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She smiled brightly and he recognized that smile all too well. He saw it when one of the older, dryer members of thetonengaged her in conversation. Luke did not much like having it directed at him.
“I am merely, um, curious about the business. I have been reading about it.”
“Cassie…” he warned.
Several moments of silence passed while she glanced around the carriage as though looking for a falsehood. “Luke, I cannot tell you! But I have good reason. Will you at least trust me on that?”
He eyed her for a few moments then nodded. At least she had ceased lying to him. He would never claim to be an expert on Cassie but, knowing her, she thought she was doing some good deed for someone.
“I trust you, Cassie.”
“Thank you.”
“But that does not mean you are ridding yourself of me.”
“Blast,” she muttered, making him chuckle.
Blast indeed. Little did Cassie know, he did not wish to be with her any more than she wished him to accompany her, however, he would manage. A few more hours of keeping his hands to himself and pretending he felt nothing for her would not be so hard, would it? He’d lasted this long after all.
Chapter Eight
Cassie narrowly avoided plunging her perfectly polished boots into a puddle of ridiculous size then practically barreled into a man carrying a substantial crate balanced precariously on one shoulder, with only one hand to support it.
She mumbled her apologies, ducked the wobbling crate and hastened on. She did not glance back to see if Luke followed because she did not need to look to feel himthere—like some dark cloud pursuing her.
Though a dark cloud would feel different, she supposed. He was dark to be sure, with his thick black hair and eyes as brown as hot chocolate but the strange tingling sensation in her stomach was not at all similar to what one might feel if one were glancing up at the skies and fearing rain.
Blowing out a breath, she shook her head at herself and stopped to eye the names painted upon the buildings ahead. The docks were vast and busy. Masts of ships bustled for space against the skyline while rows of brick buildings clustered the side of the Thames.
If one avoided all the people gathered in the area, then one had to contend with all the goods piled high as bellowed orders were shouted from ship to land almost everywhere they went.
Cassie had not expected to instantly come upon this shipping company but she would have anticipated someone might know the name or work for them. So far every man and woman with whom she had spoken had never heard of them.
It likely did not help to have Luke peering over her shoulder, his arms folded as though anticipating some great danger at any moment. Admittedly the docks were not the most savory of places and had Luke not been here, she would have dragged Mr. Barratt with her, but did he have to keep glowering so?
If there was something untoward about this company, no one would say as much with him looking as though he wanted to tear apart anyone who so much as looked at her.
“It would not hurt you to look a little less...intimidating.”
An eyebrow quirked upward as she came to his side. “Intimidating?”
“I am trying to ask questions and my chances of getting an honest answer are a lot lower with you looking...” She gestured up and down him. “Well, like that.”
“I did not know my appearance was so terrifying,” he answered dryly.
She had never thought of Luke as terrifying before. She’d known him for that long and he had always been...Luke. Occasionally Viscount Whitehurst. He wasn’t terrifying, though. No, that was not it. Terrifying suggested he scared her when it was something else, something that made her skin itch and her cheeks warm.
“I would say you are more intimidating than terrifying.”
No, that word felt wrong too as soon as it exited her mouth.
But she was not going to tell him why she was fighting so hard to find a word to classify him and she certainly was not going to admit that moment in the carriage had left her brain a strange, tangled mess ever since. Frustrating indeed considering all she wanted to do was focus on helping Jane.
When she should be thinking of Jane’s missing or maybe dead brother, she found herself recalling being settled upon his lap and wanting the touch of a man more than she had ever wanted before.
There had been plenty of opportunities thrown at her for a courtship since her debut and even a man or two willing to toss aside their honor to settle a kiss upon her lips, but she had never once been tempted.
Until now. Until Luke had taken her in his arms.
