The Countess Page 0,99

Theirs had been a love match and while he'd never real y thought about it before, Richard now decided he would like that for himself as wel .

"Here we are."

Daniel's words drew his gaze out the window to see that they'd arrived on the street where the tailor was. A glance along the busy lane told him his driver wouldn't be able to find a spot close to the tailor's without some difficulty and he commented,

"It looks as if we wil have a bit of a walk to reach the tailor's."

"I don't mind," Daniel said. "After spending al yesterday and last night in a carriage, I shal enjoy the brief walk."

Nodding, Richard banged on the wal of the carriage. Moments later they were disembarking and making their way along the crowded walk toward the tailor's.

"You'l need a whole new wardrobe," Daniel commented as they swerved closer to the road to avoid a smal party of women walking the opposite way.

"Yes," Richard agreed dryly. "Fashion is one of many things George and I did not have in common."

"Did you have anything in common?" Daniel asked with amusement.

"Taste in women," Richard answered promptly.

"Ah." Daniel grinned. "I'l take that to mean you are not displeased to have Christiana for a wife."

"If Suzette is half the woman Christiana is, we can both count ourselves lucky men," Richard assured him.

"Hmm. Suzette mentioned that Christiana had fol owed you upstairs, and I did notice a certain spring in your step when you found me in the parlor some time later . I wonder what could have happened to cause that?"

"You can keep wondering," Richard said dryly and led the way into the tailor's.

As he'd hoped, his time with the tailor was short. The man was swift and efficient, taking Richard's measurements and his order with a speed that spoke of the years of experience he had. Much to Richard's relief, the man assured him he could have several of the items to him by week's end. He also did have a couple of cutaway coats, a pair of trousers and a pair of breeches available right away. One of the coats was a perfect fit and could be taken at once, the other items needed a bit of tailoring, but the man promised to fix them up right away and send al four items along to the townhouse by the day's end.

"Wel that went wel too," Daniel commented as they stepped out of the tailor's and started up the walk in the direction of the Radnor carriage. "Perhaps we shal be lucky and arrive back at the townhouse to find that everyone has had such a successful day, and the identities of the blackmailer and poisoner have been discovered so that we need only round them up."

"We should be so lucky," Richard said wryly.

"Was it not you who said just as we entered the tailor's that we were both lucky men?" Daniel asked cheerful y. Richard glanced around at Daniel's words and opened his mouth to respond, but froze as he spotted the carriage careening toward them. The first shout of warning went up then, but Richard was already grabbing Daniel's arm and throwing himself to the side, out of the way of the oncoming vehicle. They crashed to the ground amid a cacophony of screams and shouts as the people around them noted the danger and tried to get out of the way, and then there was a moment when the only sound Richard could hear was that of the horses'

hooves and the trundle of the carriage's wheels as it raced past, the breeze of its passing tel ing how close they'd come to being trampled.

"Are you al right, my lord?"

Richard glanced around at that alarmed question and sighed when he spotted his driver just reaching and kneeling beside him. Nodding, he rol ed onto his back to sit up, and then glanced toward Daniel, who was as of yet unmoving.

"Woodrow?" he asked with a frown.

Daniel groaned and pushed himself to a sitting position, but said, "Yes. Thanks to you."

"It was a yel ow bounder, my lord," the Radnor driver said grimly, glaring in the direction the post chaise had gone. "Probably rented. The postil ion didn't even try to steer clear of ye. In fact, it looked almost like he was aiming for the two of ye."

Richard grunted at the man's words, suspecting he was right. George had been murdered after al and they had expected the murderer to try again. He definitely had