The Sweetest Revenge (36 page)
“Oh.” Isabelle slid a bare foot along the cold marble floor.
He stood very still, staring at her. “It was then I started boxing. So I could defend your honor if anyone ever slandered you again. But that was stupid, wasn’t it? I”—his voice broke—“I had already failed you. In so many ways.”
“You did defend my honor, Leo,” she whispered. “Last night.” She stepped into the room and slid her arms around her neck. “Thank you.”
Kissing her softly on the lips, he pressed the packet into her hand. “This is for you.”
“A gift? For me? When…?”
“I know I am not the first to give you gifts.”
She blushed. He had assumed, and rightly, that everything she wore was a gift from Phil. But this gift was different. She took the packet reverently and clutched it to her heart.
He pressed his palm over hers, over the gift, over her chest. “Your friends helped me to pick them out.”
Susan and Anna? She shook her head. “My friends? How…?”
“Shh. Just open it.”
She tore open the packet and shook its contents into her hand: a pair of teardrop sapphire-and-diamond earrings.
She held them in her palm, watching the dim light in the room reflect through them. “Oh Leo. They are so beautiful. But how did my friends…?”
“I discovered Anna Tomkins’s identity a few days after I discovered yours.”
She fell back against the doorframe and stared up at him. “Oh.”
“A few weeks after they released me from the cellar, I saw Lord Archer and Miss Tomkins together at the theater. I had her followed, discovered where she was living, and that was how I learned about Lady DeLinn.”
“What are you going to do?” she whispered as fear crowded her chest.
“Do?”
“You won’t tell anyone, will you? You wouldn’t hurt them?”
“Hurt them? No, of course not. I only wanted to find you.”
“But are you not angry? At all of us, I mean, for what we did to you?”
He seemed to consider for a long moment. “Yes and no. It was cruel, and it was uncomfortable, but a part of me understands. I cannot hate them for it.”
She stared at him, wide-eyed.
“Somehow—” He grunted. “Well, I am more thankful than anything. The moment I learned you lived, my life changed. I changed.” He turned away from her, stroked his fingertips along the desk and then rubbed his fingers together as if searching for dust. “It seems trite, but it’s true. My life had purpose again.” He turned to her, spoke softly. “It has purpose now.”
He glanced down at her hand, at the earrings in them, and cleared his throat. “In any case, I accosted them one day on the street. They said they would tell me where you were if I chose the best piece of jewelry for you.”
She pressed her thumb over the earrings. “And you chose these.”
“Yes. Somehow I managed—I managed to convince them I was sincere. They told me you were in Scotland.”
She gasped. “They did?”
“Yes.”
Isabelle closed her hand over the earrings and shut her eyes. “They knew…they knew all along how strongly I felt about you.”
“I had already been to Scotland, and your uncle turned me away. He said you weren’t there. But after I spoke to Lady DeLinn and Miss Tompkins, I knew the man had lied to me. I returned to Scotland, went into your house, saw your chamber… But by then, you were truly gone.”
“Oh, Leo.”
“I was too late. Again.”
She released a breath.
“I came back, rode straight to Lady DeLinn’s house. Archer was there. He told me you were with Sutherland.” His voice had lowered. He could not say Phil’s name without nearly spitting it.
“Leo—”
“From your uncle’s behavior and from your surroundings there, I can gather what it was like for you in Scotland. I understand why you went with him.” He took the earrings from her and clasped them onto her ears. He pulled her hand up and kissed it and looked into her eyes. She saw the spark of desperation there, a lingering insecurity. “I can only hope that what I offer you will be better.”
She felt the ache in her loins, the wetness on the insides of her thighs, a reminder that she was his, had always been his. The stones he had given her hung from her ears. His hand clasped hers, big and solid, the trace of his lips still tingled on the back of her hand, and a peace she had not known for years settled over her.
She reached up to wipe a bit of dried blood from the cut on his lip. “It will be better, Leo,” she whispered. “It already is.”
Someone knocked on the door. “I am very sorry, my lord,” came a muffled voice from outside, “but the lady’s maid…”
“Oh dear,” Isabelle whispered.
“Bring her into the kitchen and offer her refreshment,” Leo said.
“Yes, sir. But that’s not all. There is another problem.”
Leo sighed. “What, Jenkins?”
“There are an additional two ladies outside, demanding admittance.”
Isabelle made a face. “Ladies?” she whispered. “Goodness, have they already come to duel with me over you?”
Leo slid his arm over her shoulders, shaking his head. “Do you know who they are?”
“Lady DeLinn, sir.”
“Susan!” Isabelle gasped.
“I am sorry, but I did not ascertain the identity of the second lady. However, she was…ah…most insistent.”
Isabelle smiled. “Anna.”
A laugh swelled inside of her. It was too good to be true. Anna and Susan had come to rescue her from Leo. She burst out laughing.
Leo looked at her askance, and then his mouth quirked, trembled, and he began to laugh, too. He managed to tell Jenkins to have the ladies wait in the drawing room.
“The drawing room?” Isabelle gasped. The evidence of their lovemaking still lay strewn across the floor in the form of discarded hairpins, their shoes, his tailcoat and waistcoat, scattered buttons, her bonnet…
Susan and Anna weren’t fools. They would know exactly what had happened there. Especially when they saw Isabelle’s ripped dress and Leo wearing only his shirt and trousers.
Isabelle met Leo’s gaze, and they collapsed into another fit of laughter.
“What will we tell them?” Isabelle finally managed, wiping her eyes.
Still grinning, Leo shrugged, then shuddered. “They’re
your
friends. I find them rather fearsome.”
That sent Isabelle into fresh giggles. “Just don’t incite their ire again, and you will find them quite agreeable.”
Leo drew her close. “Believe me, I will never do anything to raise those women’s ire. Ever.”
“Well then.” Isabelle’s laughter turned musing. “I’ll tell them that I have forgiven you.”
“Have you?”
Unable to stop smiling, she nodded and slid her arms around his neck. “I have.”
He smiled down at her.
She tugged his head and pressed her lips against his. “I shall thank them for forgiving you.”
“Have they forgiven me?”
“Oh, aye. They wouldn’t have told you where I was if they hadn’t.”
“Ah. I am happy to hear that.”
“I’ll tell them we are to be married.”
“Excellent plan.”
“I’ll tell them—”
Leo pressed two fingers to her lips. “Don’t tell them much more than that. I mean to be back upstairs before midnight.”
“Oh? Why is that?” She was being coy. Enjoying it. She looked up at him through her lashes.
He narrowed his eyes. “I must have my vengeance.”
“Whatever for, my lord?”
He paused, then smiled. “For attacking me, of course.”
Regret jolted through her. With his chest so bruised, she must have seriously hurt him.
“Was it very painful?”
“You are the most dangerous, terrifying opponent I have ever faced.”
“I am?”
“Indeed. Your beauty renders me weak. It gives you a decidedly unfair advantage.”
“What will you do?”
His gaze roamed her body, leaving trails of heat skittering in its wake. “I am going to take you upstairs. I am going to make you pay.”
Her breath caught.
Eyes dark with promise, he advanced on her and, with one arm, drew her close. The beat of his heart tapped a steady cadence against her fingertips.
“I will see you beg for mercy, my lady,” he said, his voice a caress against her ear. “That will be my revenge.”
Something fluttered inside Isabelle, and warmth bloomed deep within her body, spreading like warm, sweet honey through her veins. An impish grin curved her lips as she took Leo’s arm.
Barefoot, disheveled, and smiling, they strolled to the drawing room.
Also by Dawn Halliday
Winter Heat
in A Highlander Christmas
About the Author
Dawn Halliday writes historical and contemporary erotic romance in Southern California, where she lives with her husband, three children, and an assortment of other creatures. You can learn more about Dawn at
www.DawnHalliday.com
.
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