Page 98 of The Duke and Lady Scandal
Ben nearly overtook the young man as they both strode quickly from his office.
Ten minutes later, Ben had hailed a cab headed for Princes, his heart in his throat. He bridled his imagination and pulled the reins tight.
Monday. She’d said Holcroft expected his diamond on Monday.
Now he only hoped she’d gone to the shop today. He had to stop her.
If that bastard laid a finger on her—
“Faster!” he shouted up when the cab slowed, snagged by midday traffic.
The vehicle was small, and the cabbie was an expert at maneuvering London’s clogged thoroughfares. He pulled alongside a growler and then shot past it. Only a moment later, they tilted wildly around a corner and were in the throngs near Bond Street.
When the cab slowed, Ben considered jumping out and sprinting on foot the rest of the way.
Miraculously, the cabbie found a path through and turned them onto Moulton Street. Ben tossed up twice the fare and darted through the front door of Princes.
Lady Josephine startled in the chair where she’d been reading, dropping her book onto her lap.
“Goodness, Inspector. You gave me quite a fright.”
“Forgive me. Where’s Alexandra?”
“She’s on an errand.” She glanced at the row of antique clocks. “I’m expecting her at any moment.”
“She’s gone to see Lord Holcroft about his diamond, Inspector.” Mr. Gibson emerged from the back of the shop, his brows peaked high in concern. “Is anything amiss, Inspector?”
“Yes, Gibson, it is.” Ben strode forward. “Do you know the address she went to?”
Gibson gestured toward the front counter. “He’d left his card, but she may have taken it. Grosvenor Square. Number eight, I believe.”
Ben rushed back out into the street, eating up the pavement as he sought a cab.
One edged toward the curb to collect him, and he shouted up the address.
Nausea threatened as they made their way out of the busy shopping district, up Brook Street, toward one of London’s most fashionable squares. The distance was no more than a leisurely walk, and every time the carriage slowed, he wished he had headed out on foot.
When he spotted her, he banged the wall of the carriage to stop and jumped out. She walked along the pavement, safe and unharmed.
“Alexandra.”
She turned immediately, shock, a bit of tenderness, and then irritation flickering over her face in succession.
“What do you want, Inspector?”
He was next to her in a heartbeat, and he forced himself not to reach for her.
“I need you to listen to me.”
She lifted a brow in reply. “I’m here to take care of a business matter. What is it?”
Suddenly, he couldn’t think. Couldn’t get his tongue to form words. She had not yet gone to number eight, and his heart flip-flopped in his chest at that excellent realization, but he needed a strategy, and quickly.
“I’ll accompany you.”
“What? Why? This has nothing to do with you, Inspector.” She darted a gaze toward the green in the center of the square. “And I already have a shadow.”
Constable Collier sat on a wrought iron bench, giving Ben a quizzical look.
