Read Online This Perfect Kiss by Melody Thomas - Free Book Online

turbulent toss of the ship. “You have to talk to me. You owe me at least that much.”
    She knew at once that she had said the wrong words. But she was Saundra’s cousin. She had saved his life. Surely, that counted for something in his eyes. “Unless you truly do feel responsible for her death.”
    â€œResponsible— ?”
    The word stopped as if severed from his tongue by the drop of an ax. With an uttered oath, he looked away but made no attempt to defend himself. Of course, he wouldn’t. He would not even defend himself against the charges leveled against him by the British admiralty for incompetence in command for losing his ship at Yorktown.
    Yet uncertainty blossomed in her belly—and fear, because she had not expected to feel doubt. She had not thought that he was responsible. “She died from a miscarriage. You did not cause Saundra’s miscarriage.”
    Her eyes raked his profile, searching for clues, dreading what she might find if she searched too long. “I . . .” She strove to keep her voice level. “There is a difference between guilt and responsibility, my lord. Whatever the course of events, you were not at fault.”
    â€œYou have no bloody idea, Christel. You do not know anything.”
    â€œI understand more than you think—”
    He braced a palm against the wall, trapping her, his jaw tense. They matched stares for several long seconds before his eyes narrowed slightly. He was behaving poorly and he knew it: she read it in the heavy weight of his gaze, felt it in the shift of his stance and the hard muscles of his chest as he moved his lips to her ear. Only his oilskin touched her, barely a brush against her arm, but it might as well have been his hand for the whisper of heat that warned her.
    â€œWhy have you really come back?” he demanded. “You have left your entire life in Virginia to travel across the world, and I doubt it was to be governess to my child.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” She whispered the words.
    â€œNo one does anything unless something is in it for him or for her. Or she is running away.”
    â€œAnd you are not?” she accused him, feeling cornered by her emotions, daring him to defy the accusation, angry that he could turn this conversation back on her. He pushed himself away from the wall. Before he walked two steps toward the door, she said, “Do you have so little faith in humankind then that you could judge us all so harshly? What did Saundra do that no priest would say words over her, that you would threaten to tear down the village kirk stone by stone if she was not buried in the cemetery beside her mother?”
    He wheeled around, but it was not anger she glimpsed on his face as he scraped back the hood of his oilskin with the sweep of his hand. “Where did you hear that?”
    â€œYour daughter.”
    His eyes closed and he shook his head as he mouthed something that sounded like an oath. Suddenly beset by a terrible urge to touch him, she forced her hands into a fist. His defensive posture told her he would never have allowed it. “Please tell me what happened. I need to know. You were there.”
    He looked up at the rafter, his jaw tight. “Saundra climbed the stairs to the light tower overlooking the cliffs,” he said in a colorless voice. “And then she jumped into the sea. We found her body the next morning washed onto the rocks.”
    Christel searched his face in utter shock. “I . . . I do not believe it. How can you be so sure she did not fall? How?”
    â€œYou have not been in the old light tower or you would not ask me that question. No one falls from up there unless they first climb out on the ledge.”
    Christel’s eyes burned. “I . . . I am so sorry.”
    â€œWhy?” she heard him rasp.
    For assuming the worst of him. For not returning sooner. For staying gone too long.
    â€œShe has been dead