Presumably such tantrums were only to be expected of a kept woman. Averil bit her lip. That was what she was: ruined, wanton and an outcast from decent society and there was no point in deluding herself that this was simply an idyll with the man she loved.
She had sold herself to him. The fact that Luc seemed to like her and that he also appeared to find their lovemaking satisfying, was beside the point, she lectured herself as she walked moodily up and down the pretty little drawing room. He had appeared quite happy that this was a financial transaction. What had she expected? That he would refuse to sully their relationship with money?
He had been gone a long time, but that was only to be expected. He had business of his own and no incentive to hurry back to a mistress who treated him to scenes over breakfast.
At last, after picking at her luncheon and mangling some embroidery for an hour, she rang for Grace. ‘I am going out.’
‘Is that wise, miss? What if someone recognised you?’
‘In a hackney and wearing a veil?’
‘Very well, miss.’
With both of them shrouded in sufficient black veiling for heavy mourning the two stepped out on to the pavement. ‘There’s a cab,’ Grace said, but as she stepped forwards another figure emerged from behind the railings and hailed the hackney.
‘Ferret!’
‘Afternoon, miss. You hop in now. Where are we going?’
‘We?’ Beside her Grace was taking a firm and threatening grip on Averil’s parasol.
‘Cap’n said I was to go with you everywhere, miss. What’ll I tell the driver?’
‘Round Hyde Park,’ Averil said at random and climbed in.
‘Miss Heydon?’
‘It is all right, Grace. I know this man.’ Ferret settled opposite her and began to peer out of the windows as the vehicle moved off. ‘When did the captain say you were to go with me, Ferret? He didn’t tell me.’
‘About noon, it was. Turned up down at the docks at me auntie’s beer house. We’re all down there while he sorts out the pardons and work and ships for us. Says there’s a gent means you no good, so we’re to guard you.’ He flipped back the front of his frieze coat to reveal a collection of knives and a small club. ‘Don’t you be worrying about anything.’
‘I feel very safe,’ Averil said, her mind reeling at the thought of Bradon confronted by Ferret. ‘All of you?’
‘Well, Tubbs and Dawkins are watching the Cap’n’s lodgings to sort out the men who are watching that, and Bull’s following the Cap’n to see who is following him.’ Ferret looked remarkably clean and tidy, although his gap-tooth grin was as disreputable as ever.
‘What will they do with whomever they catch?’
‘Sell ‘em to the press gang, miss. Nice park, ain’t it?’ He settled back as the hackney began to trot along the perimeter track, but his eyes flickered from side to side and Averil did not believe for a moment that he was as relaxed as he pretended to be. Beside her Grace kept a firm grip on the parasol; it was not going to be a calming ride, but at least it had the charm of novelty. Then Ferret’s words sank in. Bradon had someone following Luc—he was in danger and all he had to protect him were the rascally crew from the island.
Luc turned the key in the door of the Half Moon Street house with a degree of caution. In his experience once a mistress had acquired the taste for throwing things she was likely to retain it.
The sound of running feet had him bracing himself, but Averil threw open the drawing room door and cast herself on his chest with no sign of a weapon. ‘Are you all right?’ She looked up into his face and the worry drained out of hers. ‘Oh, thank goodness, yes, you are. I was so worried when Ferret told me about Bradon.’
‘Bradon can go to the devil,’ Luc said and kissed her with enjoyable thoroughness. Life was hideously complicated but this, at least, was perfect in its simplicity.
‘Yes, but how does he know?’ Averil, most satisfactorily pink and flustered from the embrace, dragged him into the drawing room. How easily she had slipped into this role, into his life. And how easily she would leave it.
‘The man is not an idiot. He knows you were compromised by a naval officer and the only naval officer who has been paying you any marked attention since you arrived in London is me. Once his suspicions were aroused it wouldn’t take much to discover that I have been out of town for some time, that no one can be very positive about where I have been and I returned just as you arrived.’
She had gone very pale. ‘Averil, there is no need to worry. The whole crew are covering you.’
‘I am not worried about myself!’ She turned on him, fierce and passionate, and his breath caught and something he did not recognise jolted, deep inside. Not lust, not desire, although they were there, too. This was something warmer and deeper, this was what had been churning inside him ever since she had walked into his chambers at Albany. Puzzled, he caught at her hands as she twisted them into an anguished knot.
‘He could harm you, he is vindictive and calculating. He could have you stabbed in some dark alley or go to the Admiralty and make trouble for you there. I must leave, now.’
‘Over my dead body!’
‘That is what I am afraid of, you stupid man!’