“As if a woman of your size could stop a man of my size from going forward.”
“I did not push you nearly hard enough to send you over the wall.”
“Why did you push me at all?”
“So we would learn what we needed to learn. We now know it is possible to push a man of your size over. No fisticuffs would be needed. No struggle. No need to hit him over the head first. Just one good push when he is at the wall and it could happen. Oh, it might require a bit more help, but a push alone would move his weight forward enough to unbalance him and make it possible.”
“You could have informed me of your experiment first, damn it.”
“We also know,” she continued, as if she did not notice his anger, “that a woman alone could probably manage it. I say probably because if I had really wanted you to fall over, I think I would have had to help more and I don’t think I would be big enough. A woman with more weight and height and strength than I have, however . . .” She just let that hang there.
“You had no idea whether your little push might be more effective than you supposed. I could be dead right now and you would be looking down at my body thinkingOh, dear, it appears I pushed too hard.”
“I would not be thinking that at all.”
“No. You would be thinking of how to convince the magistrate that it had not been deliberate.”
That sapped the confidence out of her expression. “That is not true. I would be too distraught to recognize my own peril. However, you are correct. I should have warned you. You would have been on your guard then, and it would have been a much poorer experiment, but at least you would not believe that I put you at risk with nary a thought about it.”
She appeared very sorry. So much that he felt bad about scolding her. He had to check the impulse to embrace her and reassure her that he had never been much at risk.
“We also learned something else,” he said, by way of appeasement. “We know that it is most unlikely that he could go over without that push. There is no chance that he tripped, say, and lost his balance and plunged over.”
“No chance at all, it seems to me.”
In other words, the duke’s death had not been an accident.
* * *
She walked away from the spot, taking the long way in so she would navigate the entire roof before returning to the door. He trailed right behind her. She felt him there. Still angry, but not as much now.
She stopped on the front of the house. The prospect was magnificent. Not many hills here, and beyond the stand of trees along the approaching lane she could see the road, and even villages and farmhouses in the distance.
“It is remarkable up here,” she said. “I understand why he favored it. If I lived here I would come up several times a day.”
Chase said nothing, just looked out as she did. She liked how sometimes they shared a companionable silence like this.
“Distraught?” The word came to her quietly, in a tone of amusement and curiosity. “I am flattered.”
She would have to watch every word she spoke to him, since he apparently did.
“No matter what you think, I do not kill men with nary a concern.”
“Concern is understandable. Distraught, however—”
“We did share some kisses. I would have a cold heart if I did not feel at least somewhat distraught.”
Fingertips brushed down the side of her face, making her cheek quiver with a pleasant little shock. He took careful hold of her chin and turned her face so she could see him, and he her.
“About those kisses,” he said. “Did I in some way frighten you?”
Her soul sighed. He wanted to know why she had reacted as she had.
“It was nothing you did. There is no blame on you.”
“I don’t understand.”
Of course not. How could he? She had never talked about this with anyone. She never had to, because she had not been touched or kissed in years. She gazed down, because she could never speak of this if she looked at him. “I am not like other women. It is not in my nature to know that kind of pleasure or desire. Please accept this explanation. To say more is too embarrassing.”
