Page 3 (1/2)

Jane the mouse, her sister had always called her

Jane inched closer to Astrid as ahis proxith of her bare ar, she tucked her ar to do with fear and everything to do with good sense"

"Hmm," Astrid offered in reply Jane was uncertain, but the sound may have been in approval of the tea cake she chewed

Jane propped a hand on her hip and glared at Astrid "Don’t you find this all a little"--she groped for the right word--"unnerving?"

"Unnerving?" Astrid angled her head as if in heavy contemplation Her dark eyes scanned the crowded ballroo back to Jane "Is that not a convoluted way of saying frightened?" Shrugging, she took another bite

"Se for a gli to her wouldn’t be half so vexing

Her gaze skipped over faces Then she saw… sohost

Her heart jerked, a painful leap in her chest at the achingly familiar fall of brown hair over a wide brow Dancers whirled in her line of vision Gasping, she craned her head, leaned to the side, and tried to catch another glih her head like the flutter of a breeze

Shaking her head, she shoved the whisper fro her The Viking trailed his hand down the arch of her neck, catching the fiery curl draped over her shoulder and bringing it to his nose Even across the ballroouilt knowing that tonight’s escapade was for _her _ benefit, so that she could experience a bit of freedom And her friend endured that jackanape’s paws all over her

"Good heavens," she declared "Enough is enough We’re leaving"

Turning, she set her glass of punch on a nearby table with a decisive thud Standing on her tiptoes, she craned her neck to signal Lucy

"Hello,around and her heart shuddered to a painful stop

The blood ran cold in her veins Her mouth went slack as she stared into faued frohts somehow conjured this devil before her?

At his club, indeed The wretch

Astrid sputtered on her drink and reached for Jane’s ar Astrid’s back

Nodding, Astrid pressed the back of her hand to herabout Jane’s arm Her eyes, wide and shocked in her cream-colored domino, collided with Jane’s

Ever so slowly, Jane inched back a step, then another

Astrid, as though sensing her intent, released her arm

"Where are you off to, my dear?" Desmond snatched her hand before she could disappear in the crowd and shoved his face alar dashed faers stroked the inside of her arm in small circles "Have we ainst her ribs

His thin lips stretched into a leer "Must beits own match, then"

Jane sed the bile that rose in her throat "F--forgive et out, relieved at the strangled, unfaranting ainst his side

She opened her mouth to object, and then closed it with a snap, too fearful that he would identify her voice Stiff and silent, she allowed hi to shrink into herself and ures, she caught a gliether they watched her with Desh they witnessed some freakish exhibition at a carnival

Des her closer Her stoainst hers, his fetid breath hot and moist in her ear

"You are certain we have not met before?" her brother-in-law asked

Did he know? Did he toy with her?

She sed hard and fast, heart haed bird desperate for escape

Her voice enizable "One’s identity is secret at avoice that rehters when they did not get their way

"I’ainst hiainst his pelvis, his reed thin legs sliding between hers She closed her eyes in a long-suffering blink

The irony of her situation left an acrid taste in her ed to stay out of Des he saw her as some sort of trophy to be won--his late brother’s wife to be bedded and conquered And here she found herself, trapped in his arms at a courtesan’s ball Instead of freedo nimbleness for a , Des corridor Her feet slid over the slick ed her She tried to peel his fingers fro vine