Pen cursed the bad luck and bad weather that stranded her so far from civilization. Behind her, her maid and coachman cowered against the wall. The innkeeper was nowhere to be seen. He was probably in on the plot. Hed looked just as villainous as these thugs.
A heavily whiskered brute swaggered forward, expression contemptuous. Through the blast of incomprehensible patois, she made out the words one and bullet.
She kept the gun straight, despite crippling fear. One bullet does a lot of damage.
His lip curled in disdain and he took another step. She cocked the gun, the sound loud in the fraught silence. Any nearer and Ill shoot.
He proved his scorn by approaching so close that she smelled the stale odor of his hulking body. Her stomach, already churning with dread, revolted and she only just stopped herself from faltering back. Behind him, the others shifted. Whatever the leader said prompted laughter. Laughter that made her skin crawl.
I warned you. She forced herself to meet the glittering excitement in his piglike eyes.
Her finger tightened on the trigger and an explosion rent the air. She jerked back and her ears rang. The hot stink of gunpowder filled her nostrils.
Porca miseria He staggered into the gang, who heaved and growled like an angry ocean. A bloody hole punctuated his forehead and astonishment froze his features before his eyes rolled up in his head and he slumped motionless.
Dear heaven, he was dead. At her hand.
Pen desperately wanted to be sick. In her twenty-eight years, shed never killed anyone.
As the rabble coalesced into a menacing unit, she fumbled in her pocket for her second gun. She felt a presence at her shoulder and realized that at last her coachman Giuseppe displayed some backbone. If only he displayed some backbone while carrying a rifle. But his weapons remained in her carriage outside. All he had were his fists.
Brava, milady.
The men surged on a wave of rage. Pen raised her pistol with a hand that proved unexpectedly firm. Stinking bodies surrounded her, blocked the air. Cruel hands grabbed her, pinched her breasts. A blow landed hard against her ribs, stealing her breath.
Terror gripped her. She had one bullet left. Was this time to use it?
Giuseppe was somewhere in the melee. She couldnt help him. She could barely help herself. Gasping and struggling she lifted her gun, bleakly aware that once she shot, she was at the mobs mercy.
When a gunshot rang out, she first thought shed fired. Yet the pistol remained cool in her hand.
The groping hands stilled. The angry roar faded to silence. The attack had lasted seconds, but it had felt like a lifetime.
Another gunshot and the horde fell away like a tide withdrawing down the beach.
Get away from her.
Cam?
Astonishment turned Pen to stone. Even after nine years, his voice was familiar. The authoritative baritone caught at the heart that shed kept on ice since their last meeting.
Sullenly her assailants retreated, creating a path between Pen and the doorway where her unlikely rescuer stood. Pen sucked in her first full breath in what felt like hours. Sweat, blood, and the reek of her fear tainted the air.
The tall man wearing an elegant cape and a beaver hat tilted at a rakish angle seemed to belong to a different species from the bandits. Cam carried two horse pistols, a rifle hung over his shoulder and a sword dangled at his hip. Snow brushed his hat and shoulders.
Get out and dont come back. As he stepped forward, his tone sent a chill oozing down her backbone. This lady is under my protection.
His Italian was as good as hers and this time the thugs understood. Although his arsenal of weaponry undoubtedly spoke more loudly than words.
One of the men remonstrated about their dead comrade until Cam raised the gun. The fellow skulked off with the rest, the dead man hoisted between them.
Shaky and ill, Pen extended a trembling hand toward Giuseppe. To her consternation, Cam gripped her arm. Even through the leather glove he wore, she felt the heat of his touch. How could he affect her like this after so long?
Im all right, she forced past rising gorge.
Like hell you are. His hold tightened.
If only the room stopped revolving. If only she caught a decent breath. If only she saw something other than Cams endlessly disapproving expression and the face of the man shed shot.
Ive Ive never killed anyone before.
Dont waste your pity. He sounded livid.
Wonderingly she stared into his face. That beautiful, sculpted, austere face that still haunted her dreams, no matter how shed struggled to forget him. Youre angry with me? she asked in bewilderment.
Damn right I am. His mouth flattened. Id love to take you over my knee and give you a good spanking.
I cant imagine why, she said faintly, her voice coming from the end of a long tunnel. Cams face became the only fixed point in a reeling world.
She closed her eyes. Then her stomach gave a nauseating swoop as Cam swept her up in his arms. She managed an incoherent protest before blackness claimed her.
Take this. Fumbling to hold Pen, Cam shoved the horse pistols at the useless cur who had cowered behind her. He firmed his grip on Pens motionless body. She was a bonnie fighter. How his heart had leaped when he saw her courage, even while his belly twisted with terror.
He stared down into her face. The promise of the girl had flowered into the sort of beauty that started wars. He still remembered how disturbed hed been all those years ago to discover his childhood shadow transformed into a striking woman. Now the long slender body was curved and soft in his arms. Her scent teased him. Something fresh and floral. Warm and womanly. Smoky. A trace of gunpowder, by God.
He stared down into her face. The promise of the girl had flowered into the sort of beauty that started wars. He still remembered how disturbed hed been all those years ago to discover his childhood shadow transformed into a striking woman. Now the long slender body was curved and soft in his arms. Her scent teased him. Something fresh and floral. Warm and womanly. Smoky. A trace of gunpowder, by God.
Long black hair flowed around her. Outrage threatened to choke him as he recalled those savages tearing at it and pawing her. If hed had more bullets and some men at his back, hed have done a damned sight more than chase the brigands away.
Fetch the landlord, he said to the girl he assumed was Pens maid. She hunched on the stairway, dark eyes wide as if expecting Cam to take up where the locals left off. She rose and managed a wobbly curtsy before disappearing down a corridor.
Pen stirred as he laid her carefully upon a wooden bench under a shuttered window. Looking at Pen, a turbulent mix of emotions assailed him. Relief at her survival, of course. Anger at her being in this place at all. An unacceptable physical awareness.
An awareness that only built as he bent over her, checking for injuries. Scratches marked her neck and shoulders. He couldnt see much else wrong with her. Horror clenched his gut as he imagined what might have happened if he hadnt arrived.
Inky eyelashes fluttered against pale cheeks, but she didnt wake. What shocked him wasnt her sensuous beauty. What shocked him was that she still contrived to look innocent.
His gaze fell to her lips, parted slightly as she inhaled. Something that felt disconcertingly like lust shuddered through him. As he pulled her torn bodice over her shift, he struggled not to notice the satiny skin under the tattered dress. He was a scoundrel to think of her as a desirable woman, rather than as a duty to hand off as soon as possible.
Blast it to hell. The moment his eyes dropped to her breasts, she stirred.
Have you seen enough? she asked in English.
The Duke of Sedgemoor was famous for his self-assurance. Nobody made him blush. But heat prickled along his cheekbones as he straightened and regarded Penelope with what he hoped was his usual detachment.
You dont appear seriously hurt. He flung away his cloak and set his sword and rifle on a table. He was prepared for this lawless corner of the world even if Pen wasnt.
Not on my bosom at any rate. Clutching at her bodice, she struggled to sit.
He stifled a quelling response. After all, he had been ogling her. What in heavens name brought you to choose this hovel?
One slender hand brushed her tumble of hair back from her face. To his dismay, he saw that she was shaking.
Try the weather. Her tone was sharper than his sword. I know you could barge through an avalanche without creasing your neckcloth, but we lesser mortals must seek shelter when snow blocks the roads.
She was a fool to travel through the mountains in February, but her pallor silenced his scolding. The landlord bustled in, carrying a tray.
Mi dispiace, mi dispiace The fellow burst into an emotive explanation from which Cam gathered that the brigands had locked him in the cellars.
Cam seized the tray, pleased to see a bottle of brandy and two glasses. After the last half hour, he deserved a drink. Once the landlord assured them that hed arranged for some stout villagers to guard the hostelrya matter of civic honor apparentlyCam reserved a bedroom and sent him away.
Pen had remained quiet through the innkeepers recitation. So quiet that when they were alone, Cam tilted an eyebrow in her direction. Unless shed changed beyond all recognition, quiet wasnt her natural state. Are you all right?
He had a sinking feeling that the answer was no, but typically, she lifted her chin and glared at him. He wondered what she saw. Nothing she liked, if he read her expression right.
Perfectly.
Hed believe that if her gaze hadnt skittered away from the blood on the floor. A girl carrying a bucket crept into the room and kneeled to clean up the mess. The strain on Pens face eased.
These flashes of understanding were odd. Cam thought shed be a stranger after all this time. Yet she wasnt. In many ways, she was still as familiar as his sister.
Peter had given Cam all Pens recent letters so he had an idea of where to seek her. It was how hed tracked her to this backwater. Hed struggled against falling under the spell of the woman who wrote with such humor and vitality. She hadnt mentioned any amorous intrigues. But then, shed been writing to her brother.
She swallowed and stared at him, he suspected in preference to the bloodstains. What a coincidence that you turned up.