In Bed With the Devil(50)

“Was there no note?” she asked.

“No, my lady. The gent who delivered it said simply that the package was for Lady Catherine Mabry.”

Of course, there’d be no note, because if there was, she’d have to burn it. The gloves were from Claybourne. Her injured hand was too sore, but she couldn’t resist having Jenny help her tug the glove onto her uninjured one. It was a perfect fit.

Oh, dear Lord, she wished he hadn’t done this. It was so much easier to deal with him when she believed he was the devil, so much harder when she realized he was a man who could easily win her heart.



“You’ve lost your knack. She spied you following her around.”

Luke had decided that he needed a word with Jim, before he picked Catherine up for their nightly ritual. Now he was pacing in Jim’s lodging. When had it grown so small? He barely had the room to stretch his legs. Ever since Catherine had left his bed that morning, he’d felt like a ravenous beast on the prowl—with no clear understanding of what it was he was seeking.

Whatever had possessed him to ask if she wanted a kiss? For more than a year, he’d been fiercely loyal to Frannie, not taken the least bit of interest in another woman. Whatever madness had claimed him? What was he thinking to tempt himself and Catherine with the promise of a kiss? He’d been disappointed. Well, and truly, disappointed when she’d shaken her head. Then he’d gone to Lord’s and purchased her new gloves like some besotted fool.

No, he chastised himself. He was simply replacing the pair that had been destroyed when they’d been attacked, replaced the one that now rested in a drawer in the bureau in his bedchamber. The one that he’d held and studied that morning after returning to his residence, thinking about how close she’d come to having her life ended with the slash of a blade.

Pain shot through his head. He had to stop thinking about that encounter in the alley. Why was it that it troubled him so? She was nothing to him except a means to an end.

“She didn’t see me,” Jim insisted, lounging in his chair by the fire as though nothing were amiss.

“All the running around she did earlier in the week? She did it to befuddle you, to make certain you were following her.”

“If she spied someone following her, it was not me. She saw someone else.”

Jim sounded so certain of himself. Not that Luke could blame him. He’d always been the best, the very best. So good in fact, that he’d managed to carry out his duties at Scotland Yard during the evening while pursuing Catherine during the day. He’d merely claimed to be following up with some witnesses to a burglary.

“Why would someone be following her?” Luke asked.

“Maybe it’s the bloke she wants killed.”

The thought of her being in danger caused Luke to break out in a sweat. “Did you see someone following her?”

“I wasn’t looking for anyone else. I was concentrating on her and making certain she didn’t spy me.”

“We need to determine if it was you she saw.”

“Now, that’s a jolly good idea. Let’s ask her shall we? And then she’ll know you’re having her followed. Do you think she’s going to take kindly to that news?”

“I’m not as daft as all that. We need to come up with an innocent opportunity for your path to cross with hers.” He walked over to the window, moved the drapery aside slightly, and peered out.

“Once she’s seen me, she’s more likely to notice me and become suspicious.”

“If she does, we’ll simply say I was worried about her safety, that you’re following her is a new development.”

“So how do you propose we innocently cross paths?”

How indeed without arousing suspicions?

“We just need a small ruse,” Luke said quietly. “Something simple, easy to bring about.” He considered his options, the players at his disposal. Finally he faced Jim. “Get word to Bill. We’re going to play some cards tonight in Dodger’s back room.”

“I’m all for a bit of gaming, but how does that achieve your end?”

“We’ll have Frannie bring Catherine into the room—quite innocently. Catherine’s reaction to seeing you should tell us everything.”

“What excuse will Frannie use to bring her into a room where gents are playing cards? It will be apparent that it’s staged.”

Luke waved off his concerns. “Perhaps Frannie will want to show me something that she’s learned. We’ll leave the reason to her. I have no doubt she can lure Catherine into the room without raising suspicions.”

Feagan’s children were all skilled at delivering lies so easily that they resembled truths. That talent had allowed him to convince the old gent that Luke was his grandson. What he required of Frannie tonight wasn’t nearly as complicated, but in some ways, Luke feared more was to be gained or lost.