Silver-Tongued Temptress by Sara Ackerman

Author:Sara Ackerman [Ackerman, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, regency, historical
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2018-04-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Herm, Channel Islands, September 1810

Beatrice had run away from him again. “What the hell!” His bellow followed the emphatic door slam Beatrice delivered after scurrying away from him. Since arriving on this Godforsaken rock the islanders called Herm, nothing had gone to Thomas’s plan. Instead of falling into his arms and renouncing any involvement between her and the Rom leader, Beatrice had been agitated and refused to accept the comfort he offered.

Jiggling the handle on the small cottage door proved ineffectual. It was locked. “Contrary female can’t stay in one place,” he muttered. “Not like I’ve spent months searching for her and want to be near her.” Not as if he were anxious to hear how she had spent her time recovering after the accident. He shot an angry glance at Stefano, his imagination running rampant at all the liberties the man might have taken with his Bea. Damn it! She’s my woman!

He needed answers, and he needed them before he strangled Beatrice’s not-husband. Thomas pounded on the closed wooden plank keeping him from Bea, but Stefano pulled him back and shook his head. God, even the man’s name has me curling my lip like a wild dog.

Thomas bristled and clenched his fist, knowing a good fight would clear the air and put some distance between him and this anger. Stefano, however, was oblivious to the gathering tension, or he didn’t care. Either way, it made Thomas all the more eager to hit the man. Thomas balled and unballed his fist and reined in his galloping temper while the other gathered driftwood and other sizable logs from the woodpile next to the cottage.

“Why did you stop me?”

“It won’t work. When she’s in a mood like this, best to let it run its course and stay out of her way.” Stefano dropped the gathered firewood in a pile and squatted over it, using his tinder box to strike a flame and coax a spark from the seasoned wood.

“What would you know about her moods? You haven’t been around to see her moods since she left the schoolroom. A lot can change.”

The wooden logs held the flame and soon a small blaze flickered from the pile of dead branches to chase away the cool night. “Of course not, no. Our acquaintance occurred when she was a young lady—serene, pleasant, and never rash.”

“Sarcasm is not necessary.” Thomas resisted the urge to stick out his tongue and squatted by the fire. This man takes me back to my schoolyard days, when throwing rocks and sticking out one’s tongue was the best rejoinder for an insult. Much more time in the man’s company and he’d regress to their cavemen ancestors of long ago, pounding his chest as he wrestled the other male to secure Beatrice’s affections. Luka Stefano was not his favorite person.

“It is if you are too stupid to believe because I knew her when she was young I didn’t experience the full sting of her spite. Once she told her father I had stolen one of his prized horses, and all because she caught a village girl kissing me.

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