Chapter 15

"Jeez." He coughed. A rasping bite that seized his throat and shook his shoulders for what seemed an eternity. "Only time you came up empty handed."

"Lord Hawley's the man I left them with, after I was forced to walk a mile along the freezing highway in the pitch dark looking for you, because you messed up. And you know what that night cost me in terms of Matthew and what Starkadder did to him. How I found him. How he lay there. How he'd died. So if you think you can beat Lord Hawley to Lord Koorecroft's, if you think any of us are going to steal for you again, door's there. Go on. Be our guest."

"Whot? While I'm bein' your guest, you bolt? Is that it? Nice try, Saff. You always was a class act. But, did I say anythin' about stealin'? Who said anythin' about stealin'? You bein' in my bed, or nothin', though there's worse places I could be I suppose. You too. I mean-"

"No, Gil. I couldn't. So don't even think about it."

He coughed again and she swallowed what rose in her gullet. Of course Gil had never looked after her for nothing. Any more than he was here for nothing. He had always wanted her.

So the choice probably was whether the one legged chicken stayed that way, or became a no-legged one, in terms of options. He'd already put a certain cart before a certain horse, saying she was his wife. Was this why? To force her into a corner? Her?

"Yes," she added. "Little do you know the mistake you've made. But if you want to sit down there by the fire? Where we can all see one another? Discuss this further? The next part of this as you said?"

Yes. When it came to bolting, the thing was to keep this civil, lull him with drink-provided Ruby parted with that drink--and get the hell out of here, slip away one by one, if need be. Code Blue. Pearl cowered by the door. While Ruby might part with the drink for tonight, that would be as long as she'd part with it. So they were hardly going to argue. They had money, didn't they? And packed bags over at the hall. It all depended on him sitting down in that chair and her keeping Ruby and Pearl onboard.

"Don't mind if I do, my girl. A man gets weary, what with all this standin' on them there legs what the fates have them there decreed, ain't what they used to be." He sank into the battered chair, dragged his coattails out from beneath him. "I knew I could count on you."

"More than I could do with you that night. But then some things never change. Like you telling Lord Hawley I'm your wife. I'm not your wife."

"You looked like you could do wif a bitta help."

She tightened her jaw. "I do now. Especially as the whole county thinks I'm a widow."

"If I'd known I'd have said somethin' different. But thing is, you never told me you was, so how could I know? See, I couldn't know what you might call, anythin'. Saff, look, look, I vow and swear-"

"You, Gil? That would be a first. But there, let's not quibble."

"Well, thing is whot did you scream for if you wasn't wantin' my help? See? I mean--and maybe there's somethin' about this I ain't understandin', cos understanding isn't what you'd call my strong point, in fact, got a head thick as Pearl there, that way--you kissed him. And then, you screamed, which seemed to me a very odd thing to do. Well, don't you think it is? Especially when he'd just said-" The sniff was short as a dying man's last breath but loud as a clanging gong. "Now, what was that again?"

Cass's heart skipped a beat. Have Ruby and Pearl know she'd had this in the bag and then burst the bag? Think she was one of these awful people who always had to have the last word? That she'd somehow failed to manage Devorlane Hawley as promised? She couldn't.

What they didn't know was that Devorlane Hawley was dangerous. Drawing her steel heartstrings, playing on her for that moment he asked for the kiss, so that for the sixty miniscule beats it was composed of, she'd stood in another world. A strange moonlit one, full of short breath and stuttering heartbeats and magic. Then, when he had her where he wanted her, as opposed to where she wanted to be, propositioning her.

"He said nothing."

"Well, that's a man for you. You never was much good wif them. Whatever I said, I ain't long for this world. I only wants a bed. Not yours, before you go thinkin'. Just a bed. See? What I saw out there, looks like that bed, that bed of yours could well be occupied and-"

"Local inn's along the road." Ruby walked to the table with the half empty sherry decanter on it. "Queen'n Crown. Very nice. Good price. Handy if yer wanting ter-"

He swung his gaze up. "Now, Rube, why should I stay there, when I can stay here, nice and cozy as can be with you ladies? You wouldn't want me stayin' along there. Not the way drink loosens a man's tongue, 'specially a sick, dyin' one, wif nothin' left to lose. Who knows what I might say?"

"You stay"-Ruby banged he decanter lid down on the table-"and I go."

"That's up to you. Here, just think of the hole I'm diggin' our Saff here out of. For old time's sake. All I done for her back in the day. Sure wif her creative talents she can find a way ter explain me for a week or two. What do you say to it?"

He coughed. What she'd say, the grieving widow she purported to be, wouldn't be polite. Of course they were all of them skilled in the art of disguise. There had been no choice in order to survive. A lady. A footman. Cass had even been a chimney sweep on one occasion involving a locked room. But to starve in order to come by the sunken eyes, the cadaverous frame, would even Gil go that far?

If he was ill, if he was dying, was it so clever to run, when her heart was in this place and this place was hers?

What if even now men were on their way to arrest her? It was all very well talking about it being Devorlane Hawley's word against hers. He was an English duke. Even if she wasn't Sapphire but some perfectly innocent woman, who hadn't lifted so much as a blade of grass, that wasn't hers to lift, who would Lord Koorecroft believe?

A husband now? Wasn't it better to suffer the slings and arrows of that outrageous fortune, than take arms against it?

She licked her lips, dry as bone of a sudden. "Actually, Gil's right. It would allow me to continue my work if Gil was here."

Pearl swept a strand of hair behind her ear. "But Cass you said-"

"I know what I said. But you saw for yourselves just how quickly Lord Hawley changed tack when he learned I was married."

"He soddin' went cos you went and dropped that allergation. Whot the soddin' hell did yer do that fer, when yerhad him by the bleedin' balls?"

Because in some ways, he'd had her. The business of the'deal.' raised prickles on her skin. Had he really meant to let her go? Was the deal still in place? Or was he going to come back here and want more?

She raised her chin. "Lord Koorecroft is who we need to think about here, not Gil. Truth is we could be vulnerable."

"Us? No. Yer most of soddin' all. Like any newspaper ever bleedin' heard of us, the way yer was always top of their soddin' bill. Sapphire this. Sapphire-"

"For appearance's sake we let Gil stay until ... well ... Sure you can guess as good as me, when that will be and what he goes to, ladies. We don't want him blabbing."

Besides, she did know how to handle Gil. And she and Gil went back a long time.

So long as he understood one thing. He did not own her. Nobody did. Not when she'd fought tooth and nail to be free. Not when she bridled at the thought.

As for the dangerous things Devorlane Hawley raised in her? Being out of bounds where he was concerned?

Two words.

Why worry?