Keeping her head low, she walked through Chinatown and Portsmouth Square unmolested and sauntered through the lobby of the Silver Lady as if she had every right to be there. She knocked briskly on the door of Nathan’s suite and barely heard the sound above her heart knocking against her ribs.
The door opened quickly, without warning that anyone was approaching it, and Lydia was unceremoniously hauled inside. She found little comfort in the knowledge that Brigham was as stunned by her appearance as she was by his.
“You!” she said, yanking her wrist free of his grasp.
“What are you doing here?” He was wearing evening clothes, a black-tailed coat, white satin vest and shirt, and black trousers. His sandy hair was touseled and his face a bit flushed as if he had been exerting himself moments earlier.
Brigham made no attempt to retake her arm. His green eyes darted over her, taking in her odd attire. Her shapeless form didn’t fool him now. He had touched her breasts, had felt their fullness. He knew the smallness of her waist and the silky thickness of her sable hair. Anyone could be forgiven for thinking her plain, as he had once upon a time, but he knew better. Her grave cobalt blue eyes drew his attention. He smiled. “My, you are resourceful, aren’t you? There are unexpected depths to you, I’m thinking. May I have your hat? Take your coat?”
Lydia shook her head. “Is it both of you then? Is that why you’re here?”
“Both of us?” Brig reached behind Lydia, turned the key in the lock and pocketed it.
She tried not show the confusion his action caused her. “Both of you,” she repeated, looking around the suite for Nathan. “The note…the gown…never mind.” Had she said too much? Brigham was studying her with a cool, remote glance, his tawny eyebrows slightly raised. “It doesn’t matter. I’m here to see Nathan. Where is he?”
Brigham pointed to the bedroom. “Nath won’t be much company,” he said. “He’s passed out, I’m afraid. Almost drowned in his bath water. I only just put him to bed. We’ve been out this evening, drinking since after dinner, but I stopped a half dozen shy of Nath.”
Lydia frowned. Brig didn’t smell as if he’d been drinking and she was standing close enough that she should have been able to tell. She glanced uncertainly in the direction of the bedroom.
“Go on,” Brig said. He laughed shortly. “You can stop looking at me as if you expect to get tossed on your head—out the window.” He followed her in. A lamp was burning on the bedside table. “If I’m going to toss you at all, it’ll be on that bed.”
Her head snapped up. Brig’s tone held not a whit of humor. His voice was low, resonant with suppressed anger and echoing danger. She tried to duck under his arm and go back to the sitting room, but he blocked her path easily.
“I think you said you wanted to see Nathan,” he said. This time his smile did not reach his eyes. He caught her shoulders, spun her around, and pushed her further into the room.
Nathan was there. He was lying on his side in the bed and deeply asleep. A sheet was tangled around the length of his bare legs. It covered his buttocks and the lower half of his chest, preserving modesty but leaving no doubt that he was naked beneath it. He didn’t stir as Brig prodded Lydia forward by placing a hand at the small of her back.
“I’ve seen enough,” said Lydia. “There’s no reason for me to stay. I must have been mistaken about tonight.”
“No mistake,” Brig said, blocking her way again. “Why don’t you sit there…on the corner of the bed?”
“No.” The single word was drawn out, more of a protest than a flat refusal. “Please let me pass.”
“Ahh,” he said gently, as if making a discovery. “The lady pleads prettily.”
Lydia’s chin came up. The brim of the slouch hat shaded her face. “I’m not pleading. I’m merely being polite.” She was standing toe-to-toe with him, and inside her pockets her hands were curled into fists. The knuckles of one hand brushed the derringer, the knuckles of the other, the check. She was frightened of Brig, of the anger that more closely resembled a young boy’s petulance and peevish willfulness than a rational man’s temper. When he would not move aside she asked, “Do you know why I’m here?”
“Of course. Nathan told me what he had planned.”
“Really, Lydia, hasn’t experience taught you that we don’t have many secrets? Why don’t you sit down and we’ll talk about it?”
Lydia finally accepted Brig was not going to let her back in the sitting room until it served his purpose. She sat heavily, hoping to jog Nathan into wakefulness though she had no clear idea what she expected from him. He flopped onto his belly and lay motionless. Lydia withdrew the check. “I haven’t filled in an amount,” she said, smoothing the paper over her knee. “Here, take it. Fill in any amount you like.”
Brig kicked the bedroom door closed with the heel of his shoe. Leaning back against it, he crossed his arms. “You must have a great deal of money to make an offer like that. How do you know I won’t bankrupt you?”
“I’m hoping you’ll be reasonable about this.”
“Yes, of course. Reasonable.” His lips flattened and one corner of his mouth lifted in disgust. “You forced me out a window, remember? I was up to my ankles in manure. Was that reasonable?”
Lydia held out the check. “Here. Take it.”
Brig reached for it, caught it in his fingertips, and resumed his position at the door. “You’ve made it out to Nathan,” he said. He folded it neatly into quarters, creasing each fold with his fingernails to make the lines sharp and clean. He fiddled with the paper absently, studying Lydia with a remote, impartial gaze.
Unable to help it, Lydia shivered, and looked away from what he was doing. The sound of his nails skimming across the paper may as well have been a cat scratching a slate—her reaction was the same. Her skin prickled and she gritted her teeth. She didn’t look at him again until he finished. “What are you going to do with it?” she asked as he dropped it into his vest pocket and smoothed the slight bulge with the flat of his hand.
“It’s no good to me, is it? You’ve made it out to Nathan.”
“That’s because I didn’t know you were his partner in this as well,” she said. “I’d have made it out to you both otherwise.”
