Page 75 of Heart of Iron
Anger stiffened her shoulders.Seizing a fistful of her skirts, she swept ahead of him.“Where to?”
Considering her question, he placed a hand on the small of her back and directed her toward the kitchen.“The yard.Wait for me there.I’ve somewhat for you.”
Dark eyes glared back over her shoulder in suspicion.“What is it?This is wasting valuable time, Will.You did well the other night, but there are a few things I need to go over with you.”
“This is important.”
After a searching gaze, she threw up her hands and sighed.“Why not?Go and fetch it then.The sooner we’re done, the sooner I can return home.I’ve got to get ready for the dinner Leo’s hosting.”
He’d hurt her last night.And done it deliberately.For a moment he wanted to step forward, catch her wrist, and tell her he’d been wrong, that he was sorry.To lift her face to his and kiss her until she was gasping for breath again, her body turning molten under his touch.
But perhaps it were better if shewereangry with him.
For the both of them.
Waiting until she’d turned and departed for the yard, he thundered up the stairs and fetched the small bag he’d left in Blade’s sitting room.By the time he arrived in the yard, Lena was pacing, her arms crossed under her breasts and a sad, pensive little look on her face.
When she saw him, the expression melted as if it had never been there.With a disdainful lift of one eyebrow, she glanced at the bag.“I can’t accept any personal items.They’re not the sort of things a man gives a woman he’s not courting.”Her tone turned frosty.“We wouldn’t want any moremistakesof intention, now would we?”
Perhaps giving her a pistol in this mood was tantamount to suicide.
He bit his tongue and dragged a small Hessian sack out of the leather bag.“Bought this for you.I ain’t finished tinkerin’ with it, but the sooner you learn to use it the better.”
“What is it?”
He opened the sack.The pistol gleamed against the rough cloth, the mother-of-pearl inlay fracturing the weak sunlight into a half-dozen rainbows.
“A pistol?”she said stupidly.“You’re giving me a pistol?”
He caught her hand and eased the handgrip into it, closing his fingers around hers.“Small enough to fit in your reticule.You ever fired one?”
“Don’t be absurd.”Her dark eyes widened.“When on earth would I have ever used a pistol?”
“Honoria knew how to use one.”
“Father taught her.He had no time for me.”
Will stroked his thumb over her gloved knuckles.“Why?”
“I was never clever enough to understand his work or half of what he said.He was a famous inventor.We had little in common.”
“You’re clever.All that tinkerin’ with clocks.”
“A useless hobby.”She lowered the pistol.“He wouldn’t have been impressed.He would have been able to do it himself in half the time I could.You don’t understand.”
“Don’t I?”The quietness of his words made her look up.“I couldn’t do it.I used to watch you playin’ on the rug with all them scattered pieces, puttin’ them back like they was a puzzle.Baffled me.”
“Yes, but you have other talents,” she replied.Somehow he didn’t think she’d realized that he was still stroking her hand.“You’re strong and not afraid of anything.You could kill a man with your bare hands.”Something dark came into her eyes.Shadows that made his hackles rise.“You could kill a blue blood.I envy you, you know?”
“With this you can be strong.You can be fearless.”
Her rancor faded.She looked at the pistol, seeing it with new eyes.“Do you think I could kill a blue blood with this?”
He tried to ignore the way her words stirred his temper.“When I’m finished with it.I’ll modify it like your father done with Honoria’s pistol.She taught me how to make them firebolt rounds.I’ve seen ’em take a blue blood’s head off before.Explodes like rotten melon.”
Lena shivered.“That sounds dreadful.”
“You only have to use it once.”
