Rushed to the Altar Read Free Page B

pickpockets.” It was a guess but one he hoped might elicit more information.
    “You’ve no right to make such an assumption,” shedeclared. “What I have and don’t have is my business.”
    “As long as you don’t have anything of mine, I would agree with you.” He frowned down at her. “If you weren’t attempting to rob me, what were you doing bumping into me in that deliberate fashion?”
    Her attention seemed to have wandered, he realized incredulously. Instead of giving him an answer, she was peering around him with an air of acute frustration, ignoring the hold he still had on her shoulders. “Now I’ve lost him,” she muttered.
    “Lost whom? Answer me, if you please. Whom have you lost and why did you so deliberately bump into me, if you were not intending to pick my pocket?”
    “I was trying to hide from someone,” she explained impatiently. “And now, by detaining me, you’ve ruined everything.”
    “My apologies.” His voice was dry. “Maybe one day I’ll understand the logic of that. As far as I can see, I haven’t revealed your presence to anyone with apparent interest in it.” He looked pointedly around. The crowd went about its heedless way as always, and he could detect no suspiciously attentive glances in their direction.
    “Why do you need to hide from someone?” Jasper was unwilling to release his grip on her shoulder, although she tried again to wriggle free. He was certain she would be off into the crowd before he could draw another breath and he wasn’t prepared to lose her just yet.
    “That’s none of your business either,” she said. “Just let me go, please. You have no right to detain me.”
    “Are you from one of the nunneries?” he asked, hazarding a guess. It would explain her presence in the Piazza. Possibly she was running from an unwelcome proposition. She was certainly lovely and fresh enough to attract only the best custom, and he could well imagine any one of the pimps and madams who ran the many such establishments in and around Covent Garden would find her a valuable acquisition. Her simple dress didn’t indicate a top-class establishment, but judging by her accent someone had gone to some trouble to eradicate the rougher edges to her speech in preparation for a higher class of client, so maybe she was being groomed to take her place among the ranks of the elite courtesans in a good house.
    Something flashed across the green eyes but he couldn’t read it. Then she said, “Maybe, maybe not. What’s it to you, sir?” Her eyes narrowed suddenly. “Why, are you in the market for a little play?”
    It was almost as if she was issuing a challenge, Jasper thought. She hadn’t said one way or the other, but the obliqueness of her answer had to be confirmation of his suspicions. And then the obviousness of his next move made him laugh out loud.
    The laugh disconcerted Clarissa. She was already regretting the ridiculous impulse that had prompted that last question. Sometimes the devil seemed to run her tongue and she was always having to deal with the unintended consequences of a glib statement or question.
    “What’s so funny?”
    “Oh, just a rather delightful conjunction of supply and demand,” he said. “I think you’ll do. Oh, yes, I think you’ll do very well.”
    “Do what?” She looked up at him, unease replacing her anger.
    “A little job I need done,” he said.
    “What job?” She took a step back, but he tightened his hold on her shoulder.
    “If you come with me, I’ll explain.”
    “You must be mad. Let me go or I’ll call the beadle.”
    He shook his head. “No, if anyone’s going to call the beadle it’ll be me. And whom do you think he’ll believe?”
    Anger flashed again across the jade eyes. “That’s not fair.”
    “No,” he agreed. “But little in this life is. What’s your name?”
    “Clarissa.” She had answered before she could stop herself and could have bitten out her tongue.
    “Well, Clarissa, I suggest we