Unlacing Lilly. Gail Ranstrom

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СКАЧАТЬ she opened the drawstrings of her silk reticule, she was confounded. She could have sworn she had taken a one-pound banknote before she left the house. “Sir, if you will hold those ribbons for me, I shall return with payment.”

      The man narrowed his eyes as if he suspected trickery. “Tryin’ to cheat an old man, are ye?” he asked in a loud voice.

      “No!” The heat of a deep blush stole up Lilly’s cheeks. “I promise I will be back. I must find my maid. She will lend me what I need.”

      “Yer maid? She’s got money when you don’t? The ribbon is cut, Miss Hoity-toity. Ye’ll pay fer it or I’ll call the charleys.”

      “I will advance her the money,” a voice from behind her offered.

      She turned and was both dismayed and relieved to find the man from Olney’s garden. “Thank you, Mr…. ah, but I cannot accept. I barely know you, and it wouldn’t be proper.”

      “It is only a length of ribbon, Miss O’Rourke. ’Twill not bankrupt me. I warrant you are good for it.”

      The merchant crowded forward and put his hand out.

      “But I do not even know your name, sir.”

      “Devlin.” And he gave her that crooked devil-may-care smile she had not been able to forget.

      “Mr. Devlin? Very well. I am indebted to you.”

      With her nod, the man dropped sixpence into the merchant’s palm. She stuffed the ribbons into her reticule and stepped away from the stall, anxious to disassociate herself from the scene.

      “Thank you so much, Mr. Devlin. I fear that man was about to turn me over to the police. I cannot even begin to imagine what my mother would have done. Or Olney.”

      He laughed and she had to smile, too. The very thought of Olney trying to explain that the woman he was going to marry in three days’ time had been arrested for theft was completely absurd. He would be certain to cancel the wedding.

      “Alas, we shall never know,” he said. “And I swear I shall never breathe a word of this to anyone. Now, tell me. Is your maid really about? And will she stand you the sixpence?”

      “She is, sir. She is trying to find a trinket for her sister. She should be along any moment.”

      He reached out and brushed the loosened curl back from her face. The gesture was innocent, but somehow so intimate that it left her breathless, and she could not think of anything to say.

      “I am not worried over my sixpence, Miss O’Rourke. I was merely wondering if you were trying to stall the merchant.”

      “It is true, sir. If Mama had not asked for ribbons, I would be home now.”

      “Ah, they are for your mother? I thought the green to be a perfect shade for you.” He took her arm. “Come, let’s stroll along until your maid comes. I’d prefer to be away from that man’s stall.”

      “Yes!” She breathed a sigh of relief and did not even glance back as they left the merchant behind. “I promise you, I have never had anything like that happen to me before. I was certain I had a banknote in my reticule. I must have forgotten to put it in before I left the house.”

      “Or you put it in and some enterprising street urchin relieved you of it.”

      The thought of such a thing made her indignant. “Oh, that cannot be. My reticule has been over my wrist the whole time.”

      “Allow me.” He slipped behind her and loosened the drawstrings with a touch so light she couldn’t feel it. In a fluid movement, he dipped two fingers in, withdrew a glove and turned away, all without a single sign that he had violated her property.

      She was astonished. “How did you do that?”

      “Years and years of experience, Miss O’Rourke. Accomplished thieves are not heavy-handed. Nor do the good ones have to resort to being a cutpurse.”

      “You are a thief?”

      “Was, Miss O’Rourke, in my misspent youth. I am reformed now.” He tucked the glove back in her reticule and gave her an impudent smile. “Well, from thieving, anyway.”

      A thief? Did Olney really invite such people to his fetes? “Then what do you do now?”

      “Oh, a number of things. Look after my investments. Manage my employees. Look for new opportunities. But I am a dull subject, Miss O’Rourke. I am more interested, instead, about why you are wandering London streets without a groom or male servant in view of the Queenite disturbances yesterday.”

      She shrugged. “Perhaps I am a Queenite.”

      He laughed and gave her a friendly nudge. “Now that would surprise me. No respectable young miss with an eye to her reputation and standing in society would admit to being a supporter of the queen. Risk the displeasure of the king? No.”

      “You have made the rather sweeping assumption that I am respectable, Mr. Devlin. Perhaps I am not.”

      “If you were not, Olney would not be marrying you.”

      “Oh, dear. You’ve caught me out.” She gave him a sideways glance and a tingle of pleasure went through her when she saw his wide grin.

      “You are a bit of a tease, are you not, Miss O’Rourke? I hope Olney appreciates that.”

      She rather doubted he did. He never seemed to know the differences between teasing and serious discourse. But there were worse things in a man than a lack of humor. She shrugged. “He will become accustomed to my little quirks.”

      “I shall pray he does.”

      Lilly was about to respond when she was distracted by a small dirty child who came running toward them, looked up, saw Mr. Devlin’s face and came to an abrupt halt. His mouth formed an O and his eyes grew wide.

      “Sorry, sir. I didn’t mean no ’arm. I didn’t know she was yer lady.” He stuck one grimy hand into his pocket, withdrew a one-pound note and offered it to Mr. Devlin.

      Mr. Devlin took the banknote and gave the boy a stern look. “Next time, Ned, keep going. Returning invites recognition and being caught.”

      “Aye, sir.” Ned turned and ran back the way he’d come.

      Lilly looked at him in amazement. “Is that my banknote? Are you teaching the boy to steal, Mr. Devlin?”

      “No. I was teaching him not to get caught.”

      “Perhaps he should be, if he is taking other people’s belongings.”

      “I might agree with you, Miss O’Rourke, if I did not know that he will not eat tonight if he does not steal. Nor will he have a place to lay his head.”

      “Surely his parents—”

      “He does not know his father, and his mother…well, shall we say she is not interested in her son?”

      “But СКАЧАТЬ