The Slide into Ruin by Bronwyn Stuart

Author:Bronwyn Stuart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Historical, Romance
ISBN: 9781952560255
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group, LLC
Published: 2020-04-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Waking next to a naked male should have been mortifying for Eliza but she only snuggled deeper beneath the bed covers. She couldn’t remember another time when she had been so warm or held so closely, Darius’s forearm slung low over her hip.

She wasn’t entirely sure what woke her but she lay for a moment revelling in the warmth. Was it the fire crackling in the grate that roused her? There seemed to be an inordinate amount of smoke, the smell sharp and almost painful to her nose when she lifted her face from the blankets.

As the realisation sank in that there was too much smoke in the room, a pounding sounded on the door. Darius sat upright in bed, a dagger in his hand before Eliza could even draw more thought into her sluggish head.

“What is it?” he called out into the darkness.

The door crashed open and Eliza scrambled to cover herself. Lantern light stung her eyes but not more than the smoke did.

“Fire, Cap’n. Downstairs in your study.”

Eliza pulled the bed sheets with her as she gained her feet. “The children?”

It was Tarquin who spoke. Tarquin who turned his back but held the lantern out still. “Outside already. Marcus is with them. They’re fine.”

Darius had already pulled his trousers on but Eliza couldn’t seem to find her gown, her attention suddenly on her husband’s back as he tightened his laces. Scars crisscrossed the expanse of skin from the top of his neck to reach below the band of his trousers. How had she not felt it against her fingertips?

He hadn’t noticed her staring when he came to her shoulders with the robe he’d worn earlier, wrapping it about her while he snapped questions. “Accident?”

“Not likely,” Tarquin snorted. “The window was wide open.”

“What alerted you?” Darius asked as he took her hand, guiding her bare feet around the glass from the broken bottle and then through the door and down the stairs. She couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away from the puckered skin over his ribs, some marks raised and still looking angry, some older, glistening white and flatter and smoother than the others.

“I was on watch in the house and Morphett outside. He noticed the window open and came in to report when we heard glass shatter.”

“How much damage is there?” Eliza asked, slightly out of breath and mentally shaking herself free of the images of Darius’s scarred back, the skin broken and bleeding at some point in his pirate’s life.

“Hard to say. The boys were dousing the flames when I ran to wake the house. Went for the children and men higher up first.”

“Well done,” Darius said as he practically threw Eliza at Tarquin and then barged past them towards the study without a backwards word.

Eliza let Tarquin guide her outside, the smoke thick in the entryway despite the front doors being wide open. She coughed a little but then they were out in the cold night, the air clean but freezing rain falling steadily. A warm coat was draped over her shoulders and head as the two headed for the well-lit barn.

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