CHAPTER FIVE
In The Back of the Carriage
The mild-mannered young man, Mr. Thaddeus Sims, sat beside a wide-eyed brown-haired girl, his arm around her waist. She couldn’t have been more than nineteen. While the girl fidgeted with the handkerchief in her lap, she batted her lashes demurely and pursed her small lips together into a bow. She gazed at the dark-haired stranger who was sitting opposite them in the carriage, having reason to be fearful of this man. He was quite dashing, in a dangerous sort of way. So cool. So curt. So earthy. Not at all like Thaddeus, her champion.
“Have you installed the ring?” the gentleman spoke without preamble. Just a minute before he’d entered the carriage where it had stopped on a London street. The two men had exchanged brief greetings, although the gir
