A Notorious Love Read Online Free PDF

That would mean that he…that they have no intention of eloping!”
    He cursed himself for his quick tongue. “I’m sure they’re gone—we just need to find out how they’re traveling to Scotland. They may’ve come to the city to book passage on a ship.”
    She worried her lower lip with her fine white teeth. “Yes, but then it would have made more sense to go to the Bristol Channel. It’s nearer to Warwickshire.”
    Which meant this mightn’t be an elopement at all. He suppressed that ugly thought. Of course it was an elopement. “No point in speculating on where they went til I make some inquiries.” He tucked the miniature into his coat pocket. “It sounds like you’ve had a tiring journey. Why don’t you return to Griff’s house while I take these ’round? As soon as I’ve got something to tell you, I’ll let you know.”
    “I want to go with you.”
    “Not bloody likely.” The very thought of the elegant Lady Helena trawling the flash houses with him made his belly churn.
    “Why not?”

    “Because some of the places I’m going aren’t the sort you take a lady into.”
    “I don’t care.” She threw her shoulders back and stiffened her chin like the proud thing she was. “I’ll go mad if I have to sit and do nothing.”
    “Better to go mad than find yourself in an alley with your throat slit.”
    Eyes widening, she clutched her fancy bag to her chest as if the flimsy bit of velvet would protect her from all those “nasty, evil” men. “You think it’s that dangerous?”
    All right, so he’d exaggerated a bit. He was known well enough that even in the rookeries, nobody would dare lay a hand on any companion of his. But he could move more quickly without her.
    “Yes, it’s that dangerous,” he answered. “And one look at your ladyship will make all prospective informers keep their mouths shut. The sort of person to have information is also the sort that doesn’t trust the upper ten thousand.”
    She chewed on that a minute. “I could change my clothing.”
    He snorted. “It’d make no difference, m’lady—you can’t take the breeding out of your speech and walk and manner. It’d be like trying to hide a swan among the ducks.”
    “Be careful, Mr. Brennan,” she said dryly, “you’re coming very near to paying me a compliment, and I know you don’t mean to do that.”
    Saucy wench. “What makes you think it was a compliment?”
    Insulted, she tipped her dainty nose up. “I beg your pardon—I forgot that you prefer women with little breeding.”

    “Not true. I prefer women who know how to enjoy themselves—no matter what their breeding.”
    Her lovely eyes went round, and her lips parted on a gasp. He grinned. The bloody wench needed shaking up. She always thought she knew everything, but she might as well have been plunked down in Africa, for all she knew of him and the world she’d stumbled into.
    “So you’ll stay where you belong, and that’s at Knighton House,” he said with finality.
    She looked as if she might argue, then sighed. “Very well. But you must tell me the minute you’ve found where they’ve gone.”
    “Of course.”
    “How long do you think it will take?”
    “Don’t you worry—I’ll be quick as I can.”
    Thank God, that seemed to pacify her. Because the only thing that could ruin his day more than having to track down some foolish fortune-hunting rascal, was having to do it in the company of a winsome and maddening lady of quality.
    He saw her out, stopping to chastise the coachman for bringing her to St. Giles. But he couldn’t really blame the man, having given in to her wishes himself with alarming ease.
    That thought plagued him as he strode off for the livery. What was it about the damned female that made him susceptible to her pleas? Yes, she was lovely, but he had his pick of the lightskirts, many of whom were prime articles themselves. And none of them was high in the instep or pricklier than a hawthorn hedge.
    But none of