LITMIR.BIZ

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Because he had never needed to hire a woman. So how did she come to be here?

      How, for that matter, did he come to be here?

      And how was he to work it out with that harpy shrieking at him?

      He put his hands over his ears.

      ‘You ingrate!’

      No use. He could still hear her.

      ‘Madam,’ he said coldly, removing his hands from his ears, since ignoring her in the faint hope that she might go away wasn’t working. ‘Lower your voice.’

      ‘Lower my voice? Lower my voice? Oh, yes, that would suit you just fine, would it not? So that your vile misdeed might be covered up!’

      ‘I have never,’ he said in outrage, ‘committed any vile misdeed.’ Nor used the kind of language that more properly belonged on the stage.

      He pressed the heels of his hands to his temples. His throbbing temples. How much must he have had to drink last night to wind up in bed with a trollop he couldn’t remember hiring and be parroting the vulgar phrases of a woman who seemed intent on dragging him into some kind of...scene?

      ‘Get out of my room,’ he growled.

      ‘How dare you order me about?’

      ‘How dare I?’ He opened his eyes. Glared at the screeching woman. Sat up. ‘No. How dare you? How dare you walk into my room and address me in that impudent manner? Fling accusations at me?’

      ‘Because you have seduced my own lamb! My—’

      Indignation had him vaulting out of the bed.

      ‘I am no seducer of innocents!’

      The woman shrieked even more loudly than before. Covered her eyes and stumbled towards the door. The open door. Where she had to push her way through a crowd of interested bystanders. Who were all peering into his room with a mixture of shock and disapproval.

      Except in the case of a plump girl he recognised as the chambermaid. She was gazing at him round-eyed and slack-jawed.

      At which point he realised he was stark naked.

      With a low snarl he stalked across the room and slammed the door shut on the whole crowd of them.

      Then shot the bolt home for good measure.

      He had a brief flash of his nurse, clucking her tongue and quoting that proverb about shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted.

      No horse. He shook his head. A horse was about the only thing that didn’t appear to have wandered into his room while he lay sleeping.

      Sleeping like the dead. Which made no sense. How had he managed to get to sleep at all? When he’d decided to rack up here for the night he’d suspected he wouldn’t be getting a wink of sleep. Other, similar inns in which he’d stayed had made a restful night well-nigh impossible. If it wasn’t travellers in hobnailed boots tramping up and down the corridor at all hours, or coaches rattling into the inn yard with their guards blowing their horns as though it was the last trump, it was yokels with lusty voices bellowing at each other in the tap. Over which his room was always inevitably situated.

      Although this chambermaid had brought him to a room right up in the eaves. So the noise wouldn’t have been an issue. Had he been so exhausted after the events of the past few days that he’d slipped into a state resembling a coma?

      It wasn’t likely. And it didn’t explain the muzzy feeling in his head. That felt more as though he’d taken some kind of sleeping draught.

      Except that he’d never taken a sleeping draught in his life. And he couldn’t believe he’d suddenly decided to do so now.

      He rubbed his brow in a vain effort to clear his mind. If he could only recall the events of the previous night.

      He concentrated. Ferociously.

      He could remember having a brief wash and going down for dinner. And being served with a surprisingly good stew. The beef had melted in his mouth. And there had been cabbage and onions and a thick hunk of really good bread to mop up the rich gravy. He remembered congratulating himself as he’d come up the stairs on stumbling across an inn that served such good food.

      After that—nothing.

      Could the overseer and his accomplice have attacked him on the way upstairs? Had they followed him and sneaked up on him, intent on getting revenge? He felt the back of his head but didn’t find any lumps or cuts. No sign that anyone had struck him with a blunt instrument. It was about the only thing they hadn’t used. They certainly hadn’t hesitated to use their boots when they’d managed to knock him to the ground.

      Not that he’d stayed down for long. A feeling of satisfaction warmed him. He flexed the fingers of his right hand, savouring the sting of grazed knuckles. It was one thing practising the science in a boxing saloon, where due deference was always given to regular customers, quite another to rise triumphant from an impromptu mill with a brace of bullies who had neither known who he was nor fought fair.

      But, still, that didn’t answer the question of why this harridan had burst, shrieking, into his bedroom, nor the female he’d apparently taken to his bed without having any recollection of so much as meeting her.

      He turned slowly, wondering just exactly what sort of female he had found in such a ramshackle inn, in such a dreary little town.

      He took a good look at the girl, who was sitting up in the bed with the covers clutched up to her chin.

      Contrary to what he’d half expected she was a pretty little thing, with a cloud of chestnut curls and a pair of huge brown eyes.

      Which was an immense relief. He might have lost his memory, but at least he hadn’t lost his good taste.

      * * *

      Prudence rubbed her eyes. Shook her head. She’d never had a dream like this before. Not as bad as this, at any rate. She had sometimes had nightmares featuring her aunt Charity, for despite her name her mother’s sister was the kind of cold, harsh woman who was bound to give a girl the occasional nightmare, but never—not in even the most bizarre ones that had invaded her sleep when she’d been feverish—had her aunt spoken such gibberish. Nor had she ever had the kind of dream in which a naked man invaded her room. Her bed.

      He’d stalked to the door and shut it, thankfully, though not before she’d realised that the landlord was staring at her chest. Her bare chest.

      Why hadn’t she checked to see if she was naked before sitting up? And why was she naked? Where was her nightgown? Her nightcap? And why wasn’t her hair neatly braided? What was going on?

      The naked man by the door was ruffling his closely cropped light brown hair repeatedly, as though his head hurt. And he was muttering something about horses and gravy.

      Naked.

      Man.

      Her stomach lurched. She had a clear recollection of snuggling up against that man a few minutes ago. He’d had his arms round her. It had felt...lovely. But then she’d thought it was all part of a pleasant dream, in which someone was holding her, making her feel safe for once. Loved.

      Instead he’d probably...

      She swallowed. Heaven alone knew what he’d done to her.

      And now he was standing between her and the door. The door he’d just bolted.

      Don’t come near me. Don’t turn round. Don’t turn round.

      He turned round.

      Looked at her searchingly.

      Appeared to like what he saw.

      Started walking back to the bed.

      She opened her mouth to scream for help. But the only sound that issued from her parched throat was a sort of indignant squeak.

      She worked her tongue against the roof

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