An Earl to Save Her Reputation by Laura Martin

Author:Laura Martin [Martin, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-02-08T19:04:30+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

‘I’ll kill him,’ Harry growled, pacing backwards and forward across Anna’s bedroom floor. He shouldn’t be in here, certainly not alone with the woman he was pretending to be engaged to, and most certainly not with the door firmly closed and locked.

‘If you mean my late husband, he’s dead already,’ Anna said, calmly, with that little shrug of the shoulders he was coming to like so much.

‘He used to stand you in front of the target and shoot arrows at you? That’s disgusting, it’s barbaric.’

‘Only in the first few months of our marriage,’ Anna said quietly.

Somehow he didn’t think Lord Fortescue had stopped due to a reformation of character.

‘Did he harm you? Is that why he stopped?’

Harry stopped pacing in front of Anna and held her gently by both upper arms, looking her over head to toe as if for arrow wounds.

‘No, whatever else Lord Fortescue was, he was a good shot, could hit where he wanted to on a target with an arrow from thirty feet.’

‘So why did he stop?’ Harry asked quietly, wondering if he really wanted to know.

‘He liked to see the fear in my eyes, to know he had absolute control not just over my body but also my mind, my emotions.’

‘You can’t mean to say you stopped being afraid.’

Anna looked down at the ground for a few seconds before answering, ‘I stopped caring. I stopped caring whether the arrow hit me or not.’

He couldn’t find the words to respond for a few seconds. It was unconceivable, a husband putting his wife in such danger, all for a little amusement, to see the fear in her eyes. What kind of man...what kind of monster...could do such a thing?

‘Did he do other things to you?’ Harry asked, his voice no more than a whisper. He had to know, but at the same time dreaded her answer.

‘Harry,’ Anna said, raising a hand and trailing her fingers down his face, ‘you don’t need to know.’

No wonder she’d been so adamant she would never marry again.

‘Tell me,’ he said, raising a hand so it covered hers, looking deep into her unwavering grey eyes.

‘We should...’ Anna started to say.

‘There’s no rush. Rifield will keep the rest of the guests busy. Tell me.’

With a sigh Anna turned away. He thought she would refuse again, tell him to get out of her rooms, perhaps even start packing to return to London, but instead he saw her fiddling with the fastenings of her dress.

‘Help me,’ she said, looking over her shoulder.

‘What...?’

‘You wanted to know, so help me.’

Motioning to the fastenings at the back of her dress, those normally a maid would help her with, Anna began to pull at the pale green cotton. In a daze Harry stepped forward, his fingers fumbling as he reached out for the first of the fastenings. He couldn’t deny he’d thought about undressing Anna, couldn’t deny he’d imagined this moment a thousand different ways. He’d desired her from the moment their bodies had careened into one

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