Page 53 of A Wicked Game

Relief surged through him at the reappearance of her customary sarcasm. “Oh, all manner of wicked things, you can be sure.”

She flushed and frowned at the same time and he laughed, glad they’d found their way back to their usual footing.

“You’d be surprised at how many of those dreams concern you, Harry,” he teased.

“Don’t call me that. You make me sound like a man.”

He let his eyes linger on her face for a long moment. “Believe me, I could never, ever make that mistake.”

It took less than ten minutes to reach Bury Street, but instead of allowing her to escape, he followed her into the shop.

There was no sign of her father. The sign in the window read Closed, but she turned it over to read Open and hastened into the back room, then disappeared throughan adjoining door, presumably to check the upper part of the house.

“Father’s not back yet, but you don’t have to stay,” she said when she returned. “I’ll be perfectly fine on my own.”

She was clearly keen to be rid of him, but Morgan was in no mood to comply. He wanted more of her company, and he was ruthless enough to use any excuse to keep her nearby. Now that their kissing game was done, he’d have to be more creative about finding reasons to see her.

“I don’t like the thought of you here alone. What if someone decides to rob you?”

“I keep a loaded pistol under the counter,” she said evenly. “And I know how to use it.” She sent him a meaningful glare, as if she were considering using it on him.

He repressed a smile. “Good.”

She folded her arms, but he didn’t leave. Instead, he wandered over to inspect the papers and paint box that were strewn on a leather-topped desk against one wall. Harriet let out a little huff of irritation. “That’s my work station. Do you mind?”

He pulled one of the pages forward. “Not at all. What’s this?”

“It’s something I’ve been working on for Lady Melville.”

She tried to take it from him and failed.

“A Map of the Heart,” he read.

She sighed in defeat and let him look.

“Indeed. It’s an amusing map showing all the different parts of love. Lady Melville already owns several examples of this type of thing—there’s one calledThe Empire of Loveby a German mapmaker named Breitkopf, and a French version calledThe Map of Tendernessby Madeleine de Scudéry—but she asked me to produce one inEnglish to entertain her friends. I’ve been having a great deal of fun with it.”

Morgan looked closer. The map appeared to be ordinary enough, with a series of lakes and rivers, hills and valleys. Various sections had been painted with different colors to denote their borders, as the counties of England were often shown on a regular map, but his lips twitched as he started to read the place-names.

There was the Land of Youth, filled with such places as the Forest of First Love, Kiss Field, and Charm Castle. Was it his imagination, or did some of those look like the places he and Harriet had played as children in Wales? Charm Castle looked a lot like the ruined folly near Trellech where he’d tried to get her to swear fealty. And almost kissed her.

Next to the Land of Youth, however, was the rather more sobering Mountains of Loathing.

“‘Vale of Tears’?” he read, highly amused. “‘Swamp of Profanity.’ ‘Desert of Melancholy’? Someone was having a bad day.”

She shrugged. “My aim is to showallthe emotions, not just the happy ones. The peaks and troughs of amorous pursuit, if you will.”

He snorted and carried on reading. “Ah, ‘the Land of Lust.’ What have you put in here? ‘Intoxication County’… ‘Lake of Lechery’… ‘Flirtation Field’… All a bit cynical, isn’t it?”

“I’ve drawn the Land of Happy Love too.” She slid her finger to the section next to his. “See, there’s Tenderness Tavern, Satisfaction Valley. I even put a Well of Granted Wishes in honor of Maddie and Gryff. And a Fountain of Joy.”

“But what’s this here? Bachelor Country.” He tilted his head to see better. “Of course; Stupidity Town, RejectionPlace, the Cave of Contempt.” He struggled to contain his laughter.

“The Aunts have been particularly helpful in naming places.”

“What’s Exasperation Heath? And who lives in theHamlet of Death?”

“There are nice parts too. Look, there’s a City of Dreams. And the Bridge of Hope.”

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