Page 13 of Surrender to the Earl (Brides of Redemption #2)

R obert sat bolt upright, the thump on the wall next to him practically rattling his bed. And then he heard a scream.

Audrey.

He pulled his trousers on quickly, but that was all he made time for as he ran into the corridor and tried Audrey’s door.

It was locked but couldn’t withstand his shoulder as he slammed into it.

The door opened wide with a bang. The room was dark, but for the faint reddish glow of the coal fire.

The oil lamp hung in the hall allowed him to see a man’s figure, then the sheen of his wide eyes reflected in the light. Where was Audrey?

As Robert advanced into the room he caught a glimpse of a body on the floor, and felt a shock of fear that surprised him.

Then he saw another pale oval of a face peering out from behind the table.

It all happened in a flash, for then the thief tried to race past him.

Robert caught the man with a hard punch to the gut, then jerked him up by the front of the clothes to shake him.

“What have you done?” Robert demanded between gritted teeth. “If you’ve hurt them?—”

Audrey bumped into them in her haste to get to Molly. Robert waited, holding the man off his toes as he sputtered.

“Wrong room!” he gasped. “Mistake!”

Audrey stumbled to her knees beside her friend. “He hit Molly and went after me for my valuables.”

Robert punched him hard across the jaw. The thief sagged, but he caught him up again. “How is Molly?”

The maid moaned, “My head …”

“I don’t feel blood,” Audrey said, “but there’s a nasty lump.”

With one hand, Robert flung open the door to the small balcony, then tossed the man over the rail. He heard a scream as he hit, then watched him stagger to his feet in the torch-lit yard and hobble into the darkness, dragging a leg behind him.

“Milord?” said another voice in the corridor.

He saw the innkeeper in his nightcap and dressing gown.

“I just sent a thief through the window. Find the man with the newly broken leg, and you’ll have the culprit.

I suggest you increase your security, sir, if women can be attacked in their bedchambers!

” He took the candelabrum from the innkeeper’s hand and slammed the door in his face.

“You tossed him off the balcony?” Audrey asked in surprise.

He set the candles down on the table. “I did. To deal with him, I would have had to leave you, and he might have had an accomplice in the taproom below.”

“Oh,” she murmured.

She reached to touch Molly, who’d pushed herself to a sitting position. Audrey put an arm around her.

“Miss Audrey?” Molly said weakly. “What happened?”

“A thief, dear.”

“Did he hurt either of you?” Robert demanded.

Audrey shook her head. “You came quickly. Thank you.”

Her hair, dark in the night, was caught back in a simple braid, and her golden eyes glowed large and luminous in the candlelight. Without her corset and petticoats, she looked fragile in her plain linen dressing gown. That protectiveness she didn’t like about him surged into prominence.

When Molly shivered, he said, “I’ll put her in bed,” almost glad for the distraction. He glanced around and noticed that both beds seemed to be overly disheveled. “What happened to the beds?”

“He was searching them,” Audrey explained.

Her voice seemed a bit faint, her complexion pale, but other than that, she was taking the attack better than most women would. She reached around her, found a table leg, and that seemed to orient her.

She pointed to the far wall. “That is her bed.”

Robert lifted Molly into his arms, and she gave him a wide-eyed stare, her face going red as she covered her smiling mouth with a hand. By the time he’d laid her in bed, Audrey was there behind him.

“Let me get a cold compress for your head, Molly.”

Reaching with both hands, she found the washstand and the facecloths, poured water in the basin, and brought a damp cloth to her maid.

Molly held it to the side of her head. “I’ll be fine, miss, don’t you worry.”

Though her voice was cheerful, her face showed the strain. Robert knew from experience that her head must be pounding.

He drew Audrey aside by the arm. Now that he was touching her, he could feel the faint trembling in her body. Her free hand reached out as if to steady herself, and touched his bare chest.

She gave a little gasp and whispered, “What are you wearing?”

“Trousers,” he said in a husky voice. “When I heard your signal, I came running.”

He’d expected her to recoil, but her hand still touched him, right in the enter of his chest, and suddenly his heartbeat accelerated, and he was feeling things he didn’t want to feel, not for his pretend-fiancée. And certainly not while her maid was present.

He spoke in a low voice without thinking. “You’re out in the world now, Audrey, where people will take advantage of you. Are you prepared for that?”

Was he talking about thieves—or himself?

And she still she kept her hand in the center of his chest, her lips parted, her breathing fast. He had her by the arm, and her thigh pressed along the length of his, without bulky layers of petticoats between them.

“I—I’ll be safe in my own home,” she murmured.

“So you’re going to stay within those walls, never leaving, just like you were raised?”

She stiffened. “No. I will be like every other woman. I will visit others and have dinner parties and be normal. ”

He let her go. “I do admire you, Audrey Blake. You certainly didn’t panic, when many sighted women would have.”

And she looked damned good in her dressing gown, too.

He wasn’t going to start lusting after Blake’s widow. If she ever found out he’d been part of the reason her husband was dead, she’d never treat him the same way again. He’d rather be her hero than the man she despised.

“Promise me you won’t open the door again unless you know it’s me,” he said.

“’Twas my fault, milord,” Molly called weakly, the facecloth still pressed to her head. “I just assumed it was you.”

He kept his voice light. “I imagine you won’t make that mistake again.”

“No.” She closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them, they shined with tears. “To think I could have gotten my mistress killed …”

“He wasn’t going to kill you,” Robert reassured them both, even though he had his doubts. “Just be careful from now on. Do you need me to stay with you?”

“No,” Audrey said, her voice back under control. “I will bolt the door when you leave and—oh dear. Didn’t I hear you break open the door?”

“You did. We’ll exchange rooms so you’ll feel safe. I only have one bed, but it’s wide enough to hold you both.”

Audrey blushed at the mere thought of lying in the bed Robert had lain in.

It was already difficult to even think, knowing he was partially nude, and she’d let herself touch his chest—and she’d kept her hand there, even when she knew what she was doing!

He was built so very … different than her husband had been.

She’d felt his breath on her face as he’d leaned over to speak to her—good Lord, she was turning into Blythe, all flustered by his mere presence.

And with poor Molly lying there injured!

“Let me help you pack your things,” he said.

“No, no, I will do fine. I know where everything is.”

“Even the things he threw around the room?”

Now she could definitely hear the amusement in his voice. Did he know how he affected her? Was he secretly laughing that a blind girl would be so foolish?

But no, she didn’t believe it of him. He would never make fun of her.

“I think there’s a hairbrush under the bed,” he said, his voice strained as if he was bending over.

She could hear Molly giggling, and it was such a relief—even if it was at her expense. But of course, Molly could see the half-naked earl on his hands and knees.

Audrey bit her lip, for even she could imagine it.

But she couldn’t crawl around on the floor with him, so she went to the washstand and drawers and collected their toiletries into her valise. She hastily rolled up her gown and petticoats and tossed them in.

As if he’d never seen a woman’s petticoats, she scolded herself. Her face was hot with mortification now, and she was starting to imagine Robert’s body over hers in his big bed.

Why was she thinking of that now? She’d just had a shock, for goodness sake, and her wedding night had hardly been the stuff of a young girl’s imaginings. But with Robert …

“Molly, do not try to stand,” he was saying sternly.

“Oh, no, milord, I’m too heavy?—”

He was obviously ignoring her. “Audrey, will you open the doors for me?”

She did feel a little tingle of warm contentment that he assumed she could pack up the room and open doors, everything sighted people did.

Reaching out with her hands, she found his bare back and quickly pulled away, but not before she could feel muscles move as he held Molly so manfully.

She skirted around them, found the door, and opened it.

In the corridor, she hesitated, unable to see if anyone was there. She felt him come up behind her.

It was Molly who said, “I see no one, Miss Audrey.”

Audrey turned to the left, walked a few paces, running her hand lightly along the wall. She turned the handle of the next door, opened it wide, then stepped inside and out of the way. She felt some part of Molly brush her arm, then heard the squeak of a bed.

“You should have let me get my things, milord,” Molly said in an embarrassed voice. “You shouldn’t have to …”

As her words trailed off, Audrey understood. Molly did have a tendency to throw her own things about as she sorted through them.

“I’ll gather everything,” Audrey insisted.

“Oh, miss, I’m causing such trouble! They’re on the chair and table.”

The maid already sounded relieved. Audrey gave her a reassuring smile and returned to the door. She hit the frame with her toe and winced, but bruises were nothing new to her.

“I’ll accompany you,” Robert said.

She felt him at her back as she walked the few short steps down the hall, then turned into the room. Had he donned a shirt?