Miss Goodhue Lives for a Night

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Book: Read Miss Goodhue Lives for a Night for Free Online
Authors: Kate Noble
she would never admit it.
    â€œFor someone who is spectating,” he said, drawing her attention back from the window, “I am better suited to asking questions of the office of the army than a young woman from Lincolnshire.”
    â€œYou don’t know that,” she replied, firmly gripping her hands in her lap. “This is a private family matter. I would rather not—”
    â€œYou are happy to accept the earl’s help with your private family matter, and you don’t know him at all,” he countered. “Why not mine?”
    â€œPerhaps because I have the benefit of knowing you,” she replied, finding her tongue more tart than it had ever been before.
    A surprised eyebrow went up at her tone. Well . . . good, she decided. He’d surprised her plenty today; there was no reason he should be able to sit there, looking so casual and in command.
    â€œThat’s true,” he replied. “After all, it is I who did not have the benefit of understanding you.”
    â€œWhat on earth is that supposed to mean?” she blinked.
    â€œIt means that when you run off with someone, it usually . . . oh never mind,” he said, waving the idea away.
    â€œNo, what where you going to say?” she demanded hotly.
    â€œNothing. Nothing you shouldn’t already be aware of, at least.” He cocked his head to one side. “Tell me about your cousin.”
    â€œEleanor?”
    â€œYes. Anything that you think would help us find her.”
    â€œShe’s seventeen. She has dark hair and dark eyes. I’m told she’s small, like me.”
    â€œYou’re . . . told?” he asked.
    â€œI . . . well, I have to admit I don’t know Eleanor very well,” she said, letting her eyes fall to her hands in her lap. “She was but a child when I . . . left Manchester.”
    â€œWhen you ran off with me,” Theo said, forcing her eyes to his. “You might as well say it, at least when we are alone. Talking around it is exhausting.”
    She didn’t know how to answer that. So she didn’t.
    â€œYou haven’t been back to Manchester in ten years?” he asked.
    â€œNo. You?”
    â€œNo. My uncle died several years ago—and there was no reason to go.”
    Of course not. He wouldn’t want to risk seeing her even though she wasn’t there. Or perhaps he just didn’t care.
    â€œYou haven’t even been back to visit?” he said.
    â€œHow could I?” she replied. “In everyone’s eyes I was as good as ruined.”
    â€œIn their eyes, but not in fact.”
    Her face grew hot under his gaze. “Facts don’t seem to matter much.”
    â€œThey mattered to me,” he said. “Learning the truth saved my future.”
    And just like that, any curiosity she had about Theo Hudson, about what his life had been like, about who he had become, broke into a thousand pieces and blew away on a puff of air.
    â€œOf course,” she answered, her tongue turned sour. “Learning before any vows were spoken about the modesty of my dowry would have been very advantageous for you.”
    She swung her head to the window, forcing her eyes to see beyond the glass. But out of the corner of her eye, she could see his face, which was covered in . . . confusion.
    What on earth did he have to be confused about? The choice he had made all those years ago was informed, and very, very clear.
    â€œMy cousin Eleanor I know best from the letters her mother sends,” she said, forcing her mind back to the true reason she was here in this carriage with him. “Up until this past year, she was just another bright-eyed girl who was mad about horses. Then the regiment came to town.”
    He nodded. “Everything changed with the arrival of red coats.”
    â€œSuddenly my aunt’s letters were filled with stories from public balls, and meetings in

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