Page 30 of Dark Embrace

“My meal warmed me,” he said after apause.

An oddreply.

Stepping back, she undid the fastening of her cloak but did not draw the garment off. Though the wind was absent, the hallway was barely warmer than it was outdoors, and she was loath to forfeit whatever heat her cloakoffered.

Directly ahead lay the rickety staircase with the faulty third stair, the one with the poorly nailed board that would pop up and bang the unwary person sharply on the ankle if they were not careful. There was room enough for one person to go up or down, but not enough for two to pass unless they turned to face eachother.

There was no light coming from the dining room, and none showed under the crack of the door that led to Mrs. Cowden’s chambers. Sarah was glad of that, for it meant there was none about to beg explanation for Killian’s inexplicablepresencehere.

“I will be but a moment,” Sarah said and strode beyond the stairs to the small kitchen at the back of the house. No candles were lit, but the hearth held a faltering flame, and Sarah moved close to warm her hands. Closing her eyes, she let the heat sinkthroughher.

He made no sound, but she knew he had followed. Stepping to the side, she glanced at him over her shoulder. The glow of the dying embers danced over his features, painting him gold and bronze and more beautiful than any man had a righttobe.

“Here,” she said, beckoning him closer. “There’s room enough for both of us. The night is so cold. You must be frozen clearthrough.”

“No.” He made a small smile, looking more handsome still because of it. “I am not cold. I do not notice such things. Neither the cold of winter nor the heat ofsummer.”

“You are an adaptablefellow.”

“That is one way to describe it.” He glanced about the tiny kitchen, his gaze lingering on the covered plate set on one side of the small table. “You must behungry.”

She shook her head. She wasn’t. The fright of earlier in the evening had left her insides shaking still. “I’ll take the plate up with me and eat a bitlater.”

“Where are your rooms?” heasked.

“Rooms?” she echoed. “Only one, I’m afraid. But it suits well enough. I’m on the secondfloor.”

She took the plate and led the way from the warm kitchen back into the cold hallway, up the stairs to the landing on the first floor, then up another flight to thesecond.

“How many rooms up here?” Killian asked, his voice hushed, the sound incrediblyappealing.

“Three. And three on the floor below.” She unlocked the door of her chamber and pushed it open. “I have the smallest of these. It was the frugal choice.” Why had shesaidthat?

“Ever practical,” he said, sounding as though the words pained him. But his expression gave her no insight into histhoughts.

“Spinster sisters share the room next to mine. Theysnore.”

“Yes. I hear that,” he said with another smallsmile.

Sarah smiled back, the tension knotting her shoulders unlocking. “It usually reaches a crescendo just past midnight and then they quiet down.” Setting the plate on the little tulip table in the corner near the door, she then took up a Lucifer match, struck it to the sandpaper and lit the stub of tallow candle that sat in a small porcelain dish with gold edging, one of the few possessions she had salvaged from the shattered remnants of heroldlife.

The flame flickered and wavered, barely denting the darkness. She turned to face Killian, who filled the doorway like ashadow.

What to do now? Invite him inside? There seemed no help for it, but she felt so odd to be in this situation, to have him here in this dim and crowded room. He had been here before, but only in her mind, her dreams, herfantasies.

The reality of him was overwhelming, as were the events of the evening, being chased, fleeing, arriving home to findhimhere.

“Come in,” she said, suddenlyweary.

He did as she bid, stepping inside and pulling the door shutbehindhim.

12

He controlled himself with effort.The monster inside him quivered and roared, anxious to be out, to hunt. Not to feed, but to find and destroy the one who stalked her,frightenedher.

Sarah.

She was not mistaken in her assessment that she washunted.