Page 40 of Seduced By a Scoundrel

“Pity?”

“It’s amusing.” She shrugged. “And you could do with some amusement,” she added in a mutter under her breath.

He loomed over her, but she felt sheltered instead of intimidated. She wondered if that would shock him. “What are you doing, Sybil?”

She adjusted her gloves the way she had seen countless young men do. “I’m getting ready to win a horse race.”

“Let me try again,” he said, clearly growing more exasperated by the second. Good. She hated when he was all lordly and controlled. The infamously calm Lord Blackburn destroyed his enemies both at home, in Parliament, and on the Continent with cold, brutal efficiency.

She preferred Keir. This was the man who had dared to show his sense of humor in a note written after midnight.

“Why are you trying to win a horse race which you clearly baited an old man into taking?” he pressed.

“That old man is goat dung.”

“No argument there. But I won’t be distracted, Sybil.”

Why did he keep saying her name? It was too intimate, too personal. Private. She liked the sound of it too much in his mouth. “I don’t owe you any explanations.”

“You do if you want my horse.”

“It was very considerate of you to bring him for me.”

“I think you mean coincidental.” Now he looked as though he was trying not to be amused. Finally.

“Very considerate,” she said.

“Sybil.” A warning this time.

One she had no intention of heeding. Obviously.

Especially not when another wave of drunken patrons stumbled through the doors behind them, clogging the pavement. Very convenient.

Very convenient, indeed.

Keir was stronger.

But Sybil was faster.

She tossed him a grin over her shoulder and darted into the crowd. He bellowed her name. Better yet, he was considerate enough to bellow her assumed name. “Singleton, damn it!”

She decided she was terribly fond of him right then and there.

“Bates,” he called to his groom. “Keep tight to those reins.”

Perhaps not that fond.

Sybil reached the groom long before Keir. Bates frowned at the crowd of stumbling lords, the traffic of carriages and horses suddenly surging away from the hell. He was tall, clearly competent. The horse was well cared for and a veritable beast.

But neither of them were prepared for Sybil.

Which was exactly how she liked it. People were always so much more obliging when she took them by surprise.

She caught his gaze and smiled. “Lord Blackburn has been kind enough to lend me his horse.” She kept her voice light, natural, nearly cloying in its debutante sweetness. Ha. Debutantes were as sweet as unripe lemons. But it did the job.

He blinked at her. “Miss?”

“You wouldn’t put a lady in danger, would you?” It was technically true. Sybil might not be in danger, but Miss Maddox most assuredly was.