Page 33 of Her Runaway Duke
“No,” he said swiftly. “Never.”
“You are so close.”
He brought a hand to his forehead, running his fingers over his scar. How could she not understand?
“Do you not understand why I would have no wish to be in London?” he asked, hearing the edge to his words but unable to help it. “I am stared at. Ridiculed. Gossiped about. People can barely look at me without flinching. No, London is not for me.”
“Not everyone cares about how you look,” she said softly. “I don’t.”
“What do you think then?” he bit out, knowing the truth would hurt but needing to know it regardless.
“I think that you are assuming what other people might think. That you are not giving them a chance.”
“I have seen the looks on their faces.”
“I can understand why there might be some surprise when people see what has happened to you. But your scars are not who you are but a result of what has happened to you.”
“I disagree,” he countered.
“I would argue that it is not your scars that keep people away but your cantankerous attitude.”
He snorted, even as he knew she was right. It was easier to hide away. It didn’t give others the chance to hurt him if he never let them close.
As he inhaled, a scent filled his nose – one that terrified him to the point he wasn’t sure if it was truly in the air or if it was part of his nightmarish memory.
“Do you smell that?” he asked her, and she crinkled her nose most becomingly, distracting him with the way her light freckles added to the aura of sweetness that surrounded her.
“Now that you say it, perhaps I do,” she said, looking around. “It smells like?—”
That’s when there was a huge bang, and they both jumped, Levi immediately tucking Siena behind him as he crouched low,reaching for what was now phantom sword and pistols around his waist.
“Stay behind me,” he ordered, as he could sense her trying to see around him one way and then the next.
“I’m sure it is nothing,” she said optimistically.
The smell became impossible to ignore the closer they drew to the estate.
Not again.
“Smoke,” he muttered, more to himself than Siena, but of course she heard him.
It was swirling in the air around them and he began to panic, the only saving grace was that Siena was here beside him, meaning that she was safe.
“Smoke?” she repeated.
Which meant?—
“Fire!”
They heard the call from the stables, and Levi froze so quickly that Siena walked right into the back of him as Lucky’s reins slipped out of his hand, although the horse was well enough trained that he stopped a few paces away.
Collins, the stablehand, came running out of the door, leading two horses with him – horses that were throwing their heads in the air as they fought him due to their rising panic as they sensed not only what was chasing them out but also the stablehand’s distress.
“Your Grace! You must stay away,” he called out, his face dark with soot as sweat ran down his brow from beneath his cap. “The fire is at the back of the stables, but it is spreading quickly.”
Levi’s pulse was pounding hard as he saw the flames lick the top of the stable roof, heard the cries of the horses inside.
“How many are left?” Siena asked from behind him, although it seemed as though her voice was away in the distance as he washaving difficulty focusing on anything but the turmoil within him.
