Page 19 of A Stranger’s Gamble

He should know. He’d spent almost every night there the past week. He much preferred the entertainment of the oyster cellars to the stuffy affairs hosted by the majority of the gentry.

“I would so love to attend one,” she said in a wistful tone. “I hear they dance until dawn.”

He laughed. “Nae, not until dawn, but into the wee hours, most assuredly.”

She turned wide eyes on him. “Have you attended one?”

“Once or twice,” he replied.

“Then I shall go,” she whispered.

He frowned. “I beg your pardon?”

She nodded, her attention still on the building. “Tonight, I think.”

With her dark hair and eyes, and sultry voice, she would attract more than one kind of man. “A lady shouldn’t wander around unchaperoned,” he said.

“Then ‘tis fortunate I am not a lady.” She took a large bite of her mutton pie and rolled her eyes in pleasure. “Delicious. I have lived my life without the restrictions pressed upon ladies of rank. Frankly, I don’t know how they bear it.”

Beatrice studied the tavern and bit her bottom lip as if already planning her escapade. She took another bite of the pie, and he was startled to realize he wondered what those full lips tasted like.

She tilted her head and looked at him from beneath her lashes. “I won’t be in danger if you accompany me.”

He blinked. “Beatrice, you may not be of the gentry, but you are still a young woman and—”

“I suppose I can find someone else to accompany me.”

Adam narrowed his eyes. “It’s like that, is it?”

“I would much rather go with you, but if you do not wish to be seen with me—”

“Enough, minx.” He lifted his hand, palms out, in surrender. “I will take you.”

Her smile made another appearance, and he could deny her nothing.

“Truly?” she asked.

He grasped her free hand. “I shall collect you this evening—if, that is, your mistress will allow it.”

She shook her head. “Oh, she will not stop me. Nothing will. I will climb out the window, if necessary.”

An image of slender legs encased in tight breeches sliding out her window flitted across his mind. “No doubt you would,” he murmured.