Page 51 of Taken to the Grave
“I am far better with you here,” he told her.
A little grin of satisfaction touched her lips. But then it flattened out. “We can discuss our argument later. First, I should tell you that I think I know where the Sanctuary is.”
He pulled back. “Where?”
“If I’m correct, it neighbors Vauxhall, on Burdick Close.”
She quickly told him about her and Sir’s foot chase after a carriage like the one from her vision, then of running into the two men from her visions—in a literal sense.
Hugh straightened in the chair, sparks igniting in his chest. “You came face to face with them?”
“They were exiting an arched alley with an open gate…I think because the coach had just turned through it.”
“They are murderers.” And she’dspokento them. More of the same familiar agitation, like what had inspired their earlier argument, built up underneath his skin.
“Most assuredly, but that isn’t the point. The point is that this is very likely where the Sanctuary is located.”
He suppressed the instinct to point out how much danger she’d put herself in, chasing after the marked coach. It would only anger her.
“Well done,” he said instead. “Now we must determine what to do with that information.” So far, even speaking about the Sanctuary could be deadly. Stepping foot inside, uninvited, was surely just as perilous.
He leaned his head back. It was nearly three in the morning. His whole body throbbed, and he needed sleep. And yet he wouldn’t have dislodged Audrey from his lap unless the whole house caught ablaze, forcing them from their cozy nest. He rubbed small circles on her lower back, where he braced her.
She traced her thumb over his injured lip. Then dropped her hand back into her lap.
“What kind of place was it?” she asked. Then, more faintly, “What specialty?”
Hugh had wondered if she would ask. He’d seen the questions in her eyes when Sir Gabriel had mentioned it.
“It’s untoward,” he replied.
“As we are to marry,” she shifted position in his lap and drew her legs up so that her knees rested against his abdomen, “we can speak of untoward things together, can we not?”
That suggestive reasoning made him want to toss her over his shoulder and carry her up to his room.
“We are still marrying, then, even after our argument?” He wasn’t too proud to admit that he’d wondered if she would change her mind.
“Only if you can accept that I won’t change. And that I won’t always do exactly as you wish.”
“Even if all I wish it to keep you safe?”
“Even then.”
Hugh ran his palm up her leg, to her knee, over the muslin of her gown. “I don’t want you to change. Ever. But Iwilltell you if I think something is dangerous. Or if you’re being rash.”
She hooked her arms atop his shoulders and linked her hands around his neck. “Very well. Now, tell me about the Red Lotus.”
As discomfited as he’d been while inside the brothel itself, discussing it now with Audrey brought his blood up. “Flagellation.”
She frowned. “Being struck?”
“Pain in general. There are men who enjoy it, and places like the Red Lotus cater to them.”
Audrey’s fingertips curled around the hair at his neck. “What other kinds of specialties are there?” Hugh shifted his position in the chair, and she pinned her bottom lip. “Do you have any interests?”
The little minx. She knew what she was doing to him, even if she was genuinely innocent regarding the topic.
“My interest is solely in you,” he answered.
