Lyons Gate

“Jason, I’m not going to jump you again,” she said, and she sounded both mortified and excited. She tossed her hair behind her, long thick hair, which he had no intention of thinking about, how it would feel rubbing against his cheek, a curtain over his belly.

“Stay there, Hallie. I have no nightshirt on.”

“Really? You don’t sleep in a nightshirt? Yes, I remember Corrie saying something about that. Do you know the moon is flooding through that window, Jason? If I come only five steps closer, I’ll be able-”

“If you come one step closer, I’ll personally throw you out that window. It’s a nice drop to the ground.”

“All right, all right, I’ll not move from this spot. Tell me, did my father try to break your arm?”

“No, he didn’t.”

“Do you know what my father is thinking? He wouldn’t tell me a thing, patted my cheek, bid me good night, and walked away. And here I’ve known him all my life.”

“I saw you slide your right foot forward. Step back, Hallie.”

She took a very small step back. He saw she was barefoot. “If my father didn’t hit you, then I know what he wants, Jason, but believe me, you don’t have to agree. What happened was my fault, I’ve told him so a good dozen times. He says nothing, only looks patient. I wish he would believe that no one could possibly know. It’s as if it simply never happened. Poof, it’s gone.”

Jason sighed. “Nothing’s gone. He’s your father. That makes all the difference in the world. I don’t think there’s going to be any choice here, Hallie.” He gave a short laugh. “At least our questionable partnership will be over.”

“No, don’t say it. I wanted to apologize to you for what I did, though I don’t remember thinking anything at all while I was doing it.”

“Usually it’s gentlemen who lose their wits and can think only of getting a woman flat on her back.”

“I hadn’t gotten that far,” she said. “I mean, your shirt was off and that gave me quite a lot to think about. When my hand made that very brief foray down your chest, well, perhaps I did think that getting you out of your trousers might be a very nice thing.” She paused, took a sideways step. “You’re out of your britches now.”

He sat up.

She stared at him.

He pulled the sheet around him, then a blanket up over his shoulders, pulling it together over his chest, like a shawl.

Alec Carrick said from the doorway, “Hallie, I ca

“Is that you, Papa? Oh dear, I believe it is. I’m not touching him. See, I’m at least seven feet away from his bed.”

“Did you count the bloody feet?”

“Well, yes, perhaps I did, and how fast it would take me to cover those feet if I ran. Papa, I’m only here to make Jason tell me what you said to him. See, he’s all covered up. He’s safe.”

Alec Carrick laughed, couldn’t help himself. “You’re going to chase him out of his own house if you’re not careful, Hallie.”

“He’s been chasing himself away lately,” she said to her father. “We’d be speaking, then he’d up and leave and not come back until dawn. I know it was dawn the other night because I was nearly awake, and so I told him.”

“I see,” Alec Carrick said. “How often does Jason simply leave like that?”

“He’s left a good half dozen times. Never a warning, he ups and leaves.”

Jason wanted to dump her into the horse trough. “My lord, nothing would have happened here, nothing at all.”

“I believe you. So you left, did you? How long do you think you could have kept that up, Jason?”

Jason felt like a fool. He was lying naked in bed-his bed-minding his own business, and she tracked him down, and now her father was looking at him with a good deal of understanding and determination. He said slowly, “Perhaps we could speak in the morning, sir? Make decisions, settlements, that sort of thing.”

“Yes,” Alec said. “That would be fine.” He took his daughter’s hand and dragged her from Jason’s bedchamber.

“Wait! What is going on here? What do you mean, decisions? Listen, just because Jason leaves the house a lot, you want to talk about settlements? No, I won’t do it. I don’t wish to marry, I’ve told you that again and again, Papa. Look at Lord Renfrew. I shudder to think of him. Can you begin to imagine what his children would have been like? Papa, I won’t do this! Didn’t Jason tell you he didn’t want to wed either? He was really hurt, Papa, burned to his feet, not singed like I was. This can’t happen.”

Alec Carrick quietly closed the bedchamber door.

Jason, wide awake, knowing he was facing his doom and seeing no hope for it, jumped out of bed, dressed quickly, and within five minutes, was riding Dodger away from Lyon ’s Gate. Hallie sat at her window and wondered again where he was going.

CHAPTER 31

Corrie was dreaming about the day she finally gave her grandmother-in-law her comeuppance, a loud, thoroughly satisfactory comeuppance it was. In her dream she was standing there, her hands on her hips, staring down the old besom, who, for the very first time in her life, had nothing to say. Something skittered along the back of her brain. The dream folded itself away in an instant. Something skittered again.

Corrie’s eyes flew open. She’d heard something that didn’t belong in her bedchamber. What was it? She saw a shadow in the window. Oh God, someone was trying to get in. James grunted in his sleep as she eased out of bed. She saw another movement. She grabbed the poker from the fireplace and yelled as she ran toward the window, “Bloody hell! A woman lets her guard down, even dreams a lovely dream, and look what happens-a bloody man is climbing into her bedchamber, uninvited. Come in and make it fast else I’ll clout your head!”

James jerked awake. “Corrie, what the devil is wrong?”

“Shush, Corrie, it’s just me, Jason. Don’t crack my head open with that damned thing.”

Corrie lowered the poker, her heart still pounding wildly. “Jason? It’s you? We have doors. What are you doing coming in through our window?”

“I want to speak to James. I didn’t want to wake the household.”

Corrie helped Jason into the bedchamber, and tossed her husband his dressing gown. She stood back, eyeing her brother-in-law. “What’s happened, Jason?”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “Listen, Corrie, I don’t mean to be rude, but I really need to speak with James.”

“But you haven’t told me anything-”

James studied his brother’s shadowed face, his look of desperation. He felt horrible alarm.

“Sweetheart, Jason and I will go down to the estate room. Get back into bed.”

With James carrying one lit candle, the twins made their way down the wide staircase, down the long corridor, to the eastern side of the house, and into the estate room. James poured them each a brandy.

Jason took a sip and set his glass down. “Hallie’s father is at Lyon ’s Gate.”

James said, “Yes, he visited with us here first, said he wanted to surprise Hallie. He’s very charming, and a man I’ll wager has few go against him.”

“He certainly did surprise his daughter. And me. He came into the stable and saw his daughter all over me. I’d taken off my shirt to work.”

“Ah, well, that’s that, isn’t it? When is the wedding to be?”

“Probably as soon as the baron can manage it. We did nothing, James. I, in particular-”

“You’re saying Hallie attacked you? Just because you didn’t have your shirt on? I thought she barely liked you-”

“Dammit, James, she doesn’t have a clue about sex and she wants it. She wants me.”

“And you? Do you like her?”

“Most of the time. If I like her too much, I simply leave, and visit the three charming ladies I know in Eastbourne.”

“That could exhaust a man’s resources, all those nights spent away from home.”

“You know better than that. She’s so bright, James, and stubborn.”