Her hypocrisy stunned me. Yes, I had carried out terrible orders, many of them. Yes, I had done things I would never be able to undo. But I had repented of them. I had changed. I was risking everything to make up for the life I had led, and still Laurel stood there looking at me as though my father had been right about me all along.
Was I supposed to stand there and take that? I wasn’t going to roll over like an obedient dog. If Laurel thought she could manipulate me as easily as she’d manipulated others, she was wrong.
Just as her hand reached for the latch, a knock sounded on the other side. “Sheriff?” a soldier’s voice called. “Are you all right in there?”
“I’m fine,” I answered quickly, waving Laurel away from the door.
She crossed her arms, huffed, and didn’t move an inch.
There was a pause. “We heard a voice.”
“That’s me talking, you morons.”
Another pause. “There was a woman’s voice.”
I glared at Laurel. Yet another consequence of her hasty, impulsive actions, and once again, I had to find a way to cover it. “Yes, I have a woman in here, you imbecile, and we want to be alone. Now get lost.”
“Oh.” The soldier began stumbling over his words. “I see, I see. Well, in that case, perhaps I should…”
“Get lost,” I roared through the door, then gave it a kick for good measure.
His footsteps shuffled down the hall, and I heard him wheeze to someone nearby, “The sheriff doesn’t want to be disturbed right now. He’s entertaining a lady friend.”
Several hearty guffaws answered him.
I waited until the sound of his retreat diminished, then eased open the small sliding panel in the door to see who the soldier had been talking to. Several soldiers from my platoon were still milling around in the hall. Some sat rolling dice. A few leaned against the stone walls beneath a torch bracket, speaking in low voices. Any of them would recognize Laurel from her time as a prisoner if she walked out. She had been too conspicuous and too memorable of a hostage for them to have forgotten, even if they all believed her dead.
I closed the panel and ran my fingers through my hair. I had a meeting soon. I had to get Laurel out safely before then, but I had no idea how long the men would remain outside. Were they waiting to speak with me about more of their stupid quarrels or were they simply avoiding duties? If I ordered them away, it might look too suspicious. If I left the room and commanded them to follow me, Laurel still could be seen slipping out. Every possibility that came to mind had too many risks.
I heaved a sigh.
Laurel had pulled back from the door and was sitting on my bed, arms folded, glowering at me for all she was worth.
I resisted the urge to say something like,Now see what you did. I didn’t want to fan the flames any more than I already had. If I gave Laurel time, her anger would cool off, as would mine. If we kept talking, both of us would say things we’d later regret.
I crossed to my desk and began rifling through the sheaves of parchment stacked there. The hourglass dripped slowly as I painstakingly reviewed report after report, but I absorbedalmost nothing. All the while, I felt Laurel’s heated gaze fixed on me, burning into the side of my head.
“Pretty normal for you to have women in your room, isn’t it?” she asked snippily after a long silence. “They didn’t seem too surprised by your story. After the dance that night, did you bring your date back here and brag to everyone about it after?”
I closed my eyes briefly. Of course I hadn’t brought anyone else here. She should know that. She did know that, I was sure. But Laurel wanted a fight, and every answer I gave would become another weapon. Someone between us had to remain rational, or at least try to.
“You’re going to be angry with me no matter what I say, so I’m not answering that,” I said carefully.
Every quarter hour, I got up and pulled back the sliding panel to check whether the hall was clear. Still, the men remained. I cursed them under my breath and returned to the desk each time, more trapped than before. My reports sat beneath my hands, useless and blurry, while the one person I most wanted to reach sat only a few paces away and felt farther from me than she ever had.
After one such trip to the door, Laurel spoke up. “I can go out. I’m not afraid of them.”
I refrained from rolling my eyes. “Even if you aren’t afraid, they could blow your cover. I won’t let you go out.”
She stood so quickly the bed creaked, her face nearly as red as her hair. “Excuse me? You won’tlet me? You, Baron Blackwellson, don’t own me. I’m not property. You don’t control what I can or can’t do.”
I exhaled hard. “I know that.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.” My voice came out sharper than I intended. “What I mean is that you need tothink.”
“Oh, you are saying I don’t think? You’re saying I’m stupid, aren’t you?” With every few words, Laurel stepped closer until she was right in front of me, chin lifted and eyes blazing.
