Regency Collection 2013 Part 1. Louise Allen

murmured to Jack. ‘Something will have to be done about him.’ She nodded briskly to the clerk. ‘Just run those ledgers along to the Maid’s Head and have them placed in Lady Allerton’s private parlour,’ she instructed. They hurried on ahead, Lily strolling after them until they reached the corner. ‘I just want to make sure they actually get there,’ she confided.

      ‘What a very suspicious mind you do have, Miss France!’ Jack grinned at her and Lily found herself smiling back.

      ‘I do like to make sure.’ Something across the street caught her eye as she tucked the warehouse keys in her reticule. ‘Caroline, I think that lady is waving at you.’

      ‘Oh, yes. Jack, see, it is Jane Henderson and her sister Kate.’ Caroline waved back and the Henderson ladies, their maid on their heels, joined the Allerton party.

      ‘We were just on our way to visit Mrs Hodges,’ Jane explained once the introductions had been made. ‘You remember her from dancing lessons, Miss Allerton—she was Maria Bates. She has just had her first baby.’

      ‘But of course I remember her! Dear Maria—how wonderful. What a pity I cannot call today, but do give her my warmest wishes.’

      ‘Why can you not visit?’ Lily asked. ‘Is her house so very far?’

      ‘No, I think only five minutes’ walk away, but there are rather a lot of us.’

      ‘I meant alone, with your friends. We can meet you back at the Maid’s Head.’

      ‘I will send my maid back with you,’ Miss Henderson offered. ‘Maria would love to see you.’

      Jack regarded Caroline’s retreating back as, times to meet up again at the inn agreed, she tripped off happily with the Henderson sisters. ‘So much for my Mama’s careful provision of a chaperon for you, Miss France.’

      ‘I am sure she was only concerned about me going to a place of business without a female companion, not that she thought I needed chaperoning when in your company,’ Lily said repressively, and with a complete disregard for past experience. ‘If you would just see me back to the Maid’s Head, I will wait for the others.’

      ‘Who, as we agreed, will be another hour and a half at least. You will be bored to tears. Shall we go and look at this warehouse?’

      ‘Have we time?’

      ‘I should think so, if we take a hackney carriage.’ Jack hailed one as he spoke, calling up the address Mr Lovington had given Lily before handing her in. ‘At least this will eliminate it altogether if it is no good, and if it is promising you can always pay another visit.’

      ‘I suspect that this is a situation where Lady Allerton would expect me to have a chaperon,’ Lily remarked thoughtfully as the hackney headed down to the quayside, clattering over the cobbles.

      ‘Not the most promising location for attempting to ravish a lady,’ Jack murmured, watching her from under hooded lids.

      ‘Adrian did not find it inhibiting, if you recall.’ Lily thought back to that foggy night and shuddered.

      ‘That was a private carriage, presumably—quite unexceptionable for seduction, whereas this vehicle is thoroughly inappropriate.’ Jack prodded a worn seat disdainfully. ‘I can assure you that your virtue is completely safe in this.’

      ‘I have no doubt about that whatsoever,’ Lily agreed doucely, letting her reticule, weighed down by the heavy warehouse keys, thud meaningfully into her palm.

      From the glint in Jack’s eyes she wondered for a moment whether he would regard that as a challenge, then the coach jolted to a halt. From the window she could see a glimpse of the Tyne, its waters almost obscured by river craft large and small, and the noise and odours of the docks filled the carriage as Jack opened the door.

      ‘Well, Miss France? Armed with your loaded reticule, are you willing to venture into a deserted warehouse with me?’

      Chapter Twenty

      ‘Certainly I am.’ Lily fished out the keys and her purse. ‘If you will open the doors, I will just pay the driver.’

      Jack removed the keys firmly and handed up some coins to the jarvey.

      ‘I said I would pay!’

      ‘Do you think I cannot afford the hire of a hack?’ He had turned back to the wicket gate in the big wooden doors.

      ‘Of course not, but this is my business …’

      ‘This needs oiling, and the lock requires replacing before you put anything of value in here.’ Jack heaved the gate open with a screaming of rusty hinges. ‘Very well, you pay me back for the hackney fare, and I will invoice you for my opinion of this door. And, of course, I must work out the proportion of your time spent up here on business and charge you board and lodging for that part of your time spent at Allerton.’

      He ducked through the wicket. ‘It looks safe enough in here.’

      ‘That is not what I meant, you stiff-rumped idiot!’ Lily scrambled through and swung irritably at Jack’s back with her reticule. Without the weight of the keys it was like swatting an oak tree with a leaf.

      ‘Language, Miss France!’ Jack reproved. ‘Is it big enough?’ He began to pace off the length. Lily left him to it and, with a dubious glance at the holes in the roof and some rapid mental calculation on the likely costs of repairs, went to explore the rooms at the end of the great empty space.

      They had been built within the warehouse like sheds within a barn. Lily poked about inside, deciding they would have to be completely demolished, then saw the stairs in one corner. They must lead to what was effectively a flat roof. She was rapidly coming to the conclusion that this warehouse was going to need too much work to make it useable, but a view from a height might give her a better perspective on it.

      The stairs creaked as she climbed, her skirts gathered up in one hand, the other clinging to what remained of a crude handrail attached to the wall. Three-quarters of the way up she was coming to the conclusion that perhaps this was not the best idea she had ever had, by the time she reached the top and stepped out onto a crude platform of worm-eaten planks, she was sure of it.

      Lily turned round cautiously and put her foot down onto the top step. Some instinct warned her; she lifted it back, but too late. With a groan the rickety structure parted company with whatever rusting nails had been holding it to the wall and it fell to the stone floor beneath with a crash.

      Choking in the cloud of dust and cobwebs that rose from the hole, Lily staggered back, felt the planks creaking ominously and froze where she was.

      ‘Lily!’

      ‘Here! I am all right, but I cannot get down.’

      There was a sound of crashing below and Jack appeared, clambering over the ruined remains of the stairs.

      ‘What the hell are you doing up there!’ he demanded, craning his neck to look up at her. ‘Of all the bloody stupid, damned idiotic …’

      Totty-headed?’ Lily supplied faintly, finding a rusted piece of iron sticking out of the wall and taking a firm hold on it.

      ‘What?’ he bellowed, making the old building echo.

      ‘Totty-headed. I think you forgot that. You are quite right and please do not shout any more—you are shaking the building and I do not think this floor is going to hold for much longer.’

      ‘You cannot come down this way, the wreckage is too fragile for you to land on or for me to climb up.’ The fury had gone from his voice and he sounded reassuringly calm. Lily began to think that she would not, after all, end up a crumpled heap on the flagstones below.

      She lost sight of him and instinctively grabbed the ironwork with both hands; it broke away, leaving her with nothing but a fistful of rust. Underfoot the boards creaked ominously. ‘Jack?’

      ‘I