The creak of a door sounded in the distance.
She dropped the bone into a waste bucket and slid the now-empty platter into the sink. Desperate to rinse the bloody evidence from her hands and face before the kitchen staff came upon her, she hurried to the water pitcher—only to find it empty.
“Blast.”
Ellie scrambled to a rag bin and rubbed her mouth and fingers with a cloth that smelt strongly of brandy. No matter. She would far rather stink of wine at six o’clock in the morning than have her face smeared with the juice of... whatever she’d just consumed. Good Lord. She snatched a mint leaf from a nearby jar to cleanse both her breath and mind of the memory.
She tossed the rag back into the bin and swallowed the mint just as a small tornado of fur shot through the kitchen door and launched itself directly at her. Any remaining trace of foodstuff disappeared under the ministrations of an excited, lapping puppy.
Ellie’s pent-up breath dissolved in a burst of nervous laughter. Had she known her only witness would be a little tea-colored puppy, she wouldn’t have been so hasty in getting rid of the bone. In fact... why deprive the adorable creature? With the licking, wriggling puppy balanced in the crook of her arm, she picked her way back to the scrap bucket in search of the dropped bone.
The puppy snatched the bone from her grasp and shot into the shadows to noisily consume its prize. Ellie shook her head and smiled at the wagging tail just visible in the darkness. How marvelous it would be to have a pet! If only she and Mama didn’t spend so much time running from nothing to nowhere, perhaps Ellie would’ve been able to have a dog or a kitten or anything to call her own.
She was so entranced by the puppy’s overzealous tail-wagging and bone-chewing that she scarcely registered the kitchen door’s opening once more, until a familiar masculine voice spoke wryly from the corner.
“I see you’ve met my dog.”
She whirled about to find Mr. Macane lounging against the closed door, one hand hooked at his waist and the other lazily massaging his shoulder. Perhaps he hadn’t slept well. As she’d also been unable to settle into sleep, she’d spent hours at the window, gazing up at the moon.
“Good morning,” was all she said aloud, however. Being alone with a notorious scoundrel was scandalous enough without adding the topic of how he spent his nights to the mix. “I see you’re both early risers.”
Amusement flickered across Mr. Macane’s handsome features. “I don’t think she sleeps.”
“It’s a girl?” She grinned at the puppy’s wagging tail with renewed delight. “What’s her name?”
He gazed at the shadows as if debating whether to divulge a dark secret. After a long moment, he gave a one-shoulder shrug and replied, “I call her Moch-éirigh.”
“Mac Eric?” Ellie repeated doubtfully. “What a horrible name for a puppy.”
Mr. Macane blinked at her, then laughed. “Not Mac Eric. Moch-éirigh. It’s... Scottish.”
“What does it mean?”
A hint of a smile still played about the edges of his lips. “It means ‘early riser.’”
“Oh, it does not.” Ellie shook her finger at him in mock chastisement. “It probably means, ‘I love calling attention to myself.’”
“You too?” he answered innocently. “Then we have something in common.”
She laughed. “Unlikely. People who’ve never met you know all about your exploits, whereas those who’ve met me dozens of times recall neither my name nor my face.”
Mr. Macane’s raised brows indicated his skepticism. “I find that difficult to conceive.”
“Believe as you will.” Annoyed with herself for having voiced such a private hurt, Ellie feigned an irreverent smile as if she’d been bamming him all along. “In any case, Mac Eric is adorable.”
“Moch-éirigh, wench,” Mr. Macane growled good-naturedly. “And if you must know, it’s you I find captivating.”
“Did you just compare me to your dog?” Ellie gave her head an exaggerated shake. “And to think the gossips claim you an accomplished rake.”
His sea-green eyes focused so intently on her face that Ellie didn’t register any movement in the room until she realized there was now a mere hairsbreadth between them.
“Do not belittle your own worth or underestimate the power of your beauty.” His voice was low, his gaze seductively honest. “Those ladies may remember me, but they do not want me. They seek the idea of me. A moment, a night, a dance... something to talk about over tea. You are a mystery.”
Ellie gazed up at him, captivated as much by his proximity as by his intoxicating words. There was little ambient light in the small kitchen, but somehow she could see him clearly. Pale skin, high cheekbones, dark eyelashes framing light-green eyes. More striking was the bare neck at six o’clock in the morning and the contrasting chestnut mane caught in a leather band at the nape.
The most disconcerting of all, however, was how he smelled—or, rather, how he didn’t smell. Ellie had always been uncomfortably aware of the odor of others—dust, sweat, too much perfume. Mr. Macane’s scent was almost too light to be detected, pleasing to the senses but impossible to place, even for Ellie’s nose. She felt herself leaning into him, face upturned and mouth parted, trying to inhale his very essence.
His gaze dropped to her lips, as if he thought her angling for a kiss.
