Page 55 of Lady Frederica and the Scot Who Would Not
“And you smelled so bloody nice. And then you shivered.” He paused again and narrowed his eyes at her as if shivering were the worst sort of offense. “And then you told me how that kiss from that sod was your first kiss.” He swung toward her and pointed an accusing finger. “You damn well knew I could never let that stand.”
“I damn well did not!” she said, scowling, but he was still pacing, muttering, and jerking his hand through his hair. At this rate, he’d go bald if he kept it up.
He stopped once more, but this time he was facing the door, and she had a sudden worry that he’d simply walk out of her life, and she’d never see him again. “You and those little sounds you make at the back of your throat.”
Her brows dipped together. She hadn’t realized she made sounds at the back of her throat.
“You’ve the spirit of a siren. You seduced me. Put a spell on me.”
Had she? She at once liked that he thought she could, but he slung it at her like an accusation.
“The way you kissed me,” Gabe said. “Well, no man could damned well resist that. And now we come to the bloody ball.”
She bit her lip. He was going through their history in a rapid, alarming fashion.
“I came to warn you, and what did I get for my troubles?”
“No one asked you to warn me,” she snapped. “I did not ask you to come to my rescue! You came of your own will.”
He swung toward her, gripping the edge of the bed, his nostrils flaring, his jaw tense. “Of course I would rescue you. Was I to let you be ravaged? If you’d only listened in the first place, our lives would have never intersected again.”
Ice infused her veins at his words and spread like vines of despair through her stomach.
“If only I’d not touched you, had kept my bloody hands off you and left your unmentionables in place. My honor has been my downfall. First with Georgette and then with you. But you…you are nothing like Georgette.”
He couldn’t have said anything more hurtful to her. “Get out!” she yelled. He stood there, staring at her, eyebrows dipped as if confused about why she was suddenly so angry. Frightful Frederica had a husband who was afraid to love her. Or maybe he simply did not want to. It was all too much. This moment of her heart shredding was why she had never, ever wanted to be in love.
Shaking, she reached over to her nightstand, picked up the brush from the table, and threw it at him. “Get out!” she screeched, not caring how she must sound to the household staff. “Get out. Get out. And don’t come back! I don’t need or want you in my world!”
He opened and closed his mouth several times, filling her with hope that he might apologize, might say he actually did love her, had not meant what he’d said—even saying he had not meant it like it had sounded would have sufficed—but he didn’t do any of that. He clamped his jaw shut, turned, and left.
With a pounding heart, she scrambled out of the bed and rushed to her bedchamber door, pressing her ear to the wood and listening as his boots thudded down the stairs. When she knew he’d reached the bottom, she opened her door and raced to the top of the stairs just in time to see him leaving through the front door without a backward glance. Then, and only then, did she allow her tears to fall. She sank down at the top of the stairs and cried until she fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty
“Bear tells me ye spent the last night two nights at the club,” came Carrington’s voice from the doorway of Gabe’s office.
Gabe looked up from the day’s ledgers he’d read a dozen times, but still could not damn well tell what they said. Staying away from Freddy had not been easy, but he had stayed away because the need to be with her was an all-consuming, gnawing ache. He loved her. The moment he’d seen her fall in the street he’d known it. It had been a dagger straight into his heart. And now she was with child. How could he bear it if he lost either of them? He didn’t know that he could, but he also knew he could not imagine his life without her in it every damn day.
“Do ye plan to spend tonight here, as well?”
Gabe frowned and looked to the window, his lips parting at the hues of blue and purple in the sky indicating it was dusk.Plan?He only had one plan and that was to find Hawk, and it was bloody well not going as he’d hoped.
“I spent the first night here attempting to get information from the man who tried to snatch Freddy.”
“And did ye?”
“Yes,” Gabe said, then frowned. “And the information I got was that the man was just a lackey who has no idea where Hawk is. Hawk paid him to watch this street and snatch Freddy if he should see her, then take her to the old orphanage where we used to live. There, he was to light five candles in the window, which would serve as a signal to Hawk to come for her. I did all of that last night and nothing. Hawk didn’t come.”
“Undoubtedly, the man’s heard about yer stopping the carriage and saving Freddy,” Carrington replied. “So he knew it was a trap.”
Gabe scrubbed a hand over his face. “Yes, undoubtedly.”
Carrington entered the room and sat opposite Gabe. “I’ve seen a great deal of yer sister the last two days. Did ye know Huntley is courting her?”
Gabe nodded. “She mentioned it. I’m pleased.” He studied Carrington. “You came all the way here to see if I knew that?”
“I’m here because my wife informed me that I’m to be an uncle, and I was surprised I’d not heard the news directly from ye.” Gabe flinched at the spasm of happiness that cramped his chest just thinking of his unborn child. “I was even more surprised to discover that Freddy has agreed to her mother’s suggestion that she should spend her months awaiting the child at their country home,” Carrington added.
