The Paid Companion | Herophine

Chapter Twenty One

Hero

She stared at him in astonishment. He allowed himself to savour the expression. It was not often that he was able to disconcert her like this.

But as amusing as it was to see her flustered and amazed, the sensation was nowhere near as satisfying as had been the touch of her fingers on his thigh a moment before. It seemed to him that he could still feel the warmth of her hand through the fabric of his trousers.

Josephine’s shock turned to wonder. “Of course.” Her lips twitched and then curved into a laughing smile. “You were the one who drew up that infamous escape plan, not Roland.”

“Someone had to do it for him. it was obvious that young Burnley was quite passionate about rescuing his lady from the doom that awaited her. And an elopement was the only way I could escape the tangle without humiliating Sydney and her family.”

“How on earth did you convince Roland to accept a plot that you had crafted? He must have considered you his arch-enemy.”

“Quite true. I believe that I was very much the devil incarnate to him. I still am, for that matter. Felix was my assistant in the matter.”

“Of course.” Her eyes sparkled with delight.

“He was the one who took Roland aside and convinced him that the only way to rescue Sydney was to run off with her. When Roland appeared enthusiastic but bewildered about how to go about it, Felix gave him the strategy I had concocted.” He thought about the entire day and a half he had been obliged to devote to creating the plan. “I wrote out every instruction. Do you have any notion of how complicated it is to stage a successful elopement?”

She laughed. The sound tugged at his insides. He had an almost irresistible urge to reach across the narrow space between them, pull her into his arms and kiss her until her amusement was transformed into desire.

The words she had spoken a short while before echoed again and again in his head. Sydney was very young, very sheltered and, I suspect, somewhat lacking in common sense. She did not realize that you would make an excellent husband.

“I must admit, I have never had occasion to consider what would be required in an elopement,” she replied cheerfully. “But now that I stop and ponder the subject, I can see that it could get complicated.”

“You may take it from me, it is not a simple task. Roland clearly had no notion of how to go about the business. I had a nasty feeling that if I left it in his hands, he would make such a complete hash of the business that Sydney’s father would get wind of it in time to stop the pair before the, uh, damage was done, as it were.”

“You mean before Sydney had been compromised to a degree that left no alternative but marriage.”

“Yes. In the end, it was a near thing, despite all my careful planning.”

“The storm.” She chuckled. “In spite of all your foresight, you could not anticipate such a dramatic change in the weather.”

“I assumed that Roland would have the good sense to postpone the elopement until the roads were passable.” He sighed. “But, no, the young hothead insisted upon sticking to every single detail of the scheme, including the time and date. You cannot imagine my dread when I got word that the pair had fled into the teeth of the gale. I was certain that Sydney’s father would find them and drag his daughter home before she and Roland had thoroughly compromised themselves.”

“That concern no doubt explains the reports that you played cards until dawn.”

“It was one of the longest nights of my entire life,” he assured her. “I had to do something to keep my mind off the possibility that my plan would fail.”