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because she lacked the sense not to, or she would retreat to the retiring room and he would take her in the back hall.
    But he had imagined her frightened to passivity, not fighting him each step of the way. He had not expected her to work free of her bonds, nor thought her capable of tearing her virginal white ball gown to shreds in her attempt to escape.
    Nor had he expected the lusciousness of the body that the dress had hidden. Or how her eyes had turned from green to golden brown as he’d held her. Or the way those changeable eyes had watched him undress. When he had planned the abduction, he had not expected to want her.
    He looked again at his sober reflection in the mirror, and put aside his thoughts of sins of the flesh. While the lust that she inspired in him might have been a pleasant surprise, he did not have the time or inclination to act on it. It was an unnecessary complication if the plan was to hold her honour hostage to gain her family’s cooperation.
    When he arrived at Lord Keddinton’s London home a short time later, he pushed his way past the butler, assuring the poor man that an appointment was unnecessary: Robert Veryan was always at home to him.
    Keddinton sat at the desk in his office, a look of alarm on his pasty face. “Hebden. Is it wise to visit in daylight?”
    Stephano stared down at the cowardly little man. “Was it wise to run back to London so soon after the disappearance of your guest? You should have taken the time to look for the girl, before declaring her irretrievable.”
    “I– I– I felt that the family must be told, in person, of what had occurred.” The man’s eyes shifted nervously along with his story.
    “You thought to outrun me, more like. By coming here, you deviated from the instructions I set out for you. You were to await my message to you, and then you were to deliver it. It was most inconvenient for me to have to follow you here. Inconvenient, but by no means difficult.”
    When Keddinton offered no further explanation, Stephano dropped the package he had brought onto the desk in front of him. “You will take this to Carlow.”
    The man ignored his order and said, “The girl. Is she still safe? Because you took her from my house.”
    “Exactly as you knew I would,” Stephano reminded him calmly. “We agreed on the method and location, before I took any action.”
    Keddinton’s breathing was shallow, as though now that the deed was done, he was a scant inch from panic. “She was supposed to be in my care. And if the Carlows realize that it was I who recommended Lord Salterton to my wife…”
    “You will tell them you had no idea that the man was a problem, and that you are not even sure he was the one who took her. Her absence was not discovered until late in the evening, was it? And others had departed by that time, as well. I took care that no one saw me leaving. The corridor and the grounds were empty, as you’d promised they would be.”
    “But still…” Keddinton seemed to be searching for a problem where none existed.
    “Thinking of your own skin, are you?” Stephen wondered who the bigger villain might be, George Carlow, or Veryan for his easy betrayal of his old friend.
    And worse, that it would happen at the expense of an innocent girl… It had been difficult for Stephano to reconcile himself to his own part in the crime. He had not stuck at kidnapping women before. But it had never ended well for him. He was almost guar an teed a headache so strong that he would be too sick to move for several days. His late mother might still want her vengeance, but it was as though she punished him for the dishonourable acts she pushed him to commit.
    But though his head might feel better today, it turned his stomach at how easy it had been to persuade Verity Carlow’s god father to help in her abduction.
    Keddinton opened the package in front of him, and went even paler when he recognized the contents. It was a chemise, embroidered at the throat with