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It was cold in the hall, away from the contained body heat of the wo just under itation A nice cooldoas exactly what I wanted I o down and outside for a breath of air

I stopped dead at the top of the staircase A man stood at the foot of the stair, a silhouette tall and black against the panes of the double French doors I didn’t think I had made any sound, but he turned at once, face lifted toward ht, I knew at once that it was Jaht before--coat and waistcoat, frilled shirt and buckled breeches The shirt was open at the neck, though, coat and weskit unbuttoned and askew I could see the narrow line of white linen, the flesh of his throat dark against it His hair was loose; he had been running his hands through it

"Co back over my shoulder A ladylike medley of snores ca on the floor in the hall, curled under blankets, but neither ain, but lifted two fingers, beckoning The scent of smoke and whisky filled the stairwell

The blood was thru in my ears--and elsewhere My face was flushed, my hair damp at the temples and on my neck; cool air rose up under my shift, touched the patch of dampness at the base of ether

I ca not to let the stairs creak under my bare feet It occurred to me belatedly that this was ridiculous; the slaves thundered up and down these stairs hundreds of times a day Even so, I felt the need for secrecy; the house was still asleep, and the stairas filled with a gray light that seelass A sudden sound, a ht explode under

His eyes stayed fixed on les in the paler dark of his face He stared ataze alone

I stopped, one step from the bottom There was no blood on his clothes; thank God for that

It wasn’t that I’d never seen Jamie drunk before No wonder he hadn’t coht he was very drunk now, and yet there was sos set wide, betrayed only by a certain deliberation in the way he

"Coh with sleeplessness and whisky

I hadn’t time either to reply or to acquiesce; he seized my arm and pulled me toward him, then swept me off the last step, crushedkiss--as though his mouth knew ardless of ht’s smoke--tobacco and woodsly of whisky that I felt light-headed, as though the alcohol in his blood were seeping into h the sealedintolust, as blind as it was dangerous

I wanted to remonstrate with him, to push him away Then I decided that I didn’t, but it wouldn’t have o

One big hand was gripping the back of ht of a stallion’s teeth closing on the neck of the mare he mounts, and shivered froreat artery under an to buckle He felt it and let go, easingprone upon the stairs, his weight half on

I was nakd under ht as well not have been there

The hard edge of a stair pressed into s do when you’re drunk, that he was just about to take ht see

I got asp, "Not here!" in his ear That see hi like one roused frohtmare, eyes wide and blind Then he nodded once, jerkily, and rose, pullingby the door; he seized one and wrapped it round h the door, past a staring housemaid with a slop jar in her hands

He set me dohen he reached the brick path outside; the bricks were cold under ht across a landscape of shadow and wind, still entangled with each other, stu, clothes fluttering round us and cold air brushing our skins with the rude touch of spring, bound for souely sensed and yet inevitable destination

The stables He hit the door and pulled ainst a wall

"I must have ye now, or die," he said, breathless, and then his ain, his face cold fro withh bricks of the wall to keep my balance

"Hold up your hands," he said

"What?" I said stupidly

"Your hands Put them up"

In complete bewilderment, I held the Pressure and warold wedding ring Then he seized er, the metal warm from the heat of his body He raised my hand to his mouth, and bit my knuckles, hard

Then his hand was on hs, and I felt the scratch of the bricks on my bare backside