Of course I don’t want to be his third victim you fool, what kind of idiot do you take me for? Her inner voice scolded.
Outwardly she remained mute and stared at him while she tried to decide whether to scream for help or not. It was wrong to allow him to keep kissing her, even though it felt so right. She couldn’t trust this man. She had no idea where he had come from. When she had stepped out onto the balcony there had been nobody around, but he must have been somewhere. Had he been hiding? The thought made her shudder. To think that he had been watching her watching the men in the yard, and she hadn’t been aware of him, brought forth a sense of vulnerability she had never experienced before - or ever wanted to feel again for that matter.
Barnaby mentally swore when she glanced worriedly at the door leading into the ballroom.
“You cannot go back in there,” he warned, sensing the direction of her thoughts.
“I have to,” Rose protested huskily. “People will be looking for me.”
Barnaby snorted. He suspected that if someone was going to come looking for her, they would have done so at any point over the last hour while she had been outside all alone.
“I need you to stay calm, keep quiet and don’t make any sudden moves.” Barnaby made no attempt to keep the harshness out of his voice as he gave her orders. He didn’t wait for her to nod her agreement either. When she stood perfectly still, and continued to stare at him, Barnaby cautiously lifted his finger.
Rose couldn’t think beyond the stunned disbelief that stole her ability to make any kind of decision whatsoever. Unsure what to do, she decided to assess how much danger she was truly in, and whether this man before her was making it all up when in fact he posed more of a danger to her than anyone else. When she managed to see over his shoulder, however, she rather wished she hadn’t.
“Oh, good Lord,” she whispered.
There, in the entrance of the coal yard, staring straight up at them was the man she had once, stupidly, believed was the innocent Mr Morley, victim of two mindless thugs.
“Can you see him?” Barnaby asked calmly.
Rose swallowed.
“Don’t nod. Just look at him surreptitiously if you can over my shoulder and tell me what you see,” Barnaby murmured quietly.
Rose swallowed past the dryness in her throat. Her stomach began to churn, but she wasn’t hungry. She was nervous and felt sick with dread. The trustworthiness of the man with his arms currently wrapped was now insignificant. She was glad he was there, not least because he was the only thing holding her upright right now. If he moved, she was going to collapse into a quivering heap on the ground she just knew it.
“Is he there?” Barnaby prompted when she didn’t speak.
Rose nodded and then glanced at him when she remembered what he had said.
“Yes,” she whispered. “He is standing in the entrance to the yard staring at us.”
“If you scream, he will shoot you where you stand,” Barnaby breathed. “We are going to stay calm and keep our heads together and pretend we are a courting couple.”
“Courting couples don’t do this,” Rose protested. She didn’t really know because nobody had ever showed her this much attention before.
Barnaby lifted is brows at her. “Says who?”
Rose felt her cheeks heat and didn’t answer. The last thing she could do was admit to him that he was the first man who had actually seen her as a woman. Although, now that she came to think about it, even he hadn’t done that. He was kissing her purely as a ruse, nothing more.
Another crushing blow. Rose sighed but before she could think of what to say, the man before her began to speak.
“Chadwick doesn’t know that we have not just had a lover’s tryst on the balcony. He has no idea that we have been watching him, and we are not going to let him know that we have witnessed anything untoward. Stay close to me, don’t move too quickly, and keep your gaze away from him. Do you understand?”
“Chadwick?” Rose whispered nervously.
“He is the man you have just witnessed kill those two men in cold blood,” Barnaby informed her.
Rose closed her eyes as a wave of mortification swept through her. How quickly she had fo
rgotten the brutal murders of two individuals and succumbed to the needs of the flesh.
“Are you alright?” he murmured when he saw her blanch.
Rose nodded. Outwardly her face betrayed no trace of the emotions coursing through her. Inwardly she was sternly chastising herself for having forgotten about what she had witnessed. She had been too busy daring to think – hope – that this man, this stranger, rather quite liked her.
Don’t be stupid, her inner voice scoffed daringly. He is far beyond your reach and you know it. He is handsome, debonair, if a little dangerous. You are plain and ordinary, and if mother is right, far too rounded in the backside for your own good.