Page 6 of An Unexpected Earl

But she was gone, and all chances of learning more right along with her.

“Howard, you said?” Pearce ground out. After all, it was only polite to learn the name of the man he was about to pulp.

“Yes.Frederick Howard.” Irritation pinched his face that Pearce didn’t recognize him. “Our families knew each other years ago. In Birmingham.”

Unlikely. Pearce’s parents died long before he was shipped off to his innkeeper uncle in Birmingham, and this man didn’t seem the sort that frequented inn yards.

“You recently inherited the Sandhurst estates, and we now have neighboring properties.” As if realizing he was stirring up more acrimony than memories, the dandy changed tack. To bluntness. “I want to discuss a joint business venture.”

“Business?” Pearce repeated, unwilling to believe that he’d been stopped for something so unimportant.

“Exactly.” The man smiled tightly. “The best kind, too—capital development!”

“No such thing as the best kind of business.” He peered past the man, still hoping to catch a glimpse of red satin. No luck. “All business is—”

“Turnpike.”

Thatcaught Pearce’s attention, if only for its unexpectedness. He blinked. “Pardon?”

“I intend to put through a new turnpike, and you’re the perfect man to help me realize it.”

Oh, he sincerely doubted that.

“A turnpike has the potential to leverage all kinds of possibilities for property that is otherwise worthless. Imagine the funds that…” Beneath Pearce’s stone-cold stare, Howard’s voice trailed off. Realizing that he was losing the battle, he cleared his throat. “If I could set up a time to call on you—”

“Fine.” Pearce dismissed the man with a wave of his hand. He couldn’t care less. He had more important concerns at that moment. The woman had been after Varnham, and Varnham was in the stair hall. Maybe he could still catch her there. Pearce stepped around the man before he could stop him again and strode toward the front of the house.

He hurried through rooms that were all piled into each other like Russian nesting dolls. She should have been easy to spot in that dress, but a sea of jewels and satin filled the rooms—

A flash of red slipped through the front door and out into the night.

“Scarlet!” He chased after her.

Pushing his way through the crush, he stumbled through the handful of men gathered at the front door and out onto the footpath. He stopped to glance down the rain-drizzled street. His breath clouded on the cold night air, and his heart pounded as loudly as the rumbling of horse’s hooves over the stones. Hehadto find her—

There.Her dress showed a muted blood-orange in the yellow lamplight as she hurried across the wide street toward a waiting carriage.

He started after her.

Without warning, a phaeton turned onto the street at breakneck speed, so fast that it lifted off its rear right wheel, careening nearly uncontrollably behind its racing team. The rig hit a rise in the pavement and jumped into the air, sending the team darting to the left—right toward the woman, who froze in fear.

“Look out!” Pearce shouted and sprinted across the street.

He grabbed her around the waist and hurled her forward with him. The wheel of the phaeton spun past so close that it shaved against his calf.

Momentum propelled them forward. Just before they crashed into the building on the other side of the street, Pearce turned so that his shoulder slammed into the stone wall instead of her soft body, so that his arms protected her from the blow.

The jolt came so hard that it ripped the air from his lungs. Yet he held onto her, even though his grasp had loosened, even though she’d fallen against him, momentarily stunned and breathless. Her hair had escaped its ribbon and now spilled freely around her shoulders. The mask slipped, revealing her face.

Recognition slammed into him as hard as the stone wall.

“Amelia?” he whispered hoarsely.Good God…he was staring at a dream.

She pushed herself out of his arms and ran.

Two

“Hill Street, Berkeley Square,” Amelia Howard called out frantically to the jarvey of the waiting hackney. She allowed herself only a fleeting glance over her shoulder to make certain that Pearce hadn’t followed her before ducking into the carriage. “Hurry!”