Swaying, he gave her another look, this time more leisurely.
More . . . hungry.
Leah quite promptly forgot to breathe, her mind scrambling to patch meaning out of his words.
Plain and silent. He had leaned on the first word.
Those were the promises she had broken. And he apparently hadn’t been referring to thesilentpart.
Which meant . . .
Which meant . . . Fox Carnegie found her to be the opposite of . . .plain.
Her brain stuttered and floundered, all her outraged anger disappearing into a white haze ofuhnnnnnn,her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth.
Did he mean . . .
That he considered her . . .
Once more, Fox Carnegie had completely outmaneuvered her.
They stared at each other for a long moment.
The tension hovering between them abruptly morphed into something more vital, more elemental. The air vibrated, crackling and charged.
Leah’s chest constricted, heart pounding in her throat.
How had he done this yet again? Scattering her wits to the four winds when drunk and argumentative?
“Fox . . .” she began, voice thready and hoarse, half-question, half plea.
He stepped toward her, his hand raising slowly.
As if to touch her.
As if to hold her.
A benediction.
Leah closed her eyes, almost afraid to breathe.
“Oh, Mrs. Carnegie! Captain!” Bethany’s voice called from the doorway.
The tension snapped in the room like a broken bow string, flailing wide and striking with startling pain.
Leah flinched.
“She’s gone.” Bethany wrung her hands. “Madeline is. She said she wished tae see the new litter of kittens in the barn and when I turned around, she had slipped out the kitchen door. I cannae find her in the stables . . .”
As if recognizing the appropriate moment to punctuate the maid’s words, a gust of wind rattled the window latch. Thunder added its ominous voice, rumbling in the distance.
Fox crossed to the window, looking out over the moor and the clouds gathered there. He cursed a low string of profanity.
“Blast it, girl! Why can’t you keep track of one curious child?!” he snapped, turning to Bethany. “She’ll catch her death if we don’t find her before the storm breaks.”
Leah, the ominous letter, and the events of the past five minutes appeared to be completely forgotten.
Fox staggered from the room, bellowing for William to fetch him his coat.
