The whole movement took place with lightning speed, and Ellen’s head was spinning by the time Joseph had her wedged into the corner. She had no idea what could possibly have happened…until she heard Montrose’s voice.
“I want every single one of his assets in jeopardy,” the man’s deep, tight voice said, coming closer to where she and Joseph were hiding. “His land deals, his building projects, his ancestral holdings, and even his damn racehorses.”
“You…you want me to interfere with his horses?” a man with a lower-class accent replied.
“Yes,” Montrose growled. “Find out which one is Westminster’s and, I don’t know, tamper with its shoes, put a burr under its saddle, take a club to one of its legs, it doesn’t matter to me. Just make certain it loses this race.”
“And what about the Fitzrovia development?” a second voice, this one with a more middle-class accent said. “Do you want me to call in the inspectors and have it shut down?”
“No,” Montrose said. Ellen winced when the three men stopped less than ten feet from the stall where she and Joseph were hiding. “I need that deal to go through, but with a few adjustments. I need him to win the contract, to earn a great deal of money for his investors, then to have the development hit several snags.”
“His investor is you, isn’t it,” the lower-class man said. Ellen could hear the proud smile in his voice, even if she couldn’t see him.
“Not yet it isn’t,” Montrose replied. “But it will be. Soon.”
Ellen’s brow shot up, and she turned her head so that she could look directly at Joseph to see what he thought.
Montrose went on with something about how he thought Westminster could be cut out of the development deal, but every word of it was blasted clean out of her head. Joseph was staring back at her, and his eyes were lit with an amorous light. She could smell the scent of his shaving soap above the sweetness of the hay…and the less sweet scents left behind by the horses. She could feel the heat of his body pressing against hers and protecting her as well. He was so close that she could make out some of the shape of his body as it pressed against parts of her.
Not the right parts, of course. They were fully dressed, for one, and in the middle of a stable for another. But it would take hardly anything at all for her to twist her body just so in order to slip completely into his embrace.
Joseph seemed to sense that as well. His gaze dropped slowly to her lips, and his own lips parted as though he were consumed by thoughts of kissing her. Ellen’s heart sped up as she, too, studied the shape of his mouth. It was beautiful when he wasn’t pursing his lips or clenching his jaw, or doing any number of the things she’d seen him do to look more serious than he was. His shoulders were softer too. Everything about him was warm and inviting, and Ellen was convinced if she could just lean into him a little bit more, if she could lift her hand and stroke his face and let him know that she wanted to be kissed, more than anything, then perhaps he would release whatever inhibitions he was holding onto and—
“I don’t want excuses,” Montrose shouted, causing both Ellen and Joseph to jump, “I want results. I will tear Westminster down from his high horse if it is the last thing I do, do you hear me?”
“Yes, sir,” both of the men with Montrose said, fright in their voices.
“Now, come along. The race will be starting soon, and there isn’t much time to lame Westminster’s horse,” Montrose said, his voice retreating farther down the stable.
Ellen and Joseph continued to hold still for a few moments. As much as Ellen wanted to think it was because Joseph was loath to part from her, that he still might kiss her so that they could forget the rest of the world and the slights it seemed intent on giving them, she knew it was because Joseph wanted to be absolutely certain Montrose was gone before emerging from their hiding place. His head was even tilted intently to the side, listening, to make certain Montrose was gone.
Ellen used that moment to rest one of her gloved hands on the side of Joseph’s face. Her glove was a bit dirty from being pressed into the floor, and a piece of straw stuck to the back, but that didn’t stop her from stroking her thumb across Joseph’s cheek and smiling at him when he turned his gaze to her with wide eyes.
Joseph smiled back at her. It was slow and hesitant at first, but the warmth and desire in his eyes was something more than she’d ever seen there. It was a damn sight better than the terror and wariness that were usually in his eyes when he looked at her. It was almost as though he were actually seeing her for a change instead of just seeing the fact that she wasn’t quite up to society standards.
In an instant, the soft moment between them was broken as Joseph sucked in a breath, his eyes going wide. “He’s going to hurt Westminster’s horse,” he said.
Ellen sucked in a breath, the spell broken for her as well. “We can’t let that happen!”
The two of them scrambled to their feet, brushing bits of hay and dirt from their clothing. Before they had fully cleaned up, Joseph took her hand again and pulled her out into the aisle between stalls.
“Which one is Westminster’s horse?” she asked as they traveled the length of the stable, checking names on the stalls and searching for any sign of something belonging to Westminster.
That particular stable was empty of horses and people, though—which was probably why Montrose had chosen to have his wicked conversation there. There might have been horses in it earlier, but they’d all been taken out now.
“Perhaps in the next building?” Joseph guessed.
They headed out the far end of the stable and across a small clearing to the next one over. But before they could get close enough to so much as peer into that much more crowded stable, a pair of burly men stepped into their path.
“Sorry, guv’nor,” one of the men said. “This stable is off-limits to all but owners, trainers, and jockeys.”
“Is the Duke of Westminster’s horse in that stable?” Joseph asked with a surprising amount of authority.
The man who had warned them off nodded respectfully to him. “It is, sir.”
Joseph let out a breath of relief and nodded back. “Have a care for His Grace’s horses,” he told the men. “We’ve just overheard someone plotting to interfere with them.”
Ellen was surprised that Joseph would be so open about what they’d overheard, but the effect on the two guards was immediate.