Энни Бэрроуз – Regency Rogues: Outrageous Scandal: In Bed with the Duke / A Mistress for Major Bartlett (страница 14)

Jem withdrew his head and the landlord slammed the window shut behind him.

Gregory resisted the peculiar fleeting urge to take hold of Prudence’s hand. Focussed on the landlord.

‘So, we have a deal?’ he said firmly.

‘I suppose,’ said the landlord grudgingly. ‘Except now I’m going to have your animal eating its head off at my expense for the Lord knows how long.’

‘Fair point. How about this? If I’m not back within the space of one week from today, with what we owe for the meal we’ve eaten, plus the cost of stabling the horse, you can sell the beast and the...er...Yarmouth coach.’

‘One week from today?’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘I s’pose that’d do. But only if you put something in writing first.’

‘Naturally. Bring me pen and paper and you may have my vowels.’

The landlord screwed up his face and shook his head, indicating his reluctance to let them out of his sight even for the length of time it would take to fetch writing implements. Instead, he rummaged in his apron pocket and produced what looked like a bill and a stub of pencil, then slapped both on the table.

As Gregory bent to write the necessary phrases on the back of the bill he heard the sound of a coaching horn. Closely followed by the noise of wheels rattling into the yard. Then two surprisingly smart waiters strode into the coffee room, bearing trays of cups and tankards.

The landlord swept Gregory’s note and the pencil back into his pocket without even glancing at them, his mind clearly on the next influx of customers.

‘Get out,’ he said brusquely. ‘Before I change my mind and send for the constable anyway.’

Gregory didn’t need telling twice. He snatched up the valise with the incriminating stays with one hand, and grabbed Prudence’s arm with the other. Then he dragged her from the room against the tide of people surging in, all demanding coffee or ale.

‘Come on,’ he growled at her. ‘Stop dragging your heels. We need to get out of here before that fat fool changes his mind.’

‘But...’ she panted. ‘How on earth are we going to get wherever it is you planned to take me without your gig?’

‘Never mind that now. The first thing to do is find a pawn shop.’

‘It will be in a back street somewhere,’ she said. ‘So that people can hope nobody will see them going in.’

‘It isn’t a very big town,’ he said, on a last flickering ray of hope. ‘There might not even be one.’

‘If there wasn’t the landlord would have said so,’ she pointed out with annoyingly faultless logic.

Condemning him to the humiliating prospect of sneaking into some back street pawn shop. After all the times he’d lectured Hugo about the evils of dealing with pawnbrokers and moneylenders.

‘And I don’t see why you have to walk so fast,’ she complained. ‘Not when we have a whole week to raise the money.’

‘We?’ He couldn’t believe she could speak of his possessions as though they were her own. As though she had some rights as to how he should dispose of them. ‘I am the one who is going to have to pawn my watch.’

‘I’m sorry. I can see how reluctant you are to part with it. But you know I don’t have anything of value.’

‘Not any more,’ he fumed. ‘Thanks to you.’

‘What do you mean, thanks to me?’

‘I mean that you had my purse. Which contained easily enough money to last until the end of the week. I can’t believe how careless you are.’

‘Careless? What do you mean? Are you implying it’s my fault you lost your purse?’

‘Well, you were wearing my jacket when those oafs jostled it out of the pocket.’

‘What oafs?’ She frowned. ‘Oh. You mean when we came in here?’

He could see her mind going over the scene, just as his own had done the moment he’d realised the purse wasn’t where he’d put it.

‘So,’ she added slowly. ‘You think that is when the purse went missing, do you?’

‘When else could it have gone?’

‘How about when you fell out of the gig?’

‘You mean when you pushed me out of the gig?’

They were no longer walking along the street but standing toe to toe, glaring at each other. Though what right she had to be angry, he couldn’t imagine. He was the one who was having to abandon every principle he held dear. She was the one whose fault it was.

Yet she was breathing heavy, indignant breaths. Which made her gown strain over her bosom.

Her unfettered bosom.

Since her stays were in his hand. At least they were in his valise, which was in his hand.

‘Right,’ she said, and drew herself up to her full height and lifted her chin.

He probably ought to warn her to pull his jacket closed. She could have no idea how touchable and tempting she looked right now.

Tempting? No. She wasn’t tempting. She was not.

No more than she’d been when she’d moaned in ecstasy at the flavour of his steak and onions. There was still something the matter with his brain—that was what it was. Some lingering after-effect from the drug. It explained why he’d spilled out almost the entire story of his adventure at Wragley’s. And why he kept on being afflicted by these inconvenient, inappropriate surges of lust.

Though part of it was down to her. The way she looked all wild and wanton in the grip of anger, so much more alive and vital than any other woman he’d ever known. The way she openly stood up to him in a way nobody had ever dared before.

Though he’d even found her appealing when she’d looked drugged and dazed and helpless. Helpless, she aroused his protective instincts. Angry she just aroused...more basic instincts.

‘Right,’ she said again. And with a toss of her head turned round and strode away from him.

‘Where do you think you are going?’ The insufferable wench was obliging him to follow her if he didn’t wish to lose sight of her.

‘I’m going,’ she tossed over her shoulder, ‘to sort out the mess you have plunged us into.’

‘Mess I have plunged us into? You were the one who got robbed—’

‘You were the one who left the purse in my pocket, though, once it became an outside pocket after you removed your coat.’

‘I—’ Dammit, she was correct. Again. He should have kept hold of the purse himself.

‘In my defence,’ he pointed out resentfully, ‘I had just suffered a stunning blow to the head.’

‘Trust you to bring that up,’ she said, rounding on him. And then, taking him completely by surprise, she reached up and snatched off his hat.

‘You don’t mind me borrowing this, do you?’

‘For what, pray?’

‘To collect the money.’

‘Collect the...what?’

She didn’t seriously mean to go begging through the streets, did she? That would be worse by far than anything that had happened to him yet.

‘Yes, I do mind,’ he said, reaching round her to retrieve his property.

But she twitched it out of his reach. And slapped his hand for good measure. And carried on walking down the street towards the market square.

‘Prudence,’ he warned her. ‘I cannot permit you to do this.’ It was unthinkable. If anyone ever found out that he’d been seen begging... The very thought sent cold chills down his spine.

‘Permit me?’

If he thought she’d looked angry before it was as nothing compared to the way she looked now. She came to an abrupt halt.

‘You have no say over anything I do,’ she said, poking him in the chest with her forefinger. A habit she’d no doubt picked up from that bony aunt of hers. ‘I shall do as I please.’

‘Not with my hat, you won’t.’

He made a move to get it back. But she was still too quick for him, nimbly leaping out of his reach with the agility of a professional fencing master.

‘Prudence,’ he snapped. ‘Don’t you realise you can be arrested for begging?’