The book’s front page had proclaimed it was “Printed by William Stansby for Walter Burre, and sold at his shop in Paules Church-yard at the signe of the Crane in London.”The fact that it had been printed decades ago was but a minor inconvenience.Although Sir Walter Raleigh had been dead some seventy years, he was still a popular author—surely Colin would be able to find another copy of the book the next time he went to the City.
“What a lovely gift,” Kendra said to Amy now.“Is anyone else tired?I’m exhausted.”
“I need to finish making my gifts.”Jewel rose and stretched.“Uncle Ford, have you any wire I can use?I fear I may not have brought enough.”
“Of course,” Ford said.“Come up to my laboratory.”
“I really am tired,” Kendra repeated more loudly.“I think I fancy a nap before supper.”
Everyone turned to look at her.Colin raised a brow.“A nap?”
“Yes, a nap,” she snapped out.
A nap.Ha.He rather thought she fancied taking her husband to bed.Just let her try, he thought, hard put to keep a grin off his face.
“I’m weary, too,” Trick said.“I got home in the middle of the night.”
“So we heard.”Colin waved a magnanimous hand.“Run along, you two.And Jewel.Anyone staying here want to play cards?”
Nine
Kendra
OUT OF BREATHafter dashing to their chamber, Kendra and Trick barely took time to shut the door before locking their lips together.
In no time at all, Kendra went from out of breath to downright woozy.Her head spun.Her heart raced.Her husband’s arms were around her, and he smelled like—
“What on earth is that smell?”she gasped, pulling away.
“What smell?”Trick yanked her back against him.“You smell lovely.Delightful.Like—”
“Like fifty pairs of smelly stockings!”She held her nose, but that didn’t help.“It’s awful.Can you not smell it?”
He sniffed at the air.“I suppose.But do I care?No.Hearts wounds, I’ve missed you.”He pressed his mouth to hers again, urgently, one arm holding her close while the other began hiking up her skirts.
She’d missed him, too.She wanted to do this.
She made an effort to sink into the kiss, to immerse herself in the sensation of Trick’s deft lips moving on hers, his fingers skimming over her silk-stockinged leg, his solid body and strong arm holding her up.A tingling warmth began to grow within her, overwhelming conscious thought, replacing it with unthinking, unbridled physical need.
For all of five seconds.
“Ugh!”She broke the kiss.“I cannot stand it!It’sworsethan fifty pairs of smelly stockings!It’s like a hundred rotten eggs!It’s like—”
“Bloody hell,” he interrupted, releasing her and stepping away.“I’ll open the windows.”Stalking over to the longest wall, he shoved up the top panels of the newfangled sash windows.“There.Better?”
“Now I’m cold.”
“I’ll warm you up in no time,” he said, crossing back to her and dragging her back into his arms.“Sweet Mary,leannan, I cannot wait—”
“Wait!Oh, my God, wait!”Spotting something on the floor beneath the bed, she pulled away to retrieve it.“A mousetrap.”She sniffed at it.“Set with the most awful-smelling cheese imaginable!”
It was a soft cheese.Hunting around the chamber, she found more of it smeared here and there, near where other traps were set.Along the windowsill, beneath the bed, across the top of the headboard.Exasperated, she threw back the counterpane, shrieking when she found traps in the bedding too.
“Who in their right mind puts mouse traps in a bed?”
Trick shrugged.“Colin said he saw mice in here.Someone must have got overzealous.Maybe Margaret.”
“We should have brought Edmund instead.He might have some common sense.”
