Page 94 of The Paid Companion

“Of course you have, and the answer is no.”

“I see.” She felt suddenly quite cheerful for a moment, and then she recalled the other, related question about his private life that had been bothering her from the start of this adventure. Her briefly elevated spirits immediately deflated somewhat. “Well, I suppose you did not require the services of such an institution.”

“There is no other woman in my life at the moment, Elenora,” he said quietly. “As a matter of fact, there has not been anyone else for some time. Is that what you want to know?”

“It’s none of my affair.”

“Ah, but it is, my sweet,” he said in a low voice. “After all, we have formed an intimate connection. You have every right to know if I am romantically attached to someone else.” He paused a beat. “Just as I would expect to be told immediately if you decided to form such an attachment to some other man.”

Something in his tone raised the hairs on the nape of her neck. He was making it clear that he would not share her affections.

“You know better than anyone that there is no other man in my life,” she said quietly.

“I will expect matters to remain that way as long as you and I are involved with each other.”

She cleared her throat. “I will expect the same sort of loyalty from you.”

“You shall have it,” he said simply.

He turned his attention back to the door of the Green Lyon, leaving her to analyze in silence the combination of satisfaction and wistful longing that welled up inside her. She would have him to herself for the length of time that they were bound together in this odd affair, she thought. But that realization only heightened her awareness of how painful the eventual parting would be.

She was trying very hard to keep her thoughts focused on the future and all of her grand plans, but it was becoming more difficult by the hour to imagine life without Arthur.

Dear heaven, I’ve fallen in love with him.

The realization filled her with a bright euphoria that transformed almost instantly into dread. How had she allowed this to happen? This was a miscalculation of enormous proportions.

“Hell’s teeth.” Arthur straightened abruptly, leaning closer to the carriage window. “What is this about?”

His urgent tone yanked her out of her morose thoughts. She sat forward quickly.

“What is it?” she asked.

Arthur shook his head, his gaze never wavering from the scene outside on the front steps of the club. “Damned if I know. But this cannot be a matter of chance. Take a look. Might that be the man you danced with the night Ibbitts was murdered? The one who touched you this evening?”

She followed his gaze and watched a handsome man in his early twenties walk purposefully out the door of the Green Lyon. In the glare of the gas lamp his hair appeared to be a light brown in color. He was slender, and he moved easily.

Her pulse began to thud heavily in her wrists, and her mouth went dry. Was she looking at the killer? Was that the man who had touched her so intimately tonight and on the night of Ibbitts’s death? From this distance there was no way to be certain.

“He is about the right height,” she said, hesitating. “And he appears to have long-fingered hands. I cannot see from here if he has a ring.”

“He is wearing Hessians.”

“Yes, but as you once pointed out, a vast number of gentlemen favor that style of boot.” She squeezed her fingers together tightly in her lap. “Arthur, I’m sorry, but I cannot be sure from this distance. I must get closer to him.”

“He is not getting into any of the carriages.”

She watched as the man in the Hessians turned at the bottom of the steps, lit a small lantern that he carried at his side, and walked off along the dark street. He was alone.

“Stay here with the carriage. Jenks will watch you.” Arthur opened the door and jumped down onto the pavement. “I am going to follow that man.”

Anxiously, she leaned forward. “No, you must not go after him alone. Arthur, please, this may be exactly what the villain intends for you to do.”

“I want to see where he is going. I will not let him see me.”

“Arthur—”

“I am very curious to discover what business he has in this neighborhood so near the Green Lyon.”