“I’m all right with that.” He turned toward her again, his expression serious, but not somber. “We can be ourselves with each other. Not a name someone else has given us. No Mrs. No lord. No title for either of us.”
Her heart started racing at the thought. As horrific as it seemed, she liked that idea. She didn’t want to be Mrs. Feld when she was with him. She wasn’t married, yet she was a Mrs. She wanted to be Brina. But how could she agree to something so unacceptable to the elite of Society? Especially when she had promised to do all she could to see that Blacknight handled everything the proper way.
“Are you pondering?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered honestly.
“Fair enough. Think about it. In the meantime, I’ll call you Brina.”
Her name sounded nice coming from him. Proper or not. She settled more comfortably into the expensive leather-covered cushion and enjoyed the ride for a short time before saying, “You’re suspiciously quiet. I hope you’re not thinking about more rules you can break.”
“I suppose I’ll always break a rule once in a while, but I’ll be careful which ones I do.”
“Be sure that you do,” she answered playfully, and then added with a mischievous grin, “I’m watching you.”
“So is all of London, it seems,” he mumbled under his breath, before turning to look over his shoulder again.
“You might like to know I saw your cousin Robert at a party a couple of nights ago.”
“Was he behaving himself?”
“As far as I could tell. He was with Harper again. Both are quite accomplished young men and handle themselves well. They didn’t stay very long, which surprised me. Apparently, they were eager to rush through the buffet and get to a card game.”
The earl seemed to think on that for a few moments as he looked straight ahead, but for some reason it caused him to frown. “Did either of them happen to say where it was? The game they were joining?”
“No. But they seemed more interested in it than the bevy of young ladies who were there hoping one, if not both, would pay them some notice. Which neither did. They spoke, but I didn’t see either one giving the ladies serious attention. It’s the Season, and belles want to be courted by such handsome, sought-after gentlemen as they are. Perhaps when you stopped Mr. Browning from marrying in Paris, it put him off romance.”
Blacknight shrugged. “It does appear the two friends are more interested in their games right now, but that’s not so unusual. All men want to be good at the tables.”
Their behavior hadn’t seemed normal to Brina. Certainly not Harper’s anyway. He’d always flattered the ladies with his cheerful smiles, and he’d never really been into cards and gambling—until he befriended Mr. Browning. For a moment, she thought she might tell the earlthat but decided against it. She was sure he didn’t want to hear his cousin was a bad influence on hers. Blacknight was probably as fond of his cousin as Brina was of Harper.
When they turned toward the business district of St. James’s, the earl glanced at her and said, “Look behind us and tell me if you see a cabriolet in the distance.”
She peered over her shoulder nearest Zane and caught the scents of his clean-shaven face and the fine wool coat, and it distracted her for a moment. “Yes. Why do you ask?”
“I saw it out of the corner of my eye when we made the turn. It’s the same one that was parked on the street when we left your house.”
She huffed a breath of doubt. “How can you know that?”
“A man knows carriages, Brina. Especially ones that aren’t well-maintained.”
She accepted the simple answer. “Is there something wrong with him falling in line behind us?”
“Not if that is all he’s doing.”
“Perhaps, like us, he’s going nowhere specific and simply riding around to appreciate the lovely day.”
“That’s unlikely. If I slow down, he does. When I speed up, he does. I’m going to turn at the next street, which will put us going back in the direction we were coming from. Watch and tell me if he does the same.”
That had her interest. After they made the turn, she strained her neck to keep looking and suddenly the cabriolet came into sight. “Yes,” she said, growing more intrigued by what was happening. “It’s still behind us.”
Glancing her way, he frowned again and said, “I think we’re being followed. I’ve had that feeling for the past couple of days. I’ve started watching my surroundings. In addition to spyglasses, as you mentioned, tailingpeople is one of the ways scandal sheets get the information they publish.”
An uneasy feeling stole over Brina. Suddenly, she wanted to scoot closer to Zane and away from prying eyes. She wanted to reach over and lay her hand on his shoulder or his knee, anywhere as long as she felt his strength and comfort. But, if whoever was in that carriage actually followed them, it was best she not move.
“I’ve heard some people will go to extraordinary lengths to get gossip for their columns,” she said, remembering some of the outlandish stories that had been written over the years, such as gentlemen having been seen jumping out of bedroom windows. “It’s abhorrent really.”
“Men have wagered a lot of money on whether or not you will accept my proposal by the end of the Season,” Zane said. “Whether they win or lose depends on what I do or don’t do.”
