He snorted. “Of course not.”
“You arrogantass.”
He lifted the poker and poked at the flames. At least her teeth had stopped chattering. “So, let’s hear this… Whywereyou abducting me?”
“Isaid,” she replied, closer behind him now. “I was after the traveling chariot… I…I require conveyance.”
“Conveyance.” He jabbed the coals.
“To the Scottish border. Where I p-plan to meet one Edmund Alistair Clarke, Lord Belhaven.”
Her voice softened as she spoke the name. His blood ran cold, though for what reason, he could not imagine.
He replaced the poker and stared into the growing flames.
So what if she wasn’t after him after all? This was a blessing. A bloody triumph. Only, who the devil was Edmund Alistair Clarke?
The name sounded vaguely familiar.
An older man, he thought. Lived in the next county over from the Grange, if Rayne was not mistaken. Then again, he’d been away a long time. And peers had the confusing habit of passing on their names to their children.
He repeated her explanation, just to be sure. “You are headed to the Scottish border.”
“Y-Yes.”
He braced himself on the mantle. “To meet Edmund Alistair whats-his-name.”
“It-t-t is,” she interrupted, teeth chattering once again, “a g-grand love s-s-story.”
The log cracked, and something within him fanned to flame. Something violent. He rose to his feet.
“You reckless little—” He swung around. “GoodGod!”
She’d turned blue. Blue.
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Chapter Five
She should have resisted Rayne’s embrace.Correction.Shewouldhave resisted his embrace, if body-convulsing shivers were something one could simply command away.
Rayne—a tower of a man, with a terribly forbidding downward glance—grabbed her shoulders, gaze fixed on her trembling lips, and engulfed her in his arms.
Not very gently, either.
She stiffened as, with a rough sigh, he hustled her forward. She hadn’t any choice but to follow—her legs had ceased to properly function.
She leaned against his muscled chest for support as he reached back and yanked the quilt off the bed.
“Y-You shouldn’t use that b-blanket.”
He frowned. “Why not?”
“Katherine s-says any m-m-manner of verm-min—”
“You’re freezing. Your other clothes are drenched. My coat is dripping. And Katherine isn’t here.” He released her and shook out the blanket.
Her knees buckled.
