And the same would befall Maxine.
“Lor…your grace,don’t.”I squeezed his neck.“Honestly, it’s not that I fear him, or I’ve known nothing but this so I expectit, or anything like that.I just…Dad and I have a weird—”
He lifted his hands to wrap his fingers around my wrists,and he carefully pried away my hold.
“You must know, seeing what we’ve seen, it’s our duty toattend to you, sweeting,” he said gently.
Shit, shit,shit!
Why did this guy have to be a good guy?Tall and strong andinteresting and tender and principled.
Fuck!
“Stay here,” he bid.“It’ll all be resolved shortly.I’llcome to get you, we’ll have dinner.In the meantime, I’ll send someone to pouryou a sherry so you can calm yourself, and bring you a cold compress, toperhaps contain some of the swelling.”
With that, he gave my wrists a squeeze then let go.
He started walking away.
Goddamn it.
There was nothing for it.
“He’s holding my mother and sister captive until I marryyou,” I said to his back.
Loren froze, statue still, his back to me.
I sounded like a lunatic.
I had no choice.
“I know it sounds insane, because it is, because he’s a hugedi…I mean, uh,cad, but it’s true.I didn’t want to…didn’t wantto…come home.FromFleuridia.Because, obviously,he’s awful.And my sister, she’s…not right.She needs to be somewhere wherethey can look after her.And…and…and…”
I trailed off because he’d been turning, slowly, as I spoke,and now he was facing me with a carefully blank look on his face that wasscaring the beads off me.
“I know I sound mad,” I said quietly.“But it’s true.And Iwas playing his game until I could discover where they were, rescue them,spirit them away, and then…um, I don’t know.I was making it up as I wentalong.But then he hit me, and it hurt a lot…”
I got off that tangent fast when his mood started heating myskin again.
“And I was dazed and made a mistake and now we have to go inthere and pretend it’s all right and…uh…your grace?”
I called after him in the end because he’d turned on hisshiny, black evening boot and was prowling out of the room.
Uh-oh.
“I think I just made mistake two, goddamn it,” I snapped tomyself.
And then, with no other choice, I gripped silk and crystalsand beads in my fingers and flew after him.
Chapter Seven
We’re Away
Maxine
I caught up with him because my skirt wasn’t tightthis time, and the situation meant I was okay with running, something I had todo because his legs were so long and they swiftly ate up ground with hisstalking, thus I had no choice.
He entered the drawing room with me on his heels,announcing, “As mad as it is, you were right, Father.She has a twin.”
