Free One Night With A Prince by Sabrina Jeffries Page B

heard of Haversham engaging in. Strong drink? As he recalled, Haversham had swilled his share of Gavin’s brandy when he Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html was at the club. Still, if she’d grown up around soldiers, she had to be used to that. A mistress? Not that he’d ever heard.
    Whatever it was, her closed expression made it clear that she didn’t wish to discuss it. Very well, he’d get it out of her later. Besides, that wasn’t the important thing right now. “So you gave him the key to the strongbox, did you?”
    “No, indeed, I’m not that much a fool.” She scowled. “But his steward knew how to break into such things—he was that sort of person.”
    Gavin bit back a smile. “Like me, you mean.”
    When she tossed her head back, the wind nearly carried off her large-brimmed bonnet. “It does take a certain sort of scoundrel to break into things.”
    “It does indeed.” And another sort to betray his wife for a gambling debt. No wonder she distrusted gamblers. Gavin began to wish he’d exacted a different sort of payment from Lord Haversham. “So he never confessed what he’d done?”
    As their speed increased down a long stretch of road, she grabbed for her bonnet ribbons. “I never even guessed they were missing until it was too late. After the prince summoned me, and we spoke, I immediately went to check the contents of the strongbox, only to find that they were gone.”
    He pounced on her slip. “‘They’?”
    “It,” she said hastily. “The contents.”
    “You said ‘they.’”
    The panic in her eyes was unmistakable. “You misheard me.”
    “Ah.”Misheard you, my arse. She’d said it twice. So there was more than one piece of property. A whole set of jewels? Documents? Documents made more sense, in light of Prinny’s interest in the things. But what sort of documents?
    “So where are we going?” she asked brightly.
    He smothered a chuckle. He’d never heard a more blatant change of subject. Despite her testy demeanor and aggressive stance, she was at heart an honest person. Keeping this secret was probably killing her.
    Which is why he’d have to make it easy for her to unburden herself when the time came. Surely if that idiot Haversham could get it out of her, Gavin could do so. He’d simply get her into his bed, where she belonged. No woman could keep silent for long when cocooned in the intimacy of the bedchamber.
    “Byrne?” the fetching female prodded. “Where are we going?”
    To bed, I hope.“Rotten Row, of course.” He flicked the ends of the reins at her. “Why? Do you want to drive?”
    Her face lit up. “Oh, could I?”
    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html He’d been joking, but how could he resist when she looked as if he’d just offered her the keys to the city? “Do you know how to drive a cabriolet?”
    “I’ve driven a phaeton. It can’t be any harder than that.”
    “A phaeton? And you didn’t turn it over?”
    “No, indeed!” She looked insulted. “I’ll have you know I’ve never turned a vehicle over in my life.”
    Suppressing a grin, he handed her the reins. “Then try not to turn this one over, will you?”
    Her eyes went wide, then she broke into a smile of such delight, he didn’t even mind risking his cattle. “I won’t, I swear,” she said in a rush.
    She took control of the cabriolet as if born to it, expertly controlling his team of matched grays, settling them at once when they showed some rebellion.
    “You enjoy driving, do you?” he asked.
    “The only thing I love better than driving a rig like this is riding my gelding. In the country, I either ride or drive myself everywhere I can.”
    “That explains why you do it so well. I’ve never seen a woman—and few men, for that matter—handle a rig so competently.”
    Eyes twinkling, she glanced over at him. “Some of us womendo have abilities beyond the bedchamber, you know.”
    He