Page 5 of Lord of Fortune
“It ’urts, but it’ll clean up all right, I imagine. So long as we get ourselves out of this mess.”
“Someone will come along,” the woman said.
Penn appreciated her optimism but didn’t think it was well placed. “I doubt that. We are quite a ways off the road.” A thought occurred to him, and he turned his head toward her. “Does someone know you’re here?”
She nodded. “My maid.”
“Your maid. Have you no man to assist you?”
“My coachman is back at the inn. He just doesn’t know precisely where I am.”
“He should.”
“This was a discreet errand,” she snapped.
Penn laughed derisively. “A fool’s errand, you mean.”
She pulled at her bindings, which caused Penn to fall toward her and Egg to fall on Penn.
Egg grunted. “Watch yourself!”
Penn caught the scent of honeysuckle and sunlight before jerking away from her. “We are tied together,” he said. “Your movements affect ours. Please be so kind as to not cause Egg pain.”
“Where’s your knife?” Egg asked.
It was tucked into a leather scabbard secured to the inside of his waistcoat. “In its usual location, which will be impossible to retrieve given the state of our hands.”
“Where is it?” the woman asked.
Penn turned his head and was greeted with the intensity of her emerald stare. “My waistcoat.”
She eyed his chest. “It can’t be very large.”
His lip twitched. “It’s bigger than you think.”
“Can I use my mouth?”
She seemed to have missed the humor in his double entendre given the innocence of her question. Only there was nothing innocent about his sudden reaction. Unexpected heat sparked in his belly, and he struggled to recall what she was going to use her mouthfor.
The knife.
“I suppose you could try.” It was the only plan they had. He angled toward her as best he could. “It’s on the left. My left.” The side closest to her.
“I need to move a bit closer. Egg—is that your name?—I’m going to move now, if you could brace yourself.”
“Egbert Howell, ma’am.”
“I am Mrs. Forrest.”
Mrs.“Where in the devil is your husband?” Penn asked.
She twisted at the waist. “I am a widow.”
“You undoubtedly drove him to his early demise.” Penn chided himself for making light of her situation. He blamed the disaster this day had become. “My apologies,” he said softly.
“Something like that,” she murmured before bowing her head. Using her chin and nose, she nudged at the waistcoat to get to the scabbard. Thankfully, it was rather accessible.
The feel of her against him in such an intimate fashion only served to stoke the dormant fires in Penn’s gut. It had been months since he’d lain with a woman, so it made sense Mrs. Forrest would arouse him.
