Page 87 of Not Quite a Lady
‘Yes.’
‘We seem to have a very strong physical attraction to each other.’
‘Oh yes.’ She shut her eyes.
‘We cannot go on like this.’
‘No. You said that. I agree with you.’Just kiss me, thenaskme.
‘I think we should–’
‘Yes!’
‘–just avoid being alone together.’
‘What?Lily bounced to her feet, eyes wide open.
‘We should behave in a proper, conventional manner. As we should have done, all along. And I blame myself.’
As she was standing, Jack got to his feet courteously. ‘We have agreed – although not both at once – that marriage is out of the question. It would be most improper to act on the attraction between us in any other way. Your trustees have ruled out a business relationship. But I do not want to lose you, Lily.’
Lily found she was regarding her hands, twisting the cords of her reticule and not looking at Jack. How could she look at him, watch his face, while he consigned whatever it was that was between them to the sterile realms of propriety?
‘No,’ she agreed slowly, keeping every trace of how she felt out of her voice. ‘No, I would not want to lose you either. As an acquaintance.’
She looked up. For one moment she thought she saw disappointment on Jack’s face, but that was ridiculous, she was agreeing with him, it must have been a trick of the light.
‘Good.’ He was brisk, obviously relieved by her agreement, so she had been mistaken about that fleeting expression of yearning.
Then his face changed from serious thoughtfulness to almost laughable horror. ‘Oh my Go…goodness. Look at the state of your clothes.’
‘And yours.’ Lily could not help laughing. ‘You look as though a building has collapsed around you and then a woman fell on top of you.’
‘Good manners prevents me from telling you what your appearance resembles.’ Jack grinned back. ‘So what, exactly, do you suggest we tell my Mama we have been doing?’
‘First of all we find a hackney carriage and then we do what we can on the journey back to the inn to retrieve matters.’ Lily delved into her reticule. ‘I do have a hairbrush in here, and somepins.’
Struggling in the confines of a lurching hackney carriage to brush off dust and cobwebs, straighten clothing, pin up Lily’s hair and pluck wood splinters out of Jack’s, reduced both of them to an unfortunate state of juvenile giggles.
They got out of the carriage in the inn yard, struggling for composure in the face of Jack’s assembled family.
Lady Allerton swept one comprehensive glance over the pair of them and declared, ‘We will go inside for luncheon.’
Trailing up the stairs behind Penelope, Lily whispered, ‘I feel as though I am twelve again and have been caught skipping lessons to go out scrumping apples.’
‘Me too. What happened to you? I got whipped by my tutor.’
‘I had to sit in the corner balancing a grammar primer on my head to teach me the importance of decorum.’
Jack’s grin made it quite clear that Lily’s unfortunate governess had failed in this endeavour.
‘What on earth happened to you two?’ Penelope demanded, the moment the door was closed.
‘The roof fell off a building, very close by, and Jack rescued me,’ Lily said promptly. It was true, if misleading, and earned her an admiring look from her fellow adventurer. Her respectable acquaintance. Her lost love.
‘Outrageous,’ Lady Allerton declared. ‘One is not safe in the streets these days. As if beggars and pickpockets were not enough, now we have buildings collapsing.’
The rest of the day passed decorously enough. The combined efforts of the chambermaid and Caroline rendered their appearance respectable enough to complete the day’s business, Lily pressing the warehouse keys into Jack’s hand with a silent plea to do what he could to explain to the agent what had occurred.
