The Spinster's Secret Scoundrel: A Cavalier Cove Regency Novella by Carrie Lomax

Author:Carrie Lomax [Lomax, Carrie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-20T00:00:00+00:00

Afterward, Thierry made his way to the Ram’s Head, where he took a room for the night. Whispers of the Riding Officers’ whereabouts flew like the wind. In the tavern, Thierry learned that Leacham and his men had visited the Cock and Bull to interrogate Caden. He’d missed the men by minutes.

One of these days, Thierry’s luck was going to run out. He didn’t plan to give up smuggling entirely—it was too profitable a venture—but he did have every intention of settling into a more staid existence.

After a visit to the viscount the next morning, the coin jingling in his pocket was no longer enough to satisfy his debt to Miss Naughton. As far as Thierry was concerned, he no longer owed her the full amount he’d promised. She’d lied to him, if only by omission. Despite his fluency in two languages, he couldn’t find words for how that knowledge made him feel.

Uncomfortable. Foolish. Betrayed—although why had she waved at him to keep moving last night, if she intended to turn him over to her uncle?

She wanted the money. Thierry wanted an explanation.

He took a more direct path through the fields rather than going by the winding road. There was nothing to identify him by his chosen profession, but Thierry hadn’t made it to the ripe old age of twenty-eight by being careless. Calculated risks were one thing; he had no way of knowing whether Ada had turned him in to her uncle.

He needed to see her, either way.

The Excise Officers knew he was in the area. The Waterguard had chased his ship halfway across the Channel. Le Fantôme knew how to disappear…and when to stay hidden.

Thierry who got caught by geese and fearsome maidens had no sense of self-preservation whatsoever.

He caught sight of Miss Naughton angrily sweeping her front stoop and halted mid-stride. Backlit by the morning sun, her long hair tied back in a loose braid tumbling over her shoulders, wearing a creamy dress, Adeline was stunning. Thierry’s throat closed. She glanced up, frowned, and swept harder, turning her back.

Not happy to see him, then. Ice touched his spine.

“If you haven’t come back with my money, then don’t come back at all,” she called over her shoulder.

Her money was now safely in the hands of Lord Tobias Prescott. Before he’d come here, he’d visited the viscount to pay a deposit. In a few weeks, the cottage would be his. And she would be—

Homeless.

Suddenly, his plan to double-cross the woman who had helped him felt small and petty. Beneath his dignity as a man. Thierry didn’t mind breaking the law, or ladies’ hearts, but those were games where everyone who played knew the rules.

He’d done wrong by her, and he didn’t know how to fix it.

“The cargo is on its way to London,” he called out. Or it would be tomorrow morning, in the trunk of Prescott’s own coach. No mere Excise Officer would dare to search a viscount.

“Where is my money?”

Her voice was high and strained. Thierry’s chest tightened.

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