"'Tis ratherdéjà-vu, isn't it? You and I alone in a carriage. Cutthroats lurking about."
"This is no game, my lady." His jaw clenched at her amused tone. "I beg you to reconsider interfering in this business. You must know it is unwise."
"I know no such thing. Miss Fines is a friend to me, and I must do what is in my power to aid her." Lady Marianne tilted her head to the side. The dusk's glow seeped from the edge of the curtain, frosting her upswept curls with icy radiance. "How is your arm, Mr. Kent?"
He blinked. She remembered his injury? "It is fine," he said curtly. "As I was saying, if you truly wish to help Miss Fines, you'd turn this carriage around and wait with the other ladies. I am sure they could use your support."
"Tea and sympathy has never been my forte."
"And apprehending kidnappers and murderers is?" He didn't bother to hide the sarcasm.
She gave a throaty laugh. "You have experienced my prowess with a pistol firsthand, sir. You tell me."
Anger blurred the edges of his vision. He'd never done violence to a woman—in action or in thought. But Lady Marianne Draven was no ordinary female. Suddenly, he could hold his tongue no more. The fact that she was a lady and his social superior be damned.
"Why do you take pleasure in baiting me?" he said.
If his bluntness surprised her, she showed no sign. The corners of her mouth tipped up as she replied, "I don't think I can take the credit for your current state—not entirely, at any rate. You're already wound tighter than a clock, Mr. Kent. I can't help but wonder why."
"The life of an innocent miss is at stake," he said through gritted teeth.
And it is my fault. I let Miss Fines and her family down.The truth knotted his chest. He'd never failed in his duty before; the fact that he had shamed him to his very core. To think of what the young miss might be suffering because of his lapse—
"And you take full responsibility," Lady Draven said, as if reading his mind.
"If not my responsibility, then whose? I was supposed to keep an eye on her. It was my job to make sure nothing happened, and instead I was—" He bit off the rest of the words.
Don't go there, man. Do. Not.
"Instead you let your attention... wander. Is that it?"
The knowing gleam in her verdant eyes made his throat clench. But he would not shirk from the truth. He jerked his head in assent.
"How long?" she said.
"I beg your pardon?"
"How long did you let her out of your sight?"
"Two minutes, mayhap three." Disgrace constricted his insides. "When I realized what I had done, I went searching for her. That is when I found the back door open and Miss Fines gone."
"During the time you were distracted, there was no commotion in the shop? No kidnappers at large, no cries for help?"
"I would have noticed if there had been a hubbub," he said. "When I questioned the patrons at the shop afterward, no one witnessed any sign of a struggle. One customer saw a girl fitting Miss Fines' description walking alone toward the back of the shop."
"Ah," Lady Draven said.
That single sound conveyed a world of significance. He frowned. "What are you getting at?"
"Merely that Miss Fines had it in her head to leave the shop. And to do so unhindered by you." The baroness lifted her fair brows. "My guess? She was lured outside—likely with the false prospect of seeing Mr. Hunt."
Ambrose mulled it over. The hypothesis made perfect sense. With grudging respect, he said, "Your skills of deduction are refined, my lady."
"Clever is as clever does."
A hint of genuine warmth entered her smile, and that infinitesimal softening of her lips made his breath falter.Too beautiful—for her own good as well as yours.
"It doesn't change the fact that I should have been there every step of the way," he said doggedly. "I could have prevented Miss Fines from making so egregious a decision."
