you—”
“Also paid, I presume?”
“—of course—could pull you from the scaffold under cover of smoke and chaos and take you to our arranged meeting place in Seven Dials. They were at the very front of the crowd. And they and the chemist who developed the smoke combinations earned the most, and were never told how their work would be used.”
Good God. She was Wellington with eyelashes. It was extraordinary that everything had gone as planned today. This slight, prickly, dark-haired woman was re sponsible for every breath he took.
What manner of woman was this?
“And Croker arranged for you to do this?” He man aged to say this calmly, even as a sense of unreality began to seep into his mind like a disorienting gas.
“It’s commonly known among . . . shall we say, cer tain circles . . . that Croker knows everyone who will do anything for money. When Croker received a letter from an anonymous source telling him that a matter of a particularly delicate nature needed doing, he arranged for me to meet privately with the individual in question. Who then asked me to rescue you . The manner of the rescue was left up to me. I negotiated a fee of two hun dred fifty pounds, one hundred of them to be paid im mediately. The footman apparently brought that money to Croker, who took his percentage. And I spent the balance on arrangements.”
“So you saw this person who hired you?”
“Oh, no. It was all very sub rosa. I did speak with him while he stood in the shadows. It’s how it’s nor mally done, if there’s a meeting.”
“How it’s normally done,” he repeated fl atly. “If there’s a meeting.” Making it very clear that there was nothing “normal” about what she’d done.
“And before you ask: he spoke like a gentleman, but in a whisper. And there was nothing particularly remarkable about that whisper. I haven’t a clue who he truly was. And I’m not certain I’d know the voice again.”
Who, besides his family, would want so desperately to rescue him?
“Could anyone have been hurt today?” he faltered. “The explosions, the—”
“No,” she said coolly. “Not from the explosions alone, anyhow. They were low explosives, meant for loud noise and smoke only. Very strategically planned noise and smoke, set off by strategically placed boys, paid out of my pocket, again indirectly, and all for your benefit, Mr. Eversea. I don’t suppose we can discount a turned ankle or a fit of apoplexy in the crowd, as Croker said, but other than that . . . ”
“Or a trampling,” Colin added with dark irony. “Can’t discount a trampling.”
“Your concern for the thousands of people who came out to cheer as you died horribly is touching, Mr. Eversea.”
“I don’t think they all came to rejoice in the event.”
“I wouldn’t be so certain,” she said tartly.
And this, for some perverse reason, made him smile, and blunted the spiked edge of his anger. She wasn’t any happier about being here with him than he was to be here with her—apart from the fact that he was happy to be alive, of course. And she was so very, very ready to volley. And good at it. He’d wanted a confl ict; she’d given it to him, and he felt as though he’d spent himself in a good tennis set.
“You really don’t exert yourself to charm, do you, Mrs. Greenway?” he mused easily. He turned to spill the onions from his hands back into their bin.
“Charm, Mr. Eversea, will cost your family an ad ditional ten pounds if and when I return you alive and whole.”
“I should like to see the menu of available services, then, if you please.”
He turned back to her just in time to see her smile crack like lightning. It was dazzling, genuine, a thing of natural beauty. It was gone too quickly, and it took his breath with it.
Seconds later it occurred to him both that he was gaping and that he should probably breathe again.
A soft glow in her eyes and skin was all that remained of that smile now.
“How much do
“Also paid, I presume?”
“—of course—could pull you from the scaffold under cover of smoke and chaos and take you to our arranged meeting place in Seven Dials. They were at the very front of the crowd. And they and the chemist who developed the smoke combinations earned the most, and were never told how their work would be used.”
Good God. She was Wellington with eyelashes. It was extraordinary that everything had gone as planned today. This slight, prickly, dark-haired woman was re sponsible for every breath he took.
What manner of woman was this?
“And Croker arranged for you to do this?” He man aged to say this calmly, even as a sense of unreality began to seep into his mind like a disorienting gas.
“It’s commonly known among . . . shall we say, cer tain circles . . . that Croker knows everyone who will do anything for money. When Croker received a letter from an anonymous source telling him that a matter of a particularly delicate nature needed doing, he arranged for me to meet privately with the individual in question. Who then asked me to rescue you . The manner of the rescue was left up to me. I negotiated a fee of two hun dred fifty pounds, one hundred of them to be paid im mediately. The footman apparently brought that money to Croker, who took his percentage. And I spent the balance on arrangements.”
“So you saw this person who hired you?”
“Oh, no. It was all very sub rosa. I did speak with him while he stood in the shadows. It’s how it’s nor mally done, if there’s a meeting.”
“How it’s normally done,” he repeated fl atly. “If there’s a meeting.” Making it very clear that there was nothing “normal” about what she’d done.
“And before you ask: he spoke like a gentleman, but in a whisper. And there was nothing particularly remarkable about that whisper. I haven’t a clue who he truly was. And I’m not certain I’d know the voice again.”
Who, besides his family, would want so desperately to rescue him?
“Could anyone have been hurt today?” he faltered. “The explosions, the—”
“No,” she said coolly. “Not from the explosions alone, anyhow. They were low explosives, meant for loud noise and smoke only. Very strategically planned noise and smoke, set off by strategically placed boys, paid out of my pocket, again indirectly, and all for your benefit, Mr. Eversea. I don’t suppose we can discount a turned ankle or a fit of apoplexy in the crowd, as Croker said, but other than that . . . ”
“Or a trampling,” Colin added with dark irony. “Can’t discount a trampling.”
“Your concern for the thousands of people who came out to cheer as you died horribly is touching, Mr. Eversea.”
“I don’t think they all came to rejoice in the event.”
“I wouldn’t be so certain,” she said tartly.
And this, for some perverse reason, made him smile, and blunted the spiked edge of his anger. She wasn’t any happier about being here with him than he was to be here with her—apart from the fact that he was happy to be alive, of course. And she was so very, very ready to volley. And good at it. He’d wanted a confl ict; she’d given it to him, and he felt as though he’d spent himself in a good tennis set.
“You really don’t exert yourself to charm, do you, Mrs. Greenway?” he mused easily. He turned to spill the onions from his hands back into their bin.
“Charm, Mr. Eversea, will cost your family an ad ditional ten pounds if and when I return you alive and whole.”
“I should like to see the menu of available services, then, if you please.”
He turned back to her just in time to see her smile crack like lightning. It was dazzling, genuine, a thing of natural beauty. It was gone too quickly, and it took his breath with it.
Seconds later it occurred to him both that he was gaping and that he should probably breathe again.
A soft glow in her eyes and skin was all that remained of that smile now.
“How much do
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