Wicked Angel

ALEX MOVED STEADILY TOWARDS LAUREN.

Instinctively, she made a desperate lunge for the hack, but he reached it before her. His arm shot up beside her, effectively barring the door and blocking her from the curious gaze of any onlooker.

Trapped between the hack and his powerful frame, Lauren pressed into the carriage as he slowly leaned into her.

"God help me, but you intrigue me, Lauren," he murmured. "So full of surprises, aren't you?"

His nearness was a powerful drug on her senses. Her eyes fell to his mouth. The memory of that long ago kiss they shared came flooding back to her in the form of a queer tingle in the pit of her stomach. At the moment, she understood herself to be on dangerous ground. "I think you should leave me alone," she stammered.

"I think I should too, but I am afraid I cannot."

With that startling revelation, he leaned closer and gently laid his palm against her cheek.

He meant to kiss her.

And for one insane moment, she desperately hoped he would.

Before I began writing, I had a perception of authors as solitary, somber figures who quietly observed life from the corner of some café with notebook and pencil in hand. I have discovered—in my case, anyway—that nothing could be further from the truth. I write surrounded by the support and help of many people.

I would like to thank my parents for instilling in me the belief and desire to be anything I wanted to be—well, perhaps with the single exception of my seventh-grade aspiration to be a merchant marine. Mother and Daddy gave me the foundation to be a writer, and they have not heard my appreciation enough.

I also would like to thank the rowdy bunch of Texans who are my entire extended family. They have taken on my writing as their own cause, demanding to know every detail, devouring my books, and gleefully promoting them to anyone who will listen—and many poor souls who would rather not, bless their hearts.

And last but not least, I would like to thank my editor and my friend, Christine Zika. Her insight and guidance are helping me to steadily improve my craft, and without her, I do not think anyone would be reading this today.

Paul Hill felt the first stab of true panic—a young woman was wearing what he thought was one of his sister's gowns. And if he was not mistaken, she was also wearing a gold locket he had given Lauren on her sixteenth birthday. Standing in the dank foyer of a perfectly gothic castle, Paul feared he had arrived too late. As the woman searched for someone who could make some sense of his pathetic attempt at German, he wondered helplessly if once again he would find himself in a situation where he would be unable to help his sister. Swallowing past a lump of rising panic, he thought there could be a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why the woman was wearing Lauren's clothes and jewelry, though at the moment, that perfectly reasonable explanation escaped him.

He shifted, leaning against his cane to take the pressure from his crippled leg. If it were not for his infirmity, he might have been able to save her two years ago. He might have been able to provide for her and marry her well before Uncle Ethan had come up with his detestable scheme. He might have—

"Entshuldigen Sie, Herr… ?"

Paul snapped from his ruminations and leveled a cold gaze on a man bent with age. "I have come for my sister," he announced grandly. The butler silently regarded him. Paul expelled a frustrated sigh; he did not have Lauren's knack for languages. "
Meine Schwester
. Lauren Hill."

The old man's face brightened noticeably. "Ah, Grafin Bergen! She will be quite pleased. We were not certain when you would arrive," he responded—in perfect English—and cracked a smile consisting of three teeth.

Startled, Paul straightened to his full height. "I demand at
once
to know her whereabouts!"

The old man's lips closed as he shuffled forward. "I should be perfectly happy to point you in her direction," he sniffed. "You need only ask. She is, at present, in the servant's quarters."

So they had forced her into servitude, the barbarians! "I should hardly think servant's quarters are befitting a countess," he snapped.

"Begging your pardon, sir, but the servant's quarters are just around the north side of the castle," the man responded indignantly as he pulled the massive oak-planked door open.

Paul pushed past him and moved as quickly as he could in the direction indicated. As he rounded a corner, laughter rose from a row of low-slung stone quarters built along the old curtain wall. Imagining the worst of indignities Lauren was being forced to suffer, he automatically groped at the small pistol he carried at his side.

Her most recent letter telling him of the death of her husband, Helmut Bergen, hinted that things were rather tense in the house. The new count, Helmut's nephew, Magnus, had taken exception to her unorthodox marriage to the old count. That was hardly surprising—their guardian uncle, Lord Ethan Hill, had arranged this preposterous marriage in exchange for the whole of the estate upon the old count's death, a feat he had accomplished without so much as a dowry. Bloody hell, if anything had happened to Lauren, he would strangle Ethan with his bare hands.

A chorus of German voices drifted up toward the slate sky as Paul attempted to quicken his pace, but it was nearly impossible on the wet stone path. Another burst of laughter sent his heart pounding against his ribs, and he lunged toward the first door he could reach. Flinging it open, he gripped the jamb to steady himself.

He might as well have flung open the gates to the cemetery just outside the castle walls and selected his spot. Surrounded by a group of people, Lauren stood in the center of the room dressed in a plain brown gown, her dark chestnut hair tied simply at her nape and draped carelessly over one shoulder. In the corner, a man towered over the group, wearing an expression of pure tedium. Judging by the expensive cut of his clothes, Paul assumed he was the new Count Bergen. And Lauren was smiling brilliantly at him.

Just as Paul had feared, whatever was happening in this stuffy room centered on his sister. Damn the girl, but she was clearly enjoying it. Unnoticed, Paul dragged himself through the door. He had half-expected to find her outside the cold stone walls, anxiously awaiting her rescue.

But no. Not Lauren.

She was cheerfully saying her good-byes, and as he glanced around the room, he noticed that several looked piteously enamored of her. He could surmise from her rather lengthy German monologue only that she was very thoroughly explaining, to each person individually, that she was leaving.

Paul loudly cleared his throat and succeeded in gaining the room's attention. Lauren paused in the delivery of her soliloquy and glanced over her shoulder. A bright smile instantly lit her face, and with a joyful cry, she pushed herself through the crowd, flinging herself into her brother's arms.

"Oh Paul! I am so thankful you have come! Oh, you cannot imagine how I have
longed
for you! I have missed you terribly!" she cried and kissed him fervently on each cheek. "Oh Lord,
look
at you! How
handsome
you are!" she exclaimed.

The warm sting of a blush started to creep up Paul's neck. He hastily grasped her arms and put her away from him as he warily eyed the crowd. "I have missed you, too. Are you quite finished here? The carriage is waiting," he said under his breath.

Lauren's laugh was musical. "Yes, just let me finish saying good-bye." She turned back to the crowd, grinning. They all grinned back at her. Everyone except Magnus Bergen, that was, and the frown on his rugged face made Paul shudder. Good God, but he was huge, and with features that appeared chiseled from stone, he did not present himself a happy man.

"Who is this?" Bergen asked, his English twinged with only a faint hint of an accent.

"My brother Paul," Lauren announced happily. For the benefit of the others, she added, "
Mein Bruder
."

A round of "ahs" went up; the crowd beamed at him.

"Come, Lauren," Paul muttered. "A
hired
carriage is waiting." He gripped her elbow, intending to propel her from that overcrowded room as swiftly as possible.

"Wait!" Lauren exclaimed. "I forgot Herr Bauer!" She pulled away from him and moved back into the middle of the crowd, where a gardener of some sort was rummaging through a coarse hemp sack. He spoke in rapid German; the small crowd leaned forward, straining to hear. In a flurry of movement, he extracted a very large potato from the sack and very gently offered it to her, his voice having fallen to something of a whisper. Lauren leaned forward with a look of great concentration, then suddenly straightened and smiled warmly at the man. Bergen groaned impatiently and folded his massive arms across his chest.

"
Oh, Herr Bauer, danke shoen!
" she exclaimed, and affectionately patted his arm, causing the gardener to turn at least three shades of red.

So now Paul could add daft gardeners to the list of hopelessly besotted fools his sister attracted. Since blossoming into such a beauty, she attracted everyone. With thick, curly dark chestnut hair, unusual cobalt blue eyes that sparkled like sapphires, she had a smile that could easily disarm a man—yet she never seemed to notice the attention, and if she did, she was unaffected by it. Paul had never known her to primp, or to flutter her lashes, or to flirt in any way. Lauren was as exactly as one saw her, completely artless. So artless, she would accept a potato as a gift from a simpleton and think nothing of it. She was the most generous person he had ever known, completely accepting of everyone and everything.

God, how they needed her at Rosewood.

"Lauren!" Paul called impatiently. With a beguiling grin, and clutching the potato securely to her bosom, she obediently made her way to Paul's side, waving and calling a cheerful
auf wiedersehen
and
leben
Sie wohl
to the lot of them. The moment she was within reach, he grabbed her elbow and dragged her forward.

Bergen emerged from the dank, overcrowded cottage close on their heels, muttering something in nonsensical German as Paul half-dragged his sister toward the carriage. "That is hardly accurate!" Lauren exclaimed to something the Bavarian said, and tossed a half-smile, half-frown over her shoulder.

Paul attempted to quicken the pace.

But Lauren, bless her cheerful heart, stopped once they reached the courtyard and turned to face the man who had once threatened to toss her out on her ear. "Farewell Count Bergen! You've been quite generous considering the circumstance, and I would have you know I am very appreciative of it!" She sank into a respectful curtsy.

Bracing his massive legs apart, Bergen folded his arms across his chest. "So you intend to leave?" he asked, frowning. "I thought we had an agreement."

Paul jerked a narrowed gaze to Lauren, fully prepared to do battle if he must. "An
agreement!
"

"Oh,
that
," Lauren said with an airy wave of her hand. "Count Bergen has some maggot in his head that I should perhaps stay and oversee the household. I
did
agree to help him, but only until you came for me.

And now, here you are, so my part of the bargain is fulfilled." She smiled brightly at Magnus and nodded resolutely.

He snorted. "Bergenschloss suits you. Why would you return to that farm when you could oversee all of this as you see fit?" he doggedly continued, sweeping his arm across the old bailey and toward the main house.

Paul glared at Bergen. "You think to make my sister your
housekeeper?
"

"No, of course not!" the giant snapped. "Bergenschloss needs a mistress, and I am often away—"

"Magnus," Lauren said gently, "you know it is impossible for me to stay."

"
Why?
" Bergen started angrily. He quickly checked himself, running a hand through his flaxen hair as he contemplated the ground for a moment. "I admit I have said some things I regret," he added uneasily.

"And I do not blame you for wanting to be away from here. But you have brought a measure of…
joy
to Bergenschloss, and I—
they
—want you to stay," he said, tossing a frown over his shoulder

at the huddled group of servants standing several feet behind him.

Lauren beamed. "That is so very
sweet!
But I cannot stay."

Bergen fisted his hands on his waist. "You
can
."

Incredibly, Lauren walked to where the giant stood. The German looked at her strangely—so strangely, that Paul stepped forward, gripping his cane tightly in case it was needed. "My family needs me now, you know that," Lauren murmured, and then, much to Paul's amazement, she leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. "But thank you for your kind words."

Bergen looked as startled as Paul felt, and for one long moment, he did not respond. Slowly, his face began to darken as he stood contemplating her; a muscle in his cheek jumped erratically. Paul realized he was holding his breath, waiting for the explosion he was sure would come. But Bergen surprised him by suddenly shaking his head. "Perhaps you will visit," he muttered, sighing heavily.