by Gaelen Foley
“Did anyone see anything?” Mikhail demanded.
“A groom saw the girl. He claims she tried to steal a horse, but Ivan and Vasily pulled her down off its back. The horse ran off and the groom had to chase it. He saw nothing further. When he came back, they were dead. We have not yet located anyone who might have seen what happened in the interim.”
Mikhail shook his head, stunned. God’s bones, two of his best warriors were dead! He took a deep breath, shaking off his astonishment. “It is impossible she could have done this on her own. Someone is obviously helping her. Whoever he is, find this man and kill him.”
“Yes, sir. Gladly.” Boris jerked his head up with vengeance burning in his dark eyes.
“As to your comrade’s bodies, get rid of them at once,” Mikhail added. “I do not want the English authorities asking questions. And whatever happens—whatever happens, do you understand me?—Rebecca must not be permitted to speak to Westland. I want this house kept under watch at all times; she will no doubt try to meet with the duke again, and when she does, you will intercept her. She may try to approach them elsewhere, so if Westland or his daughter leave the house, follow them—discreetly, please. Neither of the Westlands must ever perceive that they are under our surveillance.”
His glance flicked over his men’s traditional Cossack uniforms. “I want you all in English civilian garb from now on. Try to blend in, for God’s sake, and keep your eyes out for the girl. When you have her, bring her to me.”
His men bowed in obedience.
Mikhail started to walk back to his waiting state coach, then paused. “On second thought, kill her if you get a clean shot,” he amended. “That little bitch just became more trouble than she’s worth.”
Kurkov and his men might have the advantage of numbers, Alec thought, but he knew the territory, every nook and cranny of the West End and surrounding districts, and he used this knowledge to spirit Becky away from danger.
All bravado aside, however, he knew he was in a state of delayed shock over what had just happened. His head was in a whirl, the aftermath of battle still coursing through his veins.
He could not believe he had just killed two men before breakfast. What on earth had he rushed into this time? Look before you bloody well leap. Had past disasters at the tables taught him nothing? Having to marry this fair deceiver was a dubious enough obligation, whoever she was; he hoped he would not also go to jail on her account.
“We’ve lost them by now, surely.” Becky stumbled after him as he strode on through the shadowy maze of old crooked alleys tucked behind the stately fronts of stuccoed houses. He was in no humor to slow his paces so she could keep up.
“Alec, you’re hurt! We must see to your arm,” she insisted over the chiming of nearby church bells tolling the hour of eleven. “We have to stop the bleeding.”
“I’m fine,” he growled, tugging her by her hand.
“No, you’re not.” Becky halted, planting her feet to counter his forward momentum. She matter-of-factly showed him her hand.
It was bloodied from holding his.
Reluctantly, Alec paused and glanced at his injury. The blood had run all the way down his arm.
With a worried, guilty wince, Becky examined his wound, but he roughly shrugged off her ginger touch.
“It doesn’t matter,” he grumbled. “After all,” he added with a bite in his tone, “what’s a little of my blood after you shed yours?” He walked ahead. “Come on, we have to keep moving.”
Behind him, he heard her inhale slowly through her nostrils in a quiet struggle for patience, but it seemed she wasn’t touching his remark with a ten-foot pole.
“Alec. Be reasonable. If you keep losing blood at this rate, you’ll be too weak to fight or to run if they spot us again.”
He stopped for a second, anger pulsing in his temples, then pivoted and looked coldly at her. “You lied to me.”
She tensed, going visibly on her guard.
“I found the blood on my robe this morning, Becky. Your blood. Don’t tell me you’re on your cycle because I know that isn’t true. You’re a goddamned virgin. No, correction—you were. Until last night. Until me.”
Instead of answering him, she looked away and clamped her mouth shut, perhaps mortified that her ruse had been discovered, then she folded one arm across her waist in a defensive posture. He could almost see her clam up, shut down, dig in her heels; and then she tried to brazen it out.
“So?” she muttered with an insolent, one-shouldered shrug.
For a second he couldn’t speak at all. “So?” he echoed, thunderstruck.
“It’s not as if you care,” she said.
The piercing challenge in her glance left him tongue-tied. Her battened-down stare reflected all of his mistrust and anger right back at him, despite the scarlet blush that raged in her cheeks.
Alec reached out and gripped her shoulders. “Why, Becky? Why didn’t you tell me you were a virgin?” he whispered harshly, resisting the urge to shake her. “I wouldn’t have touched you if I had known. I didn’t force you! You could have said no at anytime and I’d have stopped. I took you for a harlot—and you knew full well that’s what I thought, but you didn’t see fit to tell me otherwise! Instead, you made a fool out of me. Do you even realize the consequences of what you’ve done?”
“You’re hurting me,” she informed him, tight-lipped and mutinous.
He instantly released her from his grip, but stayed close, looming over her. “Tell me what the hell is going on. Enough of your stubbornness. Why are they after you? Is your name really Becky Ward?”
“Yes. That is my name. That much I can tell you. But no more. Come. I’ll bind your wound for you, then I’ll be on my way. There.” Avoiding his gaze with a will, she nodded toward the unassuming little church on the corner. “We’ll go sit down in there so I can tend you. It doesn’t look as though there’s anyone on hand to bother us. That cut needs attention, and soon.”
“No.” Alec shook his head slowly. He would show the little hellion what stubbornness was. He was famous for it himself. He folded his arms across his chest. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what is going on. I deserve to know why I just killed two men back there, and—God’s bones!—I’m entitled to know why someone is trying to kidnap my future bride.”
“Bride?” Her eyes shot open wide. She finally looked over and met his furious glower. “What are you talking about?”
“You know damned well, Becky-dear. That’s right. You’re my headache now, and God knows what we’re going to live on! What were you thinking, girl? I’m in no position to take a wife! Now I find out that the woman I’m bound to marry has a foreign prince for a cousin and Cossacks out to kill her, so pardon me if I seem out of temper!”
Her jaw had dropped. She stared at him for an astonished heartbeat, then shook her head slowly. “I see you’ve lost your mind, my lord.”
“Would it were so! What, did you think me so bereft of honor that I would debauch a virgin and then throw her to the wolves?”
“Don’t be absurd. I’m not marrying you!”
“Yes, you are,” he growled, fire and brimstone in his eyes. “My honor demands satisfaction. I may be many things, cherie, but I have never been a ruiner of virgins.”
“Oh, God, you are completely overreacting!” she huffed, plainly flustered.
“I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but if you had told me the truth last night, this might have been avoided.”
“How could I?” she retorted frankly.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Please! I saw for myself how you and your friends treat women. I understood perfectly well that I was nothing to you but a fleeting entertainment—a whim. But for me, this whole thing happens to be a matter of life and death.”
“You’re not making sense.”
“How could I have trusted you with something so serious when it was plain to see you were only having fun? You gave me no reason to believe yo
u’d even care.”
“Oh, be fair. I was good to you—”
“A gracious host, yes.”
“And lover, I suppose? You did trust me enough to come willingly to my bed!” he nearly shouted, his face flushing with fury.
“That’s different.”
“How? Do you judge me so incapable of helping you? A stupid stallion only good for a roll in the sack? Is that it? Because if that’s what you really think of me, then you give me the greatest possible insult—”
“I didn’t say that, Alec. Don’t put words in my mouth. Look, there is no need for all of this. Your bachelorhood is quite safe. It’s obvious that marriage is not what you want, so rest assured, I have no intention of marrying you—nor can I, legally, without my guardian’s consent. I don’t turn twenty-one until the first of August, and believe me, he would never allow it.”
Alec stared at her. “I take it you’re referring to Kurkov.”
Her eyes widened; she searched his face with renewed wariness. “You know Mikhail?”
“I’m Alec Knight, cherie, I know everyone. Everyone but you, it would seem.”
She avoided his reproachful stare again with a quick, uneasy glance at the carriage that went clattering past them down the cobblestoned street.
“I saw where you were going, you know,” Alec added in a lower tone once the noisy vehicle had passed. “You were trying to get in to see Westland, but you can’t do that now, can you? Kurkov got there first. So, what are you going to do next?”
She shook her head wearily and dragged her hand through her thick dark curls. “I—I don’t know. I’ll think of something.”
“Why Westland?”
No answer.
“So stubborn,” he whispered. “We’re going to have to work on that. What did you want with old Westland, Becky? Shall I repeat the question a third time?”
“You can stop asking me questions altogether because I am not going to answer them.”
“Why is Kurkov after you? We can do this all day if you want.”
“It isn’t any of your business!”
“The bloody hell it’s not!” he thundered so loudly that it drew the attention of a pair of uniformed nursery maids pushing their prams on the opposite side of the street. The women looked at them in alarm, then quickly hurried by. “Didn’t you notice I just saved your life back there? I think I’m entitled to know!”
“Yes, I did, and no, you’re not! I’m trying to keep you alive, Alec! That bullet missed your heart by inches!” she cried, holding up her fingers a short span apart. “Next time you might not be so lucky.”
“Lucky?” he cried, feeling insulted. “That was skill, I’ll have you know.”
“Oh, forget this! I’m leaving. Hang your grandiose honor, and your fatheaded male pride, too. I’m doing this for your own good. Bind your blasted wound yourself.”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Anywhere you’re not! And don’t follow me again!” With that, she turned on her heel and set off without him again.
Alec rolled his eyes heavenward and checked the urge to follow her and drag her back, knowing that physical coercion would only drive her further into her shell. “So, you’re just going to walk away—ruined?”
She whirled around with sparks shooting from her eyes. “What do I care for ruin with a squad of Cossacks at my heels?” She turned her back on him again and trudged on, shaking her head, feminine fury bristling in every line of her posture.
“God, grant me patience,” Alec said under his breath. Robert, Lucien, all of his brothers had promised that one day he’d meet a girl as intractable as he.
He hated it when they were right.
“Now who’s being unreasonable?” he called after her in a tone full of male superiority. “You’ve got no money, Becky. No place to go. You don’t even know your way around Town. What if those brutes come after you again?”
“If?” She slowed a step, let out a weary snort and shot him a wry look over her shoulder. “You mean when. I don’t know, Alec. It’s not your problem. I’ll manage somehow. After all—” She took a deep breath, bolstering her courage with a lift of her chin. “Right is on my side.”
“So am I,” he said softly, staring at her retreating back.
Infuriating creature!
Alec clenched his jaw, baffled by such trenchant rejection from a female. More than frustration, insistent panic began to snake through the back of his mind as she sought once more to abandon him.
Something about this girl just touched a nerve in him.
“What about last night?” he blurted out in taut anger. “Was everything between us just a lie?”
She was not so far away that she didn’t hear him, and his words stopped her in her tracks. He saw her spine stiffen, and then she put her head down.
Alec caught up to her, but she would not look at him. “Don’t do this to me, Alec,” she said. “Please just let me go.”
“I can’t do that, Becky. I won’t. We are bound together now. By blood. Last night you gave me your virginity. Today I took two lives to save yours. These are monumental facts, not something you can simply walk away from and ignore.” He laid his hand on her shoulder and turned her gently to face him. “How is it that after all of this you still cannot confide in me?” he asked in a softer tone. “I’m no saint, God knows, but am I so very bad?”
“It isn’t that,” she whispered in a fragile tone.
“What, then, sweet?” When he brushed her hair gently behind her ear, she quivered, the electrical attraction between them crackling just beneath the surface, so ready to be stirred to life. “Tell me. Don’t shut me out. Let me fix whatever’s hurting you.”
She looked at him with a soulful stare, showing him her crimson-smeared palm. “Don’t you see, Alec? I don’t want any more of your blood on my hands. There’s still a chance for you to escape, to avoid getting tangled up in all of this with me.”
“No, my darling.” He cupped her face between his hands. “That chance is past,” he said with finality as he held her in an even gaze. “I am in it now, whether you like it or not. Don’t protect me. Just tell me what we’re dealing with.”
Becky did not want to accept it, but finally had to admit that what he said was true. She had dragged him into it with her, and she hoped to God that both of them did not soon regret it.
I didn’t mean to, she thought woefully. She had tried to keep him safe.
Alec, for his part, did not appear daunted by whatever they might face. It seemed that the warrior within the elegant hedonist had been aroused. Stationed immovably by her side, he towered over her, his feet planted wide in a fighter’s stance, ready for action, his strong thighs and broad shoulders thrumming with bold vitality; the climbing sun burnished his golden hair, and his deep blue eyes held her in a calm gaze. Revolving darkly in their depths, she saw fierceness, intelligence, and a perfect willingness to serve out treachery, even death, to her enemies.
Even last night, he had not been so seductive as he was in this moment without even trying, she thought with a small shiver of awe. The pure valor with which he offered himself reached even deeper into her guarded heart.
No, she realized, looking at him with new respect, this was not a man who needed her protection.
He was right, she conceded grimly. She needed Alec’s help whether she liked it or not—whether it was fair or not. Her village was counting on her. She could not just think of herself, her pride, or even his well-being. The problem was larger now that Mikhail had gotten to Westland ahead of her. God only knew what lies her cousin had told the duke and his staff about her, for the butler and footmen had certainly treated her like an escaped lunatic.
Maybe Alec, with all his worldly shrewdness, could help her make a new plan. In truth, the thought of an ally when all hope had fled was most welcome, especially one who did not seem to know the meaning of fear, and had proved himself astonishingly expert with a sword.
She let out
a low exhalation, seeing that she had no choice now but to swallow her pride and do what was hardest for her: Ask for help.
Trust.
He reached out to embrace her. He gave her a tender, manly little smile and clasped his hands around her waist as though he’d hold onto her by whatever means necessary. It bothered her that she could no longer fight this battle on her own. But then he bent his head and pressed a kiss to her temple, surrounding her with his delicious strength, and his nearness filled her with an indescribable comfort.
“Listen to me, you stubborn little mule,” he whispered, nuzzling her. “From now on, let us decide together what is best for both of us. Perhaps I spoke too rashly. Neither of us can lay down the law for the other—as much as we might like to,” he added drily. “I’m afraid we’re both too strong-willed to take no for an answer.”
They exchanged faint, cautious smiles of a truce.
“I will not impose marriage on you if you’ll jolly well quit trying to escape me.”
“But Alec—”
“Hear me out. You do not lack for courage, God knows. You’ve got more heart than I have ever seen in a woman before, and I admire that. But do not seek to protect me, little one. I can take care of myself—and you.” When he tipped her chin up with his fingertips, she looked guardedly into his eyes. “Still, don’t forget we can marry legally in Scotland.”
She blushed at his persistence with the notion. There was no way she’d believe it was what he really wanted. “No.” She shook her head. “There is no time.”
“Perhaps when this is over.”
She looked away, but felt him studying her. “Perhaps.”
“Refuse me if that is your will,” he said after a moment, “but you must then allow me to satisfy honor by other means: Accept the protection of my sword.” She looked up at him and trembled at the white-hot chivalry that glowed in his eyes. “I will do aught in my power to help you,” he vowed. “My only condition is that you tell me the truth.”
Absorbing this, she gave him a grave nod. “Very well,” she forced out with a hard swallow. “I will tell you all.”