Page 42 of The Rogue and the Viscountess

Whatever he planned next, he kept his own counsel. Pete’s fist smashed into his face, knocking him senseless. Prunella hurried outside.

The gardens were cool and smelled like night flowers. The almshouses stood dark with their gabled roofs carving the twilight sky, only a faint glow from one of two candles showing through the narrow windows. Prunella found the privy and dispatched her business, drawing in a huge breath of relief. It hardly seemed that it could have been that afternoon she was stalking Corsham in search of Mary Grist. It was hardly romantic that, after a brilliant rescue by man she suspected she was coming to love, Prunella had to visit the privy.

She walked back toward the summerhouse, not wishing to draw too close, but she didn’t need to. Pete stood in the garden, waiting for her. The empty doorway framed him like a Hercules of legend. Jenny and Morys stood near a cart, discussing how to properly bind Calvin Vaughn, who lay in a heap in the bed of the cart, moaning and muttering imprecations.

Prunella stared at Pete. He stared back.

“He didn’t hurt you?”

“He tried to kiss me.” Prunella dragged the back of her hand over her mouth. She could erase the memory of Calvin Vaughn’s wet lips if she could kiss Pete again. She wanted to, as soon as possible, but the question in his eyes held her still, like a top balanced on its point. She didn’t yet know what he was asking.

“Why did you leave?”

“I didn’t.” She stepped toward him. “I came into town to find your grandmother’s old housekeeper. I wanted to ask her a question.”

She smelled him on the night air, that deep, dark scent that called to her, that made her feel aroused and safe and blissful and a bit maddened all at the same time.

“What did you want to ask her?”

She hesitated, then stepped toward him again. He waited.

“Have you killed anyone?” Her voice was a small thread, one tiny note against the chorus of the night.

He flexed his fists at his sides, then relaxed his hands. How she loved his hands. She wanted to take them and kiss them, palms and backs. She wanted to place those hands on her body. She feared it a bit, how her answer to him would be the same no matter what he answered her. Was she truly so lost to morals?

“I’ve hurt people, Nell.” His voice was a low rumble, behind it the buzz of insects and the night song of the birds. “And I’ve never paid for it, really.”

She nodded. “But have you ever taken a life?”

He winced, that anguish twisting his brow again. “I knew some of the Hound’s men who did, once or twice.”

“But you didn’t.”

“I didn’t stop them, either. I ought have. But he would have killed me if I crossed him. And then he would have hurt my sister.”

“You did it for her,” she said. This was the tale she’d been spinning for herself, like the girl in the fable turning straw into gold. “You needed the work to keep you and your sister. After you lost your home and the rest of your family.”

“I could have found other work,” he said quietly.

“Do you know how your cousin died?” One more step brought her almost within touching distance. Her fingertips tingled. She would get to hold him soon, feel his arms around her. She wanted nothing in her life but that.

“His heart, I thought—” He stopped, his eyes narrowing as he studied her face. “Do you know something?”

“I have a suspicion.”

He was nearly within arm’s reach. The top of her head was floating away as a shaking euphoria filled her. The aftershocks of what she had endured, the fear and worry, but also something else, something light and buoyant but so thick and strong that she thought she might suffocate from the expansive joy.

“This is why I kidnapped you. Morys said Vaughn meant to take you. We thought we could take you first.”

“I know.” She leaned toward him.

“I thought I could keep you safe.” His voice twisted, rough and raw. “I want nothing to hurt you.”

“I know.” She quivered with the need to throw herself into his arms, but he was fighting something, his entire body almost shaking with it.

Then it broke, and he reached for her. “Nell. I don’t want you to ever leave me.”

“I know,” she whispered, then she stepped into his arms and kissed him.