Page 69 of The Notorious Lady

She raised a brow. “Than me being hung by the neck? Oh, yes, it is better. Besides, now you have double the motivation to exonerate me.”

“Exonerate you?” He snorted and kicked at an innocent stone that happened to lie in his way. “I am a damned fugitive! I can’t show my face anywhere in London until this mess is resolved. And I don’t know who in the world is going to resolve it now. If you told me earlier, when I was still a reputable thief-taker, then I could have helped you!”

“You say that I should’ve trusted you to protect me when you were the thief-taker! Yet, for all I knew, you could have given me up just like your other precious thief-taker, Jamison, did.”

“Do not forget that your precious harlot Harmony gave him all he needed,” he pointed out.

Grace flinched. “Yes, thank you for the reminder. My friends stabbing me in the back inspires confidence to trust a stranger.”

“I wasn’t a stranger,” he growled. He paused, realization brightening his face. “That’s what the documents stated, wasn’t it? It said you were the owner of the brothel, your real name and aliases all spelled out.” He shook his head and huffed a breath. “I understand not telling me right away, but after the—” He paused and had to collect himself. “After the dinner party, you simply disappeared. You could’ve told me the truth then.”

Grace’s heart raced inside her chest at the memory of that night. She had to lick her lips, for her mouth had gone dry. “Nothing changed between us for me to start trusting you after that night.”

“Something changed enough for you to run off and hide,” he noted bitterly.

“Yes!” she cried. “I started to have feelings for you. You are big and strong and protective. Everything I have always craved in life. Of course, I started to have feelings for you, it was inevitable. But I couldn’t trust you. You despise everything I stand for, everything I represent. I could never truly trust you.”

He looked at her, startled. “You have feelings for me?”

That was not the part she thought he’d concentrate on. She fidgeted with her sleeves. “A slight infatuation. It was inevitable considering the time we spent together. And the intimate relations between us only complicated things, so yes, I fled.”

A snort. “You decided to hide on behalf of your feelings even if it meant hanging?”

“I was protecting myself. Besides, what would you have done if you’d known the truth then?”

“I would have kept you safe! Hidden.” He let out a sigh. “At the very least, I wouldn’t have taken you with me to Jamison’s house or anywhere for that matter.”

“You think you would have been able to stop me?”

“Absolutely.” At her look, he threaded his fingers through his hair. “Even if it meant tying you up to my bed.”

Grace let out a scoff. “You’d have to pay extra for that.”

His glance was softer, and laughter wrinkled his eyes. Grace pursed her lips in an attempt not to laugh, too.

The tension was broken and as if to celebrate that fact, thunder rumbled in the sky. A drop of rain fell onto Grace’s nose, and she glanced up at the gray sky. She’d been so engrossed in the argument with Ford that she hadn’t even noticed the clouds gathering above them. They were in the middle of nowhere, and the sky was about to erupt in heavy showers. Perfect.

“We have to go before it pours,” he grumbled.

“And where are we going to go exactly?” Grace dusted her skirts violently, getting her frustrations out on the innocent garment.

“I don’t know,” he bit out. “But we can’t stay here. The King’s men will catch up to us eventually. And in this weather, we will get soaked before they do.”

As the pause lengthened between them, he shrugged his shoulders and walked toward the horse. If they wanted to outrun the King’s men, they needed to go far. All the safe places Grace knew were in London, but returning there would be asking for trouble.

A flicker of thought entered her mind. There was a place they could use as a shelter outside of London.

Grace followed Ford. “I know of a place.”

He turned to her and lifted a brow. “Oh?”

“On the outskirts of Dover.”

Rain intensified then, and Ford looked up before climbing onto a horse. He extended his arm toward her. “Dover is good two day’s travel away even if we manage to swap horses a few times. More opportunities for us to get caught.”

Grace gripped his hand, and he hauled her up. She plopped across his lap and straightened her spine. “Do you have any other ideas?”

He bit his lip, looking pensively into the distance. “Dover it is,” he finally said. Then he reached around her to take the reins and after a moment they cleared the forested area and were soaring through the plains once again.