The Rogue Not Taken Read online

  “Why do they call you King?”

  He nearly leapt from his skin at the words.

  He closed his eyes, clenched his fists, and somehow found words. “It’s my name.”

  The water shifted. “Your parents christened you King?”

  He exhaled, not wishing to prolong her bath. “Kingscote.”

  “Ah,” she said, and was quiet for a long moment, still, too. “What an extravagant name.”

  “My family prides itself on extravagance.”

  “I was on the grounds of Lyne Castle once.” The reminder of his childhood home was unwelcome. He did not reply, but she spoke anyway. “The duke opened them to visitors for some reason. There was a labyrinth there.” He could hear the smile in her memory of the place he’d just been remembering himself. “My sisters and I spent half the day lost inside—I found the heart of it and spent an hour or two reading at the center. They never found me.”

  “It’s considered one of the most difficult labyrinths in Britain,” he said. “I’m impressed you found your way through. You were how old?”

  “Seven? Eight? It’s magical. You must have adored living with it as a child.”

  It had been there for generations, perfectly groomed and rarely used, and King had spent countless afternoons exploring the twists and turns of the maze, losing his governesses and tutors and nurses without any difficulty. The only person who could ever find him there was his father.

  He cleared his throat. “It was my favorite place on the estate.”

  “I imagine that it was. It was magical.”

  There was reverence in the words and, though he did not wish to, he was soon thinking of her there, at the fountain at the heart of the labyrinth, the marble statue of the Minotaur rising above her like fury. It occurred to him that if he had her at the center of that labyrinth right now, she wouldn’t be reading.

  He shoved a hand through his hair at the thought. He’d never have her there.

  Not ever.

  Once she was well, he’d be rid of her.

  Finally.

  “Do you travel home often?”

  Why did she have to make conversation? It made it very difficult to hear the lap of water against her.

  He gritted his teeth. “No.”

  “Oh,” she said, obviously hoping that he would have said more. “When was the last time you were home?”

  “Fifteen years ago.”

  “Oh,” she repeated, the word softer, more surprised. “Why now?”

  “You really don’t read gossip columns, do you?” he asked. Wasn’t that what ladies in London did between embroidery and tea?

  “A truth that makes my mother quite anxious,” she answered, and he could hear the smile in her voice. He wanted to look to see if she was, in fact, smiling. “But I don’t like the way they speak of my sisters.”

  “You’re very loyal.”

  She looked away. “It shouldn’t bother me so much. My sisters adore TALBOT TATTLING. They’re in constant competition for the most scandalous of tidbits.”

  “Who is winning?”

  There was a pause as the sloshing water indicated she shifted in the bath. “These days, it is Seline. The one betrothed to Mark Landry. Do you know him?”

  “I do.”

  “Well, The Scandal Sheet reported several weeks ago that Mr. Landry taught Seline to ride on a stunning black mare and then gifted her with the same horse, prompting my father to insist they marry.”

  “Because of an extravagant gift?”

  “Because the horse is named Godiva. The implication being that Seline allegedly learned in the nude in the private stables at Landry’s estate.”

  “That sounds false.”

  There was a smile in her words when she replied, “It sounds uncomfortable.”

  He laughed.

  “Needless to say,” she added, laughing herself, “Seline adored the ridiculous story. Mr. Landry, too.”

  “Never let it be said that Mark Landry doesn’t have a taste for the brazen.”

  “Likely why he and my sister are such a match,” she replied. “You’ve bought horses from him, I imagine.”

  “That, and we share a club.”

  “I find it difficult to believe that Landry is welcome in White’s,” she said dryly. “I’ve never heard him speak a sentence that didn’t include something shocking.”

  “It’s not White’s,” King said. “We frequent the same gaming hell.”

  “Oh,” she said quietly. “I’ve never thought much about gaming hells.”

  “You’d like it there,” he said. “Filled with gossip and scandal and not entirely safe from gunfire.”

  She laughed. “I wouldn’t be welcome, I’m sure. As we’ve established, I don’t know enough about gossip to hold my own.” There was a pause before she said, “Which returns us to, why do you return to Lyne Castle?”

  Levity disappeared from the room with her question, and for a long moment he did not answer, not wishing to lose the moment. It was gone nonetheless. “My father is dying.”

  She stopped moving in the bath. Silence stretched around them, heavy and deafening. “Oh,” she said again. “I am sorry.”

  He straightened at the honesty in the words. “I’m not.”

  Why was it so easy to tell her the truth?

  She was silent for long minutes, the water quiet around her. “You’re not?”

  “No. My father is a bastard.”

  “And you return home anyway?”

  He considered the words and the question in them, and then thought of his father, the man who had ruined his future all those years ago. Who had taken the one thing King had wanted and destroyed it. Who had made King’s entire life about reciprocating—destroying the only thing the duke had wanted.

  Later, he would not understand why he told her. “He summoned me. And I have something to tell him.”

  More silence. And finally a soft “I am through.”

  Thank God.

  He did not turn as she lifted herself up in the tub, not even as he heard the water slosh around her when she returned to the bath with a little squeak. Not when it happened a second time. He amassed tremendous amounts of credit for his gentlemanly decorum.

  Instead, he asked, “Is there a problem?”

  “No,” she said, and the sound repeated itself.

  He risked a look over his shoulder.

  Mistake.

  He could see only her head over the lip of the deep copper tub, but if her cheeks were any indication, she was clean and pink and perfect.

  “Don’t look!” she cried.

  “What is the problem?”

  “I . . .” She hesitated. “I can’t get out.”

  What did that mean? “Why not?”

  “It’s too slippery,” she said, the words despondent. “And my shoulder—I can’t put pressure on my arm.”

  Of course. Surely he was being punished by the universe.

  He turned, already shucking his coat.

  “Don’t turn around!” she cried, sinking below the lip of the tub.

  He ignored the words and walked toward her, frustration manifesting itself as irritation as he rolled up his shirtsleeves. “I assure you, my lady, I don’t wish to help any more than you wish to be helped.”

  It was true, if slightly disingenuous.

  She peeked over the rim of the bathtub. “Well. You needn’t be rude.”

  Another man might have felt a pang of remorse at the fact she took the words as an insult and not as self-preservation.

  Though her hands were placed in critical positions to hide her most inappropriate parts, it did not have the intended effect. Indeed, it drew his attention to the long, errant strand of her hair that curved, dark and tempting, down her shoulder to tease at the water, and made him desire, quite thoroughly, to move it. And replace it with his lips.

  This was madness.

  King kept his gaze on her face—he had to, in order to retain his sanity. “I’m going to lift
you out.”

  Her eyes went wide. “But I am—”

  “I am quite aware of your situation, my lady.” Perhaps if he used the honorific, he wouldn’t be so inclined to join her in the damn tub.

  “Close your eyes,” she said.

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t want to drop you on your head. If you want eyes closed, I suggest you close yours.”

  Before she could argue, he leaned down and lifted her, water pouring off her, soaking his shirtfront and trousers on its way to the puddle on the floor of the room.

  She squeaked as he raised her, and she did close her eyes, her hands moving to clutch his shoulders and steady her imbalance. It was a natural reaction to being hauled about, King had no doubt, but it was a mistake, nevertheless, as with her hands at his shoulders, the rest of her lacked cover.

  The soft, pink rest of her.

  He wasn’t looking at her face anymore.

  She opened her eyes and noticed, her already pink skin turning close to crimson. “Put me down!” He did, as though she were aflame, and she immediately wrapped herself in a towel. “You said you wouldn’t look!”

  “No,” King said, “I said I didn’t wish to look.”

  She stalked away from him, putting herself on the other side of the bed. Clearly unthinkingly, as the memory of her flushed skin in combination with a bed did not exactly dissuade him from his thoughts.

  Not that he would act on them.

  He did not want Lady Sophie Talbot, dammit.

  Well, he wanted her. But he did not want to want her.

  “That’s a semantic argument.”

  Had he spoken aloud? No. She meant the looking.

  “Madam,” he said in his most serious tone. “No man in his right mind would honor that promise.”

  She pulled the towel more tightly around herself. “A gentleman would.”

  He laughed, frustration making the sound hoarse. “I assure you, he wouldn’t. Not even the most pious of priests.”

  Her lips flattened into a thin line. “You are wet. I suggest you find yourself some dry clothes.”

  He’d been dismissed. By a haughty miss in nothing but a strip of linen.

  A lesser man would take his leave. And Lord knew King should. He should give her time to dress and climb beneath the covers. Allow her a few moments to enjoy her cleanliness. Fetch her food. Get decent.

  A gentleman would.

  But King was no gentleman. As if it weren’t bad enough that he’d had to suffer the temptation of the sounds of her bath, he then had to hold her, quite nude, and pretend to be unmoved by the experience when he was, in fact, very moved, as his soaking trousers did little to conceal.

  He hadn’t asked for this.

  For her.

  She riled him. And now, even as he knew he shouldn’t, he wanted to rile her in return.

  “Dry clothes it is,” he said, enjoying the way she nodded, victory in her blue eyes right up until he untucked his shirt and pulled it over his head, and victory dissolved into shock.

  “What are you doing?” she fairly shrieked.

  “Donning dry clothes.”

  “It might work better if you did so in your own chamber!”

  He pointed to the small trunk at the wall. “This is my chamber.”

  Her eyes went wide. “You have been sharing my room?”

  “More than that,” he goaded her. “There’s only one bed.”

  She scowled at him. “You didn’t.”

  “I didn’t,” he conceded. “The stench, remember?” It was a lie. He’d been too worried that she might not wake to even consider sleeping. But she need not know that.

  She was too irritating for him to tell her. Instead, he reached for the fall of his trousers, enjoying the way her gaze followed his hands. “A lady wouldn’t look, Sophie.” She immediately snapped her attention to his face, her cheeks blazing crimson. If he weren’t so damn frustrated with her, he’d be positively gleeful. “I believe it’s time for you to turn around.”

  She did not turn around, and it occurred to King that she was stronger than she seemed, this girl who was supposed to be plain and uninteresting. She narrowed her gaze on him. “I shall do no such thing, you horrible, arrogant scoundrel. This is my bedchamber, in which you take such rapscallionesque liberties.”

  He raised a brow. “Rapscallionesque isn’t a word.”

  She did not hesitate. “I’m certain that those who invent words need only to meet you to see that it should be. As I imagine I would inspire them to commit unfun to the dictionary.” She paused, pulling herself up to her full height. “I suggest you find another chamber, my lord. You are not welcome here.”

  Anger became her, this strange, unexpected woman. She stood before him, wet and wounded, and somehow a warrior nonetheless.

  He wanted her.

  And that was altogether too dangerous. For both of them.

  He was here to keep her alive. And that was it.

  He moved to the fireplace and poured her tea, letting silence stretch between them before he approached her, coming around the bed and closing the distance between them as she stood her ground, shoulders square, knuckles white in the fist that held the linen taut around her. He reached past her, exchanging the cup of steaming liquid with the pot of honey on the bedside table, his bare chest nearly grazing her.

  It was a feat of great strength that he kept from touching her.

  But in the moment, she did not back away, even as he knew her heart must have pounded as his did. She lifted her chin, but did not speak, despite the emotion in her gaze. Mistrust. Irritation. And something else he did not dare name.

  “Sit,” he said, the word harsh, echoing through the chamber.

  She looked askance at the bed. “Why?”

  “Because I vowed you would not die on my watch.” He lifted the pot. “And I mean to keep the promise.” His attention fell to the wound on her shoulder, which still showed no signs of infection, thankfully. The mad doctor was either quite lucky or quite intelligent.

  “I’m quite able to manage, my lord.”

  He ignored the words. “Sit.”

  She sat, the linen clutched around her as he coated his fingers in honey. Silence fell, and they both watched his fingers work, the stickiness of the honey nothing compared to the softness of her skin. King supposed he’d used enough of the salve, but he could not stop touching her, spreading it smoother and smoother across her shoulder.

  Wishing it was not only her shoulder. Wishing it were the rest of her as well, on all that pristine, pretty, pink, unbearably soft skin.

  The moment was getting away from him and he cast about for a safe topic. “Who is Robbie?”

  There was a pause. “Robbie?”

  He didn’t want to talk about the man, honestly. Not when she was here, clean and naked and fresh from a bath, smelling like summer. “Yes. Robbie. Your betrothed.”

  Her gaze snapped to his at the words. Was it confusion he saw there? It was gone before he could be sure. “Of course. Robbie. We’ve known each other since we were children,” she said, the words perfunctory.

  “Who is he?” he pressed.

  “He is the baker in Mossband.”

  A baker. Likely short in the leg and weak in the chin.

  “And you will run a bookshop.” He was finished. He should stop.

  She nodded, the movement stilted. “I will run a bookshop.”

  It was the perfect life for her. Married with a bookshop. He imagined her disheveled and covered with dust, and he liked it far too much.

  He lifted his fingers and looked down at them, glistening with honey. She looked, as well. “You should wash them,” she said quietly.

  He should. There was a bathtub full of water mere feet away. And a washbasin and fresh water even closer. But he did not go to either. Instead, he lifted his hand to his mouth and licked the honey from his fingers, meeting her eyes. Willing her to look away.

  Her eyes
widened. Darkened. But did not waver. It was then that he knew.

  If he kissed her, she would not stop him.

  And if he kissed her, he would not stop.

  Dangerous Daughter, indeed.

  “There’s a dress for you,” he said.

  “I—I beg your pardon?”

  “A dress,” he repeated, turning on his heel and tossing his shirt over his head before adding, “and boots.” He tore open the door. “Wear the damn boots.”

  And he left the room.

  Chapter 9

  SPOTTED IN SPROTBROUGH?

  The pub at the Warbling Wren was fuller than one might imagine it would be at the breakfast hour, Sophie discovered as she descended from her rooms abovestairs three mornings later, dressed in the simple grey dress the Marquess of Eversley had procured for her before he’d disappeared.

  She hadn’t seen him since the evening that included what she now referred to as “the bath debacle.” If she did not know better, she would have imagined that he’d left her, as she’d suggested he do, and headed north to his father. According to Mary and the doctor, however, who had been to check on his patient at the crack of dawn both ensuing days, the Marquess remained in town despite having no interest in Sophie’s recovery, evidently.

  Which suited Sophie perfectly well.

  She ignored the small pang of disappointment that threaded through her at the thought. In fact, she denied that it was disappointment at all. She was simply feeling better, and her empty stomach was awakening as it did every morning.

  She entered the pub proper to discover him at the far end of the room, breaking his fast by the window. He did not look up at her arrival and she pointedly looked away. They were not friends, after all. They were barely acquaintances.

  He saved your life.

  Sophie stiffened at the thought. He did not seem to care about such a thing, so why should she?

  You wanted him to kiss you.

  She shuttered the traitorous thought. That particular desire had been born of exhaustion and gratitude for the bath. She was fully recovered from it now.

  She barely noticed him.

  She barely noticed his shirtsleeves, rolled up to the elbow, and the lovely tan of his forearms, all strength and sinew, and the way his dark locks fell across his forehead. The way his green eyes saw everything beyond the window of the pub.