Page 36 of Indecently Daring

Alana took a moment to turn her head, lost as she was in a tangle of emotional excess, but the sight that greeted her was not one to help matters.

“It’s your vicar,” Cat hissed in an undertone, as if Alana might somehow have missed the large man dressed all in clerical black striding down the lane.

“He’s not my vicar!”

If she’d believed him to be a vain man, she might have thought he’d gone into the church simply because black suited him so very well. Lord, but he was handsome, though he looked far more devilish than angelic, like Lucifer made flesh and blood. For a moment she had the uncharitable thought that Mrs Maby might be onto something, for why on earth would a man who looked like that choose such a life? Alana scolded herself severely for thinking such wicked things and had herself tolerably under control by the time he came level with them.

“Lady Catherine, Miss Cadogan, good afternoon to you. Is aught amiss?” he asked, clearly wondering why they’d stopped in the little clearing beside the lane.

“Nothing at all, Reverend,” Alana said serenely. “We only stopped to eat some currant buns. Shocking, I know, eating in public, but there you are. We are very badly behaved.”

“Hardly in public,” Reverend Martin said with a wry smile. “You’d have got away with it, had I not come along.”

“Ah, well, you can’t help being always in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Alana replied with a too sweet smile.

Reverend Martin’s eyes flashed. “I did not realise I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time?”

“Well, you wouldn’t, would you? Or else you’d surely contrive to be in the right place at the right time.”

Reverend Martin opened his mouth to reply, but then let out a breath and returned a polite smile. “I will certainly endeavour to do so in the future. For now, I shall let you get back to your currant buns in peace.”

“Oh, they’re gone now,” Cat replied before the vicar could make his escape. Alana glared at her. “They were delicious, though. Still warm. I can recommend them if you’re hungry. You look like the sort of fellow who’s always hungry.”

He shot a suspicious glance at Alana before returning his attention to Cat.

“Thank you for the recommendation. I’ll bear it in mind.”

He turned away and Alana jolted as Cat hissed in her ear.

“Oh, my goodness! He kissed you! You horrid girl, why didn’t you tell me?”

Alana stared at her, open-mouthed. “How on earth…?”

“Oh, it’s obvious!” Cat threw up her hands in frustration. “You could cut the tension between the two of you with a knife.”

“What nonsense,” Alana replied, cheeks blazing, her appalled discomfort at the turn the conversation had taken nicely illustrated when she looked up to see the Marquess of Kilbane before them and felt only relief.

It was only a momentary disturbance to the status quo. Good grief, whatever was he doing here?

Alana stared at the man with the irreverent thought that, next to Kilbane, Reverend Martin looked positively saintly. Before them sat the Prince of Darkness on a massive black horse, and his glittering eyes were levelled upon Cat with suspicion.

“You,” he said darkly. “Wherever I turn, there you are, like the newest, shiniest of bad pennies. I am beginning to think you are following me, Lady Catherine.”

“I’d like to know how, when I’m incapacitated, thanks to you,” Cat shot back, shocking Alana to her bones as she hiked up her skirt to show her bandaged ankle. “I can’t go anywhere without assistance.”

If Cat had been hoping for a reaction, she was to be disappointed. Kilbane did not so much as glance at the exposed leg, his disapproving gaze fixed on Cat’s face.

“Go away,” he said.

“That’s a little difficult, as you are blocking the path,” Cat returned. “Anyone would think you didn’t want me to go.”

Kilbane looked revolted by this suggestion and backed his horse up at once, giving a sweeping bow. “Please, do feel free to go away.”

Before Alana could remark that this was an excellent suggestion and get them out of there, Reverend Martin reappeared.

“What’s going on…?”

His words died as he stared at Kilbane, the colour draining in from his face in dramatic fashion.