The Highwayman (Rakes and Rogues of the Restoration Book 3) by Judith James

favors.”
    She gifted him with an impish grin. “You’d be surprised at what a respectable impoverished gentleman will forgive, in return for a nice inheritance. Or…perhaps I’ll set my cap for a disreputable rogue.”
    He gave her a wry smile in return, but his tone was earnest. “The thought might be romantic, but the reality is not. People can be malicious and cruel. To be cast off from one’s own society, shunned and abandoned...it is not a happy life for anyone.”
    Surprised at his heated words, she hastened to reassure him. “You needn’t worry. I am levelheaded I believe, and besides, I don’t want any gentleman. I am not looking for a husband, I seek to avoid one. I don’t see the benefit in it for me, and I am firmly decided to stay a single lady and manage my own affairs.”
    His lips twitched with amusement as he fingered a lock of her silky hair, then tucked it behind her ear. “You are inexperienced about some things, love. You might not always feel that way.”
    “My father left me his lands in my own right, Jack. As a never-married, single lady—”
    “You mean a spinster.”
    She glared up at his jaw from the pillow of his arm. “As a feme sole , the lands are mine to do with as I think best. A never-married woman with her own property has almost the same rights as a man. She may hold local office, attend county courts and sit on grand juries. She may serve as constable or church warden or reeve. She may—”
    “Yes, yes. Heady pleasures for old maids, no doubt. But why should a daring and adventuresome lass such as youwant to do that?
    She looked at him sourly. “So I don’t end up trapped with someone like Robert.”
    “Ah! Well, that seems a laudable goal. Nevertheless, in my experience, a plausible well-rehearsed story is always a handy thing to have close to hand, just in case one has need. Perhaps you had to rush off to care for a sick friend. Perhaps you took ill yourself.”
    “Yes,” she said with a sigh. “I know you’re right. Robert will try to use this misadventure against me in any way he can.”
    “Have you no friends or family to protect you? Can you go to the authorities?”
    “And tell them what? That I was kidnapped from my coach at the behest of my cousin and rescued from a tower by a highwayman? You are my only witness, the rest of them were part of it, and I can hardly ask you to testify. Going to the authorities would only succeed in spreading the tale all over London and accomplish much of what Robert set out to do. As to family, though I may have some on my mother’s side in Ireland, as far as I know I am all that’s left. Robert’s claim came as a complete surprise to me, and it is a very distant one at best.”
    “How will you protect yourself against him, then?”
    “I will hire extra footmen. I’ve also heard one can hire boxers and ex-soldiers for protection.”
    Thinking it through, discussing it, made it all seem a bit more manageable and helped her reestablish some sense of control. She was surprised at how easy and comfortable she was talking to this man who was a stranger only hours ago. It was as if he had always been a part of her life and she found herself responding to him as to an old friend. Perhaps it was because of the circumstances. It was hard not to trust someone who had rescued you from a grim fate and seen you safely down a tower. He was also undeniably attractive, though she hoped she wasn’t so shallow as to be swayed by something like that.
    Perhaps it’s because I shall never see him again . That thought filled her with a sense of panicked loss so strong it shocked her. Tonight I am Belle de Nuit. Tomorrow I return to being the spinster Arabella Hamilton. For a moment she envied Jack his carefree ways, his ability to slip away and leave things behind.
    “I wish I were a man.”
    “God forbid! Why ever would you say such a thing?”
    “If I were, no one would molest me. There would be nothing to fear.”
    She didn’t