TheCharmer (15 page)

Diagrams. Perfectly legitimate drawings of perfectly legitimate muskets, at least as far as she could tell. Damn, she must have stumbled onto Louis's hiding place for his manufacturing secrets.

She chewed a nail pensively. She wasn't entirely sure about these plans, but she was absolutely sure of Louis's nature. He'd been an evil lad and he was an evil man. She would simply have to look further.

She rolled the plans up carefully, returning them to the narrow leather tube she'd found them in. There was nothing remarkable about the case, either. She'd examined it most carefully. Why keep it so secret?

She was about to open the secret compartment once more when she heard a soft slithering sound from the hall. Then came the unmistakable sound of metal in the lock of the study door. There wasn't time to return the case. Rose blew out her tiny candle and dived behind the desk even as the door opened.

«
^
»

Collis pushed the Prince into the study and shut the door quickly. He'd lived a lifetime in the ten minutes it had taken him to get George up the trellis, through his unlatched window, and into the study.

The Prince seemed determined to live out every moment of some parlor-thief fantasy and had even insisted on fumbling about with the lock on the study door before Collis had snatched away the picks and manipulated the catch open with one swift flick of his wrist.

"Sorry, Your Highness, but these are exceedingly chancy picks of mine." Collis whispered the balm to the Prince's notoriously prickly pride out of habit, even as he searched the room with his eyes.

Simon would never allow the test to be too easy. There would be some tricky element. It could be that the target didn't even keep the evidence in his study. Still, it was likely everything would be somewhere in this room, although not someplace predictable.

"Damn, we could be here all night," he muttered as he gazed around the study. It was crammed full of manly ornaments such as globes and model ships, and books that looked largely unread.

A crash sounded behind him. Collis whirled to see the Prince standing over a fallen pedestal and presentation case that lay shattered over it. Glass sparked in the lantern light like diamonds; George sent him a shame-faced shrug.

"So sorry," the Prince said.

"We'd better go, quickly!" The last of the wine fogging Collis's mind dissipated with the realization that if he were found here with his prince-at-large, his career would be over forever. How could he have been so stupid?

"How could you have been so
stupid
?"

Rose came out of nowhere, rather as if she had bobbed up from underwater. Collis took an involuntary step back as she charged at him with some sort of leather tube held in her hand like a club.

"You brought a friend along? On a mission? A clumsy friend at that!" She moved to the door and listened with her ear close to the wood. "Oh, crikey. They're coming."

She shoved the tube into Collis's stunned hand. He automatically tucked it under his bad arm. "Go," she urged. "Take it and hide. I'll try to buy some time, although I don't think anyone is going to believe I was simply doing a bit of pre-dawn dusting."

George stepped forward grandly, in full royal mode. "No, my dear." His fruity, formal, oft-mimicked tones were unmistakably Prince George's. "There is no need for you to take the blame for my blunder. I shall merely explain—"

Rose, who had been gazing at the masked, black-clad George with impatient mystification, suddenly clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh!" She raised a shaking finger to point at George. "You're—you're the Prince Regent!"

Collis thought she was taking it awfully hard. Then again, housemaids didn't often happen onto monarchs. George had apparently come to the same conclusion, for he bowed deeply, then stepped forward with a soothing smile.

"Oh,
bugger
!" Rose's horrified, breathless curse stopped them both in their tracks.

"Really, Rose," Collis said uncomfortably. "Such language—"

The study door crashed open. Several hastily dressed footmen blundered through to blink at the three standing before the smashed case and stand. "Got you!" the lead man growled. "Thought you'd make off with the plate, did you?"

Resigned, Collis stepped forward with his hand out peaceably. "No need to worry, good sirs. If you'll simply wake the master, we can explain—"

"Collis, catch!"

Collis spun at Rose's cry, instinctively snatching out of the air the iron poker she tossed him. She flung the ornamented coal shovel to the Prince and brandished the fire tongs like a short sword. "Now!"

She charged at the group of servants like a small mobcapped jouster. George sent a confused shrug at Collis, then followed her, wielding his shovel like a cricket bat at the scrambling servants.

Collis saw the leader raise a skinning knife high in the air, his vicious eyes intent on Rose. Collis let out a great roar, rushing the man.

The knife came down in a shimmering arc. He wasn't going to be in time! Collis threw the poker like a spear and it thudded into the man's chest. Rose dodged, the man went down, and the last servants still standing scrambled out of Collis's way. A fortunate thing, as he had no intention of stopping.

Rose and the Prince ran ahead, escaping the house by the simple expedient of flying out the front door. Collis chased after them into the night.

After turning the street corner, Rose slowed finally. She waited for the puffing prince and Collis to join her. "Quickly, we must go to ground!" She was pale and kept looking behind them urgently.

"Enough." Collis stopped in his tracks. "Rose, we've already failed the test. We were ordered to obtain the information without being discovered. It's a bit late now to worry, don't you think?"

"Damn the test! There is no test!" She shook her head. "Or there is, but not at that house." She sent another worried look behind them. "Collis, we must go! We must get His Highness to safety!"

Collis narrowed his eyes. "If you're worried that you'll be blamed for the Prince's presence, don't. I intend to take full responsibility."

George, who had been saving his energy for inhaling and exhaling, waved a pudgy hand. "No need, no need, my boy. I'll own up to wanting a bit of a holiday."

A distant shout sounded behind them. Rose squeaked and tugged at both their sleeves with surprising force. "Run!" she barked.

Collis found himself running. Stupidity now lending itself to imbecilic. Why were they running? Still, the cries coming from behind them sounded anything but sham. Perhaps the servants hadn't been informed of the test. If so, then deservedly angry footmen could quite possibly do damage to George before matters could be sufficiently sorted out.

Yes, running was sounding better by the moment.

They raced down the deserted street. It was so late that some of the lamps had burned all their oil already or else had blown out in the gusting dampness. The air hung heavy with storm as it had all day and night, making it seem oddly dense to run through.

George was puffing loudly now, drowning out any sounds from their pursuers. Collis kept an eye on him, but so far he seemed well enough, if winded. Rose darted ahead, seeking out alleys to dash down and deserted streets to follow. They weren't fast enough, weren't going to make it free of their hunters—

"Aha!" George suddenly surged ahead of Rose and dashed down a side alley. Rose and Collis followed. The alley turned twice before ending in a wall that glistened damply in the pre-dawn haze. Rose turned immediately to run back, but Collis caught her arm. "No, you'll run right out in front of them. We'll have to climb those drainpipes."

As one, they turned to eye the maze of drainpipes that snaked down the buildings on all three sides. Heavy pipes of iron meant to keep water from collecting on the rooftops, held on by brackets bolted into the mortar, they could provide a ladder of sorts for Rose and Collis. But George would never make it.

Collis shuddered at the thought of losing the Prince to a fall to his death. "Never mind. We'll simply have to take our chances with the house lackeys."

"
No
." She couldn't let it happen. God, how could she have been so stupid? Rose took the Prince by one arm and dragged him into a shabby doorway. "Stay very still," she hissed. She snuffed his lantern and left him in the dark.

Then she grabbed Collis and pulled him with her into the only other opening available, a coal chute. The iron door creaked when they lifted it down, though Rose pressed her apron to the hinges to mask the noise.

They scrambled feet-first into the steeply angled chute, leaving the iron door hanging open. Hopefully, it would not be obvious in the darkness.

The chute was a tight fit for two. All the better to keep them from sliding all the way to the cellar, but Rose wished she had thought about the fact that Collis would be very nearly on top of her.

Every inch of where his body pressed to hers began to glow like embers ready to flare. She could feel his breath on her neck like a torch on her chilled skin. She couldn't help a tiny shift of her head, just a slight tilt to the side to expose more of her flesh to him.

She told herself it was necessary in order to hear better, but the fact was, she was scarcely listening anyway. The only sound she was attuned to was the thunder of her own blood through her veins and the matching beat of his racing heart near her ear.

The chute was like a world within the world, the filthy walls a shield of timeless power that made them the only two people in the universe for that one endless moment.

"Rose." His whisper was nearly a growl. Her body pulsed from within at the animal ache she heard in the simple vowels of her name. He wanted her as much as she wanted him. And what was so wrong with such wanting? She couldn't remember anymore.

Whatever her reasons for denying her longing, they seemed paltry and weak and entirely ignorable. With a slight shift of her body, she bore into his strength, pressing into his hard and solid body as if she wished to sink within.

His hand came up her side, slowly sliding up the curve of her waist. He paused when he encountered the side of her breast. She stopped breathing, but he moved on after a single timeless beat to cup her shoulder in his large hand.

"Rose." He shook her slightly. "Rose, I think they've gone past us."

She blinked. Gone? Who?

Then the horrifying icy rush of reality deluged her. She was smearing herself all over him! And he hadn't been whispering her name in mutual lust, he'd been practically begging her to stop! She jerked back, nearly writhing in horrified embarrassment. They clambered from their hiding place, and Rose moved quickly away from him.

Thank God it was dark in the alley, or she'd have to die right here on this very spot. Her heated flush was hidden, as were the excited points of her nipples and her no-doubt dewy-eyed expression. "Do try to make less of a target next time," she hissed at him. "God knows you're a hard bloke to hide as it is."

Collis didn't say a word. Well, he couldn't reply, could he? Not until his towering erection faded and his blood returned to feed his brain with something other than white-hot images of Rose naked and sweating and crying his name. What was his name again?

"Collis." Rose's irritated whisper cut through the darkness to remind him. "Move it along, will you?"

"Coming, Mummy," he whispered back, desperate to regain his jesting equilibrium. Whatever the hell that moment of animal insanity had been, he didn't want Rose to know about it. She'd likely never let him forget it.

And forgetting was good. Especially when the woman he was having badly timed daydreams about wasn't interested in breathing the same air as him, much less sharing the same sheets.

Please, someone run me through. I've gone and fastened my passions to a woman who would just as soon have me fall from the Tower onto a pile of rocks.

There'd be no dealing with her if she knew. She'd lord it over him until he took his pistol and put himself out of his misery.

George had emerged from his own hiding place and was bending to peer at the grimy cobbles paving the floor of the alley. They slanted downward from each side, so that a small valley formed in the center for drainage, now traced by a thin trickle of water shining silver against the black cobbles. "I know it's here somewhere…" He began to run back along the way they had come.

Collis and Rose followed. "Where's your poker?" she asked him. She still brandished her tongs, and George still carried his shovel as well as his lantern. Collis clapped his good hand to his side, relieved to find that his bad arm still pinned the tube to his side. "I, ah, threw it away," he said weakly.

Rose rolled her eyes. At least, he was sure she had, despite the dimness. She turned away from him to catch up to George, who was squatting in the alley, tugging at something with both hands, his shovel and lantern on the ground beside him.

"What is it, Your Highness?" Collis was trying to be patient, but the sounds of pursuit were definitely growing louder. The footmen had found the alley.

"Help me lift this grate," George gasped. "Tunnel."