Page 51 of Ladies in Hating
Cat’s lush mouth arranged itself into a vexed sort of pout. “This may come as a shock to you, your ladyship, but I am not actually in your service.”
Georgiana ignored her. Cat could say whatever she wanted as long as she was safely ensconced on this side of the garden.
She identified the ivy-covered bench she’d noticed the last time she was in the courtyard and bent to the task of dragging it closer to the wall. It bumped heavily over the black-and-white patterned tiles, trailing vines like long, disembodied fingers.
She shoved the bench up against the wall and swiped sweaty hair out of her face, then looked over and met Cat’s flabbergasted gaze.
“What in heaven’s name—”
“We’re getting out,” Georgiana said again. “Now. Climb up on the bench.”
Cat shuffled Bacon about enough to cross her arms, a feat which did remarkable things to the décolletage visible above her bodice. “No,” she said. “Not until you tell me who the devil that was, at least. I am neither your servant nor a doll for you to move about at will.”
Georgiana blew out her breath. “I know you are not. I—”
What could she say?
I brought you into this courtyard. I introduced you to this garden. Had we been any closer to those rotted beams, we might have been killed as well. I let you stay here at Renwick House, and if you’d been injured because of me, I don’t know how I would survive it.
This is what happens to the people I care about. They get hurt.
But she couldn’t say any of that.
“I recognized the man,” she said instead. “The—body. Heused to work at Belvoir’s as a porter, but Selina put him out when she discovered he had a habit of making unwanted advances toward the shyer nighttime maids.”
“At Belvoir’s,” Cat repeated. “In London?”
“Yes.”
“So what is he doinghere?”
“I have no idea.” Georgiana folded back her skirts and stepped up onto the bench. “But he cannot enlighten us at this juncture.”
Cat still had Bacon in her arms and a look of terrifying impetuosity on her face. “Perhaps he can, at that.” Her mouth twisted down, considering. “Perhaps I can search the body—”
“Catriona.” The name slipped from between Georgiana’s lips before she could stop it. Her voice sounded—not like herself. Raw. Almost desperate.
Cat froze in the act of turning back the way they’d come. She looked up, her thick dark lashes casting shadows on her cheeks.
“Don’t,” Georgiana said. It was difficult to force the words out. The plea. “Please come with me. This man barred the doors to keep us inside—and he may not have been working alone. Someone else could be after us. We cannot remain.”
How long had he been lurking at Renwick House? Wasthisthe explanation for the sounds she’d heard in the night? The reason for Bacon’s strange warning barks?
Cat bit her bottom lip, hesitated an interminable moment, and then nodded. “All right. I’ll go with you.”
Relief caught Georgiana hard enough that it felt like a blow. Her knees went a trifle weak, and to cover her wobble, she put out a hand to Cat. “Come up on the bench. I’ll help you over the wall.”
For once, Cat listened. She passed Bacon to Georgiana, hiked up her skirts high enough to reveal her half boots and a flash oftorn stocking, and came to stand beside Georgiana on the bench. She reached out one hand and pressed it to the vine-covered wall. “I want to come back,” she said, “with a magistrate. I want to see what we can find out about that fellow.”
“Cat—”
“And we’ll need to collect our things.” Her lips were white with dust, and this close Georgiana could see the way her hair curled in tiny ringlets beneath her ears. “Youmay be able to leave your traveling wardrobe behind, but I’ve only the two shifts. I’ll need to fetch the other or else do without.”
It took Georgiana a moment to realize that Cat was teasing her. That she was… smiling.
They were imprisoned in a house that seemed to be killing people, possibly hunted by some unknown persons, and currently alone with acorpse.And still somehow Cat’s devastating mouth was tipped at the corners, one long catastrophic curve.
Georgiana wanted to fall into it. She could have lingered there forever, lost in the maze of that bewitching smile.
