Page 18 of The Rebellious Countess (The Ruined Duchess #2)

“That’s right, dear Husband. Your subterfuge is over.

” The way she spat out the term of endearment left nothing to the imagination about her feelings toward her spouse.

A log in the massive fireplace shifted and sparked, sending shards of half-burned wood onto the stone hearth.

Not one pair of eyes went to the firebox to ensure the log didn’t fall to the floor.

Hag and her man stared at her with interested amusement as she walked up to the bar and moved in between her husband and Hag.

Their two stools were entirely too close for a married man to occupy with a woman other than his wife.

She turned toward Elias, her back to Hag.

“Look at me,” she demanded, when Elias refused to even acknowledge her presence.

It was as if she were a ghost of years past, attempting to talk to the living who had no idea she was present.

Elias looked down at his drink, swished it around and downed the contents of his glass.

She watched his throat constrict as he swallowed.

Fumed at the way his eyes closed and he savored the burn of the alcohol.

She had to bite her tongue, her teeth sinking deeply into her flesh, when he finally said, “Go back to bed, Máira. I’ll be there in a moment. ”

His dismissal was all it took for her anger to explode.

She pushed him in the chest and watched in stunned fascination as he fell backward.

His body hunched toward her, his free hand coming up to grab her wrapper.

He caught the opening of her neckline and pulled her over the top of the stool with him.

Máira gasped. Their eyes connecting as the two of them went over like a tree in the forest. Glass shattered. Wood cracked and Elias hit the floor with a thud. She landed on top of him, cushioned by the hard planes of his body as he somehow wrapped around her in a protective cocoon.

She snorted. This man wouldn’t protect her from a midge.

Yet still as they lay there staring at one another, their eyes clashing like Titans, she felt his attraction to her grow beneath her belly, and her own body lit with a heat she couldn’t deny.

It was Hag’s voice that broke the spell as they glared at one another.

“I don’t think your wife cares to keep my company while you’re gone.”

“She’ll do as she’s told,” Elias ground out.

Máira snorted again. “Like hell. I’m going home on the next ship.”

“That would be the Maribelle in a fortnight’s time, and I have business to attend to while we’re here. You’ll stay with Hag.”

Máira frown. “Business? I thought you already did your business with Hag.”

Her husband began to work his jaw and sat up while holding her biceps as he moved her to the side. “Are you injured?”

“No.” Yes, can’t you see my heart is bleeding out?

Elias got to his feet and then lifted her up to place her on a different bar stool that had all four legs intact.

“I expect you to pay for the stool. Clean-up is on me.”

Elias didn’t take his eyes off Máira as he responded to the tavern owner, who was grabbing a broom from behind the bar. “How generous of you, Hag.”

“I aim to please.” The woman’s voice took on a sing-song quality that grated her nerves.

Elias huffed his disbelief, but didn’t say a word to Hag. Instead, he addressed Máira. “You’re supposed to be in bed.”

“With my husband?” she asked with wide-eyed innocence.

“She has you there,” Hag interjected.

“Shut up,” Máira and Elias ground out in unison.

Hag laughed, and Máira heard the woman’s bodyguard chuckle before he cleared his throat in a poor attempt to cover his laughter.

“What did you hear?” Elias asked, as if the other two weren’t still in the room.

Máira crossed her arms over her chest, a motion that seemed to momentarily distract Elias as his gaze traveled to and lingered upon her breasts. His gaze turned her already heated response to him ablaze as her nipples hardened in anticipation of a wedding night that would never happen.

“Enough,” she said to herself as much as she did to him.

She couldn’t afford the lingering attraction to a man who didn’t deserve her desire, let alone her heart.

But as his eyes reluctantly left the heaving breaths she couldn’t seem to control, longing threatened to consume her, until his gaze met hers and every bit of emotion she’d witnessed in the past few moments was gone.

Once again, she stood in front of the cold, ruthless pirate she didn’t know.

His green gaze as vast and unrecognizable as the depths of Galloway Forest. It made her wonder if he was plotting seven different ways to kill her and dispose of her body.

He could wrap his large, masculine hands around her throat and squeeze, slowing cutting off her air supply as he gazed into her eyes and showed her nothing of the man she’d believed him to be.

He could grab the bottle of Scotch and bash her over the head.

Crack her skull like one of those watermelons Iseabail had introduced to them on their first visit to Caerlaverock Castle.

He could grab Hag’s knife and stab her fractured heart.

Elias rolled his eyes. “I’m not plotting your murder.”

“No?” She lifted her chin in open defiance. “You said you wanted to be rid of me. What better way to do it?”

His eyebrow quirked and she could swear he was laughing at her. “Are you suggesting that I should murder you?”

“I—I?—”

He rubbed his chin as if he was contemplating it. “It would make my life much easier— your dowry would come in handy.”

“I knew it!” She punched him in the middle of his chest.

“Ow!” He backed up, but Máira slipped off the stool and pursued him.

“That’s the only reason you married me! You wanted my money!

You blackguard!” Máira punched him a second time, but Elias didn’t seem to want to fight her.

Instead, he held up his hands to protect himself.

If she’d thought about it, that wasn’t the action of a man hellbent on murder.

It was the action of a man who wouldn’t harm her.

But this wasn’t the time to think, it was the time to act?—

A piercing whistle stopped her assault.

“He’s a spy.” Hag doused the blinding anger soaring through her body with that one declaration.

Elias froze.

Eyes widening, Máira’s head snapped in the barkeep’s direction. “Pardon me?”

Standing behind the bar, Hag busied herself pouring two drinks as if she were preparing glasses of Madeira at a small gathering of ladies in a parlor of a Mayfair townhouse, the latest gossip on the tip of her tongue.

Like a seasoned gossip, she held her audience captivated with her silence.

Her expression one of serene indifference.

Máira was beginning to believe the woman had fifty different masks she wore to hide her true feelings and wondered what she would look like if she trusted a person.

Máira glanced at her husband to find a death glare leveled on Hag.

Máira asked again, “What did you say?”

“Nothing.” Elias ground out between his clenched jaw.

“Hag likes to cause trouble.” The silent warning he delivered with his declaration made Tomás stiffen.

Tension filled the tavern as if they had suddenly discovered a keg of gun powder hidden under the bar with a lit fuse attached to it.

Each of them staring at the others as they waited for one of them to be brave enough to cut the fuse… or let it explode.

As the victim of a fortune hunter, Máira’s anger was firmly seated in his hands.

Espionage, however, was a different story altogether.

That was unpardonable treason. If she heard correctly, Hag was delivering a death sentence…

to Elias—and to her as his wife. If anyone heard Hag’s pronouncement, Elias would be dead within the fortnight.

Her death would probably come much later, after experiencing unthinkable torture.

Dear heavens. Perhaps she shouldn’t discount all the ways she could die a gruesome death.

“She’s your wife. She has a right to know the type of danger you face, and what kind of vengeance she may face.” There was something in Hag’s voice that spoke from experience, as if she too had walked in the shoes of the spouse of a spy, and she’d paid dearly for her husband’s profession.

If there was a bright spot—Hag was still alive.

“You’re a spy?” she whispered.

Elias sighed. “Please stop saying that word before you get us both killed.”