Page 15 of The Lady is Trouble
Minnie glanced away as her aura dimmed. A cardinal’s call sounded, the rustle of the curtains as a gust ripped in the window. Finally, she whispered, “Men be men, miss.”
Piper turned to the wardrobe lest her face reveal too much. Jealousy shot through her before she shoved the senseless emotion aside with the dress.
The world was unjust.
Men were encouraged to obtain what they wanted, confess desire, yearning,attraction, while women were left to ache and burn, forced to hide their feelings where no one could see them.
And she had never been good at hiding anything.
Finn waited by the servant’s kitchen entrance, slouched against a coster cart piled high with vegetables and fruit. When he saw her, he took a bite of his apple and pushed off the cart with an agile kick and a jaunty wave. Piper marveled that a boy abandoned at a rookery orphanage managed to carry himself with the grace of a duke. His innate sophistication worked to his advantage as his existence as the bastard half-brother of a viscount was a figment of Julian’s imagination. They no more shared a drop of blood than she and Humphrey did. Although the heartfelt love that flowed between them was brotherly in every way.
A kitchen maid lingered by the cart, a head of cabbage held forgotten in her hand. Piper smiled into her gloved fist. There was no denying, Finn’s magnificent looks staggered.
When she reached him, she noted his sagging shoulders, the lines of exhaustion streaking from his eyes. His aura shone the color of chalk. “Finn, are you well?”
“Of course,” he murmured. But he turned to lead them across the carriageway before she could reply, two hulking footmen falling into step behind them. At the end of the drive, a pebbled path was tucked between a swath of high grass, meandering away from the house and down a gently rolling slope. “This way to the village, my lady,” he said and gestured for her to go before him. “Don’t mind our chaperones. You know Julian. He won’t allow us to explore without them.”
She smiled and shot Finn an amused side-glance only to find a similar smile aimed at her. She had missed him, missed them both, her only family. Maybe she’d even missed Humphrey a little. Not knowing how long they’d allow her to stay at Harbingdon brought all the old abandonment issues to life.
She, Julian, and Finn had exhibited disparate reactions to being deserted.
“You’ve finished at Rugby?” she asked to change the subject, remembering that with Finn, her thoughts may not be her own.
“Thank Christ.Adieuto Warwickshire.” He sent the apple in a mock salute. Covering a yawn with the back of his wrist, he continued, “But Julian wants more. Education, knowledge.” Finn kicked a bleached stone that sat in the middle of the path. “Oxford.” The word dropped like a lead ball between them.
She smothered amusement that would go unappreciated. “You could say no.”
He shook his head and took a resigned bite. “You say no enough for both of us.”
Stung, she halted. The scent of hay and turned earth came to her on a fast inhalation. “Are you saying I can make it easier on Julian with my compliance? By following every one of his rules, the thousands of them! When he forced me from the League, created because of my grandmother’s gift, a gift Iinherited, by the by. When I should be a part of it. You know it, and so does he!”
Finn paused just ahead, sighed, then took a tentative step back. Another bite of the apple was his only reply.
“Because, if you’re advising acquiescence, Finn, I must tell you that I know going along with Julian’s plans without dispute is the easiest course of action. But maybe not the best. Has anyone ever considered that? Or not the best forme.” She scowled at one of the footmen, and he turned away. “He doesn’t trust me to make a sound decision. He never has. But then, history has proven that I make horrible ones, so I almost can’t blame him.”
“Pip, I’m not sure he trustsanyoneto make a sound decision. Having control calms him. So everyone who loves him goes along with it for the most part. And with the danger surrounding you—” Finn took a fast breath and grasped her hand, pulling her with him as he continued down the path. “It’s a simple theoretical principle. If you didn’t cause such trouble, I could cause a little. Julian only has so much patience for that sort of thing.”
“Why, you rascal!” She tucked a strand of hair that had come loose beneath her bonnet. “What trouble could a young man of eighteen possibly want to concoct?”
Finn laughed, but it was forced, laborious. The fingers laced with hers quivered.
“Finn.” She stopped, squeezed his hand. “What’s wrong? Should we consider resuming our sessions? I’m being brought back into the League. Julian promised—and it’s his decision to make.”
“Do you wish your grandfather had bequeathed the League to you instead of Julian? I sure as hell don’t.” Taking another bite, he let his gaze drift, blue eyes, blue sky, absolutely striking. “I’m exhausted. A bad night.” He circled the apple in a loose loop. “The whispers were strong. My gift has gone beyond reading the mind of someone I touch. If I’m connected in some way, I have vivid dreams. It’s often so tangled up, I can’t quite bring meaning to them. But they feel unspeakably real while they’re happening.”
“Does Julian know?”
He glanced at her, then away. Color seeped from his cheeks as a muscle in his jaw flexed. “He knows.”
She fought to recall where they’d been with Finn’s coaching when she’d fled to Gloucestershire. Closing her eyes, she placed her thumb over the pulse at his wrist. Her heartbeat raced to match his, a bracing rhythm in her ears and behind her lids. His aura came to her, a wash of blue and gold. His skin burned, flooding her with heat.
Then all slowed assheset the pace.
The images weren’t clear. As indistinct as gazing through a windowpane covered in ice. However, the vibrations were vibrant. Dread, terror,insanity. Blood on worn stone steps. The scent of turmeric and smoke.
She swayed and heard Finn’s apple hit the ground.
He jerked her close, his sweet breath batting her neck. Then, with a groan, he wrenched his hand away. The impressions evaporated like mist, but her lungs felt tight and airless. Grasping her shoulders, Finn shook her. “Piper,stop.” Another shake had her bonnet slipping from her head, her hair spilling from the loose chignon neither she nor Minnie had known how to fashion. “Come back!”