Page 7 of After the Spy Seduces

“Hang on,” he ordered as the gelding danced beneath them. “We’re in for a wild ride.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist as he kicked his heels into the horse’s sides and sent it racing into the night.

Chapter 3

By the time Kit reined his horse to a stop in the fog-drenched shadows behind the old stone stables, the anger that had pulsed inside him at the tavern had dulled into simmering resentment. At Morgan for not being there as expected. At Diana for coming in his place. And especially at himself, for letting his hopes rise that he’d finally find justice for Fitch tonight.

Nothing. Months of investigating and desperately tracking down leads, of risking his career…andnothingto show for it. None of the pieces of information he’d learned tonight fit together. Especially not Diana’s piece of the puzzle. Morgan had been kidnapped and was being held ransom for a few memoir pages? He couldn’t believe that story.

Nor did he want to believe that his only lead was a society miss who had nearly gotten herself killed.

Damnation.He was just as far from finding answers now as he’d been six months ago.

Pushing down his irritation, he scoured his gaze across her father’s small manor house. Idlewild was shuttered against the darkness, except for the first floor, where the glow of lamplight shined through one of the windows.

“All locked up for the night,” he muttered. Any chance he might have had of searching her father’s house for answers disappeared like the shadows as the moon slid out from behind the thickening clouds.

She loosened her hold around his waist and shook her head, misunderstanding. “I can slip inside without anyone seeing.”

Of course she could. She’d set out to commit espionage, after all. And a woman who had enough cunning to not only dress like a man but also study a man’s movements and gestures to fool everyone in the tavern—including him—would have had the forethought to leave one of the doors or windows unlocked.

He glanced over his shoulder at her. Garrett Morgan was a traitor and murderer. But where did his sister fit into all this?

He saw the pain and distress on her face when he’d questioned her at the tavern. She wasn’t good enough of an actress to fake that. But her belief that her brother had truly been kidnapped kicked up even more questions inside his head. Because whatever Diana’s role in all of this, Morgan hadn’t been taken. Kit knew that the way old sailors sensed oncoming storms. In his bones.

So where in the hellwashe?

Forcing back his frustration, Kit dropped to the ground, then reached up to clasp her around the waist to help her down. He bit back a curse. Everything about this personal mission had just grown ten times more complicated.

Diana lost her balance and fell forward as she slipped down into his arms. His hands tightened on her hips, but not in time to stop the press of her body against his as she stumbled into him, or the flattening of her breasts against his chest as she threw her arms around his neck to catch herself.

Kit sucked in a mouthful of air at the contact, all of him stiffening as a jolt of pleasure-pain sped through him.

“Apologies,” she murmured.

“None necessary.” But his gut twisted when he looked down at her as she regained her balance.

Her blonde hair lay around her shoulders like a silver curtain in the moonlight, and her full lips were parted temptingly in a look of befuddled surprise to find herself once more in his arms. Soft and warm against him, with a faint scent of lavender surrounding her… What would she do if he dared to kiss her?

He bit back a groan and set her away from him. Ten times?He nearly laughed. His mission had just gotten a helluva lot more complicated than that.

Mumbling her goodbyes, she began to slip past him for the house.

“Not so fast.” He grabbed her arm and stopped her.

She wasn’t leaving until he had answers, or at least until he knew in what direction to head next. Simply tracking down Morgan wasn’t enough. Kit also had to find irrefutable proof that he’d committed crimes against England and murdered Fitch. That’s what tonight should have been—Morgan caught with the papers in his hand, and the door of the trap finally swinging closed.

Instead, Kit found himself in the thick of a new mess, with Diana as the only path out.

“When was the last time you saw your brother?” he demanded.

“A fortnight ago.”

“Here?”

“Yes.” Her eyes dulled as the moon slid behind a thick cloud. “When he’d told me goodbye.”

“And everyone in the household knew that he’d planned to visit friends?”