Lord Buckingham’s Bride by Sandra Heath

may be sure of that.’
    Alison searched his handsome face. There was much more to all this than the mere purchase of a colt; her every instinct told her there was, but she said nothing.
    He was silent for a moment, his gaze averted to the fire, but then his eyes swung to meet hers again. ‘You do realize that we’ll have to maintain this pretense until the Pavlovsk leaves?’
    â€˜I hadn’t thought—’
    â€˜Well, think now. We’ve just pretended to Naryshky that we’re runaway lovers, and so the subterfuge must be kept up until we’re away from him. It will be our secret, I promise you, for no one else need ever know what passed between us here. I trust that we will both be long since back in England by the time Naryshky returns to St Petersburg, for talks such as the ones he’s involved in take a notoriously long time, and he’s only just begun.’
    â€˜So, what you’re saying is that we behave like eloping lovers until we leave Stockholm and then resume the normal relationship that would be expected of us after having encountered each other by chance on the journey?’
    â€˜That’s exactly what I’m saying. Your reputation will thus be protected, and Pamela will not hear anything that might cause her to, er, wonder.’ He smiled a little. ‘Is it agreed, Miss Clearwell?’
    She gave a slightly resigned laugh. ‘Sir, I don’t suppose I have a great deal of choice, just as I haven’t had much choice about anything wherethis wretched journey is concerned. I didn’t want to leave England, I wanted to go to Pamela, but I was made to leave, and now I loathe St Petersburg before I have even seen it. Besides, I can hardly refuse to do as you ask, since it’s my fault that you’ve been compromised.’
    His eyes were suddenly very shrewd. ‘Miss Clearwell, if anyone has been compromised, surely it is you.’
    â€˜That isn’t what I mean and you know it,’ she replied. ‘There’s a great deal you’re failing to tell me, isn’t there? I don’t know what your real purpose is in going to St Petersburg, but I doubt very much if it has anything to do with horses. Whatever it is, my arrival on the scene has put it in jeopardy, hasn’t it?’
    â€˜What a very odd notion, to be sure,’ he murmured. ‘No, Miss Clearwell, you haven’t jeopardized anything, because there isn’t anything to jeopardize. I’m simply on my way to try to acquire a colt from the imperial stables.’
    She didn’t press the point, but she didn’t believe him. He was concealing something.
    A breeze stirred the curtains, and she remembered suddenly that when Nikolai had burst in he’d left the windows open. She went quickly to close them, searching around for the wedge of paper, but before she closed the doors properly, she paused to look out. The sky was now pale and clear, an almost citrus yellow that softened into a delicate turquoise, and yet it was still barely three o’clock. Pushing the folded paper into place, she made the doors as firm as she could, and then drew the curtains across once more, turning to face him.
    â€˜Would it be best if we called each other by our first names from now on? After all, if we’re supposed to be—’
    â€˜Lovers? Yes, Alison, I think it would be best.’
    She hesitated. ‘Will you tell me one day?’
    â€˜Tell you? Tell you what?’
    â€˜What you’re really going to St Petersburg for?’
    â€˜You’re quite determined, aren’t you?’
    She nodded. ‘I may be inexperienced and fresh out of school, sir, but I’m not a fool, and I certainly know when I’m being humbugged.’
    He turned suddenly, glancing at the armchair by the fire and deliberately changed the subject. ‘I think perhaps that I should sleep here for the rest of the night, don’t you? I doubt if our Russian