Lincoln's head snapped to the left in unison with mine. My eyes darted quickly at the man who stood before us, then at our surroundings, wondering if there was someone else in the area.

After double-checking, I whispered to Lincoln from the corner of my lips. "Who is this guy?"

"That man is Marquess Baines' son, Lord Edward Baines. He's the town's most eligible bachelor and has been voted as such in several inexplicably accurate gossip columns. His father controls a huge sector of the country's transport and is actively involved in the rising automobile industry."

So basically, another spoilt male riding on daddy's money.

"And why is he claiming to be my fiance?"

"He finds it heroic to claim every seemingly helpless damsel in distress as his fiancee. It's very bothersome."

I involuntarily gripped Lincoln's hand tighter. Before I could reply, the Lord guy yelled again.

"I repeat, what do you think you're-"

"Can it, geez. We heard you the first time," I said before I could control myself.

Lincoln turned to me with a wide-eyed expression. I bit my tongue to punish myself in some form but the wind had already taken away the words to the ears of the hearer, who was free to interpret whatever he wished and reply accordingly.

"I'm afraid your situation is also affecting your tongue, Miss Danbury," Lincoln whispered. "You had better apologize and ensure that we're not behind bars tomorrow for insulting a marquess's son."

Lincoln slightly nudged me forward, making me stumble. After a quick glare at Lincoln, I faced Lord Edward and dipped into an ungraceful curtsy mustering a soft smile on my face, the smile I used whenever I wished to mock my male college classmates silently.

"I apologize, my lord, for my loose tongue. Today was a little hot and Lincoln was just helping me back home, as we happened to run into each other."

Lord Edward's brown eyes softened for a moment before hardening again and he began to glare at Lincoln.

What did I say wrong?

The man-child crossed his arms over his chest. "I wasn't aware that it was acceptable for an unmarried man and lady to be on a first-name basis."

Who did this boy think he was?

My left eye twitched unhealthily as I spoke. "Lincoln and I are good friends and thought it better to forsake titles when addressing each other."

Lord Edward turned to me with a kind expression that made me want to punch him in the nose. "I do this for the sake of your honor. The ladies of high society, including your mother, would not be pleased to find you close to a man who is not your betrothed."

I opened my mouth to reply with a snarky comment but he held a hand to silence me and moved closer to me.

"However, if you would like a man's company," he said, the double meaning dripping in his words. "I would be more than ecstatic to oblige."

The young lord raised a hand to stroke my face gently as if I looked like a cat to him. I pinched his left index finger between my left thumb and index and threw his hand away from my face.

"Crassness does not suit a Marquess. It leads to unwanted scandals," I replied, hoping he would get the message from the disgusted smile on my face.

With a dramatic turn that I hoped was worthy of all the Regency romance books I had read, I returned to Lincoln's side and held his arm to drag him past the lord, who looked to be in a state of shock.

After we had walked a while, Lincoln spoke, "You are going to regret that."

I looked up at Lincoln and after studying his expression, smiled. "Then why are you smiling like you're proud of me?"

The faint hint of a smile on Lincoln's face vanished. "I was not proud of you. I thought that was rather stupid of you, considering your place in society."

"What are you talking about?"

Lincoln glanced at me briefly. "Your mother, Antoinette Danbury, is a disgraced French baron's daughter who got pregnant for a British knight as he passed through her town on an expedition. Naturally, when she came to England with your father, she wasn't accepted into high society on the account of being nothing more than a knight's wife. Through several connections since your father's passing, she had risen to have the support of other baronets, viscountesses and countesses-"

"So she wants me to get married to a Marquess or a Duke," I completed, drawing on the hours of unwanted history lessons with my professor brother.

Lincoln looked at me with a raised eyebrow. It took me a few seconds to understand what he was insinuating. I rolled my eyes. "Oh please. That I'm an engineer doesn't mean I don't know nobility history. I know a lot more than you think."

"Andrea Taylor is an engineer?"

I nodded. "I work in aerospace. Back to the marriage thing, am I promised to anyone in particular? What are my options?"

"There is Lord Baines, the one you just insulted. Then Marquess Danbury's son, Lord Anthony Danbury-"

"I thought my family hated him?" I asked.

"That does not mean you can't get married to him if he agrees to marry you," he replied, somewhat amused by my question.

So my mother doesn't care if I live in a loveless marriage.

"What of my brothers?"

Lincoln gazed upwards. "They are highly against involving you in high society and have threatened numerous times to set your mother on fire if you marry any of your three prospects."

I nodded, pleased that Imelda's brothers had at least half a brain.

Wait. Three?

"Three?" I voiced out.

"The third is Duke Arden's second son, Lord Edgar Arden. His family has distant blood relations to the monarch. Your mother has been working the hardest to impress him."

Imelda's mother might as well marry him herself if she's so enamored by him. I have never understood the purpose of parents searching for spouses for their children, especially in medieval times. If we divorced, I would return to your house bringing with me even more disgrace.

"Divorce is expensive," Lincoln said.

"What?"

He fixed his blue eyes on me. "I can see your thoughts in your facial expression. Divorce is expensive. No man of noble birth in his right mind would go through the terrible process of a divorce. It's a death sentence, financially and societally. Besides, most men like their wives."

I raised an eyebrow challenging him. "Do these women return these feelings?"

"These women have been told from birth that they have no say in such matters."

Great. I escaped from a patriarchal family to be born into a completely patriarchal society. Oh, the irony.

Traitorous tears pricked the corners of my eyes. I tried to discreetly wipe them with my large sleeve but a handkerchief appeared in my line of vision.

"I've never met a female engineer, Miss Taylor. Why don't you tell me about yourself?"

"Just call me Andrea. What do you want to know?"

"What year was it where you came from? You asked me for the year and you called the peerage history."

I blinked at him, just realizing how perceptive he was. "2024."

"2024," he muttered absentmindedly. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he turned to me alarmed. "Did you say 2024?"

"Yeah, why?"

"That's more than two hundred years in the future. Are you sure you're not making this up?"

I raised my hands in defense. "Theatre was never my strong point."

He kept looking at me skeptically. "And what is your time like?"

"That's a very vague question, Lincoln. You've got to be very specific with what you want to know?"

"Do you have electricity?" he asked.

I snorted. "We make expeditions to outer space and you're talking about electricity."

"Outer space? Who knew man could go beyond the earth?" Lincoln silently mused. "Tell me more about your world."

I leaned closer to him with a teasing smile. "Hmmm...Lincoln, are you suggesting that we be around each other longer?"

His speech controls went haywire. "M-miss Danbury, how...how c-could you...you can't...hmph."

He hastily walked ahead of me but not before I saw a red tint on his cheeks.

I playfully huffed- "You're no fun."- and trudged after him silently.

Soon, residential buildings came into view. I hated how they reminded me of my father and his fanatical ideas about the supremacy of 19th-century architecture and even more, how I agreed with him after seeing some of it in person. I enjoyed basking in the purposefulness of these buildings and the fact that they made me feel like everyone had their place in the world, just standing next to them.

Great. I'm saying nonsense.

"Where are we going?" I asked Lincoln as we took another left turn, the fifth in the last half hour.

"My home," he replied curtly.

"And you were saying something about decency," I said.

He gritted his teeth in annoyance. "I cannot send you home looking like that, can I?"

I glanced down at my ruffled, slightly torn blue gown and then at my arms covered in dust. I did look dreadful, even for a fourteen-hour shift at the office.

"I guess not," I muttered, a little sad at being bested by my own joke.

We continued in silence for a few more minutes, ensuring to avoid eye and body contact with other people, before he suddenly stopped at a two-story house that looked like it had too many windows and not enough color.

"Is this your house?" I asked.

"Would I stop in front of a house that wasn't mine?"

I rolled my eyes. "No need to be smart."

He turned to me with an annoyed glare. "Miss Danbury, do you-"

"Lincoln," a high-pitched voice said. "You've been gone all day. I missed you."

In the blink of an eye, a body smaller than mine ran past me and hugged the mountain of stone wearing a top hat.