“I think so. No, I am sure. Please, do not deny me, Evan. Every time we are parted, I fear it is the last time I will see you.” I looked away, the stark admission heating my face. “Besides,” I said, playing my trump card, “my presence will confound your description as a lone scruffy highwayman, and it will give Dr. Lawrence the assurance of respectability.”

“Little does he know,” Evan murmured. He took my hand and leaned across, his eyes upon my mouth. “If you think Julia can manage the situation here, then we shall finish this together.”

His lips on mine were gentle—still curved into a smile—the kiss raising me onto my toes and into his arms. I pressed myself into his solid strength until the gentleness between us shifted into something far more urgent. All thought narrowed into the sensation of merging into the warmth and scent and sweet taste of his mouth on mine, the heat cascading through me.

“Milady?”

Lud! I flinched at John Driver’s call and jumped back. At the corner of my eye, I saw Evan step behind the stack of hay bales as I quickly wiped the intense moment from my lips.

John Driver appeared at the doorway, Mrs. Ellis-Brant by his side.

Good God, that was close.

25

“What on earth are you doing in here, Lady Augusta?” the Ermine asked with an arch laugh in her voice. She peered into the shed.

Good question. I scrabbled through my hot daze for an answer.

“I was getting some apples for the change horses. They did such good work getting us here.” I paused a beat. Two can play this game. “What are you doing here, Mrs. Ellis-Brant?”

“I saw you go to the stables, and since I wished to speak to you privately, I thought this might be the chance.”

“I see.” Had she seen me go in here with Evan? And what could she have to say to me that had to be beyond the walls of the hall? “Well, I am on my way back to the house. Perhaps we could go together,” I said, moving toward the door. I kept my pace sedate, although I wanted to hustle her out of the doorway as fast as possible.

“What about the apples?” she asked.

She did not miss much. “You are far more important than change horses,” I said just as archly. “John can see to them.”

I sent him a glance of gratitude: for the warning and the apples. My coachman touched his hat.

At the doorway, I took the Ermine’s arm and used all my resolve not to look back at the tall stack of hay bales.

Mrs. Ellis-Brant walked in silence beside me until we had left the stable yard behind and were crunching our way across the large gravel driveway in front of the hall.