Page 27 of Avenging the Earl's Lady
“I’d rather take men and comb every furlong of the London road.”Kincaid growled.“No point in following Marie.Unless a few gold crowns dropped into her bag, she’d not rouse herself for the intrigue.Barton’s the one that will lead us to your missing lady.Providing the lady and maid are not lying beside that London road somewhere.”
Shaldon gritted his teeth against a rising panic.“She’s here.”He had to believe it.It had to be true.“What the hell did I miss?”
“You were distracted by sudden lust.”
The lust hadn’t been sudden—it had crept up on him, from the moment he’d seen her at the Hackwells’ ball earlier that year.
Hell, he’d noticed her before, many years ago when he’d visited her father in Kent.She’d been a bright, beautiful, cheerful young girl with flattering stars in her eyes, so of course he’d noticed her, even though he’d been too old, too married, and a father to boot.
When next they’d met at the Hackwells’, her beauty had matured, her cheerfulness had sobered, and her brightness had clouded to an opaque mystery that intrigued him.She was no longer young, but also no longer too young for him.
She’d lived quietly after her father’s death and only returned fully to London society in the last year.What had happened to her in those intervening years?
The only one likely to know was her cousin, Cheswick.
He must speak to the man himself.
