Miss Goodhue Lives for a Night by Kate Noble Read Free Book Online Page A

clipped.
    â€œNot on a horse?” he asked, digging himself deeper.
    â€œYou approached in the few moments my horse was being reshod, if you must know,” was the miffed reply.
    â€œDon’t mind him,” Cecilia said, sending a warning glare over her shoulder to him, and stepping half an inch closer to Johnson. “He’s never had much interest in the military.”
    â€œYes, miss,” Johnson said, and Theo could see a smirk on his face as he turned to look down at her.
    Dammit, he thought. The boy was half in love with Cee already. Her voice was starting to do that breathless thing that drove him mad. It possibly could have been due to the fact that she had to trot to keep up with their pace, but Theo didn’t think so. She was using her wiles on the poor lad. How was it that someone who could turn him inside out with just a slight change of her voice had not managed to take in another foolish man in ten years’ time?
    Maybe she hadn’t deployed those skills.
    Maybe they only affected him. Although judging by the look on Johnson’s face, that was less likely.
    But whatever her reasons, they were to be left at the door—specifically the one they stopped in front of. Johnson swung the door open, showing an empty receiving room. Comfortable chairs, a fire—but no Birmingham, no state secrets of any kind.
    Obviously they weren’t the first strangers to walk up to Horse Guards and request an interview out of the blue.
    â€œAt least we weren’t shown to the dungeons,” he muttered.
    â€œWhat was that?” she asked.
    â€œNothing,” he said, shaking his head. He hoped this would work. It was unseemly to be leveraging a connection from the firm—a tenuous one at that—to assist on such a mission. But if Mr. Smithson took umbrage with it, he could claim it was in service of Lord Ashby. At least, that was what he hoped.
    Johnson murmured something about how they should wait there for Colonel Birmingham and clicked the door shut behind him. Leaving Theo and Cecilia alone again.
    â€œYou seemed to take to Private Johnson,” he said.
    â€œWhat is that supposed to mean?” she replied, her eyebrow going skyward.
    â€œI simply do not understand your motives. Birmingham will have the information we need. Not a young private.”
    â€œYou never know where information will come from,” she said. “There is no harm in being friendly.”
    Sometimes there is, he thought, but thought better than to say it. Sometimes, her friendliness could prove a man’s undoing. Specifically, him.
    A rap sounded on the door.
    â€œAh, here we go,” he said, straightening. “Let me do the talking.”
    â€œOf course,” she said politely, reassuring him not at all.
    The door opened and Colonel Birmingham entered—at least he assumed it was Birmingham, given the number of epaulets and medals on his uniform. And if a man’s mustache was only as bushy as his status would allow, Colonel Birmingham was very, very well regarded within the army.
    For not the first time, Theo wondered if his impulsive decision this morning had been the right one.
    â€œWell? You’re Hudson, I presume?” Colonel Birmingham boomed out. “What is all this about?”
    â€œSir,” Theo said, giving a bow, “I apologize for intruding—”
    â€œDamn right you’re intruding,” Birmingham retorted. “Do you think we just sit around in our uniforms waiting for people to come and call? We are men of action, son! Our days are regimented to within an inch of their lives and you simply come here? Sent by Smithson, no doubt—well, you can tell that son of a—”
    â€œColonel Birmingham,” Cecilia said, stepping forward. “Mr. Hudson came here today on my behalf. I apologize, but the situation is dire. And we were told you are the only person who can come to our aid.”
    She pressed a hand to her