Strike at Midnight(63)

“Unfortunately, it didn’t. Only everything above the clothes.”

Now I was even more confused.

“You were about to get it on at the ball with Lady Stanley,” I said, wondering what she had planned on using instead. “I think she would have noticed if she hadn’t found a dick in your breeches.” I felt Prince Andrew’s hand flinch against my waist at the mention of the word dick, and it annoyed me. If he kept thinking of me as a lady, then he was sadly mistaken. I went to take a step away from him—not liking how his reaction had stung—but he just pulled me back.

“I hadn’t planned on going all the way,” she said, and she purposely bit her bottom lip. “Then you came along and I really wanted to play. It would have been fun.”

“I don’t dally with crazy bitches,” I said, and her eyes flared up.

“You would have dallied with me if he hadn’t arrived,” she pointed to the prince, “because you were more than up for it.”

“Only because I needed to see if you had a birthmark on your hand,” I snapped back, but then it hit me. “Maybe the spell only copies what is on the outside,” I said, turning to Sir Raymond. “If the duke had been wearing his gloves when they did the magic to emulate him…”

“There would be no birthmark,” Sir Raymond said.

“And no penis,” Mia added with a smirk on her lips.

“How do you get in touch with this person?” I asked Helena.

“I don’t,” she said. “The plan was that they would give me a few weeks and then they would approach me.”

It crossed my mind that maybe Mia could make one of us look like the duke to catch the kidnapper. But then it dawned on me that it was public knowledge that an imposter of the duke had been arrested. If the person hadn’t found that out from the journals yet, they soon would and sense a trap.

“I’m done,” I said, knowing there was nothing else she could tell us. Removing the spell had been a bust in regards to getting a lead on the kidnapper, but at least we knew there was a higher chance that the duke was alive. It also sounded like the duke was definitely being kept near or somewhere in the Nightmare Woods, but I wouldn’t even know where to start looking in that ocean of green. “Let’s go.”

Sir Raymond put his arm out for Mia to follow, and she nodded regally towards him before doing so. He bowed to the prince for him to go forward, but Prince Andrew just shook his head slightly, and I wondered what the hell he was doing. Sir Raymond nodded in response and followed Mia up the stairs.

Prince Andrew took a hold of my arm and pulled me to a corner that was away from Helena’s cell, and out of earshot of the guard on duty.

“Are you well?” he asked, and I found I couldn’t look at him. I just needed to get out of here.

“I’m fine,” I said, but then he put his thumb and forefinger on my chin and lifted my head slightly so I was forced to look in his direction.

“Rella,” he said so softly that I felt myself being lost to the spell that he always seemed to weave around me when he was close. “Please?”

Tears formed in my eyes at the things I had done in my past, and what I had done in that cell when I had angrily wrapped my hands around Helena’s throat.

“I’m sorry I lost it,” I whispered. “I always seem to lose control around you.”

He smiled and slid his hand against my cheek.

“I’m honored that you jumped to my defense once again,” he said in the quietest of tones. “But don’t feel that you have to. I can handle myself if needed.”

“Really?” I asked, and the smile on his lips made me realize he was finding this funny. “You’re an ass.”

He chuckled and dropped his hand to take hold of mine. “You wouldn’t have killed her,” he said as if he saw something inside of me that I didn’t. “You would have stopped.”

Damn, this guy could read me like a book. I didn’t like it.

“You don’t know that,” I snapped, feeling the tension come to the surface.

“Of course I do. You’re a woman of honor, and you would have stepped back. I would bet my life on it.”

If only he knew that I hadn’t stopped before ramming a rock into a man’s throat all those years ago. It would be a different story then.

“If I’m a woman of such honor, then why did you flinch when I said the word dick?” I asked. Let him answer that one.

“I’m sorry for that reaction,” he said, his eyes swirling with both interest and regret. “But I’ve not been raised with ladies saying such words. It just surprised me.”

“And I told you I’m not a lady,” I said, not liking how the voices in my head seemed to back this up by saying I wasn’t good enough, that I was a killer and way beneath a prince. I wanted to yell at them to shut up, to go fuck themselves, but considering the words were coming from my own psyche, it would be a bit difficult.

“And I said that you were,” he said, putting his hand on my waist and pulling me closer. “Want to argue some more?”

A laugh erupted from my throat, and I tried to stop it by pressing my lips together.

“We’re so different,” I said, taking a step away from him. “You need to get that into your royal skull.”