The Iron Fin by Anne Renwick

Author:Anne Renwick [Renwick, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 19th century historical, biotechnology espionage, doctor, physician, surgeon, Scotland, selkie, Glasgow, SEAL, dirigible, British nobility, espionage, historical fantasy, romance, spies, spy, steampunk, steampunk romance, suspense, Victorian London, England, Germany, clockwork, gaslight, gypsy
ISBN: 9781948359078
Publisher: Anne Renwick
Published: 2018-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

FLOATING. UNABLE TO MOVE her hands. Unable to see. A man with gray, sandpaper-like skin stood above her holding a harpoon-gun in his hand. He smirked, revealing a mouth filled with sharp, triangular teeth.

With a gasp, Isa woke, her heart pounding. She blinked, and the nightmarish images washed away. Bright afternoon rays of sun slanted through a window, highlighting the edges of a familiar jagged crack in the plaster ceiling overhead. Nestled deeply into a feather mattress and swaddled in soft blankets, she was safe in her bed. She hated that crack, one she’d first noticed on her wedding night, years ago, then watched spread, slowly, inexorably toward the wall. She’d vowed never to sleep again in this room, in this bed. Why, then, was she staring at that blasted crack?

Memories of the recent past flooded back.

A faint snore drew her attention, and she turned her head. Her breath caught and the rhythm of her heart took up a different beat. An arm’s length away, Alec slept, sprawled in an armchair that he’d dragged from the corner of the room to her bedside. Bare-chested and bare-legged, he wore nothing but a damp, linen towel wrapped about his waist.

She must have fallen asleep in the tub from exhaustion and missed his entrance. Disappointing. Yet touching, for he’d carried her to bed, leaving her to rest.

A shiver of delight skittered across her skin as she rolled onto her side, brazenly cataloguing the features of a man that she’d only seen awake and alert. And fully dressed. His dark hair was rumpled, his eyes and cheekbones shadowed. The beginnings of a beard roughened his jawline. All evidence of the effort he’d expended‌—‌much of it on her behalf‌—‌these past few days.

Sunlight highlighted the cut edges of muscles hewn by countless field exercises and missions‌—‌and a number of scars she imagined he had also collected in the line of work. She wondered at the story behind each. The slight pucker of an elliptical mark atop his shoulder. A thin white line stretched across the curve of his biceps. A still-raw gash upon his chest concealed by a sprinkle of coarse hair. A few faint lines scattered upon the sculpted ridges of his rectus abdominis. But it was the creases leading from each hip downward, diving beneath the towel that made the tips of her fingers tingle with a growing need to touch.

How long had they slept? Could they steal a bit more time for themselves, for each other? She bit her lip, but only for a second. Yes. But not in this bed. The chair, on the other hand, held no memories.

Pushing back her blankets and swinging both legs over the edge of the mattress, Isa touched bare feet to the cool floor. A froth of white ruffles collected about her ankles. Ruffles encircled her wrists and cascaded from her neck. She smiled. He’d dressed her in her finest‌—‌and thinnest‌—‌nightgown. One she’d purchased, but never worn. Why bother, if a man only wished a

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