Those hands that had loaded countless muskets and emptied slops had touched her in gloriously, skillfully intimate ways.
And they had trembled as they showed her the secret pleasures of her body.
Her mind blanked for an instant, her thoughts momentarily replaced by what felt like sparkles and sunset colors.
“Dot brought the newspaper up.”
His voice was still graveled from sleep.
She shook herself from her reverie.
He pushed the newspaper over to her.
She glanced down at it.
Carriage Incident a Prank, Says Brexford
Lord Thackeray is a free man after a series of errors incorrectly resulted in his detention for carriage theft.
Apologies have been made to Lord Thackeray by both the arresting authorities and the Duke of Brexford.
All parties are satisfied that the incident resulted from a miscommunication, particularly with regards to the name of his alleged accomplice, who was misidentified as Mrs. Brightwall.
All parties indicate that no hard feelings remain.
The sheer, cool brilliance of it. What it didn’t say was more important than what it did say. It was yet another strategic little lie that wasn’t a lie.
A warm, radiant gratitude took her breath away.
She did not quite trust herself to look up yet. “That can’t have been easy for you.”
She meant logisticallyandemotionally.
She looked up in time to catch his rueful, faint smile. “Oh, it wasn’t.”
“That’s where you were yesterday? Sorting this?”
“For much of it,” he confirmed.
They were smiling at each other now.
“Thank you,” she finally said. Fervently. Almost shyly.
He nodded.
“He’s... sound?” She meant Thackeray.
He nodded again.
She sighed in relief. She adored her stupid cousin.
“I don’t know how Mrs. Cuthbert will take the news that I was never actually in prison when she reads the article,” she mused. “Part of me hopes she never discovers it. I’m having a little too much fun with it. She thinks you took me on in order to reform me.”
His smile began slowly and spread. “She said this last night? What else did I miss?”
“Mrs. Cuthbert swooned when Dot imitated the sounds of a ghost, which were apparently actually the sounds of Mrs. Dawson in the throes of passion, although Mrs. Dawson told Dot she was merely having silly fun with her husband. Then Mrs. Hardy and Mrs. Durand passed around sherry, and we all discovered that Mrs. Cuthbert is entertaining when she’s tipsy. She voluntarily launched into song.”
His eyes went wider and wider as this recitation went on.
