Page 54 of Charmless
Mal brushed my tangled curls back from my cheeks. “What more can I say to convince you?”
“It isn’t me you have to convince. Horatio was ready to post a wanted poster for your capture. I persuaded him to wait bypromising that you would help him find out who was really behind the attack on the Aura Chamber.”
Mal snorted. “You truly have lost your mind. Why would I agree to do Crushington’s dirty work for him?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Let me see. Possibly to save your own neck!” I softened my sarcastic tone to a pleading note. “And because I am asking you to help. You are often aware of what skullduggery is afoot among the less respectable people in our kingdom. Could the culprit possibly be one of your unsavory friends? Perhaps that pirate, Waldo the Wharf Rat?”
Mal cut me off with a shake of his head. “I swear to you, Ella. Neither I nor any of my friends had anything to do with that break-in.”
“Surely you must have heard some rumors about who did.”
“No, I haven’t. Whoever pulled off that theft has been very clever about covering their tracks. Even if I did know who it was, I would be more inclined to applaud their daring instead of betraying them to the Crusher.”
“I have asked you not to call Horatio that,” I snapped. “He is a good man, kind and caring, honorable and true.”
My defense of Horatio was so heated, that Mal frowned. He tipped up my chin to scrutinize my face.
“Exactly how far did you go to convinceHorationot to swear out a warrant for my arrest?” Mal laid sarcastic emphasis on my intimate use of the commander’s name. “Never tell me you have been kissing him, too.”
I pushed Mal’s hand away as I felt my cheeks flame. Even in the lantern’s dim light, it must have been obvious.
“Frap, Ella, why must you run about kissing every man in this kingdom? Every man but me.”
He wrapped his arm around my waist. He hesitated before drawing me closer, his head lowering to mine. Before our lips could meet, I shoved him away and leapt to my feet.
“Don’t, Mal.”
“Don’t what, Ella? Want you? Need you? Tell you how much I love you?” His voice was rife with frustration.
When he stood up and tried to take my hand, I backed away from him.
“I am sorry, Mal. I have tried and tried to tell you. I will love you always as my dearest friend. But please stop hoping I will ever feel anything more. Especially not when… ” I faltered and plucked up my courage. “I have fallen in love with someone else.”
“You can’t mean Horatio Crushington?”
“Yes!”
I had not meant to blurt it out like that, but perhaps there was no gentle way of telling him.
A choking sound escaped him something between a curse and groan. He paced away from me, clenching, and unclenching his hands, only to wheel back to confront me again. “No! You can’t possibly be in love with such a man. I will grant you that the Crusher is more honorable than most, but he is still a Scutcheon Commander, sworn to uphold the king’s tyrannical laws. Have you entirely forgotten that?”
“Of course, I have not. I heartily wish Horatio was not in the king’s service. But he tries very hard to be merciful and just. I love him for that and for so much more.”
Mal’s face fell. I could feel the weight of his despair and I hated hurting him this way.
“I am sorry,” I whispered.
Mal swallowed thickly. “Has he asked you to marry him?”
“He wants to, but he can’t. If he does not find out who robbed the Aura Chamber, he could be broken in rank and sent to patrol the Northern border. He says it is a wild region, no place for a man to bring a wife. If that happens, I will likely never see Horatio again.”
“Good riddance,” Mal said. But when a single tear escaped to cascade down my cheek, he sighed. “No! Please don’t start crying again, Ella. I still think Crushington is not right for you. There is far more of the pirate than the princess about you, my beloved friend. Your upright commander will never be able to understand or appreciate you the way I do. But if the blasted man gets exiled to the north, you will never realize that. You will pine for him the way you did for that stupid Prince Ryland all those years and I will be cursed if I allow your heart to be broken a second time.”
Mal heaved a deep sigh. “Fine. I will help him find out who broke into the Aura Chamber.”
“Oh Mal, thank you,” I began, but he dismissed my gratitude with a curt gesture.
“Mind you, I can’t promise you I will succeed in unmasking the culprit. I have been preoccupied trying to figure out how the orb works.”
