The Devil Rogue (5 page)

She decided it would be better to
take off
her shift,
as well,
rather than
let it
get
soaked
.
It might not dry by morning, and she had nothing else to wear
.
She was not about to put on her dress over naked skin
.
It was too decadent
.
And w
hen
, pray tell,
had she begun to think those kinds of thoughts
?

When she’d seen
Blackridge’s
face for the first time
,
that’s when
.

The man’s reputation was scandalous,
and that was putting it mildly
.
He was known as a cold, unemotional man, making him a target for women who liked the challenge of melting the ice around the
v
iscount
’s heart
.

Angela had never seen him before this night, but she’d heard plenty about him
.
Rumors
concerning
him circulated, spreading like wildfire around the party circuit
.
He was a very powerful and dangerous man, it was said.

Stories of h
is exploits in the bedroom had practically set her ears on fire
. S
he
’d
overheard conversations
about him
at various soirees and balls
.
At the time, she didn’t think much about it, knowing she would
never move in his circles, and most d
efinitely not in his bedchamber
.

Oh, how things change
!
Here she was, virtually held captive by
The
Devil Rogue
himself
.
His sexual talents were widely
known
, envied by the men, and
well-gossiped
over by the women.

And h
e thought her a
woman of
experience
!

What was she going to do tomorrow night when he expected to be ‘serviced
,
’ whatever that meant
.
She didn’t know the first thing about what went on between a man and a woman in the bedchamber
.
She’d certainly never seen a
real, live,
naked man
.
Her innocent imagination
tried to
conjur
e
an image of
Blackridge
without his clothes
.

She’d seen pictures in books, and then there were the various Greek statues that were popular among the
ton
.

Would he look like one of those
statues
?

Would he have one of those
things
between his legs
?

What would it be like to touch his bare flesh, to explore his muscled contours
?
She was
quite certain
he had muscles
.
He was such a large man
. His shoulders were
wide,
his torso solid,
and
he had
strong thighs beneath his tight-fitting breeches
.
Between her wicked thoughts and the steamy water, her face became flushed and heated
.

“What in the Holy Mother happened to you, my dear girl?” Mrs. Brown exclaimed from the open doorway.

Angela
looked up
, startled by
the older woman’s
outburst
.

Mrs. Brown
let out
another gasp
, and then h
er gaze fell
to
the bloody bandage on Angela’s arm.
“Great Caesar’s ghost!”

Angela crouched down as far as she could into the small tub, trying to cover her
self.
“Please, Mrs. Brown
!
Keep your voice down
.
I don’t want the whole household to come running.”

“I’m sorry, dear,” Mrs. Brown said more quietly this time, closing the door
.
“
It was just such a shock to see, is all.
Who did this to you?”

“I-I
. . .
fell
.
”

“Fell, my arse
!
You’ve been beaten, but good.”
She rushed over, ignoring Angela’s naked state, and gently took her arm into her hands
.
Removing the bandage, she inspected the still oozing gash
.
“Sweeting, you’re going to need stitches, I’m thinking
.
This is a deep cut.”
Brushing Angela’s hair aside, she probed the
purple bruise near her eye
.
“The skin isn’t broken here, but I have a cream that will help with the bruising and swelling
.
And you have a huge bruise on your back, did you know that
?
You
’re going to need a
physician
to stitch up
this cut, though.”

“No – please
.
” No doctors
.
Doctors meant rumors, and rumors meant humiliation
.
“My maid, Rosemary, can stitch it
.
She’s done it before, if you could fetch her for me
.
I don’t even know where her room is.”

“Before
?
This has happened before
?
My God, but who
—
”

“It doesn’t matter who, now that I’m out of there
.
I can handle anything your master dishes out compared to what I’ve already dealt with.”

Mrs. Brown’s eyebrows drew together in a frown, her suspicion plain to see.
“All right,
I’ll go get your maid,
” she said slowly. After a slight pause, her lips pursed together, as though still uncertain. “B
ut I
do
think the master needs to know about this
.”

“No
!
I-I don’t want him to know
.
You can’t imagine how humiliating it was that my own servants knew what he was doing to me
.
I just couldn’t bear it if anyone else were to find out.”

“I don’t know, sweetheart
.
Perhaps
t
he
master
wouldn’t treat you so badly if he
were to learn the truth
.
He’s not a bad man, you know, just
a little confused these days
.
” Mrs. Brown
’s defense of
Blackridge
was admirable. It was obvious she held a deep affection for him and was very loyal.

“Please.”

“All right, I won’t tell him – for now, anyway
.
But if it
gets any worse
, I
will
tell him
,
to be sure.”

Angela smiled.
“Okay, I can live with that.”

“Now, you get yourself out of that tub, into your nightclothes, and into bed
.
I’ll send your maid to tend your wound.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Brown
.
It warms my heart to have a friend like you in this situation.”

“Well, perhaps
you’ll tell me your story some
day, but only when you’re ready,” she replied with warmth in her
dark
eyes.

“Perhaps, Mrs. Brown, I will at that
.
”

MORNING CAME ALL
too soon for Angela, as she
a
woke to
an
incessant
pounding
in her head. It took her a moment to peel her eyes open, fight
ing
past the grogginess of sleep
. She
realize
d
the pounding wasn’t coming from her head, but from the other side of
her door
.

Strange
–
she was sure she’d left it open last night.

“Rise and shine, princess
!
”
Blackridge’s
deep voice boomed
.
“It’s time to begin your chores.”

Angela raised her head off the pillow, wincing in pain as she became aware of her aching body
.
She felt as though she’d tumbled down
every
flight of stairs
in the house
.
Twice.

Mrs. Brown had sent Rosemary with a headache powder, along with a soothing cream for her bruises
.
The combination had
helped a
great deal in
reducing
the pain in her head
,
as well as
the swelling
around
her eye
.
Nevertheless, she still felt a battered.

Sitting
up slowly,
she tried
put
ting some
weight on her one hand,
relieved
to find
there was no significant discomfort from the knife wound
.
Rosemary had done an expert job stitching it together
.
When she
’d
finished, she’d applied some of the cream and re-wrapped it with a fresh strip of cloth.

“
Miss Hopkins
, if you don’t answer me, I’m coming in there and tossing you out of bed myself,” Ian threatened through the door
.

When he had come to wake her, he’d been surprised to
find
her door w
ide
open
, and
had to admit to himself
the room
was nothing more than a closet
.
There was only enough space for the small bed, an equally small dresser, a wooden chair, and a nightstand
.
There was a nook built into
one
wall where her dress hung
forlornly
.
Her chemise lay neatly folded on the chair, her shoes underneath
.

She’d been sound asleep, her back to
ward
the door
.
All he could see was the shape of her body underneath the thin
blanket
. . .
her shoulder, the downward slope to her tiny waist, then up again to the curve of her hip
.

He’d retreated into the hall, feeling like a thief
and a voyeur
in his own house
. O
ut of
some
misplaced sense of propriety,
he
ha
d quietly closed
the door. For a moment
– only a moment –
h
e’d
suffered from a guilty conscience
for what he was doing
. . .
for what he was planning to do
.
But the memory of what she and her father had done
renewed
his
resolve
once more.

The sound of her muffled voice interrupted his thoughts.

“I’m up!”

He heard her
mutter something else.

“What did you say, princess
?
”
His
narrowed gaze bored into the surface of the closed door.
Had she just called him a
b
loody barbarian?

For such a delicate creature, she sure had an interesting vocabulary.
If she
considered
him a barbarian, he would definitely oblige her.

“
I said
I’m getting up
,”
came her muffled reply
.
“
You can go away,
now.”

You can go away now?
The impudent little chit! He ought to go in there right now
and show her who was in charge.