Page 40 of Tempting the Scoundrel
Something flickered through his features, then he lowered his lashes. “Very well. Something easier. What did Latimer mean about Lady Elaine?”
She examined the cut along his shoulder, sliding her hand under his arm to raise it. His skin was warm. Touching him under such pretense was easy. She could pretend her fingertips lingered to check over his injury rather than admit the truth: it had been four years, and she missed the feel of him. “He proposed to Lady Elaine Featherstone at the start of the season. Elaine came to me and asked me to . . . investigate him.”
Nick’s eyebrows rose. “. . . Investigate?”
“I have contacts in my work that I send inquiries regarding certain individuals of interest. Aristocratic men are easy.” She slid the cloth up his arm. “They are stupid, arrogant, and like to brag about even their most mediocre accomplishments.”
Nick let out a laugh. “My god, you missed your calling as a spy for the Home Office.”
Alexandra allowed herself a small smile. “Well, I discovered that aside from mistreating servants, Latimer’s gambling problem has nearly bankrupted his family. It’s all very quiet. He had enough to keep up appearances so Elaine wouldn’t know he was after her fortune. She broke things off after I told her. Did youreallytake everything he had?”
“I left him the house,” he insisted.
Alexandra rolled her eyes. “Perhaps we should consider Latimer as a nemesis on your list. He hates me enough to abduct me. He did try to stab you. I could see him vowing revenge.”
“He’d be the first name I’d toss into the fire,” Nick said, wincing as she pressed the cloth to his cut and held it there. “It’s not him.”
“No? First reason.”
“He’s a fucking idiot who can’t even put his own trousers on.”
“Good reason.” With her free hand, Alexandra reached for the bandage and put it in place of the cloth. “Back to an empty list, then.”
Nick watched her slowly bandage his arm. “Have you investigated potential husbands before? For other women?”
“A few,” she said lightly. “You might say I have some experience with husbands hiding things.”
Nick fell quiet. Alex held her breath for what he’d say next, regretting that she had brought up their catastrophic marriage. But Nick only asked, “And where did you learn to defend yourself?”
Alexandra bit her lip to keep from smiling. “Perhaps that secret ought to stay mine.”
Nick looked up at her through his eyelashes. “What if I promised to keep it?”
Oh, but when he looked at her like that, she wanted to tell him things. She wanted to float in Stratfield Lake with him by her side, and reveal every secret she’d kept over these years. But her secrets were all she had left to protect her heart.
Alexandra forced a smile. “Maybe I’ll tell you another time.”
They both knew she wasn’t going to. That after this was over, she wouldn’t be this close to him again. Alexandra comforted herself with thoughts of another continent, of the journey she’d take on the ship, and the ocean that would one day separate them. She thought of the guidebooks she read, the passages she memorized. She was going to explore parts of the world.
The ones without him.
Alexandra focused on Nick’s injuries. “The blood made it look worse,” she said, to fill the silence. “You should check it again in the morning, but I don’t think you’ll need stitches.”
He made some noise. “Wouldn’t matter if I did.”
Yes, she knew why. She could see the scars across his chest and back, old injuries that belied his upbringing. She had wondered, once, where a gentleman might obtain such injuries, but excused those thoughts away. Perhaps he had travelled to dangerous places. Perhaps he had obtained them in an accident. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
Excuses.
These scars were part of his brutal past, one she never asked about. Swipes across his chest, star shaped marks, some ragged and thick. One along his chest . . .
Her fingertips skated across it before she could stop herself.
Nick’s hand caught hers. He held it there, waiting quietly. For her to say something? Or maybe he held her hand for other reasons, ones she couldn’t begin to contemplate or didn’t want to. They stayed together like that for longer than Alexandra should have allowed.
“You going to ask?” he said quietly.
“Ask what?” But she already knew the answer.
