She’d launched into her explanation of the events of the morning as soon as they were in Tristan’s carriage and on their way to the Strand. It began amicably enough, but she’d hardly said a dozen words before Tristan was staring incredulously at her, his face becoming grimmerby the second.
“Let me see if I understand you, Sophia. You sneaked out of my bedchamber before dawn this morning, strolled through my kitchen and out the back door to make a clean escape intothe mews, and—”
“Well, when you put it like that, it sounds farworse than it—”
“To make a clean escape into the mews,” Tristan repeated, as if she hadn’t spoken. “You found Lord Everly’s carriage there, with Lord Everly and an unidentified man inside, but instead of remaining safely in the kitchens, or better yet, returning to my bedchamber as a sane person would have done, you—”
“Oh, come now, Tristan. You can’t truly think I’d squander such an extraordinary opportunity tofind out what—”
“The other man in the carriage was the fourth man. You do realize that, don’t you? Did it occur to you if he’d seen you lurking behind the carriage, he would have finished the job he’d begun the night before?” Underneath the flush of anger on his cheeks, Tristan’s face had gone white. “For God’s sake, Sophia! How can you be so careless with your own safety?”
Sophia cringed at the look in those narrowed gray eyes. His lips, usually so full and sensual, were now pressed into a tight, forbidding line. Oh, dear. Hedidlook angry. This wasn’t going well at all. “I was extremely careful,I promise you.”
“Not careful enough,” Tristan snapped.
“Tristan.” Sophia’s soft voice caught Tristan’s attention. “Jeremy was nearly hung for another man’s crimes. Henry Gerrard wasmurdered, leaving his wife a widow and his son without a father. You want the men who committed the crimes punished, don’t you?”
“Yes, of course, but not at your expense!” Tristan dragged a hand down his face. “You nearly got your skull cracked open last night, Sophia. Do you think I want to see you suffer the samefate as Henry?”
Sophia winced at this description of last night’s attack, but she refused to give way on this. If she allowed Tristan’s overprotective instincts to run amok now, the next thing she knew he’d have her locked in his bedchamber. “Chasing after criminals involves risk, Tristan. Last night was unfortunate, but despite that near miss, you have to trust I do know how tohandle myself.”
“It’s not that I don’t…Idotrust you, Sophia, but I can’t…” Tristan shook his head. “I don’t want to lose you.”
Sophia touched her fingers to her throat to smooth away the sudden lump there. The worry on his face, the note of fear in his voice—oh, he’d just broken her heart in two. Spontaneously, she caught his hand, raised it to her lips and pressed a fervent kiss to his knuckles. “I swear to you I will take the utmost care.”
“See that you do.” Tristan’s voice was still tight, but his eyes darkened as her lips brushed against his fingers.
They were quiet as the carriage made its way toward the Turk’s Head, until Tristan broke the silence with a sigh. “I’m almost afraid to ask, but how did you end up dressedas a milkmaid?”
Sophia turned to him with a tentative grin. “Ah, now that was a stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. I’d retreated to your kitchen and was peeking out a crack in the door, waiting for Lord Everly to leave before venturing out again. So, you see, Iwasbeing careful.”
Tristan rolled his eyes, but a reluctant smile twitched at the corner of his lips. “I’m relieved to hear it, but the milkmaid outfit, Sophia? Unless Lord Everly tossed it out his carriage window, I fail to see how you ended updressed in it.”
“Yes, well, that’s the genius part. As soon as Lord Everly’s carriage was out of the way, who do you suppose I saw comingdown the mews?”
“Let me see if I can guess. A milkmaid?”
Sophia beamed. “Yes, just so. I offered Polly—that was her name—a guinea to loan me her garb and let me take her milk buckets to Lord Everly’s kitchen. She was quite amenable to the idea, and agreed to duck into the stables and wait for me to come back out. The thing was done in a trice, as easily as snapping my fingers.”
Tristan nodded slowly. “Yes, that’s very good, but what did you hope to gain from a visit to Lord Everly’s kitchen?”
“I wanted to have a look around to see if I could determine the easiest way to get from the kitchens to the ground floor. That way when we go back tonight, we won’t waste time fumbling about in the dark.”
Tristan raised an eyebrow. “You want to break into Everly’s house.”
It wasn’t a question.
Sophia gave him a shocked look. “Certainly not, Lord Gray. Why, that would be acrime. We won’t need to break in. We’ll walk right through thekitchen door.”
His gray eyes narrowed. “What did you do to Lord Everly’s kitchendoor, Sophia?”
She shrugged. “Nothing much. Just wedged my shoe buckle into the crack at the bottom. The door wasn’t hung properly, which is rather shoddy of Lord Everly, if you ask me. As long as none of his kitchen servants notice it—and I daresay they won’t, as they’re not the most observant lot—we can get into his townhouse through the kitchen door and make our way up to Lord Everly’s study.”
“Everly’s study isn’t anywhere near the kitchens, Sophia. It’s up a flight of stairs and on the other side of the entrance hall. His servants might not be the sharpest in London, but even they are bound to notice the two of us strolling about. So, how do you intend to get from the kitchensto the study?”
Sophia cast a look up at him from under her eyelashes.“Er…carefully?”
Tristan blinked. “Carefully? That’s the extent of your plan? To sneak about Everly’s housecarefully, and hopefor the best?”
