Peg rolled her eyes and kicked at the covers, still not wanting to get out of bed. ‘There is nothing to see out there that I have not seen a hundred times. Unless it is to look at the man watching the garden gate to keep us from leaving.’
‘There is something new this morning,’ Liv said. ‘And it must be seen to be believed.’
Peg rose with a huff and reached for her wrapper before going to stand in the window and look down. ‘I see nothing unusual.’
‘Wait,’ her sister said, holding up a hand. ‘It will be passing again in a moment.’ She pointed down the street to a coach rounding the corner and heading down the street to pass their house.
Peg glanced at her sister, who still seemed to be fixated on the approaching carriage. Then she looked down herself and saw the sign on the vehicle’s roof.
Bond Street. 1:00
‘It is very ingenious,’ Liv said, smiling. ‘The guards might be suspicious of the carriage, but they cannot see the message from the ground.’
‘And Hugh’s bedroom faces the front of the house,’ Peg said with a smile. ‘He is unlikely to see it at all.’ She glanced at her sister. ‘Who do you think it is for?’
‘You, of course,’ her sister said with a sigh. ‘Unfortunately, I do not think Alister is quite so ingenious.’
‘We must go, of course,’ said Peg, grinning.
‘We?’ Liv said with a sigh.
‘To leave the house separately will be far too suspicious. We must go shopping and take a maid as chaperon to put Hugh and his guards at ease.’
‘I will get in more trouble if this is discovered,’ Liv replied. ‘At this rate, I will never see Alister again.’
‘He will find his way to you, just as David has done to me,’ Peg assured her with a softer smile. If he did not, Alister was not worthy of her sister’s affection, any more than Richard Sterling had been. In either case, they would be going to Bond Street that afternoon, so she could talk to David.
* * *
A little before one, they set out on their highly supervised shopping trip with a maid in tow, two men following a distance behind and a final warning from their brother that there should be no more nonsense or he would lock them in their rooms. It made her wonder just how David hoped to communicate with her. He might still have the key to the pied-à-terre, but she had no way to get there without him and no method to signal him that she had come this far.
But as she and her sister were staring into the window of a milliner’s shop, she was caught by the reflection of the street behind her and a man on the opposite side, looking in her direction.
She looked once, then twice at the man standing on the street. She was sure that she had not met him before, for she’d have remembered the bright red hair creeping out from under his hat and the monocle clenched in his left eye. Still, there was something vaguely familiar about him. Then, very deliberately, he stared at her and winked with his good eye.
David.
He was disguised again, but it was definitely him. She was so excited by the knowledge that she almost called his name out loud before remembering that her brother’s men were watching and would put an immediate stop to any attempt to speak with a stranger.
As she watched, he turned away from her and walked deliberately to a shop on the corner, giving her a final look before disappearing inside.
She tugged Olivia’s sleeve. ‘Let us cross the street at the next corner. I would like very much to visit the little bookshop there.’
Liv rolled her eyes. ‘A bookshop. This is a first from you. But who am I to complain if you finally want to better your mind?’ They crossed the street together and entered the shop.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dimness inside and to see David leaning over a table of books at the back of the store. She worked her way to him in the most uninterested way possible, every nerve of her body on alert at the thought of being near him. Though they had been apart less than a week, it felt like an age.
He leaned his head close to hers and spoke, his lips barely moving. ‘I have to see you.’
‘And I you,’ she said. ‘I have news.’
‘As do I. And I need your help.’
‘Where? How? When?’
‘Now,’ he said.
Her attempts at hiding her surprise failed dismally as her head snapped up to stare at him.
‘Come away with me,’ he said, loud enough so there could be no doubt of what he had said. ‘Right now.’
She glanced back at her sister and their maid, too focused on a shelf at the front of the shop to notice what she was doing. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked.
‘I am going to Newcastle upon Tyne, to find out what was in the Duke’s letter,’ he said, his monocle dropping from his eye. ‘It is the one place we can get the details on the letter we found in the apartment. The question is, are you coming with me?’
He was not talking about a jaunt across town. The trip north would take several days. If anyone heard of the trip, her reputation would be in tatters and she would have little choice but to beg him for marriage, whether he wanted her or not.
And if, despite what she had found, he proved her wrong again, he would still write his article as planned. Then she would have no reputation to speak of, either. Running away now would not make things any worse.
But, most importantly, she wanted to go with him, to follow wherever he led. No matter the future, things could be as they had been, for just a few days longer.
‘Give me a moment,’ she said, walking back to her sister.
Once she had Olivia’s attention, she pulled her away from the maid so they could speak privately and whispered, ‘I need your help.’
‘If you wish me to recommend a book...’ She held one out to Peg. ‘Take this one so we can be on our way.’
‘I am leaving,’ Peg said, waving the book aside. ‘I need you to give me some time.’
‘Leaving?’ Liv stared at her in confusion. ‘What—?’
Peg held up her hand to stop the questions. ‘Do not leave this shop for the next fifteen minutes. When you go, proceed up Bond Street as if nothing has changed until Hugh’s men stop you. When they do, you must know nothing, so I will tell you nothing.’ She gave her sister’s hand a quick squeeze. Then, ignoring Liv’s horrified look, she went to the back of the shop and followed David out a rear entry and into a storeroom.
‘We have a quarter of an hour before they begin to look for us,’ she said as he led her quickly out a door and down a side street.
‘More than enough time,’ he assured her, trotting to a corner and whistling for a cab. When one arrived, he grabbed her hand and helped her up and into a seat before murmuring directions to the driver.
When they had settled down and were on their way, she looked at him, breathless. ‘Now that we are alone, can you tell me what, exactly, we are doing?’
‘As I said before, we need to find out what it was the Duke asked that doctor. He is far more likely to talk to you, a member of the Duke’s family, than he is to me.’ His tone was distant, holding none of the warmth she’d heard in it during their night together.
‘Oh,’ she said, crestfallen. She’d had hopes that he missed her as much as she missed him. Instead, it seemed he needed to use her to get more information for his story, just as he had used her from the first.
‘This trip will not be necessary,’ she said, putting on a brave smile to hide her hurt. ‘I have talked to everyone in the house and have learned that there was another person visiting us the night Father died. A woman. She was with Hugh, in his room. She was also in the study. Her scream alerted the family to the presence of the body.’
David blinked at her in response. ‘How could she be in both the bedroom and the study? Was Scofield with her when the body was found? Or was she with him when he killed his father? That could have
been what made her scream.’
‘I do not think so,’ she replied. It was true, she did not. But it was clear that the evidence she thought definitive was not yet enough to persuade him.
He gave her a sceptical look, as if her information proved nothing at all to him, then continued, ‘It is definitely interesting that there was a stranger in the house that night. I am willing to consider the possibility of your brother’s innocence, but not enough to trust him with your life. We are going to the asylum in Newcastle so you can speak to the doctor yourself. Once there, he will either exonerate your brother or explain to you how dangerous he actually is.’
‘You are still trying to change my mind,’ she said, surprised.
He reached out to grab her hand, then stopped before touching her. ‘I am trying to protect you. You will not believe me when I say that there is a problem, but perhaps you will take a medical man more seriously. At the very least, your brother’s domineering behaviour towards you and you sister borders on obsession. If it should turn out that he is mad and cannot control himself, you are not safe with him.’
It was good to know that he still cared, but it meant nothing without a further commitment. ‘What happens if you convince me it is not safe to go home?’ she asked, holding her breath.
‘I will think of something,’ he said. ‘I will help you towards whatever future you choose, as long as I am sure you are not under the thumb of a madman.’
Perhaps he did not understand the truth of a woman alone in the world. But if she was not someone’s wife or her brother’s sister, she was not anyone. She would have no friends, no family and no references to get what limited employment was available to an educated woman. Perhaps he could forge her something, as he had done for himself when getting the job as her dancing teacher.
Or perhaps he could do the obvious thing and marry her. But it was not the thing for the lady to ask the gentleman a question like that. The fact that she had given him the ultimate gift should have been an incentive. Of course, she had told him afterwards that she’d wanted nothing more to do with him. If he was not quick to admit his feelings, she was to blame for it. ‘And are you still planning to publish your article?’ she asked.
‘Let us not talk about that until after we have spoken with the physician,’ he said.
‘Now you are stalling,’ she replied. But it was a better response than he had given her before. The last time, there had been no doubt at all.
‘If you do not like my answer, we can turn back,’ he said. ‘We still have a few moments to return you to the bookshop before you have been missed.’
‘No,’ she said, wishing that her voice did not sound so hesitant. ‘Do not take me back. Let us go to Newcastle and get the answer you are seeking.’ If she was honest, she wanted to know as much as he did. She was tired of answering doubts about her family, tired of being lied to by her brother and exhausted by the way each new revelation seemed to contradict the last.
The only thing she was sure of was that she did not want to leave David a moment before she had to. If he wanted to wait until the end of the trip to make his decision, she would at least have a few more hours to pretend that things might work out between them. So she leaned back into the squabs and counted the money in her reticule, hoping that it would be enough to provide any necessities she might want for a journey of several days.
* * *
They changed carriages twice before reaching the edge of the city, then rented a plain coach and driver from a small and hopefully reputable stable on one of the lesser-used north roads. ‘If Scofield wants to follow us, I have a good idea where he will look,’ David said with a smile. ‘We will make a point of being elsewhere.’
He did not tell her that her brother would be researching the fastest routes to Gretna Green, since he was still not sure that she was ready to hear it. When she had asked his plans for her after this was over, he had thought of the small ring in his pocket and lost the nerve to speak.
When he was with her, she was his sweet Peg, the light of his life. But while they were apart, he had begun to think of her as Lady Margaret Bethune, a woman miles above him in wealth and status. Even without her brother working actively against her chances at marriage, she could do far better than an itinerant journalist who had been born on the wrong side of the blanket.
Though they’d made love, she’d told him after, in no uncertain terms, that, if forced to choose, she would keep the life she had, even as it fell apart around her.
He could not really blame her for it. But that did not change his feelings for her. For hours, she had been sitting across the carriage from him, staring out the window in silence, as if she found the scenery far more interesting than his company. Or perhaps she was watching the sun set and wondering what would happen when they had to stop for the night.
He had been wondering that, as well. He hoped that there would be two rooms available to remove the possibility of temptation from their stay. But when they stopped at the coaching inn, he was informed that he and his ‘wife’ could have the last one available.
It was some consolation that the hosteler did not wink when he declared them married. It allowed them the dignity of pretending that nothing was improper. Peg stood a way off, drinking the brandy and hot water that the tavern maid had given her, ignoring the negotiations until they were through. She turned back to David with a hopeful smile.
‘Our room is ready,’ he said, watching her carefully to see if the singular nature of the word shocked her in any way.
She blinked once and then gave him a relieved smile. ‘Excellent news. I am very tired.’ She stepped forward and allowed herself to be led up the stairs by him.
When he had her safely inside the room with the door shut, he blurted, ‘I will sleep on the floor.’
‘Why?’
The single word stunned him to silence. It could not possibly be the offer he thought it was.
‘Is there some problem with your back?’ she said, sitting on the edge of the mattress and bouncing once. ‘This feels quite comfortable, compared to some beds I have had while travelling. And it is certainly large enough for two.’
‘I am taking the floor because, after the way we parted when last we were alone, I did not think you would want to share it with me,’ he replied, laying it out plainly for her.
‘We did not part under the best circumstances,’ she agreed. ‘And I am not sure that anything has changed in that. But I have ruined my reputation by running away with you and I doubt that it matters what I do next.’ She gave him an inviting smile.
It was what he’d hoped to see, but her words ruined it. ‘If it no longer matters what you do with your life, than it is no compliment that you want to share a bed with me,’ he replied, ripping off his cravat and throwing it over the back of the nearest chair.
‘That is not what I meant,’ she said, giving a frustrated tug at her gown. ‘It is just that...’ she tugged again, trying and failing to reach the hooks ‘...I did not want to seem missish. We have already lain together. I did not want to seem shocked that you might wish to do it again. But, apparently, I am now being too worldly to appeal to you.’
‘That is not true,’ he said.
‘I assumed you found it as pleasurable as I did. But if you did not...’ She gave a final pull at the back of her gown and then gave up and laid down on the bed, prepared to sleep in her clothes.
He sighed and went to her, helping her back up so he could sit on the bed behind her. Then he loosened her gown and stays, so she might sleep comfortably. Once he had started undressing her, he could not resist the opportunity to push her garments down her shoulders and lay his palm flat on the bare skin of her back. ‘Do you regret what we did together before?’
‘No,’ she said, almost too quickly. ‘I know it was wrong. But I cannot bring myself to be sorry about it.’
He moved his hand sl
owly, up and down her back, lost for a moment in the smoothness of her skin. Then he asked, ‘What would you do if you didn’t have to worry about the future?’
Without another word, she turned to kiss him, her loosened gown bundling between them as he took her in his arms. She whispered against his lips, ‘I want to be with you.’
It was all the invitation he needed.
Chapter Seventeen
Peg Bethune was almost exactly where she wanted to be.
First, they were on their way to get information that might lead to the truth of what had happened to her father. There was still a chance that Hugh was innocent and David would not publish. If that was true, there was still hope they could be together in the future.
Second, they were halfway to Gretna Green. If she was honest with herself, she was already ruined and there was only one way to make it right. When they had been together in her brother’s apartment, David had proclaimed his love for her. Surely, if the situation was right, a proposal of marriage would be forthcoming.
Last, and most importantly, she was with David and they were alone for the whole night. She could not stop thinking of the brief time spent in the bedroom of her brother’s apartment and the wonderous sensations she had experienced. If that was what constituted a fall from grace, then virtue had been highly overrated and she was glad she had rid herself of it.
The situation was definitely right for a repeat of their last meeting. Her gown was open and his hands had slid under her shift to stroke the skin of her back. ‘You said in the apartment that you wanted to see all of me,’ she reminded him, holding her breath and hoping he remembered.
‘I did,’ he agreed.
She stood for a moment and stepped out of her shoes as she shook herself free of the opened gown, letting it fall to the floor along with petticoat and stays. After taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, she pulled her shift over her head and dropped it with the rest, leaving her in nothing but stockings and garters.
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