Earl's Well That Ends Well (The Way to a Lord's Heart #5) - Jane Ashford Page 0,32

pleased with himself. “Right, then. So first of all, I went back around to the lodgings of all three dancers and talked to the landladies and everybody else in the houses. Nobody knows noth…anything. Those girls walked out their doors just like usual one day and never come back. They didn’t take anything with them. Not a scrap.”

This made no sense. As Teresa knew from bitter experience, the less one owned the harder one clung to it. More than anything else, this convinced her that Odile and Sonia and Maria had not meant to leave.

“And then I heard from Nancy that Maria boasted about driving out to Richmond Park,” Tom went on. “In the company of a fine gentleman. I’m thinking we should ask some questions along that road, see if anybody remembers them.”

“And so you are needing a carriage,” replied the earl with a smile.

“If you please, my lord.”

“Tom is not fond of horses,” Macklin told Teresa. “He sees riding as a form of torture.” The earl offered his smile to her. “Too bad. It is a pleasant ride to Richmond, which you might have enjoyed.”

Did he understand that such remarks were a bid for more information about her? As if she was a partial picture he was determined to fill in? Or was it simply the way he spoke to everyone? Well, she wasn’t going to tell him that she’d loved riding as a girl nor that she’d had a spirited Arab mare she loved dearly. Her current situation must make it obvious that she could not afford to keep a horse. So she said nothing.

“Is tomorrow suitable for you?”

Her scenery would be finished by then. She had no other engagements, pressing or otherwise. Teresa nodded.

“That’s settled then. We should go in the morning to allow plenty of time.”

“I’ll see about a day out,” said Tom. He rose. “Should be all right.” He walked away, leaving the two of them at the table.

“We interrupted your work,” said Lord Macklin.

Irrationally, Teresa found his consideration annoying. Were they going to ignore what she’d said at the theater yesterday? Was this some new way to toy with her? Lord Macklin was disrupting her carefully ordered life. This man turned things to a muddle whenever he was near, and she hated that. They must be clear, particularly now that they were to be a team. “At the theater yesterday, I spoke up as a joke,” she blurted out.

He looked inquiring. Or disappointed? Surely not that.

“It meant nothing,” she added. “A silly jest.”

“The humor being…” He let his sentence trail off to encourage explanation.

“Because the idea is so ridiculous,” said Teresa.

“The idea?” His blue-gray eyes glinted with…something infuriating. Was it amusement? Or worse? How was anyone to say?

Teresa grew conscious of a wish to box his ears. “It was merely a matter of convenience,” she added as carelessly as she could manage. “In case you acted as escort on other visits. So that you can come and go backstage without…irritation.”

“Ah. Irritation.”

“Must you keep repeating my words? You might as well be a parrot!”

“I beg your pardon. Parrots can be annoying, can’t they?”

Were they actually talking about parrots?

“It was very kind of you to think of my…potential unease,” he added.

A spate of words died on her lips. Teresa felt as if she’d stepped down and found a stair missing, leaving her teetering in the dark. Was that all? Was there to be no taunt or innuendo?

The earl smiled at her. The expression was warm and alluring. Remembering the anger that had shaken her at the theater, Teresa realized that she hadn’t been driven by anything like kindness yesterday. Some inner part of her had leapt like a tiger on Nancy’s query. To save the dancers from another exploitation, she told herself again. But honesty forced her to acknowledge that her motives had been more complicated. She hadn’t wanted to see him with Nancy or any of the others—for her own sake as much as theirs. She hadn’t wanted him to be like the other aristocratic men she’d known. He had to be; earls were bred so from infancy. But this one seemed so different.

She sprang up. He rose politely. Teresa started away, then turned back. He stood there beside the table, a few feet away. He didn’t rake her body with his eyes or mock her with knowing smiles. She’d been prepared to stave off sly comments for as long as necessary, but none had come.

“Until tomorrow then,” he said. He offered a small