no context.” With an oath, he yanked his collar higher, until it hit the tops of his cheeks. “Predictable.” Taking her hand, he guided her down a narrow side street. “This is the faster route. Away from the markets selling birds that have made this locale famous. Also, not something one can determine from viewing a map.”
“What’s predictable?” She huffed, dodging puddles of muck and heaps of garbage, having to take two steps to his one to keep up. The man had the longest legs she’d ever seen. She squeezed his hand to slow him down, trying to ignore the wonderful feeling of his bare skin against hers, as neither of them wore gloves. The contact was rare, as she’d never once held a man’s hand, making her pulse tick, her heart drum inside her chest.
She could feel him, the feel of him, to her toes.
“You’re probably the bloody cleverest woman I’ve ever met. Daring to the teeth, to make it interesting. But common sense?” He danced to the side, knocking off a newspaper that had tumbled down the alley and wrapped itself around his boot. “Not so much.”
“Quit protecting me,” she seethed and wrenched her hand from his grip. “I don’t need it.”
“Not exactly a habit I can turn on and off like a tap. And you’re wrong.” Expression thunderous, he halted before they entered the clogged avenue twenty feet in front of them that she assumed was Little Earl Street. “You want to know how Victoria doused the fire in the hearth when she entered your guest bedchamber? How Finn read your mind when you recognized the Soul Catcher, because he did, and I think you know it. You should also know, he’s never able to do that with his wife in the vicinity. You and your talent are an enigma.”
“I don’t want—”
“Finn’s brother, Julian, Viscount Beauchamp, has a handkerchief of yours that Simon filched that day in Hyde Park. Julian’s supernatural gift, because almost everyone surrounding me has one, is that he discourteously steps into a scene from the owner’s life when he touches an object. I’ve been told when he stepped into yours after caressing that slip of embroidered linen, he witnessed you in a tiny room filled with books. Finn’s seen this room in his dreams, too.” He took her elbow and gave her a gentle shake. “Dreams I’m in as well. So, after this trifling drama, one I hope we survive, we’re going to find out who you’re running from and why you seem to know much, yet wish to reveal little.”
Delaney closed her eyes and palmed her brow, a headache ripping through her skull. They couldn’t know about her. Truly, they couldn’t.
“You were supposed to come alone. This is vexin’ news, indeed, missy.” A stocky, bear of a man strode from the mist and into the alley. Her messenger wore the clothes and scent of a butcher, his coarse shirt and trousers stained with blood and entrails.
Delaney swallowed and jerked her cap low while lifting her chin high. Stepping in front of Sebastian, she waved him quiet behind her back. “Nothing to it, mate. Me brother is all.”
“Some brother,” the messenger growled, and took a fast step forward. “Only one man in this hellish city with that height on ‘im, eyes that shade. I can see ’em glowing like the devil’s own from here, jus’ like they say. I read the papers, don’t you know? He used to frequent this area, you silly thing. Well known in some of the dens. Darling, balmy girl dressed like a lad, disappointed I am that you brought a duke to this meeting. I told you, no one else.”
With no reason left to hide his identity, the Duke of Ashcroft stepped around her to shield her body with his. “Thankfully, she did invite me. Or was forced to. A propitious inclination, that.”
The man who had a note from her blackmailer somewhere on his person shifted from one grubby boot to the other, snaked his hand under his tattered coat and came out with a glittering blade the length of her forearm. “This bit of diplomacy be between me and the American twist, guvnor. The one with the costly ridin’ boots I’m taking with me when I go. I think they be about my wife’s size and may make up for being involved in a spot of trouble I, for once in my life, didn’t ask for. And if not, I can sell them handily.” He spat on