“No.” She frowned. “I took these from your stable boy.”
“Then don’t change. I won’t be very long.” He darted up the stairs to his room, excitement pumping in his blood with each step. This must be what Nicole felt right before catching a thief. The feeling was surreal, and he loved the enthusiasm coursing through his body. Perhaps this was why Nicole continued to be a spy...especially if she didn’t enjoy lying to people as she’d claimed before.
It didn’t take him long to change into his own clothes. He grabbed two of his overcoats and hurried back downstairs. Nicole waited for him in the sitting room wearing the same clothes she’d worn to the station, but she had brushed her hair and fixed it back into the boy’s cap. Her face had even been washed, and as he neared her, he could smell her sweet fragrance of lilacs. She jumped up from the sofa and smiled.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“I thought you’d like to wear this.” He held out one of his overcoats. “There is a chill in the air tonight, and by wearing this, it hides your womanly figure.”
The corner of her mouth lifted higher than the other. “My womanly figure?”
He laughed and nodded as he helped her slip into the garment. “Yes. You’re wearing trousers which show more of your curves. You know, men usually aren’t as curvy as women.”
“I don’t know how accurate that statement is,” she said with a chuckle as she buttoned the coat. “I’ve seen a lot of men who are curvy.”
“True, but they don’t look like a woman.”
“You are right on that point.”
He grinned. “Let’s go now. We’ll take my horse. The animal will be quieter than a buggy.”
“I agree.”
Ashton led the way to the stable and saddled a different horse from when he’d taken one earlier. After mounting, he reached down and helped her climb behind him. She wrapped her arms around his waist, and he bit back a groan. Perhaps this wasn’t the best idea, after all. He’d definitely enjoy this ride, but he couldn’t let her know it.
After a few minutes of riding in silence, Ashton turned his head and said over his shoulder, “Nicole? What if Glynn isn’t at his townhouse yet?”
“If he’s not there, I think we should try to get inside and look around, anyway. We might discover something else that points to the railway robberies.”
“What if we don’t?”
“Then we will just have to keep a close eye on him until we find something.”
He slid the palm of his hand over one of hers still wrapped around his waist, and squeezed. “Tell me honestly, do you believe it was Glynn?”
“I think he has a great motive for wanting to make you look like the thief. When I saw him running away from the train, I didn’t know if it was him because I couldn’t see his face, but he has the same shape and the same hair color.”
“Thanks for believing in me.” He squeezed her hand again.
“Ashton, this whole time I’ve had a hard time believing you were the thief. The other detectives had you at the top of the list, but there was something in the back of my mind telling me it wasn’t you.”
He smiled. “What made you feel this way? Was it because we were...close?”
“I honestly don’t know. I just had a gut feeling that you were not the one we should be watching.”
It was still hard to think of her as a detective...a spy, and when he tried to wrap his mind around it, many questions popped into his head, confusing him. “Nicole? Have you ever gotten close to any of your other suspects?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know, as close as we have gotten.”
Although he wanted to see her expression, he could feel her body’s reaction as she laid her head against his back.
Her whole body relaxed as she cuddled closer. “No, Ashton. As you have figured, I had a part to play in the other cases I’ve been involved with. I knew right away who the suspects were, and although we didn’t have any proof to arrest them, they all had motives for doing what they did. But with you...”
She paused and he waited for her to say more. The seconds ticked by and his impatience was wearing thin, but he didn’t interrupt her. He needed to know what she was thinking.
