Passionately Yours (Hellions of High Street 3)

Her eyes flew open as its warmth coursed down her throat. “That’s ambrosial,” she said, after several swallows. “I’ve had nothing but rancid gruel and bitter tea for the last day and a half. But perhaps it was just Thayer’s presence that made everything taste so foul.” She sat up before he could stop her. “Is he really gone?”

“Yes. He fell from the rocks and impaled himself on his own knife,” answered Alec. He pressed a hand to her shoulder and tried to ease her back down. “You mustn’t move. Broken bones can be hellishly dangerous. A punctured lung—”

“My lungs, as you well know, are far too tough to be punctured by anything short of sharpened steel,” quipped Caro as she fended off his hand. “I’ve naught but a few bumps and bruises.”

He started to protest, but she cut him off. “Truly. I would get up and caper through a jig to prove it.” A smile. “But the ceiling is too low, and when I dance, I have tendency to tread on your feet.”

Alec drew in a deep breath as Caro gave a vigorous wriggling to prove her point. And let it out in a soft laugh that took with it the worst of his fears. That she was sparring with him proved her spirit was unhurt.

“Only because I seem to turn into a clumsy lummox whenever I’m around you,” he replied.

Her smile turned more luminous in the light of the shimmying flames. “You’re quite agile when you want to be.” She held his gaze, the flicker of emotion in her eyes far more warming than the blaze of the fire. “I caught only a blur of the action, but you were quite magnificent. He had a knife, and you—you had only your bare hands. And yet, you beat him.”

“Right makes might,” he quipped. “There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in Hell that I was going to let him escape to hurt anyone again.”

“If anyone was a spawn of Satan, it was Thayer,” she murmured.

“Indeed. I can’t say that I feel a whit of pity or remorse for his demise. He was thoroughly evil.”

Alec added a few branches to the fire. “I finally discovered the evidence that he was betraying our political group to the British military authorities in Scotland. Because of his actions, several meetings were raided and a number of people were shot or imprisoned.”

“Was that the reason you came to England?”

He nodded. “I had a suspicion it might be Thayer, but there were several other possibilities. However, when he appeared in Bath just after you and Isobel were attacked, it seemed too much of a coincidence. I began to delve deeper into his recent activities.”

“I wish you had confided your suspicions to me.”

“I wasn’t sure.” About a lot of things. “I didn’t want to frighten you.”

“Lord Strathcona, you—”

“Alec,” he corrected.

Caro hesitated, but only for a heartbeat. “Alec, you must resign yourself to the fact that some ladies—myself and your sister included—do not wish to be wrapped in cotton wool. We are not helpless wigeons and prefer to be treated as if we have a brain.”

A rueful quirk pulled at his mouth. “So I am beginning to understand. As for accepting it, well, I shall try. But it will not be easy.”

“You think I wasn’t terribly worried about you? Give me some credit—I sensed right away Thayer was dangerous and that you were taking terrible risks facing off against him.”

“Touché.” A glimmer of amusement flashed between them, and once again he realized how much he enjoyed their verbal duels. “But speaking of risks, why the devil didn’t you reveal that you weren’t Isobel when Thayer’s hired henchmen abducted you?”

“I… I feared that if Thayer had Isobel captive, you would be frantic with guilt and worry

, allowing him to force you to do anything. With me as a hostage, you would have more freedom to fight him.” She shrugged. “And besides, I figured I would find a way to escape. My unconventional upbringing and my experiences in the primitive places where my father did his research have made me adept at fending for myself.”

Her unselfish sacrifice—her love—for him and his sister brought a lump to his throat. You won’t have to fend for yourself ever again, vowed Alec to himself. Assuming I can manage not to trip over my own tongue.

Aloud he asked, “You thought I wouldn’t be frantic with worry about you?”

Caro looked away. “Maybe a little. But I didn’t think you would have any idea how to follow, so I assumed I’d be on my own.”

“I made a calculated guess,” replied Alec. “Thayer had a hideaway in Scotland which he had used in the past for his misdeeds. It seemed logical that he would do so again.”

She tried to repress a shiver. “Luckily for me you were right.”

He raised the dregs of the tea and deliberately spilled a few drops on the stone. “An offering of thanks to the Celtic spirits of Luck. To go along with a prayer of gratitude to the Almighty.”

He set down the cup as Caro shivered again. “You’re chilled to the bone. Take off your wet clothes while I go out to gather more wood. You can wrap yourself in the dry blanket while they dry by the fire.”