The Dangerous Series by Amanda Scott

Author:Amanda Scott [Scott, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4804-6540-4
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
Published: 2013-02-15T00:06:00+00:00

Twenty-five

Mate

MELISSA DREW HERSELF UP to her full height and faced Yarborne. “I think,” she said, “that it is you who have run your course, not I.”

“If you look about you, my dear,” he said evenly, “you will see that your erstwhile knight errant has fled. He was scarcely worthy of you.”

“He served his purpose,” she said, ignoring her thumping heart. At the moment they were alone in the short corridor leading from the coffee room, past the foot of the stairs, to the entrance hall, but she was certain that Yarborne’s reinforcements could not be far behind. Backing slowly toward the hall, she said, “I hope you don’t think you can terrorize me here in the inn, sir, for I warn you, I am not so easily intimidated.”

“No,” he agreed, “you have altered a good deal from the wilted flower that Geoffrey Seacourt dragged into Little Hell a month ago, have you not? You are now more worthy of a good man, my dear.”

“I am not yours, however.”

“As to that, we have much to discuss, so if you will come upstairs quietly with me now, we will talk about what is to be done next. I cannot imagine that you want to have such a discussion here in the hall where anyone might hear us. You must want as much as I do to avoid any scandal that might arise from this.”

“I don’t want to discuss anything with you,” she said flatly, “and I certainly do not want to go anywhere with you. Much as I should dislike creating a scene, I will not hesitate to scream for the landlord, sir, so keep your hands off me.”

He did not speak, and his expression remained wooden. She had just begun to hope she had confounded him when a hand clapped over her mouth and an arm clamped tightly around her waist, lifting her bodily from the floor.

Melissa opened her mouth and bit down hard.

Her captor gasped with pain, but struggled to hold her.

“Take her upstairs quickly,” Yarborne snapped. “You’ve bungled badly, so the least you can do is to act with dispatch now. And you, Lakey, watch that rear door. We don’t want to be interrupted.”

“It is not the rear door you should fear, Yarborne. Your destiny lies before you.” At the sound of Nick’s quiet voice so near at hand, Melissa expelled a sigh of relief. “Put down my wife, you scurrilous piece of dung, and do it gently,” he added in an even more gentle but much more terrifying tone.

She had felt Robert’s arms stiffen—for surely they were his—but slowly he set her on her feet again and took his hand away from her mouth. Slipping quickly from between the Yarbornes, she stepped past Robert toward Nick, her anxious gaze meeting his as she did. She saw at once that he directed none of his anger at her. There was even a flash of warm relief in his eyes, and something else less easily defined. She observed that he had not come alone.

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