“I wasn’t drunk,” Alynwick grumbled. “I tchin’ for a fight, aye, but no’ drunk.”“Careful,” Black said with some amusement, “your cultured English accent is giving way to your heathen Highland one.”

“What did you discover about the shooter?” Jude asked as he struggled to sit upright.“Once I spotted him on the rooftop, I ran up the back stairs to follow him. He was long gone, but he left something behind,” Sussex said.“Oh?”“Yes, I’ll take it upon myself to investigate it.”Jude opened his eyes, his stare focused on the duke. “Do you need my help?”Alynwick snorted. “A soiled dove with a broken wing,” he drawled. “What use would you be?”Jude grumbled, “I’ll be fine by the morning.”

“Tis not your time, my love,” he whispered. “You will not die tonight.” “Never,” I said to him, “for I have been blessed by Death’s Eternal Kiss.”

“Pearls, because your skin is as smooth and luminescent as one, and because the first time my lips caressed your throat I thought your flesh as opulent and lushas one. Gold,” he whispered, moving closer, “because it reminded me of how your hair looked in the dyingcandlelight, how it burned and glistened, and how badly I want to lie in bed, in our chamber, and watch you at your dressing table, unpinning it for me. I will have that, Lucy, therights of a husband to enter his wife’s room, to see her at her toilette, to watch what no other man will ever begranted. You do understand that? That I won’t settle for less?”“You have made your line in the sand very clear.”He grinned. “You can cross it anytime you wish, you know. You might even like it on my side.”

“As I said, you have mistaken me for another. London is full of drab little peahens, sir. Now, then, I’m leaving,” she said in a huff.“To change?” he asked, unable to stop from goading her.“To write a poem for my toast,” she snapped. “And you may suffer, for I will not help you with yours.”“No need, darling,” Matthew drawled, his words intending to push her away.“I doubt you know a suitable word that will rhyme with fuck. ”“Stuck,” she said, turning to face him. “For two days, my lord. We are stuck with one another. Let us make the best of it.”“And how do you propose we do that?”“By giving each other wide berth. We will not stand together, we will not talk to one another and we will most certainly not look at one another.”“No problem from this quarter.”“Good. You may be assured that it will be no difficulty for me, either.”-Matthew and Jane”

“How will I accomplish such a thing?” he said, and herlashes fluttered closed as his bottom lip scraped gently upthe curve of her chin. “I’ll be everywhere you are. Your veryshadow.”

“I have waited for this, Beth, this moment,” he whispered as he took her hands in his and brought her fingertips to his mouth, kissing each fingertip before placing her palms on either side of his face. “When Sussex, Black and I returned from the East, I watched you as you did this—touched Sussex, then Black. And I waited, holding my breath, barely able to control my feelings, waiting to feel your touch on my face. But you did not. You made a polite enquiry after my health and left me standing alone by the hearth. And, then, the other afternoon with Sheldon, you touched him, and I was alone, and apart again. Remembering what it was like to await your touch, and then never to feel it. Beth,” he whispered as he moved closer to her, “won’t you touch me? See me?”