Two Sinful Secrets (20 page)

She crossed the foyer and pressed her ear carefully to the front door. She could hear
only the soft rush of the wind sweeping leaves and debris down the street, and she
leaned back as she let out the breath she was holding. She started to turn away, but
a sudden sound, a scratch on the wood like a cat’s claws, brought her back again.
Somehow that soft noise was more ominous than the pounding knocks.

Clutching at the pistol with one hand, she threw back the locks and opened the door
a mere crack to peer outside. For a second, she could see nothing but the quiet, darkened
houses across the street, their stones pale in the moonlight. Suddenly a strong grasp
closed on the hem of her nightdress, and she screamed in shock.

“Bloody hell, woman, you will make my head explode,” a man said hoarsely.

Sophia looked down at the shocking sight of Dominic St. Claire lying on her doorstep,
his hair bright in the
moonlight. “I must still be dreaming,” she whispered, and gave her head a hard shake.
Because otherwise it simply made no sense at all that he would be there.

She stepped back to try to slam the door, and his fist tightened on her hem. She tried
to pull herself free, and that was when she saw it. Blood dripped down his hand and
stained the white muslin of her gown. She knew it was no dream.

“Dominic!” she cried. She fell down on her knees beside him and dropped the gun to
the pavement with a metallic clatter. In the gaslight, she could see that his head
was bleeding as well, a stain spreading along his temple into his beautiful hair.
She reached out with her trembling fingertips to carefully touch his cheek, and he
pulled away with a hissing breath.

“Dominic, what happened to you?” she said. She brushed away his protests and gently
turned his face into the light. She could see bruises, and a cut under one eye, as
well as the bleeding wound on his temple. The sleeve of his coat had ripped away where
another wound had started to clot and dry.

“You are in a rare mess,” she said, her heart aching.

“Part of it is from the gin palace earlier tonight,” he said. He tried to laugh, but
it ended in a choking cough that made him wince with pain.

Sophia thought it best not to ask what he had been doing brawling in a gin palace.
She had to concentrate on helping him now. “And the other part?”

“Some men attacked me when I left there. At least I think that is what happened, from
what I remember, which I admit is a trifle hazy.”

She studied his wounds again and saw the gleam of his
watch chain, the gold signet ring on his finger. “Was it a robbery? They don’t seem
to have been very thorough,” she said, trying to stay as careless as he was trying
to be. She feared she couldn’t, not when her heart was pounding with fear for him.

“Not a robbery. It seems they were looking specifically for me.”

“Indeed?” Sophia held his face gently between her hands and searched his eyes. The
pupils were dilated, nearly obscuring the green, and she knew enough to be sure she
needed to keep him awake, keep him talking. “Was it a rival theater owner? A disgruntled
husband?”

He gave another groaning laugh. “Who knows? I didn’t have much conversation with them.
I wondered if it was you, taking your revenge on me for my piss-poor behavior toward
you.”

Sophia had to laugh, too, despite her fear. “I would take my revenge myself, you can
be sure. But how did you get here?”

“Now that I could not say. I was sadly knocked unconscious, and when I woke, I was
here. A parcel I’m sure you have no use for.”

Sophia sighed. It was true she had hoped to be done with trouble, to find some peace
somewhere. To make a new life. But trouble always knew where to find her. And Dominic,
too, it seemed. They were two of a kind.

She glanced down the street, half-afraid his attackers still might linger there, but
everything seemed quiet. When she turned back to Dominic, his eyes were closed, and
his head was heavy in her lap. “No, don’t go to sleep,” she said urgently. “We must
get you inside, and I certainly can’t carry you.”

“Then leave me here,” he said. He didn’t open his eyes. “Your doorstep is quite comfortable.”

“It’s also quite damp, and I can’t let you catch a chill on top of everything else.”

“Why, Sophia.” A smile drifted over his lips. “I didn’t realize you cared so much.”

“I don’t want the trouble of explaining to Camille how you happened to die outside
her house.” Sophia took his uninjured arm and slid it around her shoulders as she
tried to tug him upright. It was like trying to move a boulder. “Come along now, Dominic.
We need to get you somewhere that I can take a proper look at your wounds.”

“Into your bed, perhaps? Mrs. Westman, how terribly shocking you are being tonight.
I must say I am flattered.”

“Half-dead and still trying to flirt. Of course.” Sophia gave his arm an impatient
tug, and he finally sat up. She felt his body tense, his breath catch, and she knew
he was truly in pain, no matter how much he tried to conceal it. That made her even
more frightened.

She helped him stagger to his feet and into the foyer of the house. She propped him
carefully against a marble table while she fetched her gun and relocked the door,
and when she hurried back, he was listing badly to one side.

“Come along,” she said briskly as she put her arms around him. She tried to remember
the reassuring way her old nanny used to deal with nursery wounds and to not give
in to her own panic. “I’ll help you upstairs.”

“You are being much too nice to me, Sophia my dear,” he answered. He leaned on her
as they made their slow way up the stairs. “I must be in bad shape indeed.”

“Yes, you are,” Sophia said, breathless from holding him upright.

“I don’t deserve it. Not after the way I behaved,” he said. “Not after the way I think
about you all the time…”

How did he think about her? Sophia very much wanted to know, but this didn’t seem
like the right time to press. “No, you don’t. But I’ll send for the doctor. Should
I find your family, too? Your brothers and sister?”

“Certainly not,” Dominic answered. His voice was stronger, more adamant, as they stumbled
over the last step. “My sister would be in hysterics if she knew, which would not
be helpful, and Brendan is—occupied tonight. I’ll be fine in an hour or two and out
of your house.”

Sophia wasn’t so sure about that. The bruises on his face looked alarmingly vivid,
no matter how he had gotten them, and he winced when her hand accidentally slid over
his ribs. She didn’t need this kind of trouble. But she could never turn him away,
not when he needed her. He seemed like the kind of man who never needed anyone.

She nudged open her bedroom door and led him to the rumpled bed. “What makes you think
I won’t go into hysterics?”

He gave another laugh that ended in a worrying cough. He slowly lowered himself to
the edge of the mattress, his arm wrapped tight around himself. “You haven’t had hysterics
yet. You seem much too cool-headed for that sort of thing. I doubt you would faint
at the sight of a little blood.”

“Me? Cool-headed?” Sophia laughed as she knelt to help him remove his boots. “My family
would surely disagree with you. They always declared me to be wild and flighty.”

“Did they?” Dominic murmured, as if he grew sleepy. “Why would they say that?”

“Because I was trouble from the day I was born, at least according to my father. And
I proved him right in the end, running away with Jack like I did.” She tossed aside
the boots and sat back on her heels to look up at him. In the light of only one lamp,
she could barely see the bruises that marred his handsome face. His hair was tangled
over his brow, and he watched her closely with his darkened eyes. He always seemed
to have that power to focus so closely, to see so much. It made her want to turn away,
to not let him see. To protect herself from being hurt again.

But it also gave her the strangest, strongest urge to tell him all her secrets, all
the doubts and hurts she kept hidden. As if he could really be the powerful, golden
angel he appeared to be.

Yet he was not an angel, she reminded herself sternly. He was a man who had made love
to her, given her the greatest pleasure, then vanished. He was a man who had gotten
into a vicious fight and found his way to her doorstep in the middle of the night.

“What did you do that was so much trouble, Sophia?” he said gently. “Why do you live
alone now, so far from your family? Just because of your marriage?”

“That is too long a tale for tonight, and you’re in no condition to listen to my stories
anyway.” Sophia pushed herself to her feet and busied herself with pulling down the
bedclothes and piling up the pillows.

Dominic suddenly reached out and caught her hand. He was shockingly fast and strong
for someone who had just been in a brawl, and he held her there until she looked at
him. “I like stories,” he said. “I want to know yours, Sophia. Very much.”

“I am very dull,” she answered. She gave her wrist a twist, and he let her go. Avoiding
his gaze, she went behind him to help him ease out of his coat. Surely he didn’t really
want to know about her; no one did, especially men who wanted to sleep with her. But
she found she did want to tell him, too much. “Especially compared with the dashing
actresses and Society beauties you see every day.”

“I suspect there is nothing dull about you at all, Sophia. And you must know you could
outshine any other Society beauty you wanted to.”

He thought her beautiful? “What do you want to know then?” Sophia folded his ruined
coat over the foot of the bed and turned to look for her box of salves and bandages
in the cupboard. In her life with Jack, she had learned never to be without them,
but she wouldn’t have expected to need them for Dominic St. Claire.

“I want to know everything,” he said. She heard the soft shift of cloth, and she glanced
over her shoulder to see that he had pulled off his shirt. The lamplight poured a
soft glow over his bare skin, gilding the lean planes of his chest and his ridged
abdomen. He stretched his neck from side to side, and Sophia swallowed at the sight
of him. He was so gloriously handsome.

“Everything?” she said. She laid the box on the bedside table and poured out water
into a basin. “That might take some time.”

“It appears I’m not going anywhere.”

Sophia laughed wryly. “Is this a ploy to persuade me to let you read Mary’s diary?”

Dominic shook his head, his eyes never leaving her face as she worked. “I have no
interest in long-dead
people tonight, no matter how they are related to me. I want to know about
you
. What brought you here. What you want next in your life.”

“Well, I would rather hear about you, I think.” As Sophia leaned closer to him, she
saw that his perfection was an illusion of the night’s shadows. It was marred by darkening
bruises and by the cut on his arm that was oozing blood again. He would have to use
a great deal of stage makeup before his next performance, she feared. But the wounds
seemed only to enhance his strange magic, carving a dimension of vulnerability to
him that was otherwise never there. A rare glimpse behind his armor, the primitive
allure of a warrior.

“Ah, now I really am dull,” he said with a smile.

“I can’t believe that,” Sophia answered. She tucked the blankets around him and lay
down by his side. The rush of fear and danger that had sustained her when she discovered
him had faded, and now she was tired. But she knew she couldn’t sleep yet. “The life
of an actor could never be dull. Isn’t it exciting when hundreds of people are applauding
you?”

Dominic laughed wryly. “I do admit I like the applause. But that only lasts a few
minutes. There are hours and hours of practice that lead up to it. Repeating the same
words, the same actions, over and over until you’re sick of them. There’s playing
peacemaker in fights between other actors, doing accounts, ordering costumes, planning
seasons years in advance, worrying about what other theaters are doing—all very dull.
And the work never ends.”

Sophia shook her head. “It still sounds wonderful to me. Doing something you love,
in the company of other people who love it. Having the support of your
family. Being part of something that makes so many people happy.”

“You’re right. It’s not so bad.” Dominic closed his eyes. “I can’t imagine doing anything
else. Yet it can be hard to maintain a balance between the theater and a personal
life, if someone hasn’t been born to the acting life and thus understands it.”

Sophia remembered the snippet of gossip she had heard from Camille, that Dominic had
lost his fiancée. “I heard you were once engaged, though.”

A frown flickered over his brow. “Yes. Once.”

“To a woman named Jane Grant?”

“That was her name. I see gossip can fly fast over the Channel.”

“Camille knows everything about everyone. She mentioned it when we attended your play.”

“Did she tell you Jane died?” he asked.

“Yes,” Sophia said, feeling terrible that she had even brought it up. She hated it
when people tried to pry about Jack. “I am so sorry.”

“We were probably not a good match.”

“Did she not like the theater?”

“She didn’t fully understand what I did there, why I needed it so much. But she wanted
to understand. She was a sweet, kind lady who wanted everyone to be happy.”

Sweet and kind.
Two words Sophia feared could never be used to describe herself. “So she would have
tried to understand what happened to you tonight?”

Dominic started to laugh again and winced with pain. “She might have tried, but I
fear she never would have. There are things inside me she could never have fathomed.”

“Where did you meet her?” Sophia asked.

“She was the daughter of an old school friend of my mother’s. Her father owned a textile
import business, very respectable. I had known her since I was young, and when we
got older we met at parties more often, and it felt like time for me to settle down.
To mend my wild ways. Or try to, at least. And Jane and I liked each other. It seemed
a good fit, a way to build a suitable future.”