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“And the pass,” Honoria added.
“He’ll get them,” she promised. She took his arm and led him through the door and down the stairs.
“Curfew began an hour ago,” he said. “We can’t risk going out.”
“Then we go up.”
“What does that mean?”
She led him to a door that opened into a bedchamber. She entered and removed her shoes, but he hesitated. “What are you doing?”
“Not seducing you. I still dislike you.” But she didn’t hate him. Truth be told, she didn’t even dislike him—most of the time. He was worried about her falling when climbing. Her heart had filled when he’d stood up for her. “I need to change if I’m to be dashing about on roofs.”
“This is your bedchamber.” He stood outside, peering in, and she could only imagine what he thought of the unmade bed and explosion of clothing on the floor. “Wait.” He scratched his head. “What do you mean, the roofs?”
She smiled and began rummaging about in the wardrobe. “I can’t hear you.”
He stepped into the room just as she stepped away from the wardrobe with a pair of breeches and a black coat in her hands.
“You can’t mean to wear those.” His eyes were wide.
“Oh, yes I do. Would you close the door, please?”
“If you are found dressed in men’s clothing—”
“The door, Chevalier.”
He went to the door and closed it. “—you could be arrested and charged with not only violating curfew but inappropriate dress. What are you doing?”
“Removing this dress. Can you help so I don’t have to ask Honoria to come down?” She turned her back to him. She was an actress and used to dressing and undressing in mixed company. She had lost her modesty long ago. “That’s a ridiculous law. I don’t understand why people can’t simply wear what they want.” She glanced at him over her shoulder. “Unlace me.”
“It’s unseemly for women to dress as men.”
He took so long to cross to her, she half thought he would step out and tell her to call Honoria, but then she felt his hands on the laces. He was hesitant at first, but then more deliberate in his movements. The tight bodice began to loosen, and she took a deep breath. “Why do you uphold some manmade beliefs but not others?” she asked. “You fight to the death against the belief that nobles are better than commoners. You oppose the wearing of different clothing and the giving of titles, yet you still insist women must dress differently than men, and your precious republic has yet to give females the right to vote.”
“Some have argued for that.” He finished with the laces, and she removed the bodice so she stood in corset and chemise. She could deal with her skirt herself.
“Have you?” she asked, turning to face him.
“No.” His voice was distant, and she looked up from her task to see his gaze had dipped to her breasts, pushed high by the tight corset.
“Typical man, then.”
His gaze rose to her face. “Forgive me.”
“Just because my body differs slightly from yours doesn’t mean I am no less equal.” She finished with the tapes on the skirt and allowed it to drop to the floor. “And don’t tell me that women are intellectually inferior to men. If some women lack the education men have it is because men have kept them from it, just as the nobility prevented the commoners from the rights and privileges they should have.”
“I find I have no good argument.”
She smiled at him. “That’s a start. Will you help unlace this corset?”
The look of pure hunger on his face almost made her smile. She really had not been trying to seduce him. Now that he was here, though, and looking at her with those dark eyes, it was difficult not to want him. She tried to summon that dislike again, but it was fleeting and fickle.
“Or perhaps I should call Honoria?” she asked.
“Too late for that,” he said, voice low and husky. “Turn around.”
She gave him her back, and he made quick work of the laces on her simple corset. She shrugged it off and would have turned back around, but he placed his hands on her waist and bent to kiss the exposed skin of her shoulder. Alex’s pulse kicked, and she closed her eyes, intoxicated by the feel of his lips on her flesh.
