Forever My Love (Berkeley-Faulkner #2)(18)

She tried to pull away from him, her confused flurry grinding to a halt as his arms locked around her waist. “Let me out before he starts to look for me!”

“When I’m finished with you. I want to know how you came to be Sackville’s mistress. Obviously it wasn’t because of the physical attraction he holds for you. So tell me how and why—”

“No!” As Mira found that her glare was met by impervious gray eyes, she tried to soften her answer. “There… there isn’t time.”

“You have all the time you need,” Alec purred. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Oh, do stop this!” she said desperately, pushing at his chest.

“Can’t wait to get up there with him? My, my… perhaps he should thank me for having stirred you up like this.”

“You’re detestable!”

“The clock is ticking. And you’re not going anywhere until you tell me how your arrangement with Sackville came to be.”

“Name of Satan!” she exclaimed, her eyes on the door. “All right, I’ll tell you this much. I’ve been his for… I’ve been here for two years. Since I was eighteen. I met him after I left France and came to England.”

“Alone?”

“Yes, alone. I had no money and no employment, and I was well on the way to starving to death. It was September, a very cold one. I caught a fever and became too sick to look for work or find food. I curled up in the back of a hay wagon in Dover to sleep—and I suppose I fell unconscious, because the next thing I remember is waking up here. Lord Sackville is a very compassionate man. He took me in, paid money out of his own pocket to keep me fed and clothed and taken care of until I was well again.”

Alec waited for her to continue, arching a black eyebrow as she remained stubbornly silent. “So you ended up in his bed out of gratitude?” he asked.

“I became fond of him.”

“As well as his money and living on his estate.”

“Yes,” she snapped. “Now is your curiosity satisfied?”

“No. Why did you leave France in the first place?”

Exasperated, Mira let out a stream of smothered curses, her face so animated and her tone so venomous that Alec’s expression became less harsh, his eyes starting to twinkle with amusement.

61Lisa Kleypas

“Either you let me leave this room now,” she threatened, “or I will sprinkle powdered rhubarb in your wine and steal your chamberpot!”

Alec gave a muffled laugh, reluctantly withdrawing his arms from around her.

“Since you ask so charmingly, I can hardly refuse,” he said, giving her a small bow and opening the door with a flourish. As Mira skittered away indignantly, Alec closed the door. “Good Lord. I’ve been threatened with knives, bullets, fists, swords, and good hands of cards—but never rhubarb,” he mused, and began to laugh again.

Mira went up to her room, smiling guilelessly as she saw that Lord Sackville was still there.

“Hello, my lord,” she said.

“Where have you been?”

She was a convincing liar when she had to be. “I’ve been conversing with Mrs. Daniel in the kitchen. Have you been waiting long?”

“No, not long at all,” Sackville said, refusing to meet her eyes. “I came up here to… well, inquire if you were in any way distressed by this evening. You took it very well, but still I wanted to be certain…”

He looks like a guilty little boy, Mira thought, and she smiled, feeling a reluctant twinge of fondness for him. She knew that he had not meant to cause her so much distress. The William Sackville she had come to know would never voluntarily hurt a soul. If not for him she would have died of fever and chills that September two years ago. She would never forget his kindness to her.

“I must admit,” she said carefully, “I was rather taken aback by the whole thing.”

“I could not see any way to end the situation gracefully,” Sackville said in a rush. “And then I thought: Damn your ears, old boy, she plays well enough.

What the deuce—let her at it! And you did a capital job, Mira—a wonderful job!”

“I would rather consign the whole thing to the past,” she replied. “And, my lord… I would rather not have to do something like that again.”

“Of course, of course!” Relieved, Sackville pulled out a handkerchief and patted his damp brow. “So glad you’re being sensible about this—can’t stand to have a woman peeved with me, you know.”

“I know,” she said, giving him a small smile. She turned to her gilded dressing table and pulled out a knotted cloth. “As long as you’re up here, I found another mandrake root for you. Just take a little at a time—”

“I know the dosage by now,” he said, taking the cloth eagerly and stuffing it in his pocket. “I think it’s helping, truly I do.”

“I hope it does,” she replied, tilting her head and regarding him quizzically.

“You’ve never told anyone about this, have you?” he demanded, his blue eyes squinting anxiously. He asked the same question every time she found another root for him.

In a flashing second Mira remembered her slip in front of Alec Falkner—but he wouldn’t remember, would he? “No… our secret is safe, my lord.”