Page 132 of Heart of Iron
She laughed.“Look at you, fishing for compliments.”
“Not compliments,” he warned.
Lena kissed him, cupping his face in her hands.“I love you too,” she said quietly.“Oh, Will.I think I’ve been half in love with you for years.”
“It just took me a while to notice.”
“How could you not?I gave up the Echelon for you.I faced randy dukes, clockwork bombs, and verwulfen clans.I ruined three sets of gloves.”
“Three?”He smiled.“I’ll have to replace ’em.”
“Yes, you will,” she warned.“I won’t be showing off my wrists in public ever again.”
Possession curled through him.His arms tightened.“No, you won’t be.Only I get to see your wrists.Among other things.”
Drawing back, Lena toyed with the ribbons of her bodice.“Speaking of… We don’t appear to be moving very far with this traffic.I don’t suppose that you’ll be willing to entertain me…?”
“Entertain?”he drawled, heat sliding through his groin.“Is that what they’re callin’ it now?”
“Indeed.”She tugged the ribbons open.“I believe there are some areas of my education that are lacking.I’ll teach you how to belong in this world as long as you teach me something else…how to please you.”
The faint swell of her breasts curved over the top of her corset.Will’s mouth went dry.
“Trust me, luv,” he said, sitting up to help her undress.“You know how to please me.”
Epilogue
“What the hell happened here?”
The prince consort strode in through the double doors.Cold fury tightened his features and a handful of Coldrush Guards swarmed through the room, ensuring it was safe for him and destroying half of Sir Jasper Lynch’s evidence.
Lynch exchanged a telling glance with Barrons.“Don’t move,” he warned one of the guards.The man froze and Lynch pointed to the bloody footprint he’d been about to step in.“Ruin that and I can’t track the owner.”He straightened, meeting the prince consort’s hard gaze.“Your Grace.It appears the Duke of Lannister has been murdered.”
The prince consort peered at the body.Then spun on his heel and broke into a string of invective.“Bloody bombs!The Scandinavians howling for answers and now this!How?”
“Blade to the chest, shot that took off half his arm and near-decapitation.I believe it was the decapitation that killed him, though the shot bothers me,” Lynch recited.“It’s one of those firebolt rounds we’ve discovered on certain members of the population.”
“Humanists,” the prince consort spat.
“Perhaps,” Lynch replied.He never made a judgment until all of the evidence was in.And there’d been more than one person in this room.He’d managed to track the signs; the strands of hair, splatters of blood, even the scent trails.Four people and a fight, if he wasn’t mistaken.
And he was fairly certain he knew who had struck the killing blow.How the others couldn’t smell the heavy musk of a verwulfen man—a man Lynch knew well—he’d never know.Perhaps it was all the cologne they wore?Or perhaps, he thought, looking at Barrons’s cool gaze, some of them knew precisely who had been here.
“We’re uncertain whether the murder was connected to the bombing, or simply an opportunity that someone took advantage of,” Barrons said.He paused for a telling moment.“Your Grace, Lynch informs me that one of his humanist informants passed along information about a potential bombing last week.As Colchester was in charge of finding the humanists, Lynch reported the finding directly to him.”
The prince consort turned, fury whitening his face.“Are you telling me that Colchester knew about this?”
“Yes,” Barrons said softly.“As much as Lynch himself knew.”
Waiting for the explosion, Lynch held himself stiffly.“If I’d believed he wouldn’t pass it along, I’d have sought an audience with the Council.It was my oversight, Your Grace.And the information spoke only of a possible assassination attempt.”
“Why would he keep this information to himself?”the prince consort asked softly.The tone set Lynch’s nerves on edge.This was when the consort was at his most dangerous.
Barrons hesitated.“He made no secret of his feelings about this treaty and the Scandinavians.And if you look at the people closest to the bomb—the Council, yourself, even the queen—there was a chance that he might be the most powerful man remaining in the Empire.”
Stillness.The prince consort’s eyes glittered.“I will see the House of Lannisterdestroyed.”
“Such an act would leave the Council unbalanced,” Barrons protested.
