“Of course not. I’m trying to prevent an elopement, not perform one.”
“Oh, thank heaven!” the young heiress exclaimed. “Then that’s no skin off my back.”
Cass murmured, “ ‘Off my nose,’ dearest.”
“ ‘Nose,’ ‘back,’ ” Kitty said. “What difference does it make?”
“It makes a big difference, especially when you’re using it incorr . . .” Cass paused when she spotted his raised eyebrow. “You’re right. It makes no difference.”
“No, indeed,” Kitty said. “As long as the colonel isn’t carrying us off to Gretna Green, I don’t care.”
Hmm. He was having a hard time reconciling this Kitty Nickman with the writer of all those entertaining letters. But perhaps she required a pen to be witty.
“Glad you approve,” he said.
“Well,Idon’t approve, Colonel,” Cass put in. “Why didn’t you just give us Douglas’s letter and then threaten to trounce Mr. Malet if he came near us again?”
“Because I know how seductive Malet can be. And I assumed Malet was having his carriage brought around because he’d already gained her cooperation.”
Kitty huffed out a breath. “He hadnot, I assure you. I wasn’t party to any elopement plans he spun on his own.”
“He called you his fiancée,” Heywood pointed out.
“Fiancée!” Cass glanced at her cousin. “You agreed to marry him?”
“Of course not. Mr. Malet is quite mistaken.” Kitty fiddled with her skirts. “I don’t know why he would say such a thing.”
When Heywood snorted, Cass tipped up her chin. “If Kitty says Mr. Malet mistook her interest, then he did. That wouldn’t surprise me. The man is a snake in the grass.”
“I thought it was ‘snake in the woods,’ ” Kitty said.
“No, dearest,” Cass said, avoiding his gaze.
“But snakes are bad no matter where they are,” Kitty persisted.
“Excellent point,” Cass said with a thin smile.
Something was odd here. The woman who’d written the letters he’d admired should have known such common turns of phrase.
“Anyway,” Heywood said, “whether in woods or in grass, his snakelike nature is precisely why I had to act quickly. And it sounded as if Kitty had given him reason to believe she would welcome the abduction—”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Kitty said warily. “No onewantsto be abducted.”
“Well, something must have encouraged him to act,” Heywood said.
Silence fell on the carriage. Then he heard a distinctly unladylike oath. It must be coming from Cass. Kitty didn’t seem the sort to make oaths.
“I know what encouraged him,” Cass said. “Just this evening, I told him I’d oppose any attempt he made to marry Kitty, and that Aunt Virginia and Kitty would heed me. Perhaps that pushed him into taking reckless action.”
Heywood crossed his arms over his chest. “Or perhaps Kitty had already agreed to run away with him.”
“I told you, that’s absurd!” Kitty cried.
“Sadly, I don’t believe you.” He fixed her with a hard look. “I know how convincing Malet can be with a lady.”
“Oh?” Cass said. “Do you often come behind him to clean up his messes?”
“Often enough to recognize when he’s about to create another one,” he snapped. “With your cousin, who is clearly hiding something.”
