Excerpt from
Lady Mary's
Dangerous Encounter
He came and put a reassuring arm around her and spoke softly. “Now,
tell me what’s happened.”
“Someone . . .” She burst into a fresh round of
tears that wracked her whole body.
He drew her closer, patting her shoulders. Then
it occurred to him that someone must have come into her bedchamber
as she slept. “Dear God, did someone enter your chamber?” He held
her at arm’s length and peered at her.
Her eyes were red, and her face was slick with
the tears that flowed as if from a spigot. She nodded. “He tried to
kill me.”
He closed his eyes from revulsion. “I failed
you. We knew they had a key to your room. I should have done
something.”
“It’s not your fault.”
But he could have prevented this. She could be
dead right now. He was furious with himself. He should at least have
given her his locks. He was far better equipped to fend off a
would-be killer than this slightly built female. But who would ever
have thought someone would try to kill her? “Tell me everything that
happened.”
She collapsed against him and clung like heated
wax until her crying eventually tapered off. “I awakened to find
someone pushing a pillow into my face.”
It sickened him to think that this could have
happened—and right next to his chamber. She would not have been able
to see anything, nor could she even scream to summon him. Thank God
she had survived. “How were you able to fight off such an attack?”
“I owe my survival to Devere.”
His brows lowered. “How is that possible?”
“He instructed his sisters of a particular
thrust he said would disable any attacker, and he proved to be
right.”
Smirking, Stephen nodded knowingly. His
admiration for Devere increased even more. A pity he had given her
brother his word that he’d not reveal their acquaintance. “I
understand. Bravo to you—and to Devere. Would that you could have
done to him what he wanted to do to you.”
“You mean kill him?”
Stephen was not normally so bloodthirsty, but
he would have had no qualms about killing a fiend who tried to
murder a sleeping woman. “He deserves it.”
“He most certainly does, the beastly, no-good,
murdering spawn of Lucifer.”
Stephen sighed. It was good to have Mary back.
Thanks to Devere. Would she ever know how much she owed her brother?
Had it not been for Devere, she would have been completely alone in
this evil place. “So when you disabled him, did you not see him well
enough to identify him?”
She shook her head forlornly. “It was a male,
and he wore a dark hood. I tried to follow him, but it was as if he
had vanished. I saw nothing, heard nothing.”
“You went right after him?” asked Stephen, his
brows lowered.
“Not exactly. I started to, but then I went
back and got my knife. By the time I reached the corridor, there was
no evidence of him. He’d completely vanished, like Miss Willets.”
“You had to have heard footsteps.”
“I would have, had I not made the mistake of
going back for my knife.”
“No. You did the right thing. It was not worth
risking your life to identify him. Had you confronted him in the
corridor, he could very well have tried to finish the job he
started, only with a knife.”
She winced. “I can see why he preferred
smothering me—to make it look like a natural death.”
He eased away from her. Holding her felt
entirely too good. He had to keep reminding himself this was
Devere’s little sister. “Especially since it’s been established you
were sick when you arrived here. They all would have brushed off
your demise by saying you suffered from poor health.”
She gave a mock groan. “And they would just
have dumped my cold, dead body into the snow,” she said with a
martyred expression.
“This is no teasing matter. Were it not for
your brother, you most likely would be dead right now.”
“Too true. I couldn’t even call out with that
instrument of murder smashing into my face.”
“It sickens me to think I wouldn’t have been
able to help you.” The fire in his hearth was on the verge of going
out, so he moved away from her and stooped to throw a pair of logs
and some kindling onto it. After he succeeded in building up the
fire, he beckoned for her to come sit close to it on the settle.
“You must be cold in just your night shift. Shall I go to your room
to fetch a shawl or something?”
She whipped around to face him, terror in her
eyes. “No, please, don’t leave me!”
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