Lucy sat up. “What is it?”
“I shouldn’t be here!”
She looked at the window where the light came strongly between the thin gap in the drapes. “Oh,” she breathed. Then giggled.
“It’s notfunny,” Jack said, suddenly fighting the urge to laugh himself as he hopped one-legged into his trousers.
“I know it’s not, but…all that care you took over my precious reputation, and nowthis!”
He groaned. “Don’t say it.”
“It doesn’t matter very much anyway,” she said, getting up and walking naked to her wardrobe, the action, not the words, being what momentarily wiped the troubles from his mind. She pulled on a robe. “I’m fairly sure Caroline already knows you are here.”
“Sheknows?How?”
Lucy came to him and began tying the neck of his shirt. “Somehow, she knew you were at my window. I’m beginning to think she has mysterious powers. Or the hearing of a cat.”
“Well I hope she didn’thearmuch last night,” Jack muttered. Lucy blushed, which was absurd given everything and their current state of déshabillé. He leant down suddenly and kissed her firmly. For a moment, she melted into him, but then she was pushing him away before handing him his waistcoat.
“You lookterrible,” she said happily, surveying the efforts of his dress.
He grinned. “And it is all your fault.”
“You may as well go down the stairs. Everyone will see you climbing the wall in broad daylight, and that will surely lead to only more notice being drawn.”
“And what of the servants?”
“Caroline hardly has any. You might get lucky and avoid them.”
“Well, and if I don’t,” he said, sweeping a hand at his crumpled appearance, “I can tell them I got robbed on my way home and wandered in here for help.”
“Dazed and confused?”
“Don’t I look it?”
She smiled and stood on tiptoe to press a small, sweet kiss against his lips. “Very.”
His arm slid around her waist, and he kissed her extremely soundly before, with a Herculean effort, he tore himself away.
It wasn’t the servants he met coming down the stairs but Caroline herself. She stepped out of her parlour, a letter in her hand, just as he reached the last step.
“Ah, Jack!” she said, smiling. “What an unexpectedly early visit from you. How sorry I was to miss you arrive!”
He rubbed the hot back of his neck, hat and gloves in his other hand. “Caroline…”
She laughed and turned back to the parlour. “Come and talk with me a moment, Jack. I have some things to say to you.Congratulationsbeing one of them, of course, but no doubt you also feel you deserve an apology.”
“I’d say!” Jack followed her into the parlour. “I’ve already guessed that charade with George was your idea, and if that’s your idea of matchmaking, you should stick to planning dinner parties. Wouldn’t a word or two in my ear have done the trick? Even an anonymous letter would have been less underhand.”
“But far less entertaining! No, no, don’t frown and scowl. Aren’t you the happiest man in England? How can you frown?”
“In the wholeworld, Caroline, but you have to admit it was the devil of a trick to play.”
“And you have to admit you deserved it.”
He breathed a hollow laugh, turning the brim of his hat in his fingers. “You’re a rogue, Caroline.”
“Oh, I’m far worse than that.” She grinned. “But let us not talk of apologies when there is thanks to be given instead.”
