Amanda Scott by The Bath Eccentric’s Son

the right way, Mr. Manningford? My aunt said nothing to me about going out, you know, and while she might have stepped down the street or even so far as one of the shops on Pulteney Bridge without thinking to mention it, I cannot believe she would have come so far as this without telling me she meant to do so. Where are you taking me?”
    He glanced at her in a measuring way before he turned his attention back to his horses and said casually, “Well, the fact of the matter is, Miss Bradbourne, that I am abducting you.”
    Nell gazed at his excellent profile in silence for a long moment before she said calmly, “I see.” She shifted her reticule more securely into her lap, fiddling a little with the brightly colored strings that held it shut, saying nothing more.
    He glanced at her again, clearly surprised by her calm. “I must say, I expected rather more of a reaction than that.”
    “I am displeased, certainly,” Nell said in a matter-of-fact way, “but not so much as to have lost control of my temper, which is fortunate, since I have been told that one should remain calm in the presence of persons whose senses are clearly disordered.”
    “I see.” To her surprise, there was amusement in his voice. “I am perfectly sane, Miss Bradbourne.”
    “You will have to pardon me, sir, if I take leave to doubt that statement. I shall not scream, however.”
    “Be a damned good thing if you don’t. That offside wheeler is a mite ticklish, and I’m having all I can do, as it is, to keep his mind on his business. If you scream, we’ll most likely have him plunging over the traces. And this sort of carriage, you know, is notoriously unstable.”
    “I should not wish to court disaster,” she agreed. “Indeed, I shall even keep to myself my opinion of a man who would hitch an unsteady team to such a notoriously unstable carriage.”
    “Wise of you.” He shot her an enigmatic look. “I am truly grateful. Particularly since this is not my team, and if even one of these damned brutes is injured, my brother-in-law will doubtless have my head served up to him on a platter the moment he returns from France. He’s a marquess, you see, so I don’t doubt he’d know instantly how to arrange it.”
    “Am I to assume,” she asked reasonably, “that your brother-in-law would otherwise approve of the use to which you have put his team?”
    She saw his lips twitch briefly before they tightened into a thin line, and he said, “You’re mighty cool for a wench who’s just been told she’s being abducted. I expected tears and recriminations at the very least. Most young ladies of my acquaintance would show rather more sensibility, I believe.”
    Nell gave the matter some consideration before she said, “I daresay I am not, in general, a woman of great sensibility, sir, but on the other hand, I must tell you that you are not precisely my notion of an abductor either.”
    His mobile eyebrows lifted comically. “I hope that does not mean you believe I shall set you down again before my purpose is fulfilled, ma’am, for you are bound to be disappointed.”
    “Am I? I suppose we shall find that out in good time. Is it permitted that I ask why you have abducted me, sir?”
    He glanced at her again, at a loss to understand her. “Why does any man abduct a female?”
    “Do you mean to ravish me, then?”
    “Good Lord, no! Whatever gave you such a cockeyed notion as that? Do I look like a ravisher?”
    “I have already said that you do not even look like an abductor,” she reminded him. “It was you who implied that you were doing it for the usual reasons.”
    “I meant for money,” he said harshly. “Your virtue is quite safe, Miss Bradbourne.”
    “You relieve my mind considerably,” she said.
    “Well, you don’t sound relieved,” he retorted. “I take leave to tell you, Miss Bradbourne, that I have known some odd females in my time—”
    “I do not doubt you, sir.”
    “—and,” he continued firmly, “even the