“You came out with me because you want to see your horse. Did the bone break?”
“Yes, it was ghastly. Pierced the skin. I didn’t swoon though. I was quite brave about it.” She was rather proud of that fact, even if the truth was that the sight had dulled her senses to the point she’d scarcely been able to believe it was her arm, in spite of the pain throbbing through it reassuring her that it was.
In near total darkness now, he flashed a grin, captured by the moonlight, and she thought it the most magical thing she’d ever seen. The laudanum was having a strange way with her, drawing her toward this young man with his gentle charms. “You’re a brave one,” he said.
“Not really. I’ve never been out this late, never been alone with a man, practically a stranger at that. I’m beginning to get a bit anxious that my father is going to find out.”
“He won’t. I can slip you back into the residence without anyone the wiser.”
She thought of his bag, knew the residence had been locked up tight for the night, yet he’d managed to get in. “Are you a thief as well?”
Something she should have thought to ask earlier.
“Once. Until my mum found out. Now I make an honest living.” Grinning, he glanced over at her. “It’s not as exciting.”
“But safer.”
“It is that. I’ll never end up in prison doing what I do now. As long as you keep our little secret.”
“I will. I promise.” Besides, his secret was now tied in with one she needed to keep for herself. Although her father had never taken a strap to her as he had her brother, if he found out about tonight’s little excursion, he very well might take action that would prevent her from sitting for a week.
“Why’d you goad her?” he asked unexpectedly.
She lifted a shoulder, embarrassed to admit the truth. “Why does any girl do anything unwise? I wanted someone’s attention.”
“One of your many swains?”
His tone was a bit confusing, as though he was irritated by the notion she might have beaux. For some reason, she was reluctant to confess that Thornley was a suitor, probably because he wasn’t really, not yet. Besides, it lessened her guilt about being out and about with this young man if she labeled the duke as merely a friend. “I haven’t any admirers. At least not yet. I’m only fifteen. I haven’t even had my first Season.”
“Fifteen,” he muttered beneath his breath. “A child.”
That irritated her. “I’m not a child. I’m very nearly fully grown. How old are you?”
“A good deal older than you.”
“How much older?”
“I’m one and twenty.”
“That’s not so old.”
“Old enough,” he murmured.
He turned the wagon onto a road much narrower than the one they’d been on. Ahead loomed a large building. Across the front, huge white letters that spelledTrewlovereflected the moonlight. “What’s this?” she asked.
“My brother’s brickworks factory.”
“Aiden owns a factoryanda gaming hell?”
The amused grin again. “No. My other brother Mick owns this, fancies himself a builder with plans to take the worst parts of London and make them posh.”
“How many brothers have you?”
“Three.”
“I can’t imagine it. There’s only my brother and I. He’s nine years older and seldom wants anything to do with me.”
“Do you want him to?”
