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She tutted her disapproval. “Highwaywoman, if you don’t mind.” She waved the pistol in his direction. “Empty your pockets, please.”
He spread his hands wide. “And if I told you your friend fleeced me last night? Stole my purse right out from under me?”
“She’d know you were lying,” Adelaide said at his shoulder. “I didn’t take his money. At least, not all of it.”
“Goin’ soft, eh?”
Clayborn cut Adelaide a look and gave her his best ducal censure. “I take it you work with these fine people?”
The highwaywoman snickered. “Doesn’t sound like he thinks we’re fine.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t take it personally, he doesn’t think most people are fine,” Adelaide said casually before nodding at the pistol in the smaller woman’s hand. “Though the weapon likely doesn’t help your cause.”
“You say it like you don’t carry as deadly a weapon on you.”
He looked to Adelaide. “Don’t tell me you’ve a pistol as well.”
She shook her head, but did not look at him, instead considering the wreckage. “I don’t like guns. They’re too often more trouble than they’re worth. Lucia, meet the Duke of Clayborn. Clayborn, meet Lucia.” She waved a hand in the direction of the two brutes who were now walking Clayborn’s horses toward them. “And Tobias and Rufus.”
The men tipped their hats in reply, as though everything going on were polite and aboveboard.
“Ach,” the highwaywoman scoffed. “It’s just for show. We weren’t out for blood. We were simply doing our part.”
“And what part is that?”
Lucia turned a bright smile on him. “Redistribution of wealth.”
Of course.
She lifted the bag in the air. “This one is locked, which tells me there’s something worth thieving inside.”
“There probably is,” Adelaide retorted. “Dukes don’t travel light.”
“Wot say, Duke?” Lucia played along. “Is it a gold bar or something within?” She looked to Adelaide. “No chance you’ve your keys with you?”
“Of course I have my keys with me,” Adelaide said. “But this one ain’t for thieving, Lucia.”
Lucia raised a brow. “Under Duchess’s protection?”
Adelaide lifted a noncommittal shoulder.
A second brow matched the first. “Underyourprotection?”
Clayborn had had quite enough of being spoken about as though he weren’t there. And certainly not like this, as though he were a child requiring a governess. “I require absolutely no one’sprotection.”
“Are you sure?” Lucia asked. “My boys could easily rob you blind.”
“I am perfectly able to fight,” Clayborn said, ignoring the ache in his shoulder from where he’d taken the impact from the leap off the carriage. “I boxed for six years at school.”
“You don’t say?” Lucia tilted her head. “Six years of school boxing?”
Adelaide’s lips twitched. “And such a straight nose to show for it!”
Clayborn slid her a look. “Perhaps I’ve a straight nose because I didn’t make a habit of losing.”
“More like no one was willing to let fly with a duke, but whatever gives you comfort at night, Your Grace.” Before he could say more, Adelaide looked to Lucia and tipped her head at the carriage. “Can’t be repaired, can it?”
“It’s matchsticks and metal at this point. That’s what your duke gets for coming this far north with a ride made for Hyde Park.”
