She paused, contemplating the options. “Fine, but any missteps and you’ll be tied up!”
“Agreed, I won’t put a toe out of line.”
“Then you need to come with me.”
“Where are we going?”
Her jaw clenched in irritation.Hadn’t been expecting questions, had you?“That is not for you to know.”
“Do you suppose we’ll be back by tomorrow morning? I ought to leave a note for Will if I’ll be late,” I explained with a gesture toward my partner’s empty desk.
Will and I had been sharing my office for months. That situation left the room cluttered, cramped, and, far too often, occupied by his distracting new wife. Since the attempt on his life left his office charred, it was the best solution. Even if I was left to trip over them all day long while they made eyes at each other.
“Fine,” she replied.
I rushed to snatch a clean piece of parchment and scribbled a note to my business partner and mentor. A few words were all that was necessary to inform him that Lady Davina was “kidnapping” me and I wasn’t certain when I would return. With that intelligence, he was unlikely to worry for at least a fortnight—neither of us were strangers to her escapades. That thought considered, I added a postscript asking him to water the plants at my apartments down the street.
I set it across his desk. The note stood in stark contrast to the uncluttered wood of Will’s workspace. Marriage had left him a less dedicated business owner. He never had an empty desk before Celine.
“If you’re all finished,” she began, sarcasm coloring her tone, “we can set off.” She must have realized it wasn’t usual to allow the abducted to leave notes, at least not ones without ransom requests.
“How long will we be gone? And to where? I should probably pack a few things.”
“You know, don’t you?” she demanded.
“Know what?” I asked, biting back a smile and hoping the mirth in my tone wasn’t too obvious. It was a familiar sensation in her presence, one I’d grown quite comfortable with over the years.
She sighed before dragging the hand not holding the sword across her face in irritation. Her domino slipped with the effort and she rushed to right it. The display was amusing, particularly in light of the fact that she must be certain I knew her identity. Her sword hand was flagging again. The weapon was a great oversized thing that seemed much too heavy for her.
The reasonableness of my request must have struck her though, because she nodded.
“Where do you live?” Lady Davina had entirely forgotten to drop her voice that time and instead resorted to her usual bell tones.
“Half a block south. Do you want to wait here?”
She considered for a moment before nodding.
“Make yourself comfortable. I’ll be quick.”
She settled into my recently vacated chair as though she owned it and kicked her feet up on the desk. I shook my head and grabbed my great coat before I slipped out of the darkening offices, then rushed up the street to my apartments before she found some other trouble.
The brisk walk left me with more questions than answers. Lady Davina had kept her mischief to a minimum since her elder brother left for Scotland last summer. I’d thought her penchant for mayhem was dying down. There had been no gaming-hell incidents, no odd investments, no unexpected employment, and no petty thievery.
Her brother, the Duke of Rosehill, left me with strict instructions to rescue her from any scrapes she found herself in without regard to cost—a task that had fallen to me regularlybefore he left town. Now it seemed she was merely combining all her smaller misdeeds into one grand performance.
Once inside my apartments, I raced to the wardrobe and dragged free my father’s old, dusty, formerly red portmanteau. I set it on the floor and yanked it open.
Years ago, I’d inadvertently torn a hole in the lining—now a feature, I stuffed a handful of coins from my pocket inside. I riffled through the wardrobe, gathering sensible shirts, practical waistcoats, and comfortable trousers with an unadorned cravat and set them in the bag.
I considered the portmanteau carefully before I strode to the desk tucked beneath the singular window. There, I snatched a few bills from the top drawer and added them to the lining leaving only a few coins in my pocket.
Rushing, I made for the basin I used to wash every morning and evening and grabbed an unused bar of soap and a clean cloth and tucked those away as well.
The kitchen revealed little. Only a few apples and a loaf of bread rested on the counter across from my sleeping area. I tossed those on top of my clothing.
A thousand different scenarios spun through my mind. There were untold ways Lady Davina could have found trouble. And it was entirely in character for her to choose this utterly absurd way out of it. I might have need of any one of a million different things to help her.
But I knew, deep down, that whatever mess she was in, I would never be able to guess it. And so I yanked the case closed, barely, and buckled it before I set off back to my offices and the chaos awaiting me there.
