“It’s fine, Martin. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Sir, Howard was asking a lot of questions concerning your whereabouts. I told him you was at The Swan, playing cards. I hope I did not misspeak. I think his grace was worried about you.”
“No, Martin. That’s fine. Goodnight.”
“Night, sir.”
Aubrey let out a breath of relief and then frowned as he turned back to the room, noting that Alfie had opened the curtains and pushed up the sash window. She leaned out, looking down and around. Aubrey’s heart leapt as he realised what she was considering.
“Don’t even think about it!”
She glanced back at him. “Too late.”
“I’ll take you back through the house when we’ve finished our discussion.”
“We have finished, and it’s too risky with your valet hanging about. This poses no difficulty. I’ll be gone before you can count to ten.”
The words were delivered coolly and the likelihood that this was entirely too accurate gave Aubrey a hollow sensation in his chest he did not like one bit. “We havenotfinished,” he said testily. “And that’s a twenty-foot drop.”
She looked down again, pursing her lips. “No. No more than fifteen, I reckon.”
Aubrey resisted the urge to throw up his hands and folded his arms instead. “Oh, well,that’sall right then.”
“It is,” she agreed, ignoring the sarcasm dripping from his words. “Child’s play.”
“Dammit, will you just wait!” he said, struggling to keep his voice down as something that felt too much like panic flooded his system. He had the horrible feeling that if he let her go like this, with nothing resolved between them, she might just disappear into the night and never be seen again, and he would lose her and the diamonds in one fell swoop.
In that moment, he realised he cared little for the diamonds. He wanted his sister to have them, but nothing mattered more than making this frustrating creature hear him out and believe his words.
“You just asked to have an affair with me,” he pointed out. “Am I not allowed to give an answer, at least?”
“You did,” she said briskly. “Your expression was far too easy to read.”
“Then you are illiterate,” he shot back, his temper fraying.
She hesitated at that, regarding him cautiously. “Oh?”
Aubrey ran a hand through his hair, discovered he was still wearing the appalling hat, and threw it to the floor in disgust.
“Hey, that’s not your property,” she scolded him, reaching over to retrieve the wretched thing and stuffing it in her coat pocket.
“No,” he said, losing the plot entirely now. “Neither is this.” In one fluid movement, he pulled off the shapeless smock and threw it at her, repeating the action with the ill-fitting shirt.
His temper eased somewhat as she stood gazing at him, colour flooding her cheeks, her eyes wide and her mouth a little open.
“Want the rest?” he taunted, gesturing to the ridiculous trousers that barely covered his knees.
Her lips twitched, and she met his eyes, amusement dancing there. “Yes.”
“Then it’s all yours,” he told her, wondering if he’d completely lost his mind. He barely knew this woman, and she was a self-confessed criminal. She’d designed her own lockpicks, for heaven’s sake, and he was a lost cause because that fact only made him admire her more. “Everything.All of me. But I don’t come cheap, and neither do you. I’m willing to pay the price. I’m willing totry, at least. Maybe I’ll mess it all up, maybe I’ll never understand you, the life that you live, but I want to try. I can be brave and face all of it. Could you?”
Any amusement left her eyes, and she frowned, looking so very young and afraid he had to fight the urge to go to her, to take her in his arms.
“I don’t understand what you are asking of me?”
“Just that you give us a chance, that you don’t end whatever is between us before it has begun or cheapen it by pretending it’s worth no more than a brief affair. Let us go forward, together. Let me court you, or try to, and… and just see where it leads us.”
Those sharp grey eyes narrowed and she folded her arms, the stance entirely masculine as she stood her ground, shaking her head emphatically. “Oh, you’ll court Alfie, will you?” She snorted, curling her lip and he knew she was deliberately pushing at him, pushing him away. “It will lead us to heartbreak, to embarrassment for you and your family. They’ll never accept me.”
