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“I didn’t want to be there—in London.”
“Why not?”
Strider rethought the cognac and walked to the sideboard. He wasn’t about to tell Juliet what he was doing here. She knew enough about Pen—though only that she was from his past—to be suspicious of why he’d dropped everything after mere hours in London and had escaped to the Willows.
His back to her, he poured a splash of the burnt-red liquid into a glass. “I’m meeting an old friend and didn’t want to do it in London.”
“So, your escape has nothing to do with the woman that showed up at the Den of Diablo yesterday?”
“What?” He spun around to her. Pen couldn’t have gone back there—she wasn’t that stupid to set foot into the rookeries again. Not to mention he had men watching her and they would have stopped her from aiming even one foot in that direction. “What woman?”
“Miss Willington.”
His heart stilled in his chest. “Pen went to the Den? Is she…”
Juliet waved her hand. “She’s fine and well. I talked to her. Egbert remembered her from the last time she landed at the Den and brought her up to me.”
He exhaled a long, silent breath.
“I can see the relief on your face, Hoppler, try as you might to hide it from me. This woman has quite the hold on you—why?”
Strider avoided her question. “What did she want?”
Her mouth quirked to the side. For a moment, she looked to press her question, but then she looked from him to the window. “She wanted you. She was convinced you were there. I convinced her you weren’t.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That you were out of town and even if you weren’t you would be unavailable.”
“She accepted that?”
Juliet’s right brow arched. “You seem to know her well. She didn’t accept it and said you’d change your mind about seeing her.”
“And?”
She took a long sip of her cognac, her stare assessing him over the rim of the glass. “And I told her in the six years that we’ve worked together, I have never once known you to change your mind on anything. It doesn’t happen.”
He nodded.
“Or am I wrong on that score?”
“I don’t change my mind—you know that.”
“Exactly.” She dipped her head to him. “At that, she seemed to accept what I told her. I had Jasper procure a carriage and then accompany her home.”
“Thank you.”
Juliet nodded. “Who is she, truly? She’s the reason you were gone this past week, wasn’t she?”
A knock on the door saved Strider from having to answer the question. Juliet was too good at getting him to talk, and he had no intention of speaking about Pen with her. He looked to the door. “Come.”
His butler opened the door. “Sir, Mr. Draper is here.”
“Show him in.”
Juliet looked to him, her delicate eyebrows lifting. “Draper? That’s the old friend you’re meeting? This must be serious.”
“It is.”
