Josie knew about the Warrens and gaming hells. She might not have heard of the Tramp’s Den, but it was hardly the only gaming hell located there.
Uncle Oliver coughed.
“Yes, well, it is no place for a lady and not at all safe. Elijah will be far safer without your presence since he would have to protect you.”
“I am not sure an armed guard could protect a lady like her traveling through the Warrens,” Elijah muttered.
“A lady like me?” Ready to be indignant over the perceived insult, her feathers were soothed by his answer.
“A beautiful, wealthy one.”
Hmphing, Josie subsided, looking between father and son. They were two peas in a pod, nearly identical in their expressions and looks. It was a little disconcerting if she was truthful, but Josie would not wither under their combined censure. She was made of sterner stuff.
However, she also recognized when to make a retreat.
For all Elijah’s talk about including her and treating her as his partner, it was clear he had only meant in a very limited sense.
“Very well.” Her waspish tone did not need any pretense to achieve. While she fully planned to work around their dictates, she was still peeved what she thought she and Elijah had agreed to was clearly not whathethought they had agreed to. “I shall expect your report later.”
The glance the two men exchanged before she whirled away and stomped upstairs did nothing to cool her temper. Wisely, Elijah did not follow her. She would have sent him away with a scathing retort, no matter how good his apology was.
She needed time to think and plan, to also find the only pair of breeches she’d brought to London. Although she had known she could not use them to ride in the city, she had still brought them, unable to imagine being without at least one set.
A good thing. She was going to need them tonight.
While she should avoid the Warrens as herself, there was nothing to say she could not venture there in disguise. Going as any kind of woman seemed far too dangerous for her liking, but there was another option.
Making another hmph, she shook her head. Men. Sometimes they had so little imagination.
Her bottom cheeks seemed to tingle as if in warning of punishments to come, but there were some things that were worth a little pain.
Elijah
Despite Josie’s anger at being left out, in the end, Elijah knew she would see this had been for the best. Hopefully, she would also be mollified by his full report when he returned. Why she had expected to be allowed to go into such a dangerous area with him, he did not know, but he expected it was a result of her worry over the injuries he had received the last time. When he returned unharmed, she would feel less anxious in the future.
She made things easier on him, claiming a megrim and canceling their plans for the evening. Now he did not have to slip away from the guests, leaving her behind. Everyone would assume they had decided to stay in together. It might cause gossip about whether they had become a love match, especially since there were already those who thought so, but that was hardly detrimental.
They were not wrong, though Elijah hoped the traitor still thought they were.
At midnight, Elijah left the house, his cane firmly gripped in his hand. He would hardly be the only tonnish gentleman making his way to the gaming hells in the Warrens, and it was early enough in the night, no one would think even a single gentleman was a good mark. Leaving was the greater danger when the ruffians would assume him tired, drunk, and distracted. The last time he had been two out of three. Still, he kept a weather eye out as he moved through the streets, feigning looking around lazily when, in fact, he was sharply aware of everything going on around him.
Which was why he quickly realized he was being tailed as he grew closer to the Warrens.
He wasn’t sure when he picked up the follower. All the streets, respectable and otherwise, were fairly crowded at this time of night, but he was still sure he was being followed. His pursuer was not good at hiding his movements, and Elijah caught more than one glimpse out of the corner of his eye. It might not have amounted to much, except the lad was clearly focused on Elijah rather than following the same path.
A few more turns and glimpses had Elijah more and more confused, wondering if the lad was a distraction from the real threat. Or just watching to see where Elijah was going? The flashes he saw gave him the impression of a slender youth, inept at following and certainly no real threat.
It was not until he glimpsed a blonde curl, peeking from beneath the lad’s cap, that Elijah realized he might not be a lad at all.
Shock.
Denial.
Fury.
The emotions assailed him, battering him like blows to his stomach and chest.
She would not.