Page 8 of Lord Ramsey's Red-Headed Ruin
She had to get rid of him. “As much as I would like to have a companion in my travels, I can offer you nothing for your service.”
“You need not compensate me.”
“Scarlett does?”
He gave a smile. “Scarlett does.”
“Does she know you have found me?”
“No.” His blue eyes flared with certainty.
“Why not?”
“It is only recently that I did find you.” He focused on her mouth and ran a fingertip over his lips, as if…as if he could taste her. “The other reason should be obvious.”
“You don’t have an associate who can run the message to London?”
“I work alone. And as long as I know where you are, how you are, I have no need to risk any informant falling into Vaillancourt’s hands.”
She gripped her stomach. The possibility that Vaillancourt might haul her away felt like a punch to her gut. She was caught. And for now, persuaded. “You propose to accompany me around France?”
“If that is what you wish, yes.”
“How?” She sniffed. “That looks odd.”
“For one woman to travel alone in shabby men’s clothes, changing horses and carriages constantly? Yes.”
He had her—and she called him a very bad name.
His gaze grew hard and dangerously lethal. “For a man and his wife to travel together in comfort and style, not at all.”
“Doing what?” she demanded, trying to call his bluff.
“Touring the country. You and I are, after all, English invited here under the peace treaty.”
She scoffed. “I do not collaborate with neophytes to gain ground.”
“Madame, I know what you did in Paris—but now you run. Furthermore,” he said, smiling with a hand to his heart, feigning insult, “‘neophyte’ stings.”
She raised her glass. “Non, je ne regrette rien.”
“I gather.” He shrugged. “Regrets are a waste of time. Better to do a job the right way the first time. Face it. You are better off with me.”
“Very well. I will play. Why?”
“Yesterday you asked residents if they had heard about shipments to military depots in the eastern border towns.”
That stilled her. Her inquiry was a whim, an attempt to learn something useful. “Many expect that.”
He smiled pleasantly. “Many men discuss that. Odd for a lady to do so.”
She crossed her arms.
He tipped his head. “Did you learn anything?”
She bit her lip. He’d pricked her pride—and her curiosity. “No.”
“I did not think so.”
