The corridor outside her room was black as a cave in Hades. She edged forward. Once she made it downstairs and outside to the stables, she was on her way.
“Going somewhere?”
She jumped and dropped her bag to the wooden floor. Gasping, she whirled toward the shadows near the door. “You scared me.”
“Not enough, apparently,” Cam said drily.
She ignored the remark. “What are you doing outside my room?”
“What are you doing dressed for travel?”
“How do you know I’m dressed for travel?”
“Aren’t you?” he asked coolly. “Shall we continue this discussion in private?”
“We have nothing to say to each other,” she said crisply, marching past.
“After so long? You wound me.” He caught her arm and bustled her into her room.
“You have no right.” She struggled to break free. He’d touched her too often since he’d saved her. And every time he set her pulse racing.
“Perhaps not. Will you stay and listen?”
“You’re such a bully,” she said sullenly.
“Sticks and stones. Do I release you?”
She wanted to kick him. “Yes.”
Cam let her go and moved past. He paused before the window, his tall, lean shape silhouetted against the light reflected from the snow outside. After some clicks and scrapes, the candle on her nightstand bloomed into light.
“I hate to mention your dignity again, but isn’t it degrading for a duke of the realm to sleep across a lady’s threshold like a servant?” she asked with pointed sweetness.
He glanced up with a faint smile. Despite her irritation, her heart lurched. How she wished he wasn’t so beautiful with his narrow, intense face and his glinting green eyes and his level dark brows. After nearly ten years without him, he still dazzled her. It just wasn’t fair.
“I didn’t have to prostrate myself on your doorstep.” He paused. “Giuseppe told me your plans.”
Blast Giuseppe and his flapping gums.
She didn’t realize she’d spoken aloud until Cam laughed. “You should give him his marching orders. He’s worse than useless.”
“Perhaps you should offer him a place in your household,” she asked with more of that dangerous sweetness.
“Not on your life. I value loyalty too much to employ that weasel. Pen, do you really want me trailing you all the way back to Dover?”
He made her sound absurd. “You’d do that?”
“I would.”
Of course he would. He’d accepted the obligation of her safety and he wouldn’t relinquish the burden short of death. Cam’s principles were a deuced nuisance. She released a long-suffering sigh. “Were you always this annoying?”
“Probably.” He glanced around. “Shall we go?”
“Now?”
He lifted the candle. “Your carriage awaits. I paid the landlord last night.”
“What about your carriage?”