'Must I?' she muttered.

Harker took a long drink of his beer. Must have an iron stomach, she thought, to survive drinking from something that unhygienic.

Then she thought about just how hard his entire body was, and gulped some of the beer to cool herself down.

Then she spat it out.

A couple of drinkers nearby sniggered at her. Eve narrowed her eyes at Harker, who was grinning. 'You did that on purpose,' she said.

'It's an acquired taste.'

'It's disgusting.' Eve looked at the treacle-like brew in her mug, then down at her tight satin dress, and thought, what the hell. She stumbled and tipped the beer all down her dress.

'Oh no,' she said theatrically. 'And now I'm going to smell of beer all night long.'

Harker laughed at that, and ordered her some cider instead. It came in a wooden mug, which she supposed was marginally more hygienic than leather, and was actually quite pleasant. He lit up a cigarette, and she took it from him, puffed a few times but didn't inhale.

She wanted to smell like cigarettes. The fact that she was smoking the same cigarette Harker had put between his own lips was completely by the by.

'So,' she said, 'where does your wife think you are?'

He shrugged. 'Oh, working late. Doing all that ... teacher paperwork.'

'That sounds very boring.'

'It is.'

She adjusted her cleavage again. 'I can see why you came looking for me.'

He smiled at that, a slow smile that did fizzy things to her insides, and she gulped more of the cider. When someone pushed past her to the bar, Harker curled his arm around her waist and pulled her close against his body, and Eve lost her breath. His whole body was so lean and hard, as if he'd been made from rock, steady and invincible.

Eve found herself leaning into him, her arms around his neck, trying not to breathe in the hot-man scent she'd nearly overdosed on outside the gate. Trying not to betray that she was actually developing a giant-sized crush on Harker, who after all didn't even like her very much.

She tried to draw back a little, give herself some breathing space, and then she caught his injured shoulder and he flinched, ever so slightly.

'Sorry,' Eve mouthed, wincing, looking up and meeting those hot gunmetal eyes.

He nodded silently, holding her gaze.

The background of the tavern seemed muted, distant, like a TV burbling in the background, and all Eve was aware of was the tall, broad-shouldered and very handsome man holding her close against his hard, perfect body.

This isn't fair, she thought wildly. He's not even nice to me. God, I must be going mad if I'm this attracted to someone I don't even like.

Searching desperately for something to distract herself, she said, 'So, this plan! Do I get to hear it?'

Harker cleared his throat, and she watched the muscles in his beautiful neck move. 'Plan,' he said. 'Yes. Right. We ... uh, go to the school.'

'And? Do we have a reason for going there?'

He hesitated, then in a voice that suggested he was expecting to get shot down said, 'Uh, you get turned on by books?'

Eve laughed. She couldn't help it. 'Books,' she said. 'Right. Fine. I'm an intellectual floozy.'

He smiled again, that slow and gentle smile, and brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes, which was wickedly unfair of him. How was she supposed to resist him when he kept doing things like that?

Forcing herself to breathe deeply, she closed her eyes.

'Are you all right?' Harker asked.

'I'm fine.' Just having palpitations.

'It's warm in here. Do you want to get some air?'

Eve nodded, because maybe outside she could get some distance from him, get her brain working again, remind herself he was just pretending with her, and she was pretending with him, and that as soon as they'd stolen this modem he wasn't going to be cuddling her any more.

Dammit.

Taking her hand, he led her out of the crowded tavern, sat her down on a bench outside, and crouched down in front of her. 'Better?'

She took a deep breath, which he watched with interest, and that forced a laugh from her.

'I know they're right there,' she said, looking down at her heaving bosoms, 'but you don't have to stare at them so much.'

It was hard to tell in the dim light outside the tavern, but she thought his clean-shaven cheeks got a bit pink.

'Why, Major Harker,' she said, 'are you blushing?'

'Of course not. I don't blush.' He stood up abruptly. 'You're obviously feeling better. Come on, then.'

He didn't extend his hand to her this time, but started walking away, and Eve frowned and stayed where she was. After a few paces, he stopped and turned back, scowling at her.

'Well? Are you stopping there?'

'I am if you don't stop this hot-and-cold rubbish,' Eve said. 'Either be nice to me or don't, but stop turning on a dime because you're confusing the hell out of me.'

He came back, looked down at her for one long, inscrutable moment, then said, 'Turning on a dime?'

'Never mind,' Eve said. 'Are you going to be civil to me?'

Harker gave a sigh, as if it was all too much trouble for him, and said, 'Yes. Fine. Miss Carpenter, would you do me the honour of accompanying me?'

He gave her back his jacket and held out his hand. Eve looked at it for a moment, at that missing little finger and the scars edging his palm, then took it and stood up.

'Lead on, Macduff,' she said.

'Macduff?'

'Never mind.'

They walked along the riverbank, slowly, Eve's hand tucked into the crook of Harker's arm. It felt nice, companionable, as if they were friends or maybe on a first date. Eve wasn't exactly sure what a first date was meant to feel like, though, since she'd never technically been on one. When she was a teenager, 'going out' with someone meant being seen with them at lunchtime and sitting next to them in double maths once or twice. At fourteen, the price of a cinema ticket and bus fare had been beyond most of the boys she knew, and anyway, most of her evenings had been spent in rehearsals for musicals with boys who played for the other team. Once she hit fame in Grrl Power there'd simply been no possibility of going for dinner or a movie. She and Kevin had just appeared together at various parties and premieres, and then sort of drifted into couplehood.

Evidently it had rained recently in Leeds, because the cobbles were damp and slippery, hard to walk on in heels. It gave her an excuse to hang on to Harker, with his rock-hard biceps and strong forearms. Eve had always had a thing for a nicely defined forearm, the mark of a man who used his hands a lot. Holding on to Harker was like clinging to an iron bar. He felt solid, indestructible, and more than once he kept her from falling when she stumbled on an uneven cobblestone.

To distract herself, she watched the lights dancing in the river, unexpectedly pretty in this slightly seedy part of town. She didn't realise she was humming until Harker said, 'What's that song?'

'Oh,' Eve said. 'Uh it's called On My Own. There's just a verse about lights on the river, and I was thinking of it. Sorry.'

'How does it go?'

Without really thinking, she sang the first three lines of the verse, and then got to the line about being with him forever and forever, and broke off abruptly.

There's no 'him and me', he thinks I'm a spy, and crazy to boot. Stop being sentimental, girl.

' "And"?' Harker said.

'Um ... I can't remember that line,' Eve fumbled. 'Sorry. It's from the same musical the same play as the song you wouldn't let me sing on the way up here, do you remember? Do You Hear The People Sing?'

'Is it? Sounds different.'

'Well, that one was a call to rebellion, and this one is about a girl who's in love with someone who doesn't want her.'

'I thought it was about trees and rivers,' Harker said, but when she looked up at him, he was smiling. Eve smiled back, and something sparked between them that made her a little dizzy. She stumbled, losing her footing, and as he pulled her closer to his body to keep her upright, she forced her gaze out at the river, away from him.

Beautiful as it was, On My Own was also sad. The only time Eponine got to be held in the arms of the man she loved was when she was dying, and Eve didn't think she wanted to go that far.

Eponine died, and Marius survived, victorious, to marry his chosen bride and live happily ever after. Without her, his world went on turning.

'Harker?'

'Mmm?'

She tried out various ways of saying it before eventually going for the simplest.

'What's going to happen to me? I mean, after we get this modem and you have your working computer, and presumably take it back down to London ... you won't need me any more.'

Harker looked away, out at the river.

'Will I just be going back to St James's for the rest of my life?'

He let out a sigh and stopped walking. 'I wish you'd come up with a bloody reason for flying over the Thames,' he muttered, and turned to face her. 'Eve, I don't want you to be a spy. I want you to have a bona fide explanation and be pardoned and go free.'

Eve caught her breath at the intensity in his voice.

'And I will do what I can to see you free, but without anything to prove you're innocent ...'

He was gripping her arms, looking so fierce she was terribly glad he was on her side.

'And helping you? Won't that earn me some Browni some points?'

'Aye, a few. But the army likes proof,' Harker said, more than a trace of bitterness in his voice. He dropped his hands. 'Come on,' he said, offering her his arm again, and Eve took it. Her heart was thumping.

'Harker?' she said after a few more steps.

'Yeah?'

'Um. About this morning. I ... um.'

'It's all right.'

'No, it's not. I shouldn't have stayed, I was just ... I was really tired, okay, and not thinking straight, and I was freezing and the bed was warm and ... and I didn't really want to go back to my own room, without Tallulah or Martindale'

Harker reached over and touched the hand she had curled into his elbow. 'Yeah,' he said.

'And ... well, now Banks probably thinks ... and who knows what he's told everyone else'

'Ignore 'em,' he said.

'Well, I do, but that's not the point.' The point is, I woke up and nearly kissed you, because you were lying there looking so warm and vital and sexy, and if Banks hadn't come in I'd have taken advantage of the fact that you were nearly naked to pin you down and ravish you.

Harker was frowning at something in the distance.

'I just didn't want you to to think that I'd What are you staring at?'

'There's someone hiding in the shadows there,' Harker murmured. 'Wait here.'

'Wait here?' Eve hissed, as Harker tried to disentangle her arm from his. She clung on. 'Are you serious? We're walking by the river, I'm dressed like a bloody hooker, and you want me to wait here?'

'Yes,' he said patiently. 'That's why I said "wait here".'

But there's someone hiding in the shadows, Eve thought, watching him walk away, her iron bar. They don't do that for honest reasons!

But he just walked up to the darkened gap between buildings and reached straight in, pulling out a huddled, skinny woman, whimpering and looking as if she might faint with fear.

Okay, he can be scary, but honestly woman, grow a spine, thought Eve. Then the light fell on the woman's face and Harker dropped her instantly, raising his palms and looking horrified.

'Mary? What the what are you doing here? I thought you were a thief or something.'

Mary was holding herself very tightly, arms wrapped around herself, tears trickling down her face. She looked utterly petrified.

'Eve, come over here,' Harker said, and she frowned but did so. 'Mary, this is my friend Eve. She's nice. She won't hurt you.'

Eve tried to look friendly. Her initial assessment of the sobbing woman as a bit of a wuss changed when she got a look at her colourless face and the soul-deep terror in her eyes. Mary's whole body was rigid, her hands shaking slightly, her posture huddled and submissive.

'You're Mary White,' she said, and Mary's eyes snapped to her. 'Harker told me' She glanced at him, and there was warning in his eyes. He hadn't actually told her anything other than Mary's name, but Eve knew him well enough by now to recognise the tightness around his mouth when he said it.

'He told me he'd met up with the wife of one of his men,' she said carefully.

Mary gave a stiff little nod, and Harker said gently, 'Mary, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you.'