Sanditon revisited

8: London by night

Author's note: So far, every second chapter has been Sidney's perspective, every second Charlotte's. From now I will mix a bit but this one focuses mostly on Sidney, because I love to imagine what he was thinking and feeling.

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In which Sidney stumbles upon someone he did not expect to see in London and finds a carriage ride surprisingly pleasant

- o -

He was back in London with the purpose to track down Otis Molyneux and hopefully a still virtuous and unmarried Georgiana Lambe along with him. It had not been too difficult finding Molyneux's address, unsurprisingly in a rough part of the city. Sidney was on his way there through narrow, dark alleys when he came across a woman in distress. He heard some muffled sounds and noticed a man cornering a woman with the clear intention to take advantage of her. He was covering her mouth and held her arms locked behind her back, and even if she put up a fight to get free, the man was stronger, and her struggle was in vain. The man curse when the woman apparently bit his hand and suddenly the bleak street lights reflected on a long knife blade.

Another man might have walked by, thinking it was none of his business, but Sidney had never been one to accept other men forcing themselves on women and it had provoked his involvement in several fist fights in the past. This occasion was no different and he brusquely grabbed the man, punched him hard in the face and threw him towards a brick wall, causing him to drop the knife and wail with pain. When the woman whimpered beside Sidney, he turned her direction and to his utter surprise found her to be none other than Miss Heywood. She looked equally shocked and not especially grateful when she saw his face.

"Mr Parker?"

"Miss Heywood?"

He reached out a hand to help her up, but she ignored it and got up without his assistance, dismissing his protective instincts.

What on earth was she doing here?

His heart thumped erratically and not only from the adrenaline rush provoked by the fight.

"As if this situation were not insufferable enough, I now have the added burden of protecting you", he scoffed yet gentlemanly reached for the bag she held on to, and she handed it to him with some reluctance. Even in a situation like this she stubbornly maintained her independence.

"I have no need of your protection. I have the situation in hand", she claimed defensively and barely seemed to register that he blocked a drunkard from bouncing into her.

That was the most preposterous thing he had ever heard. She would likely not have made it through this night unharmed if he had not come across her.

"What do you suppose would have happened had I not arrived at that moment?" She shrugged her shoulders and then it hit him that she was too innocent to understand that the man's intentions had been to rob her of something  far worse than her purse. He clenched his fists and felt a hard knot in is stomach at the mere thought, now wishing he had hit the man harder.

"What possessed Mary to let you come in the first place, I have no idea."

It was actually unthinkable that his sensible sister-in-law would have allowed Miss Heywood to travel to London alone. Such a thing was unheard of for a young lady, far too dangerous and potentially harmful for her reputation.

"She doesn't know I am here. In fact, she expressly forbade it", she explained without a trace of regret in her voice.

"But you stole away on the London coach regardless?"