An Affair with a Spare by Shana Galen

Author:Shana Galen
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2018-05-03T16:00:00+00:00

Twelve

Rafe didn’t like this part of the plan. He didn’t like leading Collette to danger, even if the danger was minimal and he’d be right there all the time. But there was nothing for it. As Jasper had reiterated, she must be the one to give the intermediary the letter. Rafe would have to allow her out of his sight, but not for long. It had been hard enough not seeing her the past two days, but now that she was here, walking beside him along an alley that would take them to Bond Street, it would be even harder to allow her to take the risk—as small as it was.

“How much farther?” she asked, her voice muffled inside the cloak she wore. He’d insisted she pull the hood over her head. Any number of dangerous men were out on the streets at night, and they didn’t need a reason to accost someone they encountered. Better to stay in the shadows and keep one’s head down.

“Not far. It would have been faster to take a hackney or the main streets, but I don’t want to be seen.”

“You still have the letter I penned?”

“Yes.” He’d held on to it even after they’d met in the garden. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t just given it to her when she’d first asked for it. Perhaps he wanted to make sure it wasn’t lost or perhaps he felt he needed to give her a reason to stay beside him.

“What if the bookseller doesn’t believe the letter?”

“It’s not for him to believe or not believe. He just delivers the letters.” Rafe had thought about how this was possible and determined the man must have dealt in books from all over the world. He either traveled back and forth to France or had the letter sent along with orders to French merchants for volumes in demand in England. The answer would be known soon enough. Once the Foreign Office knew about the man, he’d be taken into custody and all his secrets revealed.

The alley forked into two streets, and Rafe took Collette’s arm, leading her toward the left. As soon as she understood the direction he wanted her to go, she yanked her arm away. “I can walk on my own, thank you.”

She was colder than the Frost Fair of ’14. He couldn’t really blame her, and it surprised him that he minded so very much. Once he’d taken a woman to bed, Rafe had usually felt as though the chase was over. That didn’t mean he ignored her or spurned her. He wasn’t a scoundrel. But he didn’t often have the urge to have her again.

And he never lost sleep wishing she had stayed the night. Women never stayed the night. In fact, he preferred to go to a woman so he could be the one who left and not face the awkwardness of having to, in essence, ask her to leave. But when Rafe had finally shoved Jasper out the door and lay down to sleep, he hadn’t been able to.

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