Three Heroes 3 by Jo Beverley

Author:Jo Beverley [Beverley, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-03-05T01:53:11.109000+00:00

“No!” Hawk exclaimed, but there seemed nothing left to pin hopes to except honesty. “At the beginning, yes.”

“Do I have to slap you with my gloves?” Arden asked coldly. “I’d have to burn them afterward.”

“Not now!” Hawk commanded, aware of Clarissa’s sudden pallor. “Con—”

He put his hand on her arm to push her toward Con, but she twitched away. “Don’t try and get rid of me! Don’t you dare! Any of you. I’m not a child.” She whirled on Arden. “You are not to fight over me.”

“You have no say in this.”

“I demand a say. I insist on it.” When Arden stayed tight-lipped and resolute, she said, “If you duel him, I

’ll shoot you.”

“Clarissa,” said Hawk, wanting to laugh and cry at once. “I’m sure you don’t know how.”

“It can’t be so hard as all that.” She stared at him, eyes brimming with tears. “You said it was an honorable act for someone to kill Deveril. How could you even think of destroying people over it? Even for Hawkinville.”

“I didn’t.”

“Then what drove you?”

“The will,” he snapped. “Forgery is hardly cloaked with honor, Clarissa, no matter how you care to deceive yourself.”

She stared at him and the elusive truth dawned even as she whirled to face Arden.

“It was a forgery!” She laughed. “Of course it was. How very stupid I’ve been. Deveril—Deveril!—

leaving me all his money. He’d have rather left it to the Crown, or scattered it in the streets if it comes to that.” She suddenly struck out at the marquess with both fists, pummeling him.

Arden stepped back, and before Hawk could reach her, he grasped her wrists and spun her to face him.

“Hit him if you’re feeling violent. He’s the villain of the piece.”

She staggered forward, weeping, and Hawk caught her, held her for a precious moment. “I have committed no crime.”

Except breaking a heart.

“Abduction, for a start,” Arden said.

“Stop.” Con took Clarissa from Hawk, keeping an arm around her. She wasn’t crying, but she seemed ready to collapse. “There’ll be no duel,” Con said, in an officer’s unquestionable voice, “and no violence.

” Then he looked at Arden with a frown. “I gather criminal acts are not to be shared among the Rogues these days.”

The marquess looked to be at the end of his tether. “Not lightly, no. And you came back from Waterloo in a bad way. We weren’t about to add to your burdens.”

Con pulled a face and sat Clarissa in a chair. He went to his haunches in front of her. “What do you want to do?”

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