The Spy Who Loved Her: Once Upon an Accident, Book 3 (23 page)

But even as she panicked, her body surrendered. She convulsed, drawing him deeper inside of her, and he groaned her name. He heaved a sigh filled with relief as he collapsed on top of her and nuzzled her neck. Moments passed and the only sounds in the library were their harsh breathing and the sounds of the staff drifting by. She felt herself drifting when Danny pulled back from her.

He leaned down once more to give her a quick, hard, thorough kiss. She wanted to object, to beg him to lie upon her. She loved to have his body press against hers.

But she said nothing as she watched him button his trousers. He shot her a wicked smile. “As long as you remember what you said, I will allow you to wear that dress.”

All the warm feelings she’d had dissolved into anger. “And just what do you mean by that?”

He stilled and then braced his weight on the couch. He leaned his face down close to hers. “I do not like that dress. I do not like the way men look at you while you are in that dress. But as long as you promise that you are mine, I have no problem allowing you to wear it in public.”

There was a hard edge to his words. She placed both hands on his chest and shoved. He moved back easily.

“I do not belong to any man.”

There was silence. Then, “So, when we are making love, you do not mean what you say?”

She knew that her answer carried weight, knew that while she wanted to say that it didn’t mean a thing, she could not. He might not love her, but she loved him. Lying to him just would not do.

“No. I do mean what I say, and in this, I do belong to you. But in my everyday life, I do not belong to you.”

He said nothing, just continued to watch her in that patient way of his.

“I offered marriage.”

How like a man. He had never asked for her hand in marriage, he had ordered. As if she was his chattel. “First, you did not. You told me we were marrying. Second, I do not ever want to belong to a man, not unless he fulfills one requirement.”

She finished righting her clothing and then smiled brightly. “Now, how is this done? Do I go back alone?”

He said nothing but nodded.

She wanted to say something, but his expression sent a fresh wave of alarm rushing through her. There was something so stark, so forbidden in it she did not know what to say. Something cold unfurled inside of her, seeping into her blood, chilling her to the bone.

But she could not leave without one more touch. She rose to her tiptoes and brushed her mouth on his. “I will see you back in the ballroom.”

He did not respond, to the kiss or the comment. She had a feeling that she had done something wrong, said something, but she did not know what to do to fix it. She went to the door and unlocked it. She opened it, checked the hallway and found it clear.

“Anna.” His voice was quiet, barely audible.

She turned, her hand still on the knob.

“What is the one thing you want?”

“What?”

“To marry. What is the one thing you want from a man?”

She did not answer at first. She did not know how to explain it, but she found the words that were the simplest.

“I need a man to love me for me.”

He watched her as she stepped out into the hallway and closed the door. Her heart was aching as if she had lost something precious. She had known the relationship would not go on forever, but she felt that something had shifted tonight, something had changed. She worried her bottom lip as she walked down the hall. The sound of the ball grew louder, the voices, the music, the clinking of glasses. But she did not want to go in. She wanted to return to the library, to slip back into his arms…but that would not do.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she did not see the man who approached her.

“Lady Anna?”

She looked up to find Lord Elwood smiling at her.

“Oh, I am sorry. I was lost in my thoughts.”

“No worries. I was actually looking for you.”

She smiled. “Was my mother looking for me?”

“No.” He wrapped a hand around her upper arm, his fingers digging into her flesh. She glanced up and found the usually quiet, sweet eyes filled with sinister intent.

“I have been trying to get you alone since you thwarted my assassin in the alley that night.”

Chapter Twenty

Daniel shoved a hand through his hair, his mind on the woman who had just left him. He should have known Anna wouldn’t ask for anything halfway. He closed his eyes, her words playing over in his head. The woman would not give an inch, he knew that. Of course, he probably would not love her if she was a pushover.

What could he do? He wanted her, needed her in a way that he did not understand before tonight. Making love to her brought some primal beast out in him. He opened his eyes and stared at the closed door. It had taken all of his monumental control to allow her to walk out that door. Every instinct he had had screamed for him to grab her and pull her back in the room. Away from prying eyes and lusting men. But he did not have that right, and according to Anna, he would not unless he proved in some way that he loved her.

He wanted to sit in the darkened room and brood. But he did not have that luxury. He had to get back out into the ballroom and watch over Anna. He stepped out of the room into the hallway and only made it a few steps before Lady Victoria came rushing toward him. Worry etched her features and curdled his stomach. He did not want to be discovered before he had Anna’s agreement of marriage.

“Have you seen Anna?”

“No. Why would I have seen her?”

“Oh, goodness, I do not have time for this. Dear boy, you slipped her out of the room over forty minutes ago through that hidden panel. I have a feeling you were not discussing politics.”

He opened his mouth but she did not let him talk.

“I thought she was with you and I was worried that others had noticed. When I headed back this way, I only found this.”

She raised Anna’s dance card. Now panic swept through him. A missing dance card was one thing, Anna not making it back to the ballroom was another.

“Did you check the retiring room?”

She nodded. “I went there first. Then I found this down the hall.”

He needed to think, needed to come up with some explanation. He had thought Ashburn was at his Yorkshire estate, far from Anna. He had let his guard down and put her in danger. He should have known better. This was a man who had been making a mockery of the War Department for years.

He held out his arm. “Let’s get back to the ballroom, see if my mother knows anything.”

“If you got her mixed up in this spy business, I will never forgive you. I swear Daniel, I was hoping for a wedding, but if she is hurt in any way, it will be a beheading.”

He stopped and looked at her. “How did you know?”

She rolled her eyes. “Your mother told me years ago. We do not have time to go through all that now. Oh, there is Adelaide.”

His mother walked sedately toward them, a serene look on her face, but he saw a glimpse of worry in her eyes.

“I have not found her. Any luck?”

Both of them shook their heads. Just then he caught a glimpse of Jack in the hallway arguing with one of the staff. He strode over and dismissed the servant.

“What did you find?”

Before he could answer, his cousin walked up behind him. His hair was a mess, his clothes not much better.

“I wanted to let you know what I found out. Jack here beat me to the door though.” He tossed a nasty look at the old retainer. “Lord Ashburn wasn’t the spy. He apparently was out of the country at the time of your father’s death.”

“But the money, the accounts…”

“All handled by his man of business, who also works for Lord Horace Elwood.”

The gravity of his words shook Daniel to his core. The man who had been his father’s best friend, who had stepped in and helped Daniel as he’d tried to take over the reins of an earldom. The same man who showed disdain for Anna on more than one occasion. Cold seeped into his blood.

“He’s a family friend.”

“Yes. And apparently he became a family friend for a reason.”

“And he just left with Lady Anna.”

His head whipped around at a breathless Jack. “What the bloody hell are you talking about?”

“I didn’t know this latest bit of news, and I saw the two of them leave in his carriage.”

“Dammit.” He ran down the hall and out the front door, ignoring the footmen. Simon was running next to him, Jack pulling behind them.

“Daniel!” his mother yelled. “What has happened?”

He looked up at the woman he loved, the woman who had been the one person he could always count on, and realized that the news would break her heart. To know that a family friend, her husband’s best friend, was his killer would surely cause her undue pain. But he had no time now to explain, to soothe. Knowing the Viper as he did, Daniel knew Anna was being held to trap him. .If he didn’t act fast, the Viper would discard her without a thought.

“Don’t worry. I know where she is. Tell Victoria I will bring her back safely.”

After telling the driver where to go, he jumped into his cousin’s carriage and joined both his cousin and Jack.

“Do you know where to go?” Simon asked.

His memory went back to the conversation that he had not picked up on, the details that he should have heard had he not been so wrapped in his pursuit of Anna. The one place she would hurt the most if it was destroyed.

“Oh, yes, I do know where to go.”

“He will not come after me, you know.” Anna tried to sound brave, but being tied up to a chair, staring at a man who kept mumbling to himself had her worried. She knew his plan was to draw Daniel here, but she knew he wasn’t completely sane at the moment.

“Of course he will. You are the only thing that would get him to react. That or his family.”

She tried not to show her reaction on her face. She knew no matter what, Daniel would pursue this, and as clever as he was, he would realize the one place Elwood would take her to was her orphanage.

“You were the one in the alley, the night Carlotta came to the orphanage.”

He smiled. It was all teeth and no warmth. “People rarely pay attention to a little old man.”

When Anna had realized the moment he planned to take her to the orphanage, she had fought him. Only the threat of killing anyone who tried to help her kept her quiet. She tossed another look of apology at Mrs. Markham, although she could not see it. He had hit the elderly woman over the head with the butt of his gun and she had been out since then. Anna needed to convince the man that she was not someone Daniel would risk his life for.

“I am just a family friend.”

He cackled and she winced. His horrible laugh echoed through the vacant halls. She was worried one of the boys would come to the office in search of Mrs. Markham.

One eyebrow rose as his eyes focused on her. “Indeed? Is that why he spent the night in your room at the house party? Or maybe that is why you spent so long secluded in a locked library?”

She sniffed and tried to look indignant. “I have no idea what you are talking about. Even if it were true, he would not be dense enough to fall for such a stupid plan.”

“I have to disagree with you, Anna,” Daniel said from the entrance. “There is no way I could leave you at the mercy of this bastard.”

She watched in horror as Lord Elwood turned the gun in the direction of Daniel.

“I knew you would come. You have proved harder to kill than your father.”

Daniel never responded to that, but she saw the twitch in the corner of his eye. Facing his father’s killer was bad enough, but knowing that this man, the one he had always looked up to, had killed him was a little much for anyone to bear.

“Why?”

“Why what, dear boy.” His pleasant tone had her blood turning to ice.

“Why did you kill him? Why are you a traitor?”

Elwood shrugged. “You do not know what it is like.”

“Explain.”

He did not seem to like Daniel’s tone of voice. Elwood apparently did not like to be ordered about by anyone, especially a younger man.

“Your father was the golden boy. You know that, don’t you? He had all the money, all the friends. I thought myself so lucky when he took me under his wing at Eton. But then he made a mistake when we met Adelaide.”

“My mother. What does my mother have to do with it?”

“She was all I ever wanted, ever needed. I had thought your father never meant to marry. I could not since I did not have my inheritance. Even after my father died, I had no money. Then your father stole her. She was dazzled by his money, by his position. She ignored me, tossed me aside.”

His voice rose with every word. Daniel was trying his best to control his temper, his need to kill the man before him, but she knew he was doing his best not to cause either of them injury. As they continued to talk, she slowly rose from the chair.

“You never had a chance with her.”

Elwood’s face mottled with rage. “No. But then I had other things to worry about. My father could not control his urges, sank us into debt. I was one step away from debtor’s prison when I was offered an opportunity of a lifetime.”

“To kill my father.”

A frown moved over his face. “No. I did not know of your father’s stupidity until later. Much later. And you know the best of it? He told me.”

His gleeful laugh sent a chill slipping over Anna’s flesh and down her spine. There was an edge of insanity seeping into his voice, into his expression. She had seen a woman like this one time in White Chapel and she had been warned by locals to stay away.

“I wanted to laugh in his damned face when he revealed what he did, that he regretted you would have to take up the job. He wanted you not to become a spy, did you know that?”

There was a flash of pain in Daniel’s eyes, one she was sure Elwood saw, one that he probably rejoiced in. If she could ever get out of here, she would make the man pay for that.

“No, I see he never talked to you about it. He wanted you to have a normal life. And while trying to come up with a way to disentangle his family from the spy network, he told me, asked my advice. And I knew then, knew I would have him. I would raise myself up to my superiors, and I would get rid of my nemesis.”