Free The Convenient Arrangement by Jo Ann Ferguson Page B

drawing more closely around her shoulders that garish shawl Miss Urquhart had persuaded her to wear, “you can’t be thinking of having David crawl up there.”
    â€œWhy not? He’s already crawled about the house elsewhere and escaped unscathed.”
    â€œBut he could get hurt here.”
    He handed Miss Urquhart back to the floor, then stepped in front of the scree to keep her from climbing it again. Only then did he look at Valeria. Dismay furrowed her forehead beneath her hair that, even here in the dusty shadows, was a lustrous shade.
    He folded her hand in his before the warning went off in his head. Too late, because the soft caress of her fingers trembling ever so lightly in his hand, sent that powerful pulse through him again. Why was he reacting so to her, a woman who vexed him beyond belief and considered him just as aggravating? He had offered other women his arm or a consoling hand, but never had experienced this delicious surge of sensation that strengthened and weakened him at the same time.
    â€œLorenzo?”
    His name sounded like music as she spoke in a breathy whisper that warned he was not the only one aware of this confusing connection that seemed to have no rationale. Clasping her hand with his other one, he stepped nearer to her so he could gaze into her exquisite eyes. Her lips parted as if she were about to speak. He waited for her words, longing for the sweet melody of her voice to weave them into a cocoon where this sense he could not name might metamorphose into something even more incredible.
    Suddenly she tensed and cried, “Lorenzo!”
    He recoiled as if she had struck him. When she pointed past him, alarm erasing the softness from her eyes, he spun.
    With a curse he knew he should not speak in the women’s hearing, he plucked a too plucky Miss Urquhart from the rubble and set her firmly on her feet on the floor. He did not lower his eyes from her frightful glower.
    â€œScowl as you wish,” he said as he folded his arms in front of him, “but you shall not sway me from my opinion on this. You shall remain where you are. David will be our climber.”
    â€œNow see here, my boy, I was climbing rocks before you were born. I may be climbing them after you have dropped off your perch.”
    â€œThat may be so, but you are not doing so today.”
    Miss Urquhart muttered something which Lorenzo thought best that he did not hear. Turning to David, he offered the boy help by locking his fingers together and letting David put his foot on them. He lifted David easily most of the way to the ceiling. Even when the youngster had a good grip on the stones, Lorenzo stood close, his hands outstretched to catch him if the stack gave way.
    â€œWhat do you see?” Valeria called as David pulled himself up to the hole by the ceiling.
    â€œJust more piles of stone beyond here.” With disappointment on his face, David scrambled back down to the floor.
    Miss Urquhart tapped him with the tip of her cane. “You are too young to take things for granted. Just because it looks like nothing more than jumbled rock, you should not assume—”
    â€œThat it’s safe,” Lorenzo finished, earning a frown from both Miss Urquhart and David.
    Valeria smiled and gripped his arm, squeezing gently. Lorenzo Wolfe might want to be a recluse, but he was no air-dreamer. He could see the inherent danger if David took it into his head to explore the ruined sections of the manor. As they turned to go back the way they had come, she whispered, “Thank you.”
    â€œI shall have that hole sealed up without delay,” he replied as lowly. “I may not know your nephew well, but I recognize that eager expression of his. My cousin Corey usually wore it before he attempted to scale the highest tree or swing out of the hay mow and risk both life and limb. Fortunately, he only damaged the latter on his adventures.”
    â€œHe sounds like David. Even if