Page 74 of A Deal for the Duke’s Virgin

Thalia gaped for a moment, struggling to find the words.

“You are impertinent,” she said, somewhat weakly.

He gave her a faintly amused look. “Impertinent but not wrong, my dear.”

“I am not on the sort of adventure you’re talking about. I am not!”

“Ah, my mistake then,” he said breezily, turning forward and seizing the reins. “In that case, you’ll be ready to go on up and meet your friend, whom you look at just like a brother. Isn’t that right?”

While Thalia was trying to come up with something, anything, to say, movement caught her eye. A large black horse came trotting down the driveway. A man sat in the saddle, broad-shouldered, familiar despite his voluminous riding cape. He barely glanced their way, and she was sure he could not see the cab in the shadows.

The man was, of course, Christian. He turned, trotting away in the opposite direction, quickly gathering speed and moving to a brisk canter.

“Oh, bother,” she hissed, leaning forward. “That’s him!”

“Ah,” the driver sighed. “Well, you did say you weren’t expected. Back home, then? Or is it an urgent meeting?”

“Rather urgent, I’d say,” she mumbled, staring miserably at Christian’s retreating back.

A thought occurred to her, and she glanced meditatively at the driver.

He cleared his throat. “No.”

“I haven’t even asked you anything yet.”

“And yet the answer is no.”

“Oh, please,” she begged. “We could catch up with him if you set off now.”

The driver grumbled under his breath and bunched up the reins in his hands. “Me and my soft heart,” he growled good-naturedly. “I hope you know you’re paying for this.”

“I have money. Just don’t let him out of your sight. This really is very important.”

“Yes, yes, you mentioned how very important it was to find this man in the dead of night, for whom you have no feelings whatsoever. Perfectly normal.”

She decided not to respond to that.

They had just begun to gain on Christian when, quite without warning, he broke into a dead gallop. He rode faster and faster, and the cab struggled to keep up. The wheels rattled, and the horses sweated.

The driver swore under his breath. “It’s no good,” he puffed. “We’ll not catch him. Not at this speed.”

“I don’t want to catch him. I just want to keep him in sight.”

The driver shot her a tired look but did not slow down the horses. On they rode.

CHAPTER 21

Somebody was following him. Christian didn’t need to look back over his shoulder to know that. He’d already spotted a cab waiting in the shadows when he trotted out of his driveway.

Almost at once, the cab set off after him. Naturally, he sped up, easing from a canter to a loping gallop. Not a dead sprint, that was never a good idea on London’s slippery cobblestones, but enough to put distance between him and his pursuers.

Who is it?

Now, at one time he might have assumed it was a lover, either outraged at being dropped or hungry for more, but lately he hadn’t given anyone a chance.

Strange. It just hadn’t occurred to him. In the past, he would have juggled several lovers at once. But now, all he could think about was her.

Thalia.