Page 84 of Not Quite a Lady
‘Adrian did not find it inhibiting, if you recall.’ Lily thought back to that foggy night and shuddered.
‘That was a private carriage, so quite unexceptionable for seduction. Whereas this vehicle is thoroughly inappropriate.’ Jack prodded a worn seat disdainfully. ‘I can assure you that your virtue is completely safe in this.’
‘I have no doubt about that whatsoever,’ Lily agreed sweetly, letting her reticule, weighed down by the heavy warehouse keys, thud meaningfully into her palm.
From the glint in Jack’s eyes she wondered for a moment whether he would regard that as a challenge, then the coach jolted to a halt.
From the window she could see a glimpse of the Tyne, its waters almost obscured by river craft large and small, and the noise and odours of the docks filled the carriage as Jack opened the door.
‘Well, Miss France? Armed with your loaded reticule, are you willing to venture into a deserted warehouse with me?’
Chapter Twenty
‘Certainly I am.’ Lily took out the keys and her purse. ‘If you will open the doors I will pay the driver.’
Jack removed the keys firmly and handed up some coins to the man.
‘I saidIwould pay.’
‘Do you think I cannot afford the hire of a hack?’ He had turned back to the wicket gate in the big wooden doors.
‘This needs oiling and the lock should be replaced before you put anything of value in here.’ Jack heaved the gate open with a screaming of rusty hinges. ‘Of course not, but this is my business…’
‘Of course you can afford it, but this is my business…’
‘Very well, you pay me back for the hackney fare, and I will invoice you for my opinion of this door. And of course, I must work out the proportion of your time involved on business and charge you board and lodging for that part of your time spent at Allerton.’
He ducked through the wicket. ‘It looks safe enough in here.’
‘That is not what I meant, you stiff-rumpedidiot.’ Lily scrambled through and swung irritably at Jack’s back with her reticule. Without the weight of the keys it was like swatting an oak tree with a leaf.
‘Language, Miss France,’ Jack reproved. ‘Is it big enough?’ He began to pace off the length.
Lily left him to it and, with a dubious glance at the holes in the roof and some rapid mental calculation on the likely costs of repairs, went to explore the rooms at the end of the great empty space.
They had been built within the warehouse like sheds within a barn. Lily poked about inside, deciding they would have to becompletely demolished, then saw the stairs in one corner. They must lead to what was effectively a flat roof.
She was rapidly coming to the conclusion that this warehouse was going to need too much work to make it useable, but a view from a height might give her a better perspective on it.
The stairs creaked as she climbed, her skirts gathered in one hand, the other clinging to what remained of a crude handrail attached to the wall. Three-quarters of the way up she was coming to the conclusion that perhaps this was not the best idea she had ever had, by the time she reached the top and stepped out onto a crude platform of worm-eaten planks, she was sure of it.
Lily turned round cautiously and put her foot down onto the top step again. Some instinct warned her, she lifted it back, but too late.
With a groan the rickety structure parted company with whatever rusting nails had been holding it to the wall and it fell to the stone floor beneath with a crash.
Choking in the cloud of dust and cobwebs that rose from the hole Lily staggered back, felt the planks creaking ominously and froze where she was.
‘Lily?’
‘Here! I am all right, but I can’t get down.’
There was a sound of crashing below and Jack appeared, clambering over the ruined remains of the stairs.
‘What the hell are you doing up there?’ he demanded, craning his neck to look up at her. ‘Of all the bloody stupid, damned idiotic–’
‘Totty headed?’ Lily supplied faintly, finding a rusted piece of iron sticking out of the wall and taking a firm hold on it.
‘What?’ Jack bellowed, making the old building echo.
