Page 58 of A Story of Love

She glared at him. “If you spoke to me, I might be able to ensure the story fairly represents your point of view, my lord.”

Fast ignored the comment.

They rounded a corner and discovered the hackney driver leaning against a post chatting with a pair of whores. Or perhaps they could have been two more newspaperwomen in disguise for all Fast knew.

The thought amused him.

“Why are you smirking in that odious way?” she demanded as he handed her into the hackney.

“Oh, am I smiling? Back to The King’s Purse,” he told the driver, and then climbed inside and took the seat across from her.

“I demand to know what is so amusing, my lord.”

“I do not think you would be similarly amused.”

Her lips compressed and she shook her head. “You are the most provoking man it has ever been my misfortune to encounter.”

Fast laughed. “Coming from you, that is quite rich. Tell me, where did that big brute back there want to take you, Lorelei? Just who wants to talk to you badly enough they would send a ruffian to abduct you?”

The thick maquillage on her forehead creased as the skin beneath it puckered. She lifted both hands in an oddly distressing gesture and then let them drop limply back into her lap. “I don’t know,” she admitted, looking and sounding so forlorn that Fast actually believed her.

Fast reached out and took both her small hands in his before he could consider what he was doing. It was a sign of her abstraction that she did not pull away. Fast lightly squeezed her slender fingers. “You are angering people, Lorelei—and not just me.”

Something very much like fear flickered across her face.

Fast suffered an unpleasant twisting sensation in his gut at the sight and he softened his tone. “Tell me about this story you are investigating, Lorelei. If I am so inclined, I might give you the information you seek.”

Her eyes snapped to his, wonder rather than fear in her eyes. “You would?”

“I might.” His lips twitched into a smile. “Perhaps then you won’t feel the need to come poking around the docks at midnight dressed like a prostitute from the reign of George the First.”

Chapter 15

Lori bit her lip and glared across at Lord Severn, unable to tell whether or not he was jesting. Not about Lori looking like a whore of yore—that was indisputable—but about telling her the truth regarding the mutineers. Would he really talk to her openly and honestly about such a matter?

Don’t be a ninny! His only object is to get you away from the docks with as little fuss as possible. The last thing the man wants is for any of tonight to end up as food for some newspaper article.

Lori could accept that Severn did not want to be embroiled in scandal, but she did not believe that was all that motivated him. She’d seen in his eyes that he was also genuinely concerned for her safety.

She would never admit it aloud, but Severn was justified in excoriating her behavior tonight as dangerous and foolhardy.

The worst part about being trapped in that alley with her monstrous assailant hadn’t been the groping Lori had endured. It had been the knowledge that she was responsible for her situation.

She should have known the man was trouble when he approached her claiming to have information about Lord Severn and his dealings with a mutineer from the Sea Ranger.

Rather than ask how he knew that she wasn’t the whore she was pretending to be, Lori had gone along with him as trustingly as a lamb to slaughter. Instead of waiting for Ella—who’d stepped out a short time before to do a bit-o-business—she had followed the huge brute out to a dimly lighted alley, desperate to learn what he knew.

Nothing. That was what he’d known. At least nothing about Severn. But he had known plenty about Lori, including the story she was working on. During their terrifying, but brief, scuffle she had wondered if Lord Severn had been the brute’s employer.

Lori had been ashamed by the thought when the man himself had come along and rescued her. Rather than thank him, she had immediately commenced brangling once he’d driven off her captor.

She frowned, suddenly conscious of the astounding coincidence of his arrival.

What in the world had brought Severn to the exact spot at the exact time that she’d been there?

“Come, come, Lorelei.” His voice jolted her from her unpleasant thoughts. “If you don’t tell me what you are doing here, then I’ll send my men out. They will quickly discover what you were asking about.” He lightly squeezed her hands, reminding her that he still held them.

Lori jerked her fingers from his grasp, strangely hurt when he allowed her to do so. “What are you doing here?”