“The lengths to which you’re prepared to go to please a housekeeper make me wonder about the servant situation in Scotland. Good help must be thin on the ground.” Vale widened his eyes and took a drink.“She’s more to me than a housekeeper,” Alistair growled.“Wonderful!” Vale slapped him on the back. “And about time, too. I was beginning to worry that all your important bits might’ve atrophied and fallen off from disuse.”He felt unaccustomed heat climb his throat. “Vale…”

“Now, now," said Vale in a sickeningly sweet voice reminiscent of a nursery nanny. "I already gave him a drubbing for courting Emmie."Reynaud raised his eyebrows. "You did?""He did not," Hartley said even as Vale nodded happily. "I threw him down the stairs."Vale pursed his lips and looked skyward. "Not my recollection, but I can see how your memory of the event may've become hazy.”

“Do you think they’ll target her as wellas you? Surely if you simply stay away from the gel, she’ll be safe?”“But I don’t propose to stay away from her,” Reynaud said.“Ah.” Vale stared at him for a moment, and then a wide smile spread across his face.“Like that, is it?”“That,” Reynaud snarled, “is none of your business.”“Indeed?” Vale was grinning like an idiot now. “Well, well, well.”“What is that supposed to mean?”“I have no idea. I just like saying it. Well, well, well. Makes one sound uncommonlyinsightful.”

“What,” Mick said softly, “is Lad doin’ in me bed?”Hearing his name, Lad opened small, piggish, upside-down eyes, gazing with idiotic adoration as his whip-thin tail thumped the covers.“Ah.” Harry scratched behind one ear. “Well, see, ’e was lookin’ so forlorn, like, out in the courtyard by ’imself. Seemed an awful shame to leave ’im there all alone.”“Off!” Mick roared at the dog.Lad’s transformation was instantaneous. His tiny triangle ears folded back, his eyes narrowed worriedly, and he rolled so that he could crawl toward the edge of the bed on his belly.“Is that mud on his paws?” Mick asked in outrage.Harry glanced at the dog. “I do believe it is,” he said as if making a discovery.“Christ!” Mick watched disgustedly as Lad made the edge of the bed and slithered off, thumping to the floor. The dog seemed to think that his apology was done—or perhaps he’d already forgotten that Mick was mad at him—for he gamboled over as frisky as a lamb.“He’s not even me dog,” Mick muttered.Lad sat, one back leg sprawled out to the side, tongue hanging from his mouth, and grinned up at him. He completely ignored Harry, his supposed master.“The dog ’as a wonderful affection for ye,” Harry said brightly.”

“She heard him close the door. “I was going to impress you with my romantic eloquence, of course. I’d thought to wax philosophical about the beauty of your brow.”Lucy blinked. “My brow?”“Mmm. Have I told you that your brow intimidates me?” She felt his warmth at her back as he moved behind her, but he didn’t touch her. “It’s so smooth and white and broad, and ends with your straight, knowing eyebrows, like a statue of Athena pronouncing judgment. If the warrior goddess had a brow like yours, it is no wonder the ancients worshiped and feared her.”“Blather,” she murmured.“Blather, indeed. Blather is all I am, after all.”She frowned and turned to contradict him, but he moved with her so that she couldn’t quite catch sight of his face.“I am the duke of nonsense,” he whispered in her ear. “The king of farce, the emperor of emptiness.”Did he really see himself so? “But—”“Blathering is what I do best,” he said, still unseen. “I’d like to blather about your golden eyes and ruby lips.”“Simon—”“The perfect curve of your cheek,” he murmured close.She gasped as his breath stirred the hair at her neck. He was distracting her with lovemaking. And it was working. “What a lot of talk.”“I do talk too much. It’s a weakness you’ll have to bear in your husband.” His voice was next to her ear. “But I’d have to spend quite a bit of time outlining the shape of your mouth, itssoftness and the warmth within.-Simon to Lucy on their wedding night.”

“Silence cleared her throat, fearful her voice would come out a croak. “Is she asleep?”He blinked as if he, too, were waking from a dream, and glanced down at Mary Darling. “Aye, I’m a-thinkin’ she is—she’s stopped fussin’ at me.”Silence felt a huge smile of relief spread over her face. “She was fussing? Oh, how wonderful!”He shot her a look, one eyebrow arching. “Ye’ve taught the child to bully me, too, now?”“Oh, no,” she said hastily, embarrassed. Did he really think she bullied him? What a silly notion!”

“I’m leaving.” Her cold lips barely moved as she mouthed the words.Horror fisted around his vitals. “No.”For the first time she met his eyes. Hers were red-rimmed but dry. “I have to leave,Simon.”“No.” He was a little boy denied a sweet. He felt like falling down and screaming.“Let me go.”“I can’t let you go.” He half laughed here in the too-bright, cold London sun before his ownhouse. “I’ll die if I do.”She closed her eyes. “No, you won’t. I can’t stay and watch you tear yourself apart.”“Lucy.”“Let me go, Simon. Please.” She opened her eyes, and he saw infinite pain in her gaze.Had he done this to his angel? Oh, God. He unclasped his hands.”