Page 92 of An Affair with the Viscount (Necessary Arrangements 5)

“Yes,” she answered cautiously.

“About six feet tall?” Richard held out his hand to his brow to show the approximate height.

She nodded.

“It might have been my footman, Garret,” Richard confessed with a grimace.

“Your—” Jo paused as she visibly tried to make sense of it. “No, he wasn’t wearing your livery.”

“Yes, I know. I thought it would be too obvious—”

And then it finally dawned on her, because her features darkened as she accused, “You had him follow me!”

“Of course.” He scoffed.

“Why?”

Why?Why was she so surprised? He hadn’t meant to frighten her, but surely she knew he wouldn’t leave her unprotected. “Do you think I would have let you saunter around on your own after what I witnessed in the theater? Did you think I would be sleeping soundly knowing thatthatmonster was still out there? No.” He shook his head and rested against the carriage seat.

“But… why didn’t you tell me?” She still looked quite confused.

He sighed. “You were all about independence when we spoke after that. I wasn’t going to try your patience with this nonsense.”

“So you went behind my back?”

“What did you want me to do?” Richard imploded. “Argue with you about it? Or let you walk around unprotected? If you think that I shall stand passively by while your life is in danger, you’re dead wrong.”

“I was terrified!” she cried. “And not of Mick, but of the man you had following me for weeks!”

Richard’s face heated. “He was supposed to be discreet. But he is just a footman, not a private investigator. Next time, I’ll hire one of those.”

“Next time?” Jo let out a nervous laugh, although she looked as if she wanted to cry. “This is how it’s going to be with you, isn’t it? You will just decide that something is better for me and do it whether I approve or not.”

He didn’t answer.

She raised a brow.

Richard let out a weary sigh. “I am not a man to leave the people I care about to their own devices. Whether you like it or not, whether you think it’s warranted or not… If it’s a matter of your safety, I shall be taking precautions.”

Jo let out a pained breath. She swallowed, her delicate throat working, drawing his attention. Then she looked down at her hands. “Fine.”

“Fine? Fine… as in, you’re fine with it?”

“No. I mean… I can’t exactly change you, can I?” She sounded rather defeated. “But that’s not important right now. I… um… I was actually coming to see you after the rehearsal. Before I stumbled into you, that is.”

“You were?” Richard suddenly perked up.

She licked her lips. Richard’s gaze fell to those plump, moistened lips and he wished to have a taste. Was she coming to him to do just that?

“Have you read the papers today?”

Richard’s face contorted in a pained grimace. “Yes. And before you say anything, that was not my plan. I mean, yes. I went to her, and I persuaded her to jilt me. But Lansdowne?” He shook his head.

“She didn’t want him,” Jo said softly. “When I spoke to her during the house party, she was obviously afraid and repulsed by the prospect. We can’t leave it like this. I can’t live with it if she suffers because of it. You have to go to her.”

Richard scrubbed his face. “I can’t,” he croaked out.

“What do you mean, you can’t?”

“I made a deal with her. The day I went to ask her to end our betrothal, I made a deal. Her only two conditions were to bring her to London and not interfere with her plan for jilting me. She said that she didn’t want my meddling.”

“Isn’t that a deal of a lifetime?” Jo muttered under her breath. Then she raised her glittering eyes to his. “She asked you not to meddle. But did she say anything about me?”

Richard watched her for one moment, uncomprehending, before a smile touched his lips. He rapped on the roof of the carriage and instructed his driver to divert their course.

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