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For just ahi her breasts’

Leo shook his head to clear it, troubled by the direction of his thoughts Whatever else he was, he was not a man to force hinore With an effort, he bludgeoned the barbaric impulses back into subave a low cry and seemed to stumble

Concerned, Leo started for her immediately "Did you trip? Are you’bloody hell" He stopped in place as he saw that the ground had partially given way beneath her "Stop, Cat Don’t ?" she asked, her face bleached of color "Is it a sinkhole?"

"More like a bloody architecturalon a portion of a roof that should have caved in at least two centuries ago"

They were approxiround

"Cat," he said with great care, "slowly lower yourself to the ground to redistribute your weight over a greater surface Easy Yes, like that Now you’re going to crawl back down the slope"

"Can you help me?" she asked, and the tremor in her voice wrenched his heart

He answered in a thick voice that didn’t sound like his own "Sweetheart, I would love nothing ht to yours could collapse the roof entirely StartIf it makes you feel better, with all the debris in there, it can’t be too far to fall"

"Actually, that doesn’t make me feel better at all" White-faced, she moved slowly on her hands and knees

Leo stayed in place, not taking his gaze froround that see more than a layer of earth and ancient rotted ti tone, while his heart pounded with anxiety for her "You weigh no ht that’s put a strain on what’s left of the bea?"

"Yes If I cause a collapse when I try to get off, I’d like you to be out of harround shift beneath them

"My lord," Catherine asked, her eyes wide, "do you think this has anything to do with the Ramsay curse?"

"Actually, that hadn’t occurred toit to my attention"

The roof collapsed, and they sied amid a torrent of earth, rock, and timber into the dark space below

Chapter Seven

Catherine stirred and coughed There was grit in her mouth and eyes, and she was sprawled on a wretchedly uncomfortable surface

"Marks" She heard Leo shove debris aside as he ent "Are you hurt? Can you move?"

"Yes … I’m all in one piece…" She sat up and rubbed her face Evaluating the collection of aches and pains in her body, she decided they were all insignificant "Just a bit bruised Oh, dear My spectacles are gone"

She heard him swear "I’ll try to find them"

Disoriented, she tried to s Leo’s lean form was a dark blur nearby as he searched the rubble Dust clouded the air, settling slowly From what little she could see, they were in a pit, perhaps six feet deep, with sunlight drizzling in through the broken roof "You were right, my lord It wasn’t far to fall Is this the keep?"

Leo’s breathing sounded strained as he replied, "I’m not sure It could be an undercroft beneath the keep I see the remains of a stone partition over there … and hollows in the side here transverse joints would support--"

In a burst of fresh terror, Catherine launched herself at his indistinct for to reach him in the di, she buried her face against the solid surface of his chest They were half sitting, half lying amid heaps of rotted timber, stone, and earth

One of his hands ca over her skull protectively "What happened?"

Her voice was muffled in his shirt "Undercroft"

He smoothed her hair and pressed her even closer into the protection of his body "Yes Why does that frighten you?"

She could hardly speak between panting breaths "Isn’t that … where they keep the bodies?"

The tre in the air as Leo puzzled over it "Oh No, it’s not that kind of undercroft" A quiver of rueful ah his voice, and she felt hisof one of the rooms beneath modern churches, where the deceased are put away But a medieval undercroft is different It’s only a storeroom beneath the keep"

Catherine didn’t move "There are no s-skeletons in here?"

"No Nor skulls, nor coffins" His hand continued to stroke tenderly over her hair "Poor darling It’s all right Nothing fearsome down here Take a deep breath You’re safe"

Catherine continued to lie in his arht her breath She tried to take in the fact that Leo, her ene her His lips brushed her te still, she absorbed the sensation She had never been attracted tostature But he was strong and coenuinely concerned, and his voice was like dark velvet wrapping around her

How perplexing

Had anyone told her that she would one day be trapped alone in a filthy pit with Leo, Lord Rahtreeable experience No wonder Raht after by the ladies of London … If this was how he set about seducing the, Catherine could easily understand how he got his ith theently eased her away fro to be able to find your spectacles in this wreckage"

"I have another pair at horunt of discohest pile of debris, it’s only a short distance to the surface I’et you out of here, and then you’re going to ride back to Rauide him He’ll find his way back ho to do?" she asked, bewildered

He sounded rather sheepish "I’ to have to wait here until you send so for a word "Splinter"

She felt indignant "You’re going to make me ride back alone and unescorted and virtually blind, to send someone to rescue you? All because you have a splinter?"

"A large one," he volunteered

"Where is it? Your finger? Your hand? Maybe I can help to … Oh, God " This last as he took her hand and brought it to his shoulder His shirt ith blood, and a thick shard of timber protruded from his shoulder "That’s not a splinter," she said in horror "You’ve been impaled What can I do? Shall I pull it out?"