A Pair of Rogues Read Online Free PDF Page B

a start. “What is it?”
    “I am afraid I have lost my handkerchief.” Christina craned her neck as if to search behind them and put one hand to her lips. “Oh, dear. I do believe it is way back there.”
    “No matter. I am certain you have another.”
    Christina scowled inwardly. She might have known he’d be no gallant.
    “But I am afraid I don’t. At least . . . not like this one.” She sniffed. “My dearest grandmother, God rest her soul, embroidered it for me. I am quite attached to it.”
    Ned frowned and gave her a look of disbelief. “You’re attached to a handkerchief?”
    Christina nodded. She had a gift, and she used it now, of making her eyes turn red at the rims. It was one of the advantages of being blond. With this cold wind blowing on her face, however, she imagined they looked quite pitiful already.
    “Oh, yes,” she said with a sigh. “It is utterly irreplaceable. If you could just fetch it for me, I would wait for you right here. I should be most grateful.”
    Ned cleared his throat in a disgruntled manner. He brought his horses to a stop and turned to glance around. Against the bleak landscape, the handkerchief was scarcely more than a white speck in the distance.
    “I shall certainly not leave you here. We shall turn and go back.”
    Christina kept the sweet smile pasted on her lips even while worrying that Ned’s plan would spoil her own. If he could scoop the kerchief up without bothering to descend from the carriage, then she would have to come up with a different manner of revenge.
    She ought to have called out sooner, she thought, but of course, she had expected him to stop immediately as any gentleman should. She ought to have known he would act like a scoundrel.
    They retraced their steps at a spanking pace. Ned was leaning to the outside, lining up his horses with the kerchief so he could bring them to a halt at precisely the right spot. Christina could see that such a feat would be easy to one who drove so well. She thought of distracting him to spoil his aim, but was sure he would simply back the bays until he was right again.
    Disappointed, but not defeated, she watched him guide the team to a perfect stop. He was leaning down for the kerchief, when a sudden gust whipped it from his grasp and carried it off into a ditch.
    Ned muttered curses under his breath.
    Christina cheered inside, but pulled her lips into a pout. “Oh, dear. Oh, dear. What a shame!”
    Ned’s brows contracted into a look of disbelief.
    For the briefest moment, Christina worried that she might have overplayed her empty-headed role. Schooling her features into a more credible expression, she offered, “I shall hold the reins for you while you fetch it.”
    Ned hesitated, eyeing his bays with reluctance.
    She added, “Surely you can trust me to do that much.” She gave him a wistful smile.
    Sighing, Ned made a sign for her to hold out her hands. He took the reins and wrapped them properly through her gloved fingers.
    “Hold them steady,” he warned her. “They’re a bit frisky because of the weather. And make no sounds to them, mind.”
    Christina nodded, the very image of the dutiful schoolgirl.
    Ned glanced at her uneasily before leaping to the ground. Something about her struck him as suspicious. It was hard to believe that anyone, even a girl fresh out of school, could talk like such a ninny. But he could not refuse to retrieve her property, nor could he make her fetch it herself.
    The kerchief was only a few steps away, but in a depression, too low to reach from his carriage box. A fresh gust chilled the back of his neck. The wind was turning brutal. As he reached down for the handkerchief, he cursed it and Louisa’s scheme for dragging him out to the park.
    Just behind him, he heard a “Giddap!” A slap of the reins made him pivot in time to see his horses bolting.
    “Hey!”
    He took off at a run, but the bays outdistanced him.  Christina was leaning forward in the box, for all the world