“Where are you walking with such purpose this late at night?”
“You won’t leave me be, will you?” she asked, beyond exasperated.
With annoying ease, he used the advantage of his longer stride and drew abreast of her. “I rather doubt it.”
She shot him an incredulous glance and laughed. She couldn’t seem to help it. The man was too much.
“What is your name?” he asked.
“Ahh,” she began and stopped, shock tracing through her. She’d almost blurtedAmelie, a name she hadn’t uttered in a dozen years. “Hortense,” she said, righting the course.
His eyebrows crinkled together. “Are you certain? There seems to be some doubt.”
“Hortense.” Most definitely Hortense.
She sewed her mouth shut before she could say—oralmostsay—some other unsettling thing.
She’d very nearly told him her name, her true name, the one Papa and Maman had called her. Why? Was it because he so resembled Nick? That couldn’t be it. She’d never shared that name with Nick.
“Hortense is a French name,non?” Clare asked.
He was deducing rather a lot about her. Her earlier observation had been correct. He was a sharp one. She would do well to remember it. “I’m growing bored of this game and have a job to complete.”
“Like the job you did for Nick tonight?”
“A different sort of job,” she said, tart, but also a little sheepish. His question pricked. “One that has naught to do with you. So, if you will leave me be—”
“The way I see the matter, you owe me.”
Another disbelieving laugh startled from her. “I owe you nothing.”
“You’ve been creeping about my house for days and spying on me.”
“It was a job, and nothing personal.”
“Yet it had to do with my person. You’re lucky I didn’t call the night watch and have you arrested.”
“You cannot be serious,” she said, meeting his eye. She saw he was.
“However,” he continued, “if you allow me to accompany you tonight, I shall forgive your debt.”
She only just realized her mouth had fallen open. She snapped it shut. But, truly, this lord had some brass. “I owe you nothing,” she repeated.
When he opened his mouth, surely to refute her statement, she held up a staying hand. The man was determined, and the job ahead of her, well, it wasn’t a difficult one. Clearly, this spoilt, entitled lord was looking for a lark, and she was meant to provide it. With the rare exception, wasn’t that how all lords viewed women like her?
“I’ll allow it,” she relented. “On a single condition.”
“Name it,” he said, his reply the vocal equivalent of a shrug. What sheer, bloody confidence the man possessed.
“That you leave me be after this night.”
“You have my word.”
She snorted. “And how do I know what your word is worth?”
Long, masculine fingers wrapped around her upper arm and pulled her to a stop. His gaze had gone dark and intense. She’d seen that expression before, on his brother, but never had she been its recipient.
“Are you implying that I am not an honorable man?” he all but growled.
