Page 49 of When We Touch

“Sorry, didn’t mean to rescue you. Shall I bring you back?”

“Yes, perhaps you should.”

He arched a brow and made as if he were about to tap on the roof of the carriage. It was a bluff, but it worked, because she wasn’t quite certain. “No!”

“You know what would have happened if I hadn’t been there?” he inquired.

“Yes, I’d have broken the nose of one of those fools.”

“A fool to the very end, no matter what, Maggie?” he asked softly.

And to her true and absolute horror, she felt the sting of tears bite into her eyes. The champagne. She had swallowed too much too quickly. “Really, what difference does it make? It isn’t as if your uncle believes he’s marrying a chaste and naive innocent. I’ve been married before.”

“So, it wouldn’t have made any difference—if the dancers hadn’t been stopped?”

This was a lesson to her, of course. Another lesson about her willful life. She wondered if he would believe that she had never even dreamed of doing something like this in all her life.

She stared at him, frowning, her temper suddenly flaring again. “You followed the two of us there, knowing we were going?”

“That’s rather evident, isn’t it?”

“So you were there all along. You were at the table with the Prince of Wales!”

“I was there all along,” he said.

She flew across the carriage suddenly, in such a whirl and rage that she managed to catch him with a firm slap against the cheek. He swore, catching her flailing arms so that she wound up sitting on him, captured on one side of the carriage.

“What in God’s name . . . ?” he demanded, somewhat breathless in his attempt to keep her struggling arms from freedom.

“You let me go into that panic! You let those men come up to me, trap me, terrify me . . . and you were there all along! You—rat, cad, bastard!”

“You shouldn’t have been there! I remember you swearing what a good and loyal wife you intend to be.”

“I’m no one’s wife at this minute!”

“That’s not the point. You act rashly all the time. It’s amazing that you’ve managed to live so long. Down into the East End. Into the very homes of villains who are not at all averse to murder when the purpose warrants. Into every pesthole in the city!”

“I’d have never agreed to go anywhere with Cecilia tonight—if it hadn’t been for you!”

“Oh?”

“You dared me, you oaf!”

“I didn’t dare you to do anything.”

“Wait! I left the two of you together. Were you supposed to meet Cecilia there? Slide behind one of those curtains with her? Were you waylaid in your purpose by royalty? Am I saved tonight simply because you were outranked?”

“What?” he all but shouted incredulously. She remained on his lap. Her wrists were painfully vised by his fingers.

“It’s none of my concern, but you two were practically making arrangements when I left. But don’t you dare engage in such affairs and then behave as if I’m the one at fault!”

He was silent for a second. The whole of his body seemed to be clenched so tightly that it was dangerously explosive. “Your friend Cecilia interests me not in the least, my lady. I was afraid of something like this, when I saw you with her today. She is usually cautious, but despite that, she has quite a reputation. Apparently, you are aware of all kinds of social evil, yet blind to many things taking place in your own circles. And I am really growing weary of rescuing such a nasty, ungrateful trollop!”

“Trollop! How dare you!”

“Easily—damned easily. Considering we have just left an erotic sex show!”

“Oh!” she cried furiously, yet finding no quick comeback.