Page 2 of Indecent
“We don’t take chances when there’s this much blunt involved,” the same brigand responded. “Now give us what you promised, or we’ll take the chit and go.”
She heard a thump and wondered what that noise could be. How she wished she could speak!
“I hope you didn’t wake the innkeepers.”
“We came in quiet, just like you said to. Now give us our blunt.”
“Fine,” the gentleman said caustically. There were footsteps and some shuffling. “Here.”
“Count it,” the brigand growled.
“It’s all ’ere,” another of the kidnappers said. “Let’s go.”
“Pleasure doing business with you, m’lord.” There was no mistaking that the brigand was smiling as he said this.
Then the arm around her was gone, and Prudence wobbled. Another set of arms came around her, along with the scent of pine and bergamot.Thiswas the gentleman.
The sound of the door closing filtered through the sack covering her head just before it was whisked away.
“My apologies, Lady Cass—”
Prudence blinked into a face she knew. Bright blond hair and stunning blue-green eyes, chiseled features with sculpted lips. Lord Glastonbury?
He recoiled in horror. “You aren’t Lady Cassandra!”
Prudence’s response was muffled by the gag. He’d planned to kidnap her employer? Not that Cassandra was her employer, but Prudencewasher paid companion.
“Oh my God.” He reached behind her head and untied the infernal piece of fabric.
As soon as it was loose, she spit it from her mouth. “A drink, please.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Perhaps after you untie me,” she rasped, her body suddenly screaming of thirst, but not as loudly as it was for freedom.
Glastonbury hastened to pluck the rope from her wrists, then bent and did the same at her ankles. When she was free, she contemplated sending her foot into his chest and knocking him back on his arse. Instead, she rubbed her wrists and glowered at him as he stood to fetch her a glass of whatever was in the bottle on the table.
He handed her the glass, his brow deeply furrowed. “I don’t understand what happened.”
Prudence drank half the glass—it was ale—before pausing. “You had me kidnapped, it seems.”
“Not you. Lady Cassandra.”
That he’d planned to steal Cassandra, the daughter of a duke, from her very bed was beyond astonishing. “As you can see, they nabbed the wrong person.” And Prudence could guess why.
“I don’t know how. I told them where she would be and what she was wearing—a purple cloak.” His gaze dropped to the purple cloak draped around Prudence.
“We switched cloaks.” Prudence glared at him. “They woke me, gagged me, put a bag over my head, tied my hands and feet, and dragged me who knows where in the middle of the night. But you intended for that to happen toLady Cassandra?”
His face flushed red. “I didn’t intend for them to do any of that. I paid them to bring you to me without being seen.” He frowned, his gaze dropping to her reddened wrists. “It seems they took things too far.”
“You think so?” she asked with razor-sharp sarcasm. She finished the ale and thrust the glass back at him. “Do you have anything stronger?”
“I do not. Would you care for more ale?”
“If that’s all you have. Though, port or madeira would be preferable,” she muttered darkly.
He flinched, then refilled her glass. “Miss Lancaster, I am terribly sorry for all this.”
