Page 59 of The Lady's Last Mistake
Or take her over his knee. Outside, Cassie welcomed the cool air and dragged in several gulps. “I didn’t do anything. He is simply unpleasant and bad-tempered.”
Tobias frowned down at her. “And yet rumors swirl that he is going to propose.”
Cassie blushed. “Nothing will come of that.”
Grant did not intend to propose, only court her. And none of it was real anyhow.
They turned toward her carriage. “Good,” he replied.
Cassie slowed her gait. “Why would you say that?”
Her brother laughed lightly. “The man’s reputation is less than pristine. Michael respects that he’s friends with Viscount Neatham but as a match for you? Absolutely not.”
Patrick leaped from the box and opened the carriage door for her, but as Tobias released her arm, Cassie swayed. Itwasn’t as if she was going to marry Grant but hearing that Michael would disapprove of the physician rankled.
“Is it because he works?” Cassie asked before Patrick could shut the door.
Her brother shrugged. “That. And the fact that he has several mistresses.”
Disbelief poured through her. “Several?”
Tobias shrugged again. “From what I hear.”
He tipped his hat, and Patrick shut the door. Surely, Tobias had to be exaggerating. Or the rumors he’d heard were false.
“Milady, is that…bloodon your face?” Ruth’s warbling voice drew Cassie out of her whirling thoughts. “And in yourhair?”
As Patrick drove them back toward home, Ruth fretted over the dashes of blood that had also landed upon the collar of her pelisse. The whole thing would be lost now, stained irreparably. Cassie half listened to her maid’s vexing, and when at last they arrived home, impatiently waited for her driver to come hand her down.
Just then, a coach, made visible by its exterior lanterns, appeared in the streetside window. Had it gone by swiftly, Cassie wouldn’t have noticed it. But the coach slowed to a crawl as it passed them, practically stopping entirely as their windows aligned. It was far too dark to see inside the coach, but a strange prickling lifted her skin. She felt eyes on her.
Patrick opened the door, and Cassie quickly took his hand to descend. By the time she was on the pavements, the coach had picked up speed again and was continuing away.
“That coach,” Cassie said to him. “Was it following us?”
“Now that you mention it, milady, I did notice it behindus since Limehouse,” Patrick said. They watched it go around the oval-shaped square, then out of sight.
“Is everything all right, milady?” Ruth asked.
“Yes,” Cassie lied. Her maid would have dissolved into panic if she told her the truth: that she was quite certain they’d been followed since leaving Duke’s. And that she was almost positive Mr. Youngdale had been in that coach.
Now, he knew where she lived.
Chapter
Seventeen
Nothing had gone according to plan at Duke’s, and though Grant had at first laid all the blame at Cassie’s feet, it didn’t take him long to realizehehad been the larger problem. Not her.
The moment he’d seen her walking through the roiling crowds at the boxing club, he’d been both incensed and vindicated—he’d known she would come. He’d been looking for her as soon as he’d stepped inside the warehouse. Telling her to stay away, that it was no place for a lady, might have worked for any other typical woman of quality, but for Cassandra Sinclair, it had been woefully inadequate. It been all but an invitation.
As Sir had searched the crowd for the high roller he regularly saw at boxing matches, Grant’s mind had been on Cassie and whether she would come alone or with another—and who thatothermight be. Hugh had sensed his distraction and attempted to recapture it by knocking his elbow into his ribs.
“Are you listening? Youngdale is here.” Hugh discreetlylooked toward a grouping of men on another section of staging around the raised ring. Sir began to describe which one he was, but it wasn’t necessary. The healing gashes along one man’s cheek were all the proof Grant needed.
“We’ll follow him after the match,” Grant said, and he’d had every intention to do just that.
But then, a vision in dark rose pink had stolen his entire focus. Across the ring, Cassie had approached the staging opposite his with her younger brother and the nettlesome Mr. Forsythe.
