Page 57 of A Story of Love

“I jest…” The man’s jaws snapped shut.

“You just what?”

“Er, nuffink. I jes reconnoitered that she’s the wrong bird.”

Fast narrowed his gaze at the other man, who’d begun to back away. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Rather than answer, the man spun and ran full out.

“Damnation!” Fast gritted out, furious that he could not follow—not without leaving Miss Fontenot alone—and staring in seething frustration as the giant disappeared into the night before turning and getting his first good look at the woman who had been occupying far too many of his thoughts recently.

Fast stared down at her, rendered speechless. If he’d not heard her voice, he never in a hundred years would have recognized her.

“What the devil have you done to yourself?” he finally managed.

She pursed her lips and set about straightening her hideous clothing. “I am incognita.” She sounded normal enough, but he could see her hands were trembling, so she wasn’t as sanguine as she wished to appear.

“Why are you wearing those clothes? And why, in the name of all that is unholy, are you down here on the docks?”

“Why, pray, are either of those matters any business of yours, Lord Severn?”

He gave an unamused bark of laughter. “There is gratitude for me.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, not sounding it. “I ought to thank you.”

“I shan’t hold my breath.” Fast pointed to her hand. “You are bleeding.”

She examined the back of her hand. The scratches—likely from the rough brick—went up her forearm.

“Come with me,” he said. “Those need seeing to or you will have an infection.”

She opened her mouth.

“I am offering you help. You would be wise to take it.”

Her mouth snapped shut and she nodded.

Fast took her arm and led her out of the alley.

“Where are we going?” she asked when they began to walk in the opposite direction from The King’s Purse.

“A hackney driver waits for me behind The Virgin Queen.”

“Is that where you were coming from when you heard me?”

He ignored her question, instead gesturing to her lewd garments. “This is why you couldn’t dance the supper dance with me tonight? Because you were planning to wander the docks alone? What the devel are you looking for now, Lorelei? What could be so damned important that you would risk not only your virtue, but your life?”

She gave an exasperated sigh—the sound of a woman pushed beyond reason. “I cannot tell you that, my lord. I am investigating a matter for a story I’m writing. Until it is published, I won’t chatter about it as if it was the newest fashion for hats.”

“Does it have to do with me?”

She laughed, but Fast thought it sounded forced. “Not everything is about you, Lord Severn.”

“I dearly hope that is the case.”

“But it just so happens I was looking into something that involves you,” she added after a moment.

“You are nothing if not predictable.”