Page 44 of Heart of Iron
Eyes shuttering, he opened his hands and she stepped back with a sharp little intake of breath, rubbing at her arms.
Will caught her skirt, leaned close.He wasn’t finished by half.“If he makes so much as a single move in your direction I’ll kill him, Lena.I’ll bury ’im so deep, won’t nobody ever find ’im.So either you find a way to stop him.Or I will.”
Ten
Five days later, Lena popped a cherry in her mouth and nibbled on it, watching as Will paced the room.He’d spent the morning being fitted for a new wardrobe with Leo.Though she was in charge of introducing him to the Echelon, there were some events she wasn’t allowed to oversee.
A pity, she thought, running her gaze across his broad shoulders.
“Back straight,” she called, as she lounged on the daybed in Leo’s sitting room.“Do try and walk as if you’re out for a stroll, rather than stalking some footpad through the alleys.”
She couldn’t deny his grace of movement was appealing, but there was something dangerous about the way he moved.Even when he was still, he looked ready to pounce.
Will shot her a dark look.“I ain’t gonna mince around like one of them puff-shirted vultures.No matter how many times you make me do this.”
Lena sat up.This was the fourth lesson they’d had and he was fighting her at every turn.The problem wasn’t that he couldn’t do this; the problem was that he didn’t give a damn about the rules of etiquette.“Once more,” she said, daring him to disobey.
Will crossed his arms over his chest.“I don’t see the point.”
“You never do.The point is that I told you to do it.And you agreed to obey me.I know this world.You don’t.And right now, you look like some rookery bruiser prepared to smash someone’s head in.”
Visibly grinding his teeth together, he turned and stalked back toward the window.
Lena clapped a hand to her eyes, restraining herself from a sigh.This was going to be a long afternoon.“Tell me, how many sources of power are there in the Echelon?”
“The Council o’ Dukes make all the decisions.”
“And who sits on the Council?”
“The seven heads o’ the great Houses and the prince consort.”
“Who can overrule their vote?”
“Technic’ly the queen, through Right of Regency,” he retorted, turning on his heel with a flourish that almost reminded her of Blade.“Though she speaks with the prince consort’s voice.”
The words could have been her own.Despite his lack of education, Will could parrot things back at her verbatim.
“How do you remember all of this?”So far he hadn’t missed a single question, though when she lectured him on the power plays of the Echelon she’d been certain he was paying her no mind.
“Blade taught me.We don’t write things down in the warren.So we gotta remember it all.Who owes us some tin, how much, who’s paid, street addresses, names, who’s been beatin’ his moll up…” He shrugged.“Ain’t hard.”
Will sauntered back toward her.He’d stripped his coat off, as he often did when he was indoors.A gray tweed waistcoat sculpted the broad planes of his chest and he’d rolled his sleeves up again.On the inside of his wrist was a tattoo of a pair of crossed daggers.Blade’s mark.A tattoo all of his Reaver’s gang wore.
“You’ll have to stop doing that,” she noted.“Sleeves remain down.”Andcoatremainson.But she was enjoying the view enough not to mention it.Taking another cherry, she twirled the stem off it and slid it between her lips.
His gaze lingered on her mouth.“What next?We’ve covered bowin’ and scrapin’, mincin’ about, who I need to be wary of, who holds the power, who doesn’t, what I oughta wear…”
Lena bit through the plump, juicy flesh and swallowed.“Dancing.”
“Not more dancin’.”He knelt on the edge of the daybed and reached for one of the cherries.“We’ve already done that.”
With Mrs.Wade watching on like a disapproving mama.Now that they were alone… “Definitely more dancing.”
Tugging out a pair of cherries, he leaned forward, dangling them over her lips.“You’re doin’ this to torture me.”
Lena bit into one of them and tugged it free with her teeth.“Absolutely.”
Lifting the other to his own mouth, he chewed in a considering manner.“Later,” he said.“All this prancin’ about’s borin’ me and I ain’t been to sleep yet.”
