Don't Look Back

Chapter 58

Sir Radmore watched from the corner. Waiting, as he was trailing Lord Sellac the last two days.

He had learned that the man was readying his life for some changes. As well as setting up things legally in his life.

He smoked as he tried to remain behind a newspaper rag but it was hard enough to see at the moment as a group passed.

The elusive man would sometimes move quickly and jump into his carriage and that would force him to race to his own and tell his man to follow but he had lost him in the streets of London more times than he wished to admit.

It was only his knowledge of how to find people that managed to get him back to the man again.

Now he was in a familiar place. It was the home of the Parkers. Or should he say the residence of Mrs. Eliza Parker, who was still under the pretense that her husband was dead.

The man seemed to have stayed a while, but not long enough to be considered a lover's meet. Just an overly long meeting for a new widow with an unmarried man. As he left, Radmore was about to follow but the activity of another carriage pulling up stopped him.

No one came out and he realized the carriage had been called for. After a time Mrs. Parker emerged and went to the carriage.

It was at this time he was torn between going after or returning to Lord Babington's London home. Instead, he returned to the carriage. Deciding he instructed the driver to follow her and entered his own.

"See anything of interest?" Georgiana said from inside.

He quirked his brow and nodded. "We follow a new lead now."

She laughed. "You speak in riddles."

He nodded. "Yes, sometimes I do," he said as he settled in beside her. His body pressed against hers.

She looked at him with her wide brown eyes and he smiled.

"Who do we follow now?" she asked.

"Mrs. Parker." his eyes dropped to her mouth. Since her proposition, his mind could not help go places he had managed to control better before.

She noticed his drop in gaze and smiled. "So, she is of interest to us now?"

He chuckled and looked away in an attempt to break the tension. "Yes my dear Miss Lamb, they are both of interest."

She pressed her side against him and pulled at his dark coat. "I like it when you look at me like that," she whispered.

He turned and felt himself weaken again. "I should not look at you like that." he shook his head and tried to extract her hands. "Not without honorable intentions."

She smiled and tightened her hold. "Aren't I the one with the dishonorable intentions?"

He laughed and shook his head as her gaze begged him to step over the line.

He pressed his forehead against hers to lean in, yet hold back.

"I would have my conditions," he whispered.

She bit her lip nervously. "Conditions?"

He sighed and pushed her back and into her seat. Taking pains to get them space.

"What sort of conditions?" she asked as Georgiana observed him try to control his desire.

He shook his head. "For one, your reputation must remain beyond reproach," he told her.

Georgiana scoffed. "Why?"

He shrugged. "It is a condition."

"Being involved with you might risk that." she rolled her eyes and looked out the window now disinterested.

He nodded. "Yes, if we are not very careful."

Her head snapped around and she smiled.

"Anything else?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yes, if you become with child, you not try to rid yourself of it."

Her mouth dropped wide. "You think I would?"

Radmore nodded. "Women attempt it all the time. It can be fatal, or just ineffective."

She shrugged and sighed. "Very well..."

He scoffed. "That is not it."

She looked up at him again in a flash.

"If you do become with child, you marry me by elopement as quickly as possible," he said seriously.

She sat motionless for a moment and shook her head. "I do not know," she whispered.

He nodded. "If you approach me again as you have, I will assume you accept those conditions. Otherwise, I believe it best we keep things professional and friendly, but not..." he looked away as his eyes again fell to her mouth.

She blinked as she now pondered the coiling need that throbbed inside of her and his expectations. They were honorable enough. But she did not want to relinquish her independence.

Both fell into silence as the carriage followed until it stopped near the corner of another street and Radmore exited and went to see where they were.

"Where are we?" she asked from the window.

He looked around and noted Lord Sellac's carriage and Mrs. Parkers.

"We are at a meeting of lovers," he said simply.

Georgiana looked up to the building and squinted. It was not a lavish district, but it was also not a posh one.

"She is meeting him alone," she whispered.

He nodded. "It seems so," he said lighting a smoke. "We missed her enter and where she went in," he said.

"So we wait?" Georgiana asked.

He looked around. "But stay in there should you be seen. You are far more recognizable than I."

She ducked back inside and nibbled her lip frustratedly.