A Loving Scoundrel

by Johanna Lindsey

  She moved over and told the nabob, “He’s finally gone. We’ll give him a few minutes to go back to bed.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then I pick that lock open and we get the ’ell out o’ ’ere.”

  “You know how to do that?”

  She snorted. “Course I do, and I carry m’own picker.”

  She pulled a thick pin out of her hat and went to work on the door. Piece of cake. Bedroom doors usually were.

  Within seconds she was saying, “Come on. And we’ll use the front door. Since they already know we’ve been ’ere, leaving it unlocked won’t matter.”

  She didn’t wait to see if he was going to follow her. The moment she was outside she took off at a run and didn’t look back or stop once until she reached the trees. Only then did she pause, but merely to catch her breath and her bearings. It took a moment to spot the coach lamps through the thick foliage. Malory caught up to her then.

  He took her arm to lead her the rest of the way to the coach. She tried to jerk it away but that effort just made him put his arm around her shoulder. He obviously didn’t trust her to turn over the jewels now that they were safely out of Heddings’s house.

  Without the danger of having a servant holding a gun nearby, she couldn’t handle being this close to Malory. She’d put his arm around her earlier when they’d walked up Heddings’s staircase and had felt nothing but her fear. This was nowhere near the same thing. Now she was feeling the length of him pressed to her side, his muscular thigh, his hip and his hard chest, feeling how perfectly she fit under his arm, feeling the heat coming off him—or was it her heat? She was remembering just how bleeding handsome he was, even though she couldn’t see his face in the dark of the woods. She was remembering those sexy blue eyes moving over her in the coach, as if he could see right through her disguise.

  If he stopped right then and there and turned her toward him, she would have been mush for whatever he had in mind. He stopped. Her heart began to pound so loudly it throbbed in her ears. He was going to do it, lower his mouth to hers. Her first kiss, and from the most handsome man she’d ever encountered. It would be sublime. She knew it and held her breath, trembling in anticipation.

  He pushed her into the coach. They’d only stopped so he could open the door.

  Deflated more than she wanted to admit, Danny sat back on her seat in a huff, then glared at Malory as soon as he took the seat across from her. More than half of that glare was because of what had just happened, or hadn’t happened—all in her own mind, of course. But that didn’t stop her from feeling disgruntled. Malory wouldn’t know that though. He would attribute her look only to the topic she introduced.

  “That were the most stupid thing I ever saw,” she told him.

  “D’ye realize gettin’ caught in there were yer fault! If ye were going to enter that ’ouse, ye could ’ave stolen the rings yerself. Wot did ye need me for then, eh?”

  “What happened?” Percy asked, but was ignored.

  “You were gone longer than necessary,” Malory pointed out stiffly. “Or I wouldn’t have gone inside.”

  “I weren’t gone even ten minutes!”

  “So it was an inordinately long ten minutes. All of which is irrelevant now.”

  “You could ’ave got us killed! I wouldn’t be callin’ that irrelevant, mate.”

  “What happened?” Percy asked again.

  “Nothing the youngun here wasn’t adept at handling,” Malory conceded. Then to Danny, as if he hadn’t just pumped up her pride with that casual compliment, he added, “Let’s have a look at your findings to see if all that trouble was worth it.”

  “Get this coach moving first,” she said, mollified somewhat that he’d just admitted she’d saved his arse. “We ain’t safe till we’re nowhere near ’ere.”

  “Good point,” Percy agreed, and tapped on the roof of the coach, which signaled the driver to head back to town. “Now, please, keep me on tenterhooks no longer.”

  As long as Lord Malory wasn’t doing the insisting, Danny saw no reason to deny his friend. She started emptying her pockets on the seat next to her, including the wad of money, then scooped up the whole pile and dumped it on the seat between the two nabobs. She even turned her pockets inside out to show them she wasn’t keeping anything back.

  Percy immediately pounced on one old-looking ring with the exclamation “Good God, yes!” He brought the antique to his lips to kiss it, then with unseemly haste, stuck it back on his finger where it apparently belonged. “Can’t thank you enough, dear boy! You have my—” His appreciation was cut short when his eye was caught by the jewelry again. “Oh my, there’s the other!” he exclaimed, and spread the jewelry wider to snatch the second ring out of the pile.

  “You have our thanks, lad,” Lord Malory finished Percy’s thought.

  “Eternal thanks,” Percy added, beaming at Danny.

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” Malory rejoined.

  “Speak for yourself, old chap. You weren’t the one hiding from your own mother.”

  “I don’t have a mother.”

  “From George then.”

  “Point taken,” Malory conceded with a grin.

  “George?” Danny asked.

  “My stepmother.”

  “Is named George?” she gasped.

  When the young lord laughed, his cobalt eyes fairly sparkled.

  “It’s Georgina actually, but m’father cut that short just to be contrary. Habit of his, don’t you know.”

  She didn’t know and didn’t want to. She’d done what they’d asked—insisted—she do. And successfully, so there was no question about doing it again. She just wanted to get home now and face Dagger—and find out if she still had a home.

  Reminded of that, her expression turned gloomy. They didn’t notice. They were still glancing down at the pile of glitter.

  Percy tapped a large oval-shaped pendant surrounded by emeralds and diamonds. “Looks familiar, don’t it?” he said to his friend.

  “Indeed. I admired Lady Katherine’s bosom more’n once when it graced her chest.”

  “Didn’t take her for a gambler, least not the sort to part with something like that.”

  “She isn’t. Heard it was stolen several months ago while she was vacationing in Scotland.”

  “You pulling my leg, old man?”

  Malory was frowning by then. “No, and this bracelet looks rather familiar as well. I’d swear my cousin Diana was wearing it just last Christmas. Don’t recall her mentioning it was stolen, but I know she doesn’t gamble a’tall.”

  “Oh, I say, are you suggesting Lord Heddings is a thief?”

  “Looks that way, don’t it?”

  “But that’s splendid news. Can’t tell you how much guilt I was trying to ignore over this distasteful business.”

  Malory caught Danny rolling her eyes over that remark. She could tell he had to work really hard not to grin at her. Percy wasn’t finished, however, and his next question sobered the young lord.

  “But what are we going to do about it?”

  “There’s nothing we can do about it, without implicating ourselves and our young friend here.”

  “Well, that’s too bad. Hate to see a thief go about his merry way without paying a price for…it…” Percy intercepted Danny’s pointed stare and coughed. “Present company excluded, naturally.”

  “Let’s not forget yerselves,” Danny sneered. “Stealing that glitter weren’t my idea.”

  “Quite right,” Percy said with a blush.

  But Lord Malory noted with displeasure, “No, your idea was to empty our pockets, so there’s no need to be pointing fingers here.”

  The heat from the multiple blushes she felt just then could have lit the coach brazier. Danny hated having the tables turned on her, she really did. But under the circumstances, she was fresh out of rejoinders.

  He was quick, that one, and suspicious, or he wouldn’t have followed her into the house to make sure she did the job
. Astute, too, and clever. She didn’t doubt coming here had been his idea.

  It was too bad he wasn’t a half-wit like his friend. She might have called him that in her mind earlier, but she knew it wasn’t so. She could probably have talked her way out of her involvement if he was. She still probably could have—if he weren’t so bleedin’ handsome. But she had trouble putting two thoughts together when he turned those cobalt eyes on her. Her cunning and wits had gone right out the door, leaving behind a brainless ninny, hopelessly out of her element.

  Chapter 6

  IT SEEMED to take much longer getting back to the city than it had taken getting to Heddings’s house. Danny didn’t have a watch, but she wouldn’t have been surprised if the sun had soon made an appearance. She was tired, exhausted really, from so many emotions she wasn’t used to experiencing. She was starting to get hungry, too. And she still had a lot to deal with when she finally got home.

  Actually, she hoped Dagger would be asleep so she could get some sleep herself. It would be much easier to offer explanations, or lies for that matter, with a clear mind that wasn’t muddled with exhaustion.

  Percy was napping again, smart man. Danny wished she could do the same, but with Lord Malory still wide-awake, she didn’t dare. Not that she thought he’d do anything to her while she slept. She just needed to be alert to watch for an opportunity to escape in an area she recognized.

  She didn’t doubt they were going to let her go, now that she’d done what they wanted, but she doubted they’d take her back where they’d found her. Why would they go out of their way, late as it was? And dropping her off in their end of town would mean she’d be hopelessly lost and wasting hours more trying to find her way home. She might have grown up in London, but it was a big town and she was only familiar with her small section of it.

  She knew to the second when his eyes were back on her. Glancing at him confirmed it. He had something on his mind. The look he was giving her was much too thoughtful.

  “By the by, where’d you leave your shoes?”

  The question surprised her. It certainly wasn’t what she’d expected to hear, considering his pensive frown. And actually, she was surprised he hadn’t mentioned it sooner, since he’d had her march through the woods in her stockings. And he’d tied up her ankles earlier. He would have had to be blind not to notice she wasn’t wearing normal footwear.

  “These are me shoes,” she replied, and lifted one foot so he could see the soft sole of leather on the bottom of her wool stocking.

  “Ingenious.”

  She blushed slightly, but only because she was rather proud of her improvised footwear. She’d made them herself. She had a pair of normal shoes, since running around in what looked like her stockings would draw too much comment during the day. These she wore only when she worked.

  “Mind if I have a closer look?” he asked.

  Quickly she tucked her feet under the seat, as far away from him as she could and gave him a mutinous stare. He merely shrugged.

  Then he amazed her when he added, “You’re much smarter than I would have thought. That was quite a tale you told back there on the spur of the moment. Lord Carryway?” As soon as he said it, he chuckled.

  Danny merely shrugged. “It fit.”

  “I suppose,” he allowed, but his curiosity was still present. “Do you often get caught and have to talk your way out of it?”

  “No. Never been nabbed, not once—until tonight. Twice in one night, and both times because o’ ye.”

  He coughed slightly. But to avoid tossing around blame again, he instead introduced what was really on his mind.

  He tapped the necklace and bracelet on the seat next to him that had been under discussion earlier and said, “Would like to return these two pieces to their rightful owners, anonymously, of course.” He cleared his throat and looked distinctly uncomfortable as he added, “Would you mind, youngun?”

  “Why would I mind?”

  “Because this pile is yours.”

  She snorted. She’d already decided she wanted no part of that glitter. The vision of her being caught and hanged was still too fresh in her mind. But knowing the jewelry was twice stolen made it even more risky and she said so.

  “It’s one thing to get rid o’ stuff like that when it’s first stolen, just a matter o’ being quick about it. But trying to dump stolen goods that were already stolen goods is just askin’ to get caught. Some o’ that stuff, if not all, is already being looked for. I’d as soon toss it out the window as touch it again.”

  He shook his head. “This won’t do. You were promised a fortune in—”

  “Get over it, mate. If I want anything from ye, ye’ll know it.”

  Oh, God, his look suddenly turned sensual again, heating her thoughts, turning her innards to mush. If she said anything else just then, it would be utter gibberish. How could he do that with just a look? And what had she said to change his expression like that? The mention of “want”? That would mean he knew she was a woman, but he couldn’t know. No one knew. And he couldn’t have guessed. She didn’t even know how to act like a female anymore, she’d played her male role so long, and she’d made no mistakes to give herself away.

  He let her off the hook by cooling his carnal stare. Was it the squirming she’d done? He picked up the wad of money, thumbed through it briefly, then tossed it on her seat.

  “Not quite a hundred pounds there, but it will do for the moment I suppose.”

  Why did he make it sound as if they weren’t done with each other? “That’s more’n I’ve ever seen at one time, or two, or more,” she quickly assured him. “That will do me fine.”

  He merely smiled. She went back to staring out the window. Her eyes widened to see London on the other side now.

  She didn’t recognize anything, but she still said, her tone somewhat desperate, “Ye can let me out ’ere, mate. I can find m’way—”

  “Not a chance, lad. I’ll take you to your door and do any explaining that’s needed, to get you out of the trouble you mentioned. We’ll just drop Percy off first. Won’t take long a’tall.”

  And then be alone with him and his bleedin’ eyes that undressed her? Not a chance was right.

  “I exaggerated,” she lied. “This money will more’n make up for the time I’ve been missing.”

  “I insist,” he said, not buying her lie. “Wouldn’t be able to sleep if I thought this nasty business had repercussions for you.”

  “Like I care if ye can sleep?” she snapped churlishly. “Yer idea o’ favors is my idea o’ getting buried, so don’t do me any more. I’d be in even more trouble if I showed ye where me friends live. Waking up in an alley beat nigh to death would be lucky.”

  “You expect a beating for—”

  “Not me,” she cut in pointedly.

  He chuckled. “All right, I get the picture. But I’ll escort you back to that tavern. Very least I can do.”

  She didn’t think he’d settle for that once he got that far, so she had no choice but to say, “No.”

  “Wasn’t asking for permission, dear boy.”

  Danny opened her mouth to snarl something really nasty, but since it wouldn’t accomplish anything, she decided to save her energy for what was about to come next.

  Chapter 7

  DANNY HAD TO WAIT until the nabob took his eyes off her before she made her move. When he finally did, she didn’t spare another thought on it, just shot toward the coach door, jumped out, and took off at a run down the block.

  Too easy, just as she’d figured it would be, though she’d underestimated how much ducking she should have done to get through the door. Not being a frequent rider in coaches, never in one so fine as his, she hadn’t taken her above-average height into account when leaping out that coach door. She was lucky she’d only knocked her hat off and hadn’t knocked herself unconscious.

  She’d miss the hat. She was right fond of that hat, had won it in a fight down the block last year. It gave her a certain “flare�
�� that she loved, probably because it appealed to her feminine vanity. But it was gone now, left on the floor of the nabob’s coach, and it would be a sorry day before she’d risk running into that young lord again to retrieve it.

  She didn’t slow her pace, didn’t need to as she wasn’t winded yet. But a block away she figured she better stop running before she did wear herself out. She started to, then finally heard someone running behind her. A glance back and she shot forward at full speed.

  She simply couldn’t believe it. The bleedin’ nabob was chasing her! And not just a short distance either. He should have given up after the first block, but he was still at it.

  It made no sense, since they were done with each other. She’d done what they’d wanted and they had gotten her back to London. Why in the bleedin’ hell would he go out of his way just to get her closer to home when she obviously didn’t want him taking her any farther?

  Three bleedin’ blocks now and he still wasn’t stopping! She was getting winded now. His legs were longer. He was slowly catching up to her. She almost stopped and gave up, but she rounded a corner and found a passing hack just approaching it. While she was out of Malory’s line of view for those few seconds, she dove under the hack, grabbed hold of the frame to lift herself off the ground, anchored her feet to it as well to help hold herself up as close to the frame as possible, and waited until she saw his legs run by.

  Pressed close to the underbelly of the coach, she was out of Malory’s sight. He kept on running, in the opposite direction from her now, which allowed her to drop back to the ground when the hack turned another corner.

  She was still somewhat winded, heart still racing, even more hungry now, and close to toppling over from pure exhaustion. If she didn’t think it would make matters much worse to delay getting home, she’d find a nice alley to curl up in and sleep the day away.

  She was lost, of course, in an area of the city she’d never been in before. And she was drawing too much attention. Without her hat to hide the white-gold of her hair, her mop of curls was like a beacon, especially in contrast to her dark green velvet jacket. She was drawing attention wherever she passed, making her more uncomfortable than she cared to admit.