Page 111 of The Truth Serum
But how? What would Nate do?
She had no idea, except for what she’d read in his novels. What did his characters do to outwit the villain? They pretended to go along until they had an opportunity to destroy everything.
Very well. She squared her shoulders and faced him with her most arrogant stare.
“So I am to be your wife. I am to go along with your scheme.” She swallowed. “I will, but I have a condition.”
He snorted. “You have no bargaining room here. Consider yourself lucky. You get to stand at my side, clothed in riches, as you care for my sons.”
His sons. Of course. Nothing about his poor daughter. Which, naturally, gave her an insight into what he did want.
“Did you know that there are ways to prevent pregnancy? That no matter how much you do your, um, manly duty, I can prevent any son from growing in my womb.” She leaned forward. “That is why you want a wife, yes? So you can have an heir? Someone to carry on your glorious name.”
He stared at her, completely dumbfounded. Clearly, he’d never heard of such a thing. “Nothing can prevent me from planting my son in your womb.”
“Oh sir, you are misinformed.” He opened his mouth to counter her, but she raised a single finger. “And before you toss me aside, let me warn you that I will tell any woman you marry exactly how to do it.”
“Then I shall kill you this night and be done with you.”
He said it so swiftly that she was inclined to doubt him. It was one of those throw-away phrases that never usually came to pass.I’ll kill you. I’ll beat her. I’ll wring his neck.Except she knew of too many cases where it had happened. The threats were real. And perhaps a man who could blithely betray his country for coin could just as easily kill her tonight.
But she couldn’t cave now or she’d never have any footing with the man. So again, she tried to echo what Nate—or at least, the hero in one of his books—had said and forced her lips into a casual smile.
“You can try,” she said. “But we girls in the country learn how to defend ourselves against man and beast alike.”
“I have three stone weight on you. There’s nothing you can—”
She punched him. She’d never done it before except in practice with her older brother. Henry knew she tended to the ill in her village, often at all hours of the night. He taught her this punch—made her practice it over and over—as the quickest way to shock and disable an opponent. Or kill them.
She jabbed him straight in the throat.
Or she tried to. She missed, but she gave him a glancing blow enough that he choked out of reflex. And she followed up quickly with the lie that she’d meant to miss.
“If I’d hit that a little harder, you’d be dying right now,” she said. “Even a glancing blow will kill. Remember that next time you think I don’t know how to hurt a man.”
Henry’s plan for that punch was so she could jab then run. Unfortunately, she was in a moving carriage. She could jump out and run, but to where? She needed to stop Fletcher, and the baron knew where the meeting would take place.
So she sat and waited while he recovered his breath. And she tensed for the backlash to come. He was not a man who could be struck without fighting back.
It came as she expected it to—a backhand hard enough to shatter her cheek. She blocked it as much as she was able. It softened the blow to a glancing bruise, but the pain of it radiated through her body.
Didn’t matter. She didn’t change her tone of voice.
“Are we to trade blows then like children?” she taunted. “Or do you want to learn what I require to be your willing partner, rather than your pawn?”
“You’re a woman!” he growled.
“And women can get things, go places, and manage people you cannot. Do you think you could get an audience with the Queen?” she pressed.
“And you can?” he scoffed.
Absolutely not. “You have no idea what I can and cannot do.”
She left it there. It was a threat she’d read in Nate’s books often enough, but it was a shock to use it in real life. Perhaps his tales weren’t as far-fetched as she thought. Meanwhile, the baron proved that he wasn’t an idiot by dropping back in his seat and staring at her for a very long time.
Good God, he’d obviously never considered that a women could think. But he was certainly considering the possibility now.
“What do you want?” he finally asked.
