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S injin pulled on his brother’s black leather gloves and trod down the stairs into the foyer as quietly as his Hessian boots would allow.

He’d had to borrow Reginald’s gloves as none of his own were suited to driving a carriage.

The gloves he wore in his conservatory when handling dangerous or poisonous plants, whilst serviceable and protective, were not the sort one wore to take an earl’s daughter for a drive in the park.

“Are those Reggie’s best Weston gloves you are purloining to steal his new racing curricle, my hermit brother?

” Sinjin tripped over the last stair and would have sprawled onto the marble floor if Frederick had not caught his arm and held him upright.

He’d hoped to make his escape without encountering any of his siblings, especially his eldest brother.

“Could you please not creep up on a man like a Seven Dials cutthroat?” Sinjin asked as he pulled his arm free and took his hat and greatcoat from the footman, who suppressed a smile.

“Shall I fetch the basket from the kitchens, sir?” The servant asked once he’d helped Sinjin into his coat.

“Yes, please, Andrew. But be quick and keep it to yourself.”

“Keep what to myself, sir?” Andrew tapped two fingers to his brow in salute and hurried down the corridor towards the kitchens.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Frederick said as he followed Sinjin out the front door of their London townhouse.

They both took in the bright red color of the curricle’s wheels and traces, glanced at each other, and shook their heads.

The day was sunny for March, though the wind blew with an insistent reminder spring had not quite arrived.

The day was perfect for a drive and a picnic in the park.

“Is there a purpose to this inquisition?” Sinjin climbed into the curricle and took the reins from the young stableboy who scrambled onto the small seat between the back springs.

“I know Missus Beatty could not wait to tell you all about this morning’s excursion, so cut line and ask me what you truly wish to know before Reggie stumbles from his bed to protest my use of his precious new plaything. ”

“I merely asked a simple question and?—”

“From you there are no simple questions. Thank you, Andrew.” Sinjin reached back to help the footman secure the large basket Beatty had prepared for his picnic with Alice.

Frederick was on the scent of something and Sinjin did not want his elder brother in any of his affairs, especially anything that involved his friendship with Alice.

“Have you ever known Mister Perriton to ask a simple question, Andrew?”

“Don’t answer that,” the stable boy, Seamus, muttered from his seat at the back of the curricle.

“Wasn’t about to,” Andrew replied under his breath as he turned and walked back to the townhouse.

“I heard that,” Frederick called after the footman. He glared at Sinjin. “They only behave this way in your presence, you know.”

“Of course they do. I’m by far the least troublesome member of this family.”

“Very well, don’t tell me what you are about with Lady Alice. Give her my regards.”

“What I’m about?” Sinjin’s stomach did a flop. He didn’t like Frederick’s inference, especially as he wasn’t certain what he was about when his feelings for Alice these days came to mind. “Don’t be ridiculous. I am merely taking an old friend for a drive. Nothing?—”

“Sinjin!” A third floor-window clattered open at the front of the house. “Step down from my curricle this instant, you damned thief!” Reginald hung out the window in his nightshirt, his hair a fright and his face an unbecoming shade of red.

“G o!” Frederick commanded as he slapped the near horse on the rump.

Reggie’s team of matched greys broke into a fast canter down the middle of the street.

Sinjin guided them toward King Street and then turned them up Half Moon Street, down Queen Street and onto Charles Street to stop in front of the Duke of Chelmsford’s Berkeley Square town mansion.

The house was within a brisk walking distance of the one he shared with his brothers, but he preferred to call for Alice in the carriage rather than on foot to avoid drawing even more attention to their excursion together.

A ridiculous notion as every widow, dowager, and servant in the square would know by sunset.

The lack of privacy was one of the many things he despised when it came to London society.

He had wrapped the reins around the brake and jumped down to the pavement when the front door of the elegant mansion opened, and Alice strode out to the gate, bonnet in hand.

“For goodness’ sake, Sinjin, let us be off,” she said as she joined him next to the curricle and put her foot on the step. “If Uncle Percy asks me one more question, I will not be answerable for my actions.”

Sinjin grasped her at the waist and lifted her onto the seat.

She gasped softly and looked down at him, her eyes wide with surprise.

“Hold on,” he said as he came round the curricle and joined her on the plush leather bench.

With a flick of his wrist, he untied the reins and set the carriage in motion.

She smashed her bonnet onto her head and held the straw confection down with one hand whilst she clutched the side rail of the curricle with the other.

They had gone down Hill Street, Audley Street, and Curzon Street and were turned onto Park Lane before she spoke, and she was laughing.

“Are you so frightened of my uncle you would drive as if we are off to Gretna Green?” She let go of the rail and worked to tie the ribbons of her bonnet.

“His Grace is formidable to be sure, but I am more frightened of Reggie murdering me in my sleep. He was hanging out the front window in his nightshirt calling me a thief when I drove away.”

“I should have loved to have seen that.”

Sinjin turned to see if her smile matched the amusement in her voice.

A mistake on his part as the sight of Alice smiling in the morning sun left him utterly speechless.

The warm rays picked up the golden strands of her hair and made them sparkle alongside the various other shades of gold escaping the confines of her bonnet.

Her bright blue eyes matched the early spring skies above them.

He stared at her, dumbfounded, until the curricle hit a hole in Park Lane and tipped wildly to one side.

With a muttered curse he turned his attention back to the team and steadied them as the vehicle righted itself.

“Goodness,” Alice exclaimed.

“Goodness? More like wickedness, Lady Alice Lister. Wishing to see my brother half-naked hanging from his bedchamber window. The very idea.” If he assumed the role of the stern older brother, perhaps she would not notice the heat creeping up his neck nor the lust in his eyes when he gazed at her for more than a moment.

“Half-naked? You didn’t say he was half-naked.” She flounced on the bench. “You should have driven us by your house on the way out of the square.”

“Incorrigible. Absolutely scandalous,” he teased.

“Your brother Reginald is considered quite the most handsome bachelor in London, you know. Hello, Seamus,” she said as she knelt on the bench and bent over the seat to rummage in the basket Missus Beatty had prepared. “When did you grow so tall? How is your mother?”

“She is well, milady. Lemon biscuit? Yes, please. Thank you, Lady Alice.”

Sinjin seethed at her admiration for his brother, but he nearly lost control of the greys when his eyes were drawn to her heart-shaped bottom outlined by the dark green fabric of her carriage dress. “Reginald is certainly the most rakish bachelor in London.”

“Biscuit?” Alice shoved a lemon biscuit into his mouth and took a bite of the one in her hand. “He does have a terrible reputation, but one must expect that of such a fine-looking gentleman. “Take another biscuit if you like, Seamus. Dear Missus Beatty has prepared a picnic for an army.”

“You two continue to filch my biscuits and I shall set you both down to walk back to Berkeley Square.” He’d missed Alice these last few years. He’d missed her laughter and her kindness and her ability to tease him without mercy and draw him out of his solitude.

“Says the gentlemen who filched his brother’s curricle for this little adventure.” She squeezed his hand and threaded her arm through his as he guided the team into Hyde Park. “I am so very glad you thought of this. I feared my last Season would be deadly dull.”

“Then we must do our best to entertain her ladyship, must we not, Seamus?”

“Yes, sir,” the lad replied and sounded suspiciously like he was speaking around a mouth full of lemon biscuits. Alice and Sinjin exchanged a grin as he drove the curricle through the Cumberland Gate.

The park was crowded for late morning. He’d hoped to avoid the crowds of carriages and horses usually on parade at the fashionable evening hours between five and seven.

The sun was almost directly overhead thus the hour could not be much past eleven, noon at the most. They passed a number of open carriages carrying an equal number of dowagers and young ladies.

Some gentlemen were on horseback either riding next to the carriages or stopped to engage the occupants in conversation.

The breeze blew gently for March and carried the scent of early spring flowers. Ever sensitive to the various botanical changes out of doors. He twisted slightly on the curricle seat in search of new blooms pushing through the earth.

“What is it?” Alice asked. “Are you looking for someone in particular?” She began to cast about herself in expectation of seeing someone they knew.

“Not someone, something. Daffodils,” he mused and then sniffed the air deeply. “And crocuses, your favorites.”

“Where?” She stood and shielded her eyes, nearly tumbling from the curricle. He tugged the back of her dress.

“Steady on. Give me a moment.” She sat down hard and fixed him with expectant eyes.