“All done,” Duncan said.
“Thank you.” Lucy continued looking out the window.
“You might, er, take your foot back now,” he said.
Oh! How mortifying. She withdrew her foot and pretended to look in her reticule for something until she felt her cheeks return to their normal temperature. Her boot felt much more secure now. Of course, Duncan Slorach had saved the day with his tea flask and his dexterous fingers. He was perfect, and she was so very...not. It was immature and childish of her to dislike him because he was everything an agent should be, but at times like this, she really wanted to hit him.
“There’s the station,” Duncan said. Lucy looked out the window and saw a small group of people gathered on the platform. How on earth had they all managed to wake and arrive on time?
The coachman pulled near the platform and an outrider jumped down to open the door. Duncan exited first, holding out his now gloved hand for Lucy’s. She took it then insisted on taking her bag from the outrider. “I don’t need help,” she said and marched toward the train.
“Er, Miss Galloway,” Duncan called.
She sighed and turned back with raised brows.
He waved the tickets. “We’re in third class.”
She opened her mouth to protest. She always rode first-class, but then she remembered she was a nanny. And so she followed him without a word to the back of the train and shoved on board with the farmers and shopkeepers. Duncan placed his bag on the shelf over the seat and offered to do the same for Lucy. She shook her head and tried to heave it up herself. This was when being short was to her detriment. If she hadn’t had to act like a lady, she would have stood on the seat, but she couldn’t very well do that with so many people around. She tried to toss the bag into place, but it fell back and would have hit her in the face if Duncan hadn’t caught it just in time. Without even stretching, he placed the bag on the shelf and took his seat. Lucy expected him to demand her thanks, but he looked out the window and not at her, even when she sat across from him.
“Thank you,” she said, grudgingly.
“No need to thank me,” he said. “We’re partners. We help each other.”
The train whistle blew, and a moment later the wheels began to turn. Lucy watched the station rush by and the scenery outside the window turn to fields and stretches of wood. Duncan was right, of course. He was never wrong. They were partners, and she had to stop seeing him as her competition and more as her ally. He was supposed to help her on this mission and she him. How she would ever be of any use to him, Lucy didn’t know. Regardless, they were supposed to work together.
“You’re right,” she said after a long silence.
Duncan’s head turned sharply. Clearly, he hadn’t expected her to say as much.
“Am I?”
“Yes. You know you are. I can be a bit hesitant to ask for help.”
“A bit?”
“Yes, sometimes.”
“Sometimes?”
She glowered at him. “Mr. Slorach, I am trying to apologize.”
“Sorry, do go on.”
She didn’t feel like going onnow.“There’s not much else to say. I’ll do better from now on.”
“As will I.”
She rolled her eyes. If he did any better, he’d probably ascend to heaven in a ray of light accompanied by an angel chorus.
***
DUNCAN WAITED ANOTHERhalf hour, until the lines of annoyance left Lucy’s forehead. She was always grumpy in the mornings, but once she had some tea and was awake, she was generally all smiles. Well, to everyone but him.
Now he reached into his waistcoat pocket and withdrew the paper Baron had given him that morning. No other passengers sat near them, either by coincidence or design, but he kept his voice low. “Baron gave me this to open when we were together. It has the details of our backgrounds.”
He expected Lucy to take it and open it. Instead, she rose and took the seat beside him, so they might study it together. Duncan had to grit his teeth for a full ten seconds and force himself not to notice how lovely she smelled or how warm her arm was as it pressed against his. He had told himself at least fifty times as he packed the night before that he would ignore his attraction to her. He would put his feelings out of his mind. She was his partner, his fellow agent. She was no different than any of the male agents he worked with.
She just looked better. And smelled better. And made his heart beat faster.
