Page 23 of Indecently Daring

“I didn’t do anything!” Cat protested, blushing. “At least, not on purpose.”

Alana groaned and put her head in her hands. “Out with it.”

Cat folded her arms, scowling. “No, I’m not telling you now. You’ve been beastly to me.”

“Oh, spill the beans, you little brat,” Alana said, laughing now. “You’ll turn my hair grey, I swear it.”

“That’s what he called me,” Cat said with a heavy sigh. “He thinks I’m a child.”

“He who?” Alana demanded, genuinely alarmed now.

She had heard about Cat’s adventures whilst visiting the Talking Machine with horror, and her friend’s fascination with the Marquess of Kilbane filled her with anxiety. Cat was nothing if not single-minded. If she decided to do something, she’d do it, no matter what, and if she’d set her sights on the marquess… Alana shivered.

“Cat?” she pressed.

Cat pursed her lips and shrugged.

“Oh, no, Cat. I don’t believe it. Here? Lord Kilbane was here?”

“Well, it’s not like I knew,” Cat exclaimed. “You both look at me like I planned it! I had no idea. I was minding my own business, and turned around, and there he was. I walked straight into him. It’s how I twisted my ankle.”

“At the gates to Holbrook?” Alana said, perplexed by what on earth the man could have been doing there.

“No, silly! In the village. He put me on his horse and brought me that far, or I’d have been stranded.”

Alana stared at her. “You bumped into Kilbane in the village?”

“Quite literally,” Cat agreed, grinning.

“And he put you on his horse and brought you home.”

“Yes.”

“Well, you needn’t look so pleased about it, you outrageous creature! What if your father finds out?” Alana demanded in horror.

“It’s not like I had a choice,” Cat pointed out reasonably. “It was fate. There’s no other answer for it. Besides, I don’t think anyone noticed us, it was so cold yesterday hardly anyone was about.”

“But Kilbane will love rubbing your father’s nose in this little adventure, Cat!” Alana said, disbelieving she could have overlooked that fact, but Cat shook her head.

“No, he won’t. He said he wouldn’t.”

“And you believed him? Are you insane?”

“Yes, I believed him,” Cat glared at her. “He said he wouldn’t, and he won’t.”

Alana snorted. “Then you’ve a deal more confidence in him than the rest of the world.”

Cat’s jaw set, her expression reminding Alana that beneath the beautiful face was a formidable will of iron.

“I know,” she said darkly.

“Oh, I wish you would not persist in this crusade on his behalf, love. He doesn’t want you to. He’s clearly happy in his debauchery, or he wouldn’t revel in it so. Leave him be.”

“But he isn’t!” Cat cried, and so passionately that Alana jumped a little. “He isn’t the least bit happy. He’s alone and sad, and rather broken, I think. Everyone believes he’s the devil and he doesn’t know how to make them stop, so he does his best to make it true.”

“What nonsense,” Alana said, truly anxious now, for Cat spoke with such certainty, as though she had spent a great deal of time considering the fellow. “He’s a grown man, Cat, not a boy.”

“Only a young man. He can’t be more than five and twenty,” Cat countered. “And he’s been vilified since he was a boy because of his father and brother. What chance did he have to be anything but what he is, I ask you?”