Page 13 of A Perilous Passion

“I’m not a violent person, sir. To slap you would be to make a noise and risk rousing the house. I’ve already tasted scandal and been punished for it. So, whatever reason you have for coming here, forget it and be on your way.”

His expression hardened. “Regrettably, I can’t do that. My presence here is to force you to say nothing of me being in Dorset, and to ensure your mother and aunt also keep silent.”

She narrowed her eyes. “And how would a lock of my hair help achieve that?”

“It would be all the proof I needed that I’d compromised you.”

The man truly was addle pated. His simply being here compromised her. Mama would be chasing him round the house with a poker if she knew. Or possibly Papa’s dueling pistol.

She shook her head. “I rather think you’d already done that by throwing yourself on top of me on the beach.” She grimaced. “And in the cave. But why would you want to compromise me?” She went for Mama’s most disapproving tone, and added, “I’ve done nothing to harm you. I’m most sorely disappointed in you.”

His eyes darkened, and his well-built form appeared to swell. She suddenly felt small and vulnerable in her thin nightgown, with just a sheet to cover her. Harsh words were probably not the best defense against a powerful man.

Once again, he surprised her. His head went back, and he gave a throaty chuckle.

“You have your mother’s skill at putting a man in his place,” he said. “Does nothing frighten you, Miss Allston?”

“I’m more puzzled than afraid. I believe my initial assessment of you was correct—you are a little touched in the head.”

He pushed out a breath. “I’m beginning to think you may be right. But the motives behind my actions are the very noblest, I assure you.”

It was noble to throw young ladies onto the sand and try to saw their hair off with a blunt knife? Honestly. She would never fully comprehend the English aristocracy.

“I still don’t understand about the lock of hair,” she persisted.

He shifted his weight on the bed, reminding her of their intimate position. Unbidden, a spark of physical desire ignited in her belly.

She crushed it mercilessly. The impropriety of having a man sitting on one’s bed in the middle of the night shouldn’t excite a woman—it should shock and appall her.

Shouldn’t it?

“I believed that by convincing your mama there is something…intimate between us, I could buy her silence,” he explained.

“But that would be a lie. And if it got out, it could ruin me.” Not that she wasn’t ruined already, according to Mama. But, thankfully, hardly anyone knew about that.

“I know, and I’m sorry. I’ve met mothers like her before, though. Their desire to avoid scandal is almost as strong as their need to get their daughters wed to a nobleman. I was to show the lock of hair as irrefutable proof that you and I had an understanding.”

Ah. “Thus, blackmailing her into silence.”

He winced slightly as he nodded.

She was starting to enjoy having the moral high ground for a change. He deserved to squirm. She inquired, “Which particular falsehood had you decided to dupe my relations with—the one where we are secretly engaged, or the one where we’d had an affair but it was now over?”

“The latter. Fewer…complications. I would promise not to blacken your good name if your mama agreed to say nothing of my presence in the area.”

She clamped her jaw. “You’d really have done that?”

What a dreadful man! She truly wasn’t a violent person, but there were limits.

He held her gaze somberly. “I’d do whatever it took.”

“Short of simply asking, as any normal person would.”

His shoulders stiffened. “I need absolute certainty my secret won’t be betrayed, not vague promises. It’s vital to both your safety and my own that no one in this household says they know me, either as Beckport or as Mr. Seabourne. And you must never speak of what we found in the cave that day.”

She scowled at his commanding tone. “Why not? Is smuggling really so terrible a thing?” In fact, she was far more worried about whether someone else might speak of what they saw in the cave that day…

A heavy silence filled the air between them. The candlelight flickered, etching shadows onto his face, and she pulled the sheets more tightly around her. Lit from beneath, even a face as ruggedly handsome as his could look…demonic.