Free A Reckless Beauty by Kasey Michaels Page B

to him, a stranger, and wash your hands of me?”
    “I washed my hands of you—no, let me start over before you launch yourself at me. I said goodbye to you at Becket Hall, Fanny. I’m here now, where I want to be, and it’s not my fault you got it into your head that we…that we…”
    “That I love you,” Fanny whispered, as three soldiers walked by, on their way to their horses. “That you love me. That you’d want to see me as much as I needed to see you. Rian, I’ve been having strange—” She clamped her mouth shut, realizing she’d almost blurted out some nonsense about her frightening dreams, had almost added to his worries. “Please, Rian, understand….”
    Rian’s hair took another raking from his stabbing fingers. “Oh, Christ, Fanny-panny. I do love you. You’re my sis—My best friend,” he corrected quickly. “My very best friend, Fanny. But you’re young, and you’ve never seen the world.”
    “And you have?” she asked him, blinking back tears as she looked into his beautiful face. His kind eyes. Didn’t he know that he was her world?
    “I’ve been to London. Twice,” he pointed out, avoiding her eyes. “All right, I grant you, only for a few days each time. But at least I’ve been out of Romney Marsh, seen that there is a world out there—out here. You only know us, Fanny. You can’t know what you want. Who you want.”
    “I want you to come home, Rian,” she said brokenly, a single huge tear spilling down her cheek. “I don’t want to lose you. I can’t bear to lose you.”
    “Ah, Fanny-panny,” Rian said, gathering her close against his chest. “I’m coming home. Just as soon as we send those Frenchies to hell. I promise.”
    “Lieutenant Becket? Perhaps I misunderstood. Weren’t you ordered to ride to La Haye Sainte and bring word from our forward parties reporting there?”
    “Yes, my lord,” Rian said, putting his hands on Fanny’s arms and gently pushing her away from him. “It’s just that…my sister—I’m on my way, sir!”
    “Oh, no, Lieutenant,” the Earl of Brede drawled. “There’s no need to rush off. I’m sure his grace will understand any delay. Why, I’m convinced your sister will be more than happy to explain to the man that it’s more important for the two of you to have a lovely coze out here in the sunlight than it is to bring him his information.”
    Fanny turned about, swiping at her moist eyes as she glared up at him, once against clad in his filthy gray clothes. “Oh, cut line, my lord. Anyone would think you’re in love with the sound of your own voice.”
    “Fanny! My lord, I must apologize—”
    Fanny whirled on him. “I can speak for myself, Rian,” she told him warningly.
    “Yes, you can,” he shot back at her. “And you do, don’t you? Even when any sane person would know to shut her mouth.” Rian sighed, caught between anger and a grudging respect for his sister’s tenacity. “Please, Fanny, be good. I know you can, if you apply yourself.” He bent and kissed her cheek, hugged her against him for a moment, and then bowed to the Earl and mounted Jupiter. “Behave yourself. For me, Fanny,” he said quietly, looking down at her, and then he turned the horse and walked him toward the southern perimeter of the camp.
    Fanny watched him go, wondering when she’d see him again, and then straightened her shoulders, feeling as if the Earl of Brede was boring a hole in the center of her back with those strange hazel eyes of his. She began counting, wondering how long it would take before he gave in to his own meanness and said something cutting to her.
    “He’s as safe as I could get him, Fanny,” Brede said after a moment, his tone kind and sympathetic. “But, like all of us in these next days and weeks, nothing can be certain. I’m sorry.”
    She kept her back to him as she nodded, biting her bottom lip to hold back a sob. He was being nice to her. How dare he? She was angry with the Earl, angry with her