She sniffed and the play of moonlight over her face told him her jaw tightened.
Angelica could have no idea how enticing she looked at that moment, with the pearly light half illuminating the details of her face, and the dip and curve of her shoulder. The strap of her night rail was nothing but a three-finger-wide pink ribbon, and the eyelet lace that edged the straight neckline gapped a bit. Her lips were gently parted and full, and the cloud of dark waves cascaded over her shoulders and onto the pillows.
The only aspect marring that beautiful image was the loathing burning in her eyes. Even in the ineffective light, he saw it. The smile he’d tried to force wavered.
“What do you want, then?” she said again, still as coldly as before.
This was not as simple as he’d expected it to be. Voss knew he could easily overpower her, remove the stake from her hand and do whatever he wanted. He could take what he needed, and be gone from London within hours.
The sharp, pounding pain radiating over his back urged him to grab those delicate shoulders and drag her to him.Take.
“I have something for you,” he said, pulling two velvet pouches from the inside of his coat. “And for your sister. An apology. To both of you.”
“I don’t want anything from you.” Her voice was cold, and she didn’t even glance at the jewelry bags.
“Nevertheless, I shall leave them. Perhaps your sister will accept them. They are quite valuable.” He turned and set them on her dressing table. The gifts were really more for Dimitri’s sake than Angelica’s.
“Very well, then. You’ve delivered your apology— unwelcome as it is. Nowleave.”
“I also came to ask that you use your Sight to give me information.”
Her eyes widened in shock, and those delicious lips pruned up like an old maid’s. “You came to ask a favor of me? Why in God’s name would I do anything foryou?”
Voss winced at her use of the name of God—or perhaps it was simply the Mark—and he once again tried to adopt a placating smile. “Because if you assist me, I’ll leave London and I won’t bother you ever again.”
Despite her bitterness and loathing, he didn’t expect her reaction to be quite as quick and businesslike as it was. “You’d leave London? Is that a vow? Because if it is, I would be most happy to make such a bargain.”
Something panged uncomfortably in the vicinity of his heart and even his belly squeezed—like it did in the morning after too much blood whisky and ale and wine had all mixed up and sloshed around. “You have my word,” he said.
Angelica snorted in that ladylike way that had amused him previously. “What is it, then?”
Voss pulled out the slender gold chain from a different pocket inside his coat. When he’d first acquired it, he hadn’trealized it would be put to use in this way, but now that he knew Angelica’s secret, it made perfect sense.
“It isn’t a glove—I know that you prefer gloves,” he said, looking at her purposely. He forced himself to say it. “You read death on my glove, didn’t you? Will you tell me what you saw?”
“What I saw is not at all to my liking.”
Voss stilled. Waited. But she said nothing further. “Angelica?”
“It’s not to my liking because I saw nothing. I would that I’d foretold a violent, imminent death for you.”
“You saw nothing?” He wasn’t certain whether to be alarmed or relieved. Did that mean he wasn’t to die? Ever? Something like relief blossomed.
“Are you hard of hearing?” She held out her hand. “Give me the chain and be off with you.”
“You will attempt it?”
“Leave it with me, and I’ll meditate upon it. I’ll send you a message in the morning through Rubey with any information I can cull from the chain.” The stake shifted warningly in her hand, its point still aimed at him.
Voss hid his surprise. “But how can I trust that you will follow through on our agreement, Angelica?” He allowed his voice to caress her name the way he had done to her shoulder.
That very same shoulder lifted in a delicate shrug. “You will have to trust me.” Her eyes narrowed and she straightened. For a moment, he saw something else besides hatred and anger there. It might have been hurt.
“And how am I to know that you wouldn’t send me a message simply so you can advise Corvindale of my direction?”
Her lips quirked a bit. “A brilliant suggestion. Thank you, Dewhurst. I’m not certain I would have thought of that myself in my haste to rid London of your vile presence. Now, if you please, remove yourself from my chamber. And this house.”
He couldn’t leave. “Don’t you wish to know to whom that watch chain belongs?”
