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At this rate, she would be late to meet Jane and Eleanor had already cautioned her to be better with her timekeeping. Cassie had tried so hard to ensure she was on time, even rising far earlier than she usually liked, and now Luke was going to ruin it.
“Nowhere. At leastyouare not.”
“I can be your escort.”
“I have the footmen!” Leaning forward, she narrowed her gaze to slits. “Besides, being seen with you is no better than being seen alone.”
“I do believe I’m offended.”
By the twitching smile on his lips, she doubted it. If she were not so frustrated with being late, she might enjoy their back and forth as he was one of the few men who spoke to her on an equal level. “You deny your rakish reputation?”
“It has been a long time since I have been accused of being a rake.” He set his hat on the brocaded seat, securing his position in her carriage for good.
Cassie eyed the hat before glancing up at him. “Lies.”
“Ah, Little Cassie Fallon, only you could speak to me so.”
“I am not little anymore.”
“I noticed.”
The response dallied in the air, like the thick fog that rolled in off the Thames on occasion. It made her lungs feel clogged, though she could not be certain why. Did it really matter that he no longer saw her as a little girl?
“I do not see why I cannot accompany you. I am a close family friend, not to mention I’ve been assigned to you by your brother.”
Fighting the urge to scream aloud in frustration, she pressed her teeth together. She did not have time for this no matter how amusing he thought himself to be. “I’m going to be late, Luke.”
“To where?”
“I...”
She peered around the carriage as though the answer might materialize up from the floor. Lies were not easy for her. Many thought her far too outspoken as it was and neither her mother nor her father had been the sort to silence her.
Thatwas most likely the reason Anton had told Luke to watch over her—her brother still thought of her as some mischievous girl, likely to get herself into trouble. Lordy, she was so tired of people thinking such things of her. Was she some child in leading strings liable to sneak into the kitchen and dip her hands in the trifle still?
Hardly.
She straightened and laced her fingers together. “I’m having coffee with a friend. We shall gossip and talk of handsome men, and those that annoy us,” she said with a pointed look at him. “Idle chatter that will not interest you one jot.”
***
EVEN IF LUKE did not know better, he would have figured out the false intention behind Cassie’s words. The bright spots of pink on her cheeks, the way she nibbled on that full bottom lip plus how she laced her bare fingers so tightly her knuckles whitened gave her away. If Cassie wanted to lie to him, she needed to become much more practiced.
Such a shame that she looked mightily pretty whilst doing it. The rosy cheeks gave her the look of a country lass having taken a brisk walk through the hills and the delicate pout of her lips was red and glossy from being gnawed on. His fingers twitched with the desire to press a thumb to said lips and see if her mouth parted in response.
He took a long inhale and forced himself to settle deeper into his languid posture. Clearly, his instincts were not wrong. Cassie had no reason to hide her comings and goings unless she intended to do something she should not.
Of course, she could be meeting with a man.
He straightened. Not on his bloody watch. “You hate coffee.”
“Blast,” she muttered and scowled. “Well, the slave trade might be abolished but the people who harvest it are still not free.”
“I know.” He had heard this lecture so many times from her and her sister that even he had ceased having it in his house. “So where are you going?”
“I am seeing a friend,” she admitted.
“A...male friend?”
