“Don’t you know his name?” Jamie asked.
A curt shake of her head was all the reply he got.
“Try a sing-songy voice,” he offered. “Like”—he cleared his throat—“Dah-ogg.”
Well, that was silly, wasn’t it?
Her gaze flashed to meet his, humor shining in her eyes. The woman was most definitely stifling a snicker. She opened her mouth to possibly laugh him out of the room when the dog shot to his four feet and began a sustained growl, one that shook his compact body from head to paw. He wasn’t having it.
The sudden slam of a door at the front of the townhouse drew all three sets of eyes. Next came the rustle of silk skirts, followed by the low, cajoling rumble of a masculine voice and a delighted feminine giggle.
Sir Archibald Winthrop had returned home.
With a paramour.
And judging by the increasing volume, the couple was approaching this room.
Hortense jerked her chin toward the curtains. Before Jamie knew what he was about, he’d grabbed her hand and pulled her into the alcove with him. And in the nick of time, too, as the party of two, who sounded no small bit tipsy, entered the room.
He glanced down to find wide eyes staring up at him, expectancy in their depths. “What is it?” he whispered.
Her gaze lowered, and he felt it land on his hand still grasping hers. His fingers released her slender hand that instant. He couldn’t seem to keep his hands off hers.
What a strange and puzzling night this was turning out to be. He wasn’t certain he evenlikedthe woman, yet he seemed to be drawn to her in ways that had naught to do with his conscious mind.
“Shall we go?” he asked, seeing no other option.
Her gaze hardened to steel. “Leave if you like, but I never give up on a job. That dog will be caught.”
She parted the curtains an inch and pressed one eye to the gap. Over her head, Jamie was just able to make out Winthrop on the other side of the room pouring a pair of brandies. Those two weren’t going anywhere soon. A barely perceptible groan of frustration released with Hortense’s breath. She crouched low and waggled her fingers through the slit in the curtains. From his nest of blankets, the dog observed her with a guarded eye and moved not a muscle.
Jamie’s ear picked up a sound, both familiar and predictable. The smacking of wet flesh on flesh. Winthrop and his companion, they’d begun—deuce it all—a rather amorous bout of kissing on the chaise lounge.
He dropped to a crouch beside Hortense and waggled his fingers alongside hers to entice the terrier. He understood the direction of Winthrop’s night, and he had no intention of being here for it.
Unfortunately, his efforts had the opposite of the desired effect upon the dog. Clearly wearied of this game, the feisty pooch barked once, twice, until it turned into a full-on yapping. As one, Jamie and Hortense startled backward.
Winthrop, thinking the dog was barking at him, shouted out, “Oh, shut it, you little pest,” and threw a pillow in the general direction of the animal. The pillow hit wide of the mark both literally and figuratively, for now the terrier was directing his animus toward Winthrop.
“I take it this is the first time you’ve attempted wooing a dog away from its kidnapper?” Jamie whispered, his mouth an inch from the whorl of Hortense’s ear.
Her jaw tensed.
He detected a reluctance to provide a truthful answer in the movement.
“Might be.” The confession sounded pulled from her as easily as an extracted tooth. “Winthrop was supposed to be out until dawn. Now, shush, and let me think.”
Another feminine giggle wafted across the room, this one pitched lower, emerging from deep within the woman’s throat. This giggle left no doubt where the next few minutes were leading. Next sounded a released sigh with a little moan at the end. Items of clothing began to be discarded at a rate both alarming and haphazard.
Face pale, Hortense’s eyes flashed up to meet Jamie’s, panic clanging in their depths. And something more, too.
Awareness.
The intimate space behind the black velvet curtains suddenly halved in size. It became warmer, too.
Nay, not merely warmer.Hot.
He swallowed and found himself loosening his cravat.
