Hispanic. After them come the Indians. Race and color prejudice has caused a lot of strife in this society for the last couple of hundred years. The issue of color is now either ignored, or it is delicately sidestepped.
"Oh." She looked abashed. "Sir," she said to Aybarra, "I offer my apologies for my rudeness. Is there anything you wish from me to make up for my lapse of manners?"
Aybarra patted his pockets. "Tell me where my pen fell, and I'll forgive you."
"Why, that is easy," Miss Hawks said. "It fell outside this room and rolled about six feet down the hallway. You should find it on the third tile out from the left wall." She looked suddenly startled. "How did I know that?"