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‘Ladies’ retiring rooested ‘Yes, that will be down below’ He stood and gave her his are the stairs with your ankle? Sure? Hold on tight as you go’

The smell hit Tess halfway down the steps Hot, crowded huuessed was the ship’s bilges and a clear intimation that several people had already been unwell

Only urgent personal need h the crowded first-class cabin and whisper in the ear of an a lady

‘Over there,in her reticule and handed a s salts’

Fivethe bottle with sincere thanks and athe rest of the voyage proved to be

She picked her way back to the stairs and encountered a frigid stare frouely familiar She probably thinks I a her eyes She certainly would have been if it were not for Alex’s insistence

How easily things can change, she thought as she stuht hold of a handrail If Alex hadn’t been in a hurry on icy cobbles I would have caught a boat yesterday, I wouldn’t have a sore ankle, I’d have been packed into the second-class cabin feeling ill, I wouldn’t own a ginger kitten and e, infuriating—and devastatingly attractive—male

On the whole, even with the ankle, she rather thought she preferred things this way, an adventure before life becaain

Chapter Five

The infuriating ed into the fresh air on deck ‘Hellish down there, isn’t it? Co’ Alex sounded quite unconcerned about the effect of salt spray on his expensive greatcoat or the disorder of his wind-ruffled hair now he had abandoned the fight to keep his hat on his head

‘What is it?’ he asked once he had her settled again ‘I’one, but I did not expect to see a smile’

‘You dress so elegantly, but look at you now’ She cocked her head to one side to study hiht It would be dusk soon ‘You are not the slightest bit concerned about your clothes or your hair I believe you are a fraud, my lord’

‘I think not I take my appearance very seriously One has a reputation to uphold,’ Alex drawled, but there was an edge to his voice as he said it and the mischievous tilt to his lips had been replaced by a thin smile

You are not what you seeled back into the embrace of the boat cloak The problem was, he did not seem to be the same person from one hour to the next He appeared the indolent entleh they could hold their own in a back-alley fight, and his body was hard as nails under that expensive tailoring He sneered at her enthusiasm for Christmas, called her sentis—and yet he was kind to her, had given her a kitten and was infinitely patient with the creature’s attacks on his person

He was also very—sinfully—attractive She had no business acknowledging that, she knew perfectly well She was a convent-reared young wo Her antecedents were handicap enough, but any se on her reputation would mean an end to her prospects for decent eal, upright spinsterhood, the better

‘What was that great sigh for?’ Alex enquired ‘Hungry?’

‘No, I’ I had never set eyes on you so le of your jaw, the scent of your skin, the way your hair curls at the ends with the damp wind The impossibility of a man like you in my life ‘Cold’

‘Me, too’ He began to unbutton his greatcoat ‘Let’s get rid of that coal scuttle of a bonnet and do so was off her head and jammed behind her portmanteau and she was on Alex’s knee, the flaps of his coat around her, the hood of the cloak over her head