A moment later Liam was stalking toward Mac and Caroline, his expression set. Perry picked up his pace and came flush with Liam as they reached the door.
“It must be now,” Caroline whispered to Mac. “You wait here for Liam, and I will go with Perry.”
Perry knew exactly what he was doing. He planted himself next to the disguised Caroline and took her arm, greeting her as Rose. The two of them were already to the gig when Liam addressed Mac, who had pretended to be busy with the hem of Caroline’s fancy cloak.
“Are you ready, Caroline?” he asked impatiently.
She nodded, head down, and accepted his offered arm. She sensed him looking at her, perhaps wondering at her silence, but still he said nothing as he handed her into the carriage. It wasn’t until she stumbled over her skirts getting into the front seat that he stiffened with realization. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him look toward the gig. He breathed a curse.
So the game was up, but Caroline had achieved her goal. She was in the gig with Perry, ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
The bonnet was snatched from Mac’s head before she could remove it.
“Was this your idea, or Perry’s?” Liam growled.
“Caroline’s, actually.” Mac met his gaze with more self-assurance than she felt. “She wanted to ride with Perry. I think she was a little upset with you.”
Liam stared at her, clearly preparing to read Mac the riot act, but Perry chose that opportune moment to drive the gig past the surrey.
“Mustn’t keep the horses standing, old man,” Perry said, checking the restive animals with a steady hand on the reins. “Caroline and I shall meet you at Golden Gate Park.” His horses broke into a trot.
Liam hopped up into the driver’s seat beside Mac, jaw set, and slapped the reins over the backs of his own team.
“Golden Gate Park,” Mac said nervously. “I really am looking forward to seeing it. Must be pretty different now, compared to my time. They haven’t even landscaped it yet, have they? Is it still all sand dunes?”
She thought he wasn’t going to reply until he looked at her, brows lifted in amazement—and suddenly began to laugh.
* * *
Mac, pretending to be Caroline. If the attempt hadn’t been so ludicrously successful, it would have been unthinkable.
It was, in fact, a very good joke.
Liam’s laugh faded to a rueful smile. He was the fool not to have seen it immediately. Of course, by the time he’d realized what had happened, only a public commotion would have corrected the situation.
Perhaps if he hadn’t been so bloody distracted. Distracted by Mac in the Gresham house—distracted by her now, in that borrowed carriage dress that made her look disturbingly—
Feminine. That was the word. Feminine in the way Liam had always maintained a woman should be and had never expected to see in Mac.
There was something to be said for the change. The bodice of her dress gave her a surprisingly interesting shape; beneath the snug, high-collared fit of the basque, her bosom had taken on unexpected prominence. Her waist was minuscule, her hips emphasized by the bunched fabric and bustle of her skirt—a far cry from her denim trousers or the thin cotton pants and shirt she’d borrowed from him once upon a time.
She almost looked like a lady. But she didn’t look like Mac, and he wondered why the thought unsettled him. He had the unexpected notion that Mac didn’t need such trappings to be utterly female—and he remembered, with shocking clarity, that day she’d stood in the jungle lake with water gleaming on her naked skin. Or lying on top of him, small breasts bare against his chest, kissing him with wanton passion.
He snapped away from that image. Hell—the problem was that Mac was pretending to be something she wasn’t. It had to be part of whatever scheme Perry had planned, however he’d dragged Mac into it.
It wasn’t going to work on Liam O’Shea.
So now Mac sat stiffly in her seat, toying with the plumes on the ridiculous bonnet and trying to distract him with nonsensical questions. She wouldn’t get off so easily. He set the horses to a faster gait in order to keep Perry and Caroline in sight—where he intended to be every step of the way to Cliff House.