Page 76 of The Truth Serum
“And I can do no less?” she challenged.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m just afraid.”
“Of what?”
“Of another disaster.”
He knew what she meant. The last time he had drawn her into something, her father had died from the shock of discovering them. This wasn’t the same thing, of course. That had been youthful indiscretion. This was something entirely different. But he could read the fear on her face, and the memory of her father’s heart attack was stark in both their memories.
“I am not a boy anymore,” he said as he reached for her cold hands. “And you are not a green girl. I am only asking you to dance with a man who wants to marry you.”
“A man who is a traitor to England.”
True.
“But I’ve already sworn to Fletcher that I won’t consider him.”
“If you don’t want to do this Becca, I’ll find another way.”
“Oh stop!” she huffed as he pulled her hands away from him. “You know I will. I have never refused one of your schemes before. I just have to work myself into believing you.”
That hurt. Did she think he’d made all this up? That he was a man of elaborate fantasies?
“What can I say to convince you of the truth?”
She looked to Ras. “You believe him?”
The duke’s answer came swiftly. “Absolutely. I’ve suspected something for a while, but when Lord Benedict visited his sickroom, I was sure.” He shrugged. “I also listened at the door, so that helped.”
She nodded. “Very well.” Her tone was decisive, and Nate knew she wouldn’t waver from that decision. “But I must ask something from you in return.”
“Anything,” he answered.
“After this is done, you must help me escape my family.”
She was looking at Nate, but Kynthea was the one who spoke first.
“Escape? And do what?”
Becca smiled. “Whatever I want.” Her gaze locked with Nate’s. “You must help me get my dowry—the money and the property. I can sell the land for more money, and then I will live by myself as far away from Fletcher as it is possible to get.”
“By yourself?” Nate asked. He wanted her far away from Fletcher, too. But without anyone? “Won’t you be lonely?”
“Never.”
Whether true or not, she believed it. And her vehemence told him clearer than anything that she needed to be free. Of everyone and everything.
“Done,” Nate said. And for him, it was as firm a commitment as a vow before God. Even if it meant he never saw her again.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Becca tried toforce herself to relax. The decisions were made, the details were important but not significant. So she listened and even asked a few more questions. Nothing worthwhile came of it except for the frustration of hearing Nate say, “I cannot answer that.”
At least he wasn’t trying to lie anymore. But that didn’t make him any less mysterious. She’d never really believed all the horrible things Fletcher had said about him, but was being a “spy” any more rational than a Lothario? She’d never heard of being a spy. The word wasn’t even in his books. And, honestly, couldn’t a man who wrote such fantastical tales create an elaborate fantasy like spying for the crown?
Of course he could. But she didn’t think so.
