Surrender by Amanda Quick Read Free Book Online Page B

that blackmail is neither pure nor simple, not with you cast in the role of the victim.”
    Her eyes gleamed with mischief at that sally and Lucas felt his whole body react with sharp desire. He folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the cushions, his gaze holding hers in the shadows. In that moment he wanted nothing more than to be alone with this bewitching creature. He longed to pull her down onto the carriage seat and show her the extent of the risks she was running when she challenged him so openly.
    For an instant a charged silence hung between them. When Victoria finally blinked and allowed her gaze to slide away from his own, he knew she had discerned his thoughts.
    But Lucas’s small sense of victory was short-lived. It was dawning on him rapidly that this courtship he had embarked upon was going to be even more hazardous than he had first thought. With Jessica Atherton’s help and his own skill at getting by on his wits and his abilityat the card table, he had hoped to conceal the true state of his finances from Society long enough to achieve his objective. He had made his plans with his usual care.
    But if his intended bride took a notion to hire a runner to look into his affairs, it was all too likely the full truth would come out. The rumor of his nonexistent inheritance would not hold up for long. It was becoming clear that the task of stalking this particular heiress would be the most exacting hunting he had ever done. One wrong move, one miscalculation on his part, and he would lose the game.
    “How long do you intend to spend on your adventure this evening, Miss Huntington?” Lucas kept his tone detached.
    “Is time a problem for you? Do you have another engagement planned?” she asked far too sweetly.
    He knew intuitively that she was fishing to find out if he had a mistress expecting him later. “No, I do not. Lyndwood and I must secure arrangements to have all of us taken up by his carriage at a specific location, and to do that efficiently in the crowd, we need to decide upon a definite departure time.”
    “Oh. Yes, I can see that. I would suggest two hours would be ample time to enjoy the fair.”
    Annabella sighed. “I am afraid I cannot stay out that long, Vicky. Mama will be coming home from the Milricks’ soirée in another two hours and she will expect me to be in by then.”
    Lucas hid his relief. “An hour then?”
    “An hour’s long enough for me,” Bertie Lyndwood said quickly.
    “That’s probably all the time I should allow,” Annabella said with regret.
    “Oh, very well.” Victoria sounded mildly irritated but resigned. “An hour it is. We shall have to hurry, though, if we are to see everything.”
    Lucas said nothing, but privately he considered that the next hour was undoubtedly going to be one of the longest of his life.
    Half an hour later he was confirmed in his belief. The huge park was ablaze with lanterns that illuminated aseemingly unlimited array of stalls selling meat pies and ale, booths featuring acrobats and rope dancers, and packed tents featuring puppet shows and games.
    The crowd was a mix of the high and the low. Servants who had snuck out of their masters’ houses, shopkeepers and their wives, apprentices and shopgirls, dandies out for a lark, a few daring members of the nobility, prostitutes, pimps, pickpockets, young boys from flash houses, military men and dockworkers all rubbed elbows together as they sought the after-dark thrills of the fair.
    “My lord,” Victoria murmured as they stopped to buy a custard tart, “I know you are concerned about calling attention to my disguise.”
    “Concerned is quite an understatement, Miss Huntington. Those damned breeches fit you like a second skin,” Lucas muttered, eyeing the smooth line of her hips.
    “I shall be happy to give you the name of my tailor. In the meantime, perhaps it would be best if you released my arm. A certain man across the way is staring.”
    “Bloody hell.”