Page 59 of The Paid Companion

“That much is obvious.” He took her arm and steered her toward the door. “She just informed me that she and Bennett were off to drop in on the Morgan soirée. Bennett will escort her home later.”

She smiled. “I think they are falling in love.”

“I did not bring Margaret to London to have a romantic fling,” Arthur grumbled. “Her role was to act as your guide and to provide an acceptable female presence in my household so that your reputation would not suffer in the course of your employment.”

She silently debated whether or not to tell him the gossip that Juliana had reported was circulating among the ton. In the end, she concluded that it would only complicate the situation if Arthur learned that the Polite World assumed that they were involved in an intimate relationship. Such information might cause him to worry excessively about his responsibilities toward her. That was the last thing she wanted.

“Come now, sir. It is a wonderful thing that Margaret seems to have found a very nice gentleman who makes her happy. Admit it.”

“Huh.”

“And the most charming aspect of the situation is that you deserve all the credit for allowing the romance to bloom,” she could not resist adding. “After all, had you not invited Margaret to London, she would never have met Bennett.”

“It was not part of my strategy,” he muttered darkly. “I do not like it when things fail to go according to plan.”

He did not sound truly annoyed, she concluded.

She laughed. “Sometimes it is good to have our most carefully laid plans overset.”

“When in blazes have you ever known such an outcome to prove anything but disastrous?”

When I met you in the offices of Goodhew and Willis,she thought wistfully. She had been seeking a quiet post as a paid companion to someone like Mrs. Egan. Instead she had encountered Arthur, and now, no matter what transpired between them, she knew her life would never be quite the same again.

But she could not tell him that, so she merely smiled, hoping that she appeared mysterious.

When they reached the front steps of the Fambridge mansion, Arthur called for his carriage. A few minutes later Elenora spotted it as it swung out of the long line of vehicles waiting in the street. When it arrived at the bottom of the steps, Arthur handed her up into it.

He vaulted in lightly behind her, the black folds of the domino whipping out behind him like the dark wings of a bird of prey that hunted by night.

He closed the door and settled on the seat across from her. This was the first time she had ever been alone with him in the vehicle, she realized.

“Enough of this masquerade nonsense.” Arthur untied his mask and tossed it aside. “I fail to see the attraction of concealing one’s identity unless one is intent on committing a crime.”

“I have no doubt but that several crimes were committed in the Fambridge ballroom this evening.”

“Ah, yes. Indeed.” He lounged into the corner of the seat, mouth twisted slightly in amusement. “Most of them involved illicit liaisons of one sort of another, I suspect.”

“Mmm.”

He contemplated her with his dangerous eyes. “I trust you were not subjected to any indignities? It was Margaret’s job to ensure that you were kept safe from the wrong sort of attentions, but it has become obvious that she is not concentrating on her role. If any man made improper advances—”

“No, my lord,” she said hastily. “There was no trouble of that sort. But I did meet an old acquaintance of yours.”

“Who?”

“Juliana. Mrs. Burnley now.”

He grimaced. “She was present this evening?”

“Yes.”

“She sought you out?”

“Yes.”

He did not look pleased. “I trust the encounter was not unpleasant. She did not stage a scene, did she?”

“There was no scene, but the encounter, as you put it, was, shall we say, interesting.”

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