Page 91 of The Curse of Penryth Hall
I’ll always go to you.He didn’t say it, but I knew it all the same. Something lived between Ruan and me, it wasn’t love—nor even lust. It was something else entirely—something far more powerful and far more frightening than either of those. He brushed his roughened thumb over my brow. “You’re a tempest, Ruby Vaughn. Never let that change.” His palm cupped my cheek as he looked down at me.
I struggled to swallow. My throat was thick as I warred with the urge to lean closer. Perhaps there might have been an ounce of lust in there as well. Only a bit. I sniffed and looked away from his face. “In a teapot perhaps.” My words came out weak, feeble as my heart thundered in my chest, like the fool girl I’d been back in New York before my downfall. Bookish and awkward. Unsure. Unsteady.
He drew nearer. Pulled on some sort of invisible tether between us and, God help me, I wanted him closer yet. It had to be the day we’d endured, or the fact I’d nearly died more times than I cared to count. Or that I’d watched a woman throw herself from a window. Because there was no way he should affect me so. It was… improbable. Impossible. I’d been around the world, to war and back, and done things that would make the most wicked of men blush. And yet here I was, utterly undone by the most impossible of men.Thisman.
“You haven’t even discovered a portion of who you are yet to be. It takes time and courage to do that.” He leaned nearer, absorbing every bit of my focus, making it difficult to breathe. “And we know you’ve both of those in spades.”
“Who is talking now, the witch or the man?” My voicecracked as I stared up into his unsettling eyes, only inches from me.
There was nothing left in this world but him. His green scent. The warmth. This moment. This… this was terrible. This was… and before I finished my thought, he kissed me. At least I think he did. Everything flew out of my head but the sheer sensation of him washing over me.Ruan Kivell.The softness of his lips brushing mine and then it was gone as quickly as it had come, taking along any good sense I might have had. His voice came out just over a whisper, and yet it echoed in my jaded little heart. “Both.”
He sat down on the bench beside me with a heavy sigh. I leaned my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes. “You should give Benedict the tickets.”
“Tickets?” His voice was raspy. Good. At least I wasn’t the only one who’d lost their head. Served him right to kiss a girl like that.
“To America. Give him a new start away from all this.” He straightened and ran a hand over his jaw. “For what it’s worth, I truly don’t think she meant to hurt you. Nellie either.”
I let out a strangled laugh. “Now, that’s a fine thought. I am grateful that you saved me. However it was done.” The word struck me hard the moment I said it. I was done here. Going home. I couldn’t bear to leave him. Not like this, but at the same time I had no reason to remain. I’d done what I meant to—more than I’d meant to. “So… I suppose this is goodbye then? By the afternoon I’ll be back to Exeter with Mr. Owen and my demon-cat.”
“Mmm. Oh. I meant to tell you, I thought you’d find this amusing.”
The stitches tugged as I arched a brow.Damn.I’d never heal at this rate.
“It was Mrs. Penrose who placed the bottle beneath your bed.”
My jaw fell. “She what?”
He smiled faintly and shook his head. “She thought it would protect you. She’d asked dozens of times before if I’d make charms and I refused. I guess she took matters into her own hands.”
“You’re having me on…”
He shook his head. “No. The poor woman. I was stitching her up in the kitchen and I think her conscience overtook her. Once she admitted to what she’d done, I think she expected me to give her a proper scold.”
I smiled at that. At least it wasn’t an ill wish after all, simply a misapplied one. “How long had it been there?”
“She claims she’d placed it there the morning that Sir Edward was found. She’d seen the bruises on your throat in the woods and thought to protect you from the curse.”
I sighed and shook my head in disbelief. “You mean to tell me that after finding a disemboweled man in the apple orchard, she went and took matters into her own hands?”
Ruan nodded gravely. “So it seems.”
“Remind me not to cross Tamsyn’s housekeeper.”
Ruan stretched his neck to one side, putting me in mind of Fiachna. “I don’t know how much longer she’ll be that either. I think three murders during her time here was one too many.”
“I can’t say I blame her.” I hesitated for a moment before looking up at him again. “Write me when you get back. Let me know what Benedict decides to do.”
“I’d best go see to him. He’ll need a friend tonight.” Ruan stood and started to go, his footsteps quiet on the gravel path.
“Ruan!” I called as he got about ten paces away. He paused and turned back with his dark brows raised in silent question.
“Ruan, whatareyou going to tell everyone? You can’t truly think they’ll all believe this was a curse!”
He shot me a wicked smile. One I didn’t think a man as provincial as he could possibly possess. “That’s the thing about curses, Ruby Vaughn. Sometimes you have the devil of a time figuring them out.”
EPILOGUE
Aweek later, I was settled comfortably back into the town house in Exeter, feeling a hundred years wiser and twice as restless. Perhaps that’s the problem with solving murders: the return of ennui. More likely, I needed to get back to work—to do something to keep my darker thoughts at bay. I still wished Mr. Owen would let me join Howard Carter on his expedition to Egypt, but he’d made his stance on the matter perfectly clear. I was—under no circumstances—to cavort with archaeologists, professionally or otherwise.
