Rescued By The Earl's Vows. Ann Lethbridge

      ‘No. My cousin will wonder...’

      Now she cared about the proprieties. He smiled a grim smile. ‘And now you know the reason your family tries to protect you.’

      She coloured, no doubt recalling their kiss.

      ‘Well then, what engagement do you have tomorrow night?’ he asked.

      She looked startled.

      ‘I am invited to all the best places, you know.’ He swallowed the urge to chuckle at her look of chagrin. ‘I promise you, I will be discreet.’

      ‘We are to attend Lady Bloomfield’s musicale tomorrow evening.’

      ‘Very good. I will see you there. In the meantime, let me get you back into your disguise and send you home in my carriage. You should not be wandering the streets at this time of the morning.’

      She gasped. ‘I couldn’t possibly arrive in your carriage. Someone might see it.’

      This time he laughed. ‘Do you think I am not up to snuff when it comes to intrigue? My dear Lady Tess, the carriage will be unmarked and it will drop you around the corner from your cousin’s house, but my driver will ensure you go inside before he leaves.’ He’d make sure Growler drove her home. He would find the location of this Freeps and that would be an end of the imbroglio. He had enough going on in his life, without adding the problem of a woman who didn’t trust him an inch.

      Thank goodness when he decided to take a wife again, it would be a nice, quiet girl who would be happy embroidering handkerchiefs, producing his heirs and behaving herself with decorum. He wished he’d married a woman like that the first time. A woman more like his mother. A faint bedtime memory of a sweet voice singing drifted across his mind. He tried to recall her face, but it drifted away like smoke on a breeze.

      Bitterness filled him. He had so few memories of his parents and they were getting more and more elusive. Forcing his mind back to the present, he picked up the sash and one of the pillows. ‘Come on, then. Let’s get you ready.’

      The sooner she left, the sooner he could get back to what was important.

      And yet as he tied the sash around her now bulky form his unruly body expressed a strong desire to take her out of her clothes, not bundle her up.

      Dammit.