“Well, I am rather dressed for it.”
Cecilia laughed. And as Miss Plim raised herself groaning from the floor, they nonchalantly walked past her and out the way Alex and Charlotte had come in, pocketing wallets and a particularly fetching emerald ring as they went.
Outside the hall, Charlotte and Alex disengaged their hands self-consciously. Charlotte put on her sunglasses; Alex shoved at his hair as he frowned up and down the street.
“All right,” he said, “I give up. I don’t know where we are. In fact, I’m completely lost.”
Charlotte swallowed back an instinctive “I told you so,” for she too possessed no idea of their location. This, however, did not prevent her from striding purposefully southward. “Follow me,” she announced in the tone of a woman who knew exactly where she was heading. With a shrug, Alex obeyed.
They reached the end of the street, incantated over a fence, hurried through a garden, and then walked another street eating grapes they had obtained from a vine in that garden. Miss Plim would struggle now to find them, and Charlotte began to relax. Her posture stiffened. Her boot heels smacked more decidedly against the cobblestones.
“Despite recent circumstances, I would like you to consider yourself still under abduction, Captain,” she said. “My elders are not entitled to enforce a prejudiced injunction on my plans; I remain independent of opinion and therefore of action.”
Alex frowned as he worked this through. “Ah. They can’t tell you what to do,” he translated finally. “I agree. But sweetheart, sooner orlater you’re going to have to face the truth that we’re choosing to stay together.” He shifted a grape between his teeth and grinned at her. “I could have tossed you out my door any time I wanted, and you could have walked away as soon as we reached Clacton. We are not exactly being sensible.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Do you want me to leave?”
His expression leaped as if in alarm. “No. No, I’m not saying that. But you’re risking your reputation if you stay.”
Charlotte lifted her chin so high with affronted dignity, she pulled a muscle in her neck. “I have a perfectly fearful reputation. There is no reason people shouldn’t believe that I kidnapped you.”
He smiled wryly. “I meant your reputation as an unmarried woman.”
“Oh. Well. I will not deny it would be politically sensible to relinquish your company. But you have not yet brought me all the way.”
“Your reaction last night suggests otherwise.”
She cast him a brief, disdainful look. “I shall ignore that. Only an uncouth person employs lewd innuendo. It shows a kink in the imagination, and I urge you to take a more somber, penetrating perspective, Captain. It’s not hard.”
“It is now,” he muttered, but thankfully she did not hear him.
“I meant all the way to Lady Armitage’s house, which will be the climax of our efforts. Once I have my amulet, you can withdraw.”
Alex laughed. “Oh dear, I do love you,” he said—
And silence clamped down between them.
“Um,” he added, pushing a hand through his hair. “Metaphorically speaking, of course.”
“Of course,” Charlotte agreed hastily. She realized she had stopped walking, possibly because her heart seemed to have stopped beating; she began to stride once more along the street. “Do not look so concerned on my behalf, Captain. It is a common enough statement. Forexample, I myself love that house there with the wooden shutters. I love tea. I love you, and your smile, and the way you sigh in your sleep. See, common. Unconcerning. We are still enemies.”
“Mortal enemies,” he agreed, smiling rather self-consciously.
“Enemies born to utterly despise each other. Mind you, this doesn’t mean we can’t take a little nocturnal exercise together now and again, in the interest of our health.”
“I am also partial to exercise in the morning,” Alex said, “to start my day right.”
Charlotte nodded. “It is important to keep fit. Especially in our line of work.”
“Don’t let the Wisteria Society or Wicken League hear you say that. Our work is completely different, remember.”
Somehow their hands had become entangled again. They swung them as they walked. “Everything about us is different,” Charlotte said. “To begin with, pirates are wrong and witches are right.”
He laughed. “I disagree with you so heartily, I want to take you home and exercise your brains out this very moment. But if they found us, they’ve probably also found my house. I doubt it’s safe for us to return just now.”
“Bother. How will we give chase if Lady Armitage suddenly leaves town?”
Alex shrugged. “I can fly anything. But to be honest, I suspect Armitage is long gone.”
