Page 48 of The Smuggler’s Escape

She knew what that felt like.

“I’ve wanted you ever since we met, my sweet.” Loving words, but a bitter tone of voice. “I didn’t stop wanting you during an absence of more than two years. Why would I change now?”

She leapt upon this opportunity. “You had a mistress in Amsterdam, and yet you have the gall to say you were thinking of me?”

“Is that why you’re upset? Did you expect that I would become a monk?”

“I didn’t expect anything of you,” Noelle said. “Your behavior indicated that you had lost interest in me.”

“Not at all. There was a . . . higher purpose behind my taking a mistress.”

Noelle gave an angry snort. “That’s gammon. What higher purpose, pray tell?”

“No, I shall not tell. Much as I would like to exchange a secret for a secret, I cannot do so.”

“I don’t want to know your secret.” Especially since she didn’t believe it existed. What higher purpose could there possibly be in bedding a loose woman? That reminded her of something else. “Do you have the pox?”

He glared at her. “No, I do not.” He made an impatient gesture. “Is that what was worrying you, goose?”

Noelle hunched a shoulder. “No, but I’m glad you don’t. Not for my sake, you understand, because I’m not going to marry you, but for yours. Lady Ariadne said you might.”

“You know better than to believe malicious gossip. My father’s disappointment in me seems to have led to gross exaggeration of my prowess. Or folly, more like. Only fools frequent brothels and risk the pox.”

Noelle shrugged again. “In any event, it doesn’t matter.” She turned away, vowing that once this intolerable ride was over, she would never allow herself to be alone with Richard again.

Calmly, as if he had heard her thoughts, he said, “I shan’t give up, you know. I shall continue to, ah, persecute you. Think of me as a sort of dentist, and your secret an abscessed tooth. Far better to allow me to extract it than to let it fester.”

“You have no idea of the difficulties I face,” she muttered. She moved as far away from him as she could on the seat, huddled in the fur-lined cloak, and closed her eyes, and mercifully, he didn’t prod anymore. Once the goods were delivered . . . But they hadn’t moved even half of them yet. Could she make do with half her profits, and forgo whatever portion she must of the rest? She would pick up the payment today, and . . .

She sat up with a start. “Oh! Oh, no!”

“What now?” Richard sounded as if he didn’t much care to hear the answer.

“I just thought of something terrible.” She glanced around. “They’ve fallen behind again.”

“I got tired of waiting.”

“What if Tommy and Will get separated from your mother’s carriage? Hale won’t hesitate to stop them if they’re on their own.”

Richard sighed as if she were an idiot. “Everything will be fine.”

She bit her tongue on a furious retort. It would only offend him again.

His voice was bleak. “I will ensure that Tommy and Will don’t suffer as a result of this foolish excursion. As for the goods, you’ve given me little reason to care. However, I promised to deliver them, and deliver them I shall. What terrible something is bothering you now?” Judging by his tone, he might as well have added, you little fool.

“What if Hale follows us to Chichester to see where we deliver them?”

“We’ll keep our eyes open.” He pulled to the side of the road.

“I suppose you think that just makes it more fun,” she said bitterly.

Richard yawned. “Unfortunately, no. Smuggling with you is turning out to be a dead bore.”

Several silent minutes later—anxious on her part and indifferent on his—the cart and Lady Boltwood’s carriage appeared behind them. They proceeded decorously into Chichester.

“We must deliver the goods first, and then bring the bulbs and plants to Mrs. Ponsonby,” Noelle said, “but I can’t think how to do that without raising questions.”

“Trust me,” Richard said wearily. “Will and Tommy have received their instructions and know precisely what to do.”