Hart watched the last of her composure crumble.
The girl inhaled sharply, and her mouth fell open.
She instinctively took a step back, but he followed and closed in on her, keeping the dagger at her throat.
That was the reaction he was aiming for.
The split second when people were at their rawest.
He had knocked her off balance, and that was the opening he needed.
Before the girl could recover, he fired another question at her.
“Why did you come here?” “Hugs and kisses, hugs and kisses… I am still learning the language.
I’m not a spy.
I don’t know why I came to the village.” “Hugs… what?” Hart demanded.
“Start again.
Slowly.” With her eyes squeezed shut, she’d blurted everything out so fast that Hart had barely understood her.
But… a simple girl she was not.
The problem was, she had given away too much, which was suspicious in itself.
“O for hugs and X for kisses.” Her voice dropped to a whisper.
“You asked what it meant, sir.” “Right.
So I did.
And…?” “I am still learning the language.
I’m not a spy.
I don’t know why I came to the village.” She repeated her answers more slowly this time.
He rubbed a hand over his mouth to hide his amusement.
The girl had answered every question in the exact order he had asked them.
“How could you not know why you came to the village?” “I went to sleep in my own bed and woke up here.” Keeping her head perfectly still, she gestured vaguely in the direction where she had supposedly woken up.
The dagger still rested against her throat.
“I don’t know anything.
Please, Mr.
Vale, I’m telling the truth.” “Let’s say I believe you, Melia.” He didn’t.
Something in her answer had rung true, though.
He was dying to know why she’d been running around the village naked.
She had seemed to recognize him too.
But this was not the time for those questions.
He needed to find out if she was an immediate threat to the lord.
“Why did you come to the mansion?” Her shoulders relaxed a little, and her grip on the hem of her skirt loosened.
“I told you.
To return something he gave me.” “To the lord’s study?” “Yes, Sherlock.
I knew Rive wasn’t here.
So… I wanted to leave it on the desk without anyone knowing and get the f… far away from here.” The girl was recovering quickly, considering he still had a dagger at her throat.
Was she even mocking him?
She bit her lip, perhaps realizing she had gone too far, and hurriedly added, “I wanted to save Rive from more trouble.
Maybe he took it without permission.” The foolish boy had probably given his secret sweetheart something he shouldn’t have.
“Concerned about your boyfriend, are you, Melia?” “What?
No.
He is just a child.
I’m not a perverted cougar, thank you very much.” Her green eyes flashed, and her cheeks grew red.
If looks could kill, he would have died then and there.
She was still hiding something, but she was no trained spy.
Her answers had come too quickly and naturally to have been rehearsed.
She posed no immediate threat to the lord.
Despite the way she glared at him, maybe there was more between her and Rive after all.
That didn’t mean she was harmless.
Still, something about her bothered him.
“Very well.” He stepped back and raised both hands in surrender, the dagger still in one of them.
“I have a proposition for you.
Please, sit down.” He gestured politely to the couch.
Before she could answer, her stomach growled loudly.
Hart glanced at the serving cart.
“I’m famished.” He tucked the dagger back into his sleeve and wheeled the serving cart closer.
She sat down, still scowling.
She picked up the bottle of liquor from the floor and turned it in her hands.
Before Hart could say anything, she took a long sip straight from the bottle.
“I needed that so bad.” She exhaled in relief.
“Good stuff.” No cautious sniff at the bottle, no tentative sip.
No coughing, not even a grimace.
He reached over and plucked the bottle from her hand before she could take another drink.
“That’s enough for you.” “Excuse me?” She tried to snatch the bottle back, but as he was taller, she couldn’t reach it.
Then he lifted it against the light from the window.
The bottle was nearly empty, but there was still enough amber-brown liquor for several good swallows.
He tipped the bottle back and drained what was left.
The liquor tasted as foul as before and burned all the way down, but he swallowed the grunt that was rising in his throat.
He wasn’t about to lose a drinking contest to a girl who couldn’t be more than seventeen.
“You’re barely out of diapers.” She only snorted and crossed her arms.
Hart piled a little of everything onto a plate and nearly dropped the serving spoon halfway through.
Damn.
The liquor was hitting him harder than it should.
He closed his eyes for a moment to clear his head, then went back to filling the plate.
He added a silver fork and placed the plate on the table in front of her.
She stared at the plate, then looked up at Hart as if asking whether it was really for her.
“Take it.
I’ll eat from the cart with this.” Hart raised the serving spoon.
“Thank you.” She took the plate and held it close, then shoveled down the food as if she hadn’t eaten in days.
Once they had eaten their fill from the cart, Hart said, “Here’s my proposition.
We’ll take it to Rive’s room together.” He emphasized the last word.
“You can’t leave the… whatever that is… here.” “But why?” “If you leave it here, one of us will have to explain it to the lord.
And that’s not me.
Put it back in his room and let him deal with it when he returns.” If the lord found it on his desk, Hart would either have to explain that it had come from Riverd or admit that someone had managed to sneak into the study on his watch.
In truth, he felt sorry for the boy.
And technically, someone had sneaked into the study on Hart’s watch.
The sooner he got her out of the mansion, the sooner he could finally sleep.
A dull ache still throbbed at the back of his head from lack of sleep.
“Open the door and follow me,” he ordered and wheeled the serving cart out of the room while the girl held the door open.
They left it in the corridor.
Using the key he had pocketed earlier from the desk, he locked the door.
Riverd’s room was upstairs, on the same side of the mansion, but the quickest route required a few turns and the servants’ staircase near the kitchen.
The last thing he needed was for the lord to hear he’d been dragging a girl through the mansion.
That reminded him to make sure Betty kept quiet.
Hart didn’t want the girl wandering off somewhere she shouldn’t, so he took her by the arm.
He loosened his grip when he felt her arm tense beneath his hand.
“Come.” He led the way toward the stairs.
They had barely made it halfway down the corridor when voices drifted toward them from around the corner.
Hart stopped dead.
The girl walked straight into his back, but he barely moved.
“What the …” she began, but Hart shushed her and tilted his head to listen.
Several people.
“We need to hide.
Fast,” he whispered.
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