Page 50 of A Fearless Heart
“Only one replied. They’d never heard of you. Perhaps the others didn’t reply because they don’t even exist.”
“I…um.” Yes, the Zodiac had to rush some of the details of his cover, but he hadn’t realized it wasthatrushed. Words that usually came so easily to him now hovered beyond reach. He felt idiotic.
“And finally…” She reached over to him and ran her hand through his hair. When she pulled back, he saw the smear of black on her fingers.
Damn.
“What did you use?” she asked, wrinkling her nose. “It’s very sticky and honestly I don’t see the point. Did you think you wouldn’t be hired if we knew you were fair-haired?”
“Perhaps I’m on the run from the law and I had to disguise myself.”
“Well? Are you?”
“No,” he admitted. God, was this what it was like, telling the truth all the time? “Not at the moment.”
“So why did you dye your hair? And is that beard fake? Horsehair or something?”
“It’s real, but also dyed. To be truthful”—and he was, like it or not—“I don’t care for it that much. And whatever time I save by not shaving I lose in the dyeing.”
“Then why do it?”
“Sometimes it’s useful to look a little different than usual. You never know who you might meet.”
“Gabriel Court, stop dissembling this moment.” Her eyes narrowed. “Your hair is fake. Your lower-class accent is fake. Your letters of reference are fake. Is your name fake as well?”
“It’s…shortened.”
“Oh, Lord have mercy. Who are you really?”
“I shouldn’t tell you.” But, God, he wanted to.
“You’re higher born than you pretend. What are you? The wastrel offspring of a duke or something? A second son?”
“Worse. Third son. That part is true. I can’t even claim to be a spare. Thus the entry into the army. My father isn’t a duke, of course, but did buy my commission. It simply wouldn’t do for me to tramp about like a common enlisted man.”
“I imagine room and board is better as an officer.”
He snorted a laugh. “You’re right about that.”
“Tell me why I shouldn’t just scream my head off and tell everyone you came in here with evil intent and I had to fight you off. Vernon would certainly believe me, after finding us together before.”
“Don’tdo that,” he begged. “Christ, Cady, I don’t want to hurt you.”
She glared at him. “You already have hurt me. You showed up here and wormed your way into my household and my life, and you fought off those men in the woods, and you carried me to my room when I misjudged the dose on my experiment, and you were interested in my work—oh, Lord you were so interested—and you pretended to care about me, and you kissed me, and the whole time you were just planning, I don’t know—”
“That’s not true,” he objected. “I mean, most of it’s true, yes, but I wasn’t only pretending to care about you. I do care about you. I might even love you.”
She backed up a step, her eyes widening. Shock, dismay, disbelief…
He knew exactly what she felt, because all those things were hitting him too. Did he just saylove?
* * * *
At the wordlove, something inside her body thudded to a halt. Her plan had gone awry. Did she give him the wrong tincture in his tea? Were aphrodisiacs real after all? Cady wanted to run from the room. She asked in a choked voice, “What did you just say?”
“Nothing!” he said quickly. “I’m not…speaking right. I meant that I care that nothing bad happens to you. After all the other bad things.”
Gabe looked sick. This was not a man used to spilling his guts, and Cady had just tricked him into doing exactly that. Wait until he learned that there was no such thing as verocine.
