Free A Most Sinful Proposal by Sara Bennett Page B

and took her arm in a firm grip. As he thought, she was trembling. He wanted to hold her, to wrap his arms tight about her and draw her into his body, where he knew she fitted so well. If they hadn’t been in such a public place he may well have done so.
    As if she’d read his mind she stepped away, putting space between them, clearly making an effort to regain her usual calm. “He came back,” she said.
    “He?” Valentine growled, hoping she didn’t mean who he thought she meant.
    “Baron Von Hautt. He came back after you had gone.”
    His anger and frustration were difficult to contain. He made a sound in his throat, took a step away and then spun around and came back again. “I should never have left you there alone,” he said with a low, intense fury.
    “You couldn’t have known—”
    “I should have waited for you.”
    “Lord Jasper needed help.”
    He fixed her with a compelling look. “Did he hurt you, Marissa?”
    She shook her head and a lock of her dark hair tumbled onto her cheek. “He frightened me, that’s all.”
    He glowered at her, although it wasn’t Marissa he was upset with and she seemed to know that.
    “What are we going to do now?” she said after a moment.
    “That depends on Jasper,” he answered her more moderately. “He may have to remain here until the doctor thinks it’s safe to move him. You and I and Lady Bethany can of course return to Abbey Thorne Manor, but while we’re here I’d like to visit the ruins of Montfitchet Castle and talk with this Mr. Jensen, the local historian.”
    “No, the baron mustn’t stop you from doing what you came to do, Valentine,” she said with approval. She took a couple of steps toward the inn, her silk skirts rustling. She looked back at him over her shoulder. “Will we see how Lord Jasper and my grandmother are managing?”
    He followed after her without another word.
     
    The doctor had finished his operation and dressed the wound in clean bandages and was arranging for some restorative medicines to be prepared by the local apothecary and brought to the inn. The last remnants of the messy business of removing the bullet were being tidied away, and Lady Bethany looked up with a relieved smile when she saw her granddaughter.
    Marissa went to take her outstretched hand, giving the patient a sympathetic grimace.
    “Poor Lord Jasper,” she said. “Are you in a great deal of pain?”
    “Not so much, thank you, my dear. The doctor tells me I will live to make a full recovery.”
    “And you, Grandmamma?”
    Lady Bethany’s smile grew thin. “If I’d known when I agreed to accompany you to a weekend house party, Marissa, that it would be this exciting I may have reconsidered. Perhaps next time you could confine yourself to playing whist and charades, my dear, instead of gallivanting about all over the countryside after roses and Prussian barons.”
    Marissa bent to kiss her cheek. “Come now, Grandmamma, you have to admit this is much more fun than standing on windswept hillsides admiring ferns and mosses?” Even as she said it she wondered whether she was trying to soothe Lady Bethany’s ruffled nerves or whether she actually was enjoying herself.
    “I am not admitting to anything.” But Lady Bethany’s eyes sparkled.
    “I wish I had got my hands on Von Hautt,” Jasper muttered. “This is all his fault.”
    Lady Bethany’s expression hardened alarmingly. “Next time he turns up you will let me deal with him, Jasper. I find a nice sharp hatpin does the trick very nicely.”
    The two men looked at her in astonishment—with a hefty dollop of admiration in Jasper’s case—while Marissa stifled a giggle.
    “Lord Kent still wants to see the ruins of Montfitchet Castle,” she said, when she was able.
    “I will rest here until you are done,” Jasper declared. “The doctor says I should be able to travel back to Abbey Thorne Manor if there is no more bleeding from the wound.”
    “Did you want to come with us,