Page 82 of How to Fall for a Scoundrel

“Thank you.”

“As does kissing you.” He caught her by the hips, and pulled her up hard against him.

Ellie’s stomach somersaulted, and her heart almost doubled its pace as their lips met. She pressed herself even closer, kissing him back with fervent urgency, and Harry’s tongue swept against hers, tasting her with a fierce demand that made her blood heat and her belly tingle.

He tightened his grip for a brief moment, then thrust her away from him with a low, gasping laugh. “God, woman. You’re a terrible distraction!”

She laughed too, elated, practically shaking with nervous energy. “You’re right. Let’s find those papers.”

Harry strode to the enormous fireplace and ducked beneath the lintel. The walls around him were streaked black with soot and age. “It doesn’t look as if an actual fire’s been lit in here for decades. That’s a good sign.”

He reached up and began feeling along the inside of the chimney, dislodging a small avalanche of soot that rained down on him. He turned his face away, coughing,while Ellie held her breath and prayed they hadn’t been sent on a wild-goose chase.

“Now I see why you wore a coat that was almost black,” she said. “It hides the soot beautifully.”

Just as she was beginning to give up hope, he stilled and glanced up. “I’ve found a ledge. It’s like a single stone’s been removed to make a hiding place.” He repositioned his arm, and a cloth-wrapped bundle tied with brown string fell onto the hearth at his feet.

Ellie pounced on it just as she heard the slam of a door below and Swifte’s footsteps ascending the stairs.

“Quick! He’s coming!” She thrust the packet through the side slit in her skirts and into the pocket beneath. The bundle was so large it made a bulge at her hip, but she pulled her cloak around her to conceal it.

Harry ducked out of the chimney and retook his place in the window, but as he turned in the candlelight Ellie’s heart missed a beat. She ran to him and wiped an incriminating black smudge of coal dust from his cheek. He cleaned his dirty palms on her cloak a moment before Swifte reappeared, clutching a large sheet of paper and a handful of sharpened pencils.

Ellie clapped her hands, her happiness unfeigned. She could barely contain her excitement. “Ah, marvelous.”

It was a matter of moments to place the paper over the inscribed name and take a rubbing with the pencil, and she stepped back with a triumphant sigh when she was done.

“Thank you, Mr. Swifte. I appreciate your patience.” She rolled the paper and tucked it beneath her cloak. “Shall we go?”

She barely glanced at Harry as they retraced their steps through the arched guardhouses. It was only when the final gate clanged shut behind them and they weresafely ensconced in the carriage that she allowed herself a deep, relieved exhale.

She pressed her palm flat to her heart as if she could calm its racing. “We did it! Good heavens, what a night.”

Harry tilted his head toward the bulge of documents in her skirts. “Let’s just hope those papers are what the doctor says they are, and not something completely different. What if they’re the last words of a prisoner, a confession, or even love letters?”

“Shall I open them now?”

He shook his head. “Not enough light. Wait until we’re back at Cobham House.”

She sent him a laughing, teasing look. “It must have been incredibly trying for you, to be so close to all those precious gems and not steal a single one of them. Were you imagining ways to do it?”

His dimples flashed. “Force of habit. Purelytheoretically,mind you.”

“I’d say it was impossible.”

“Nothing’s impossible. Only extremely unlikely. I bet I could do something with a carrier pigeon. Or a highly trained dog. Or a wooden leg.”

Ellie shook her head, loving his inventiveness. He was certainly never boring. “But that’s all behind you now, isn’t it?”

He pressed his palm over his heart. “From now on, I’m going to be a model citizen.”

She let out a disbelieving snort. “Ha!”

For a delightful moment she entertained herself with a lurid fantasy of Harry making good on his promise to make love to her against the wall by sweeping her upstairs as soon as they reached Cobham House to celebrate their success.

And then she remembered that Hugo was undoubtedly still in residence and anxiously waiting for news, and her spirits fell.

The luck they’d had tonight finally seemed to have deserted her.